Stuart Carroll

Stuart Carroll is the Artistic Director of Sacramento-based Capitol Ballet Company. He has presented The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Giselle, Paquita, La Bayadere, and Don Quixote to local audiences and the surrounding communities with support and funding from the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and the California Arts Council.

Mr. Carroll has been a guest artist with American Ballet Theatre, at the Metropolitan Opera House, and the Milwaukee Ballet Company. In 1984, as the only American dancer to advance through the finals, he represented the United States at the International Ballet Competition in Helsinki, Finland. His performances were televised internationally and he was a featured artist in the media.

Mr. Carroll joined Basel Ballet, Switzerland, as first soloist from 1985-1993, appearing in the films La Fille Mal Gardee, Swan Lake, and Dead End. In addition to many of the classics, he has danced contemporary choreography by Nacho Duato, Hans van Manen, Paul Taylor, William Forsythe, Heinz Spoerli, and Nils Cristi. He has created roles for choreographers from Stuttgart Ballet, Bejart Ballet, and his teacher and mentor Gabriella Darvash.

Mr. Carroll has toured extensively throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Japan, and Taiwan ROC. He studied, as a scholarship student, at the San Francisco Ballet School and the Pennsylvania Ballet school prior to receiving his pre-professional training from John Hart (Artistic Director, Royal Ballet of London), Erling Sunde (Ballet Master, Royal Ballet of London), and Ann Howard (Soloist, Royal Ballet of London) at United States International University. After attending the School of Performing and Visual Arts on a full scholarship, he joined San Diego Ballet, and then joined Arizona Dance Theater as a Principal Dancer. In 1995, he established the ballet department at Sacramento High School Visual and Performing Arts Center.

In 1997, he consulted on the founding plans and curriculum for the Natomas Charter School Performing and Fine Arts Academy. In 2005, Mr. Carroll joined the faculty at University of California Davis, Department of Theater and Dance. He taught at the Paul Taylor West Coast Dance Intensive from 2007 through 2009. In 2012, he guest taught Ballet Preljocaj at the Mondovi Center for the Performing Arts. Mr. Carroll was nominated in Spring 2012 by the UC Davis Academic Senate for an Excellence in Teaching Award.

December 2015, credited with training Tami Shamblin, the Dance Teacher magazine cover story.

Sharon Newton

Sharon Newton is a respected artist, and an accomplished dancer and teacher. She co-founded the Capitol Ballet Center and Capitol Ballet Company in 1999.

Born in Miami, Florida, Ms. Newton began her dance training as the recipient of a Ford Foundation Scholarship at the School of Garden State Ballet. She later joined the Company and held the position of Principal. She worked with Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and Arizona Dance Theater from 1984-1986, before accepting an invitation from Ivan Nagy to join Cincinnati Ballet as Principal Dancer. She has danced lead roles in many Balanchine ballets including Concerto Barocco, Symphony in C, Who Cares, Scotch Symphony, and Serenade, as well as most of the classical repertoire. She later joined Basel Ballet as a soloist from 1986-1992, and danced the contemporary ballets of Judith Jamison, Van Manen, Bejart, and Paul Taylor.

Ms. Newton’s long association with ballet pedagogue Gabriella Darvash, as protégé and designated heir to her teaching method and style, provided her with years of extensive teacher training. She was Principal Teacher at the Darvash Ballet School in New York City from 1981-1987, and demonstrated the Darvash technique in a televised documentary on the Ballet Master. Ms. Newton was a Guest Teacher at Broadway Dance Center in New York City from 1993-1996, and was Guest Teacher with the school of Ballet Hispanico in New York and Dance Masters of America.

In 1995, Ms. Newton was a Guest Teacher at Sacramento High School’s Visual and Performing Arts Centre, and assisted in building the first Ballet Program at a public school in Sacramento. She later went on to develop and teach in the Ballet Department at the Natomas Charter School for Performing and Fine Arts Academy from 1997-2001. Ms. Newton taught from 2007-2009 at the Paul Taylor West Coast Dance Intensive.

Ms. Newton is currently expanding the repertory of Capitol Ballet Company by restaging many of the classics, including Swan Lake, Giselle, La Bayadere, Paquita, Sylvia, and Coppelia.