Born in Tucson, Arizona, Matthew Rusk trained at the Ruth Page School of Dance and Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy. He also attended summer programs at the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School, and was a graduate of the High School for Performing and Visual Arts with honors in dance. Rusk recently graduated from Indiana University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Ballet with an Outside Field in Psychology. His repertory with Indiana University Ballet Theater includes the Cavalier, Snow Cavalier and Drosselmeyer in Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, Phlegmatic in George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Solor in La Bayadere Act II (Kingdom of the Shades) and roles in Violette Verdy’s Variations for Eight, Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, Emeralds, and Rubies, and Merce Cunningham’sDuets. He was also a recipient of the Premier Young Artist Award and the Ken C. Whitener Fund for Ballet Excellence at the Jacobs School of Music.

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Fun fact: Matthew’s favorite ballets are Balanchine’s Apollo and Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling

Mathew graduated from IU with a Bachelors of Science in Ballet with an Outside Field in Psychology.

Matthew attended summer intensives at SAB, ABT and Boston Ballet.

His dream roles are Solar in La Bayadere, Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, and Siegfried in Swan Lake.

Touchet will never forget her 19th birthday. That was the day Victoria Morgan came to Pacific Northwest Ballet, to audition Touchet’s professional division. “Directors from everywhere auditioned us, but nobody ever picked me,” she says. “I remember thinking she wouldn’t like me anyway, so I told myself to just have fun, and after it was over, she said, ‘I’d like to talk to Janessa’.” Crossed wires with communicating Touchet’s acceptance of Morgan’s apprenticeship offer led to a planned spot with Memphis Ballet, but Morgan called one last time and Touchet was able to come to Cincinnati Ballet instead. “It was meant to be here. I started as an Apprentice and moved all the way through the ranks. I had always had my heart and mind set on Cincinnati Ballet.”

Professional History

High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (Graduated 2011)
Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy
Indiana University Ballet Theatre (Graduated 2015)
Cincinnati Ballet: CBII

Favorite Roles

Cavalier and Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker
Emeralds in Balanchine’s Jewels