When you attend a powerful performance by Texas Ballet Theater and watch the athletically precise and incredibly strong performers mesmerize the audience with skill and precision, we rarely think about the lives they lead off the stage. These four gentlemen with TBT are not only "Dancing Dads" with families of their own, they are also all married to either current or former dancers with the company as well. We would like to introduce you to the "Dancing Dads" of Texas Ballet Theater.
ALEXANDER KOTELENETS
A native of Kyiv, Ukraine, Alexander Kotelenets began his training at the Kyiv State Ballet School. After coming to the United States, he continued his training at Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy and was a company member with Houston Ballet before joining Texas Ballet Theater in 2003. Kotelenets has performed in a number of Ben Stevenson ballets, with favorite roles as Romeo and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Dracula and Frederick in Dracula, Peer in Peer Gynt, the Prince in Swan Lake, the Prince in The Sleeping Beauty, and partnering his wife, Heather Kotelenets, in the Ave Maria pas de deux. He and Heather have two daughters, Mila and Emma, and a son, Benson.
CARL COOMER
Coomer began his ballet training in Liverpool at the age of 13 years old. In 1998, he received a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London, under the direction of Dame Merle Park and later, Gailene Stock. His professional career started in Houston Ballet in 2001, where he performed for six seasons. In 2007, he joined Texas Ballet Theater. His repertoire includes leading roles in ballets by Ben Stevenson, O.B.E., and countless other famous choreographers. He himself has choreographed several works for TBT: Evolving (2012), Clann (2014) Henry VIII (2018) and The Story of You (2021).
JOMANUEL VELAZQUEZ
This is Joamanuel Velazquez’s 18th season with Texas Ballet Theater. A native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, he began his training with Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico. He later attended the Virginia School of the Arts on full scholarship, then joined Texas Ballet Theater in 2007. He has since enjoyed performing in Ben Stevenson’s Don Quixote, Dracula, and Swan Lake. Velazquez is married to fellow company member Nicole Von Enck and they have a beautiful daughter and son.
RILEY MOYANO
Riley Moyano began his training in his hometown of Naperville, Illinois, at the school of DanceWest Ballet with his parents Regina and Ricardo Moyano. He continued his training at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, performing Trey McIntyre’s Blue Until June. Since joining Texas Ballet Theater in 2011, Moyano has been delighted to perform in Glen Tetley’s Voluntaries, Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Gloria, Elevated, Christopher Bruce’s Ghost Dances, and as Caesar in Ben Stevenson’s Cleopatra and Dracula in Stevenson’s Dracula just to name a few. Moyano is married to fellow company member Amanda Fairweather.
These four dancers are not only skilled and precision athletes, they are family men married to either current or former Texas Ballet Theater dancers making it truly a "Family Affair"