MEET GUEST FACULTY 2026/2027
RUPERT EDWARDS III
Rupert Edwards III was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. He received his training at The School of Hartford Ballet. He has performed with Hartford Ballet, American Repertory Ballet, Boston Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, and most recently Houston Ballet. His repertory includes Jiri Kylian’s Petite Mort, Anna-Marie Holmes’ Don Quixote, Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, Stanton Welch’s Brusier, John Cranko’s Onegin, Rudy Vandasic’s Romeo & Juliet, George Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, Graham Lustig’s Nutcracker, Septime Webre’s Romeo & Juliet, Graham Lustig’s Cinderella, and many other classical and contemporary works. In 2010, Mr. Edwards joined Houston Ballet. While there, he performed in works such as Stanton Welch’s Swan Lake, Madame Butterfly, La Bayadère, The Rite of Spring, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, Giselle, and Romeo and Juliet; Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow; David Bintley’s Aladdin; Trey McIntyre’s Peter Pan; Ben Stevenson’s The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty; Julia Adams’ Ketubah, Twyla Tharp’s The Brahms-Haydn Variations, Jiri Kylian’s Forgotten Land; Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon and Gloria; George Balanchine’s Jewels; Christopher Bruce’s Grinning in Your Face; Christopher Wheeldon’s Rush; John Cranko’s The Taming of the Shrew; John Neumeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Mark Morris’ Drink to me Only With Thine Eyes; and George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations. Mr. Edwards also originated a role in the world premiere of Edwaard Liang’s Murmuration.
KRISSY RICHMOND
Krissy Richmond is a former principal dancer with Houston Ballet. Roles set on her include: Carabosse in The Sleeping Beauty; the mad woman from Peer Gynt, Mimi in The Miraculous Mandarin; the girl in the red dress from Ghost Dances, Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker; the Dark Angel from Serenade; as well as roles from In the Night and Bartók Concerto. She was in the original cast of Paul Taylor’s Company B. After retiring from Houston Ballet, Ms. Richmond began a career performing featured and principal roles on Broadway which include: Hunyak and Roxie Hart from the musical Chicago, the queen in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake; and Elizaveta Grushinskaya from the musical Grand Hotel. She has performed locally as guest artist in Big Love for the University of Houston; Man from Nebraska at Stages Repertory Theater; and as Ginger Rogers in Houston Grand Opera’s Die Fledermaus. Most recently, she starred in the role of Anna Christie in New Girl in Town. Ms. Richmond has choreographed for the Alley Theater, Stages Repertory Theater, the Humphrey’s School, and won the 2015 Tommy Tune Award for Best Choreography of A Chorus Line with The Kinkaid School. Miss Richmond won the Houston Press Award for Best Choreography in 2017 for Godspell, and again in 2018 for Cabaret.
PATTIE OBEY
Pattie Obey is a committed professional bringing over 40 years of experience, creativity, passion, and humor to the teaching profession. Pattie began her professional career touring internationally with Gus Giordano’s Jazz Dance Chicago. Her performance credits both in the USA and abroad includes Broadway musicals, films and television. Her personal style is greatly influenced by her mentor Gus Giordano, former Hubbard Street artistic director Lou Conte, jazz master Matt Mattox and her own elegant and powerful femininity. Pattie credits her extensive classical background to her training with Royal Ballet soloists Richard Ellis and Christine DuBoulay.
ANDRE SILVA
Born in Brasilia, Brazil, Andre Silva began training at age 4 with his mother at Royal Academy of Dance. He continued his training at The Harid Conservatory and Ben Stevenson’s Academy. He was a Company member of Texas Ballet Theater from 2003 to 2009, where he was featured in leading roles of Ben Stevenson’s Peer Gynt, Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, Dracula, Vivaldi and Brittain pas-deux, Bartok, Preludes for Van, Five Poems and Mozart Requiem. Andre was the first recipient of the Booz Hamilton international “Rising Star Award” for excellence in dance and was a Silver Medalist at the International Ballet Competition in Shanghai, China. He has appeared as a guest artist at Houston’s Dance Salad and TITAS’ Festivals. He joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal from 2009 to 2014, where he danced title roles in works from Jiri Kylian, Mats Ek, Ohad Naharin, Stijn Celis, Stephan Thoss, Christian Spuck, Didy Veldman and Marco Goecke. He joined Germany’s Ballet Augsburg for one year, where he was featured in principal roles in Young Soon-Hue’s Romeo and Juliet, Georg Reischl’s Verflixte Nähe, Stephen Shopshire’s Murmul and Spill and Angel Rodriguez’ Medea. In 2015, Mr. Silva returned to Texas Ballet Theater. Favorite roles/ballets performed include Val Caniparoli’s Without Borders, Christopher Wheeldon’s DGV©: Danse à Grande Vitesse, Christopher Bruce’s Rooster, William Forsythe’s In the middle of somewhat elevated, Puck in Ben Stevenson’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Balanchine’s Rubies, Prince Ivan in Ma Cong’s Firebird, and the role of Don Juan in Carlos Acosta’s Carmen. Andre has choreographed original works for Texas Ballet Theater, II:II was named Best choreography of 2019 in DFW. Silva is a resident choreographer at uptown dance centre where he’s created a diverse number of pieces for the school and the company since 2016 to present, and recently has become a certified personal trainer.
