Sarah Smith Gravine (Ballet) is a native of the Wyoming Valley who began her dance training under the
direction of Peter and Kristin Schleich Degnan. From 1990-96 she rose through Ballet
Northeast’s company ranks essaying many of the principal roles in the troupe’s repertoire.
Some lead roles included the title role in Cinderella as well as Snow Queen and Dew
drop Fairy in the Nutcracker, the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty and Cerrito in
Pas de Quatre.
During the 1990’s Ms. Gravine was awarded scholarships to the Pennsylvania Governor’s
School for the Arts, the Princeton Ballet Summer Program and the International Summer
Dance Program in Pittsburgh. She also served for two years as a faculty member with
the Encore Summer Music Camp at Wilkes University.
Sara earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance, cum laude, from Point Park University. Among her mentors during this collegiate residency were, Susan Stone, Douglas Bentz, Kenneth Johnson and Nicolas and Mary Petrov. Performance credits with the Pittsburgh Playhouse Company included roles in Bolero, Don Quixote and Raymonda.
Currently, Ms Gravine is Associate Director of Ballet Northeast and the Degnan Ballet Center at the Conservatory of Wilkes University. She has also served on the faculty of the Wyoming Seminary’s Performing Arts Institute and has taught in the Wilkes University’s Upward Bound Program.