KEITH CROSS
Keith Anthony R. Cross: Graduate of The High School for The Performining and Visual Arts, Founder of Teundu Inc. , Artistic Director of Texas Dance Theatre (1990-2000), Master Teacher for Cross Jazz Tours, Owner of American Jazz Dance Convention.
Mr. Cross has worked for such organizations as Frank Fuher International, Texas Association for Physical Education Recreation on Dance,, Texas Commission on the Arts, Young Audiences of Houston, Dance St. Louis, Mississippi Dance Association, Dance Masters of America Inc., Dance Olympics of New York, The Jazz Dance World Congress, The International Ballet Competition & Festival, Tulsa Ballet, Huntsville Ballet (Al. ), Ballet Met, Jazz Met, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet, Western Arkansas Ballet, Academy Lupec’s Mexico, Berry Stephen’s Academy of Dance Amsterdam, Southwest Jazz Ballet.
Keith’s television credits include: The Sammy Awards, Houston Grand Opera’s “Tremonisa”, NBC Chicago Emmies and Star Search. He has worked with such talents as: Mary Martha Lappe, Delia Stewart, Gilbert Rome, Debbie Allen, Hinton Battle, Maurice Hines, James Brown, Matt Mattox, Gus Giordano Frank Hachette, Dorothy Lester, Al Gilbert, Alvin Ailey, Denise Jefferson, Ann Reinking, Anna Marie Holms, Bruce Marks, David Nixon, John McFall, April Berry, Angela Landsbury, Robert Goulet, Patsy Swayze, Phillip Otto, and Marcello Angelini, Rick Odems, Fredrick Franklin, Glen Hunsucker, Ben Stephenson, Ann & Nick Palijenko, Debra Quinnum, Janie Parker, Cleo Parker-Robinson, Leo & Solie, Tim & Daphne Reed, Caros Acosta, Lauren Anderson, Sandra Organ, Dominic Walsh, Ed McMann, Dorell Martin, & Stephan Boyd. Keith has been called the ballet dancer’s Master Jazz Teacher.
Dancer for SWRBA, Emerging choreographer for SWRBA (now RDA). Mr Cross has graced the pages of such publications as: TWT (This Week in Texas), Life Magazine, Houston Metropolitan Magazine, Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit, Dance Teac Now, The Houston Post, The Chicago Sun Times, Jazz Danceology: Teaching and Choreographing Jazz Dance and The Big Click: Photographing Texas. He was the first African American male to teach at IBC. Cross danced and choreographed for James Brown for the Living in America Tour. He has received awards for choreography for numerous Texas State Drill Teams, Dance competitions and Dance Companies.
JARED CORDOVA
Jared Cordova was born in Houston, Texas, and has been a member of St Louis Ballet since 2024. He has studied at Uptown Dance Center, Brigham Young University, and Pacific Northwest Ballet school.
Jared was a member of Uptown Dance Company II for 4 years and performed premier works by Andre Silva, Chet Walker, Beth Gulledge-Brown, Nao Kusuzaki, and Karina Gonzalez.
Throughout his professional and pre-professional career, he has performed in works by George Balanchine, Gerald Arpino, Justin Peck, Christopher Wheeldon, Jerome Robbins, Crystal Pite, and Peter Martins.
He has attended summer programs at PNB and Ballet West. He grew up attending summer courses at Uptown and is excited to be in his third year as a guest teacher.