Ashlee Knapp Stewart
Miss Knapp started her ballet training in Omaha when she was eight years old under the tutelage of Robin Welsh. At age thirteen, she accepted a full scholarship to study at the School of American Ballet (SAB), where she won the Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise, as well as the prestigious Princess Grace Award in 2001. During her time at SAB, Miss Knapp toured with the New York City Ballet and performed an original featured role choreographed by its artistic director, Peter Martins. Miss Knapp joined the New York City Ballet as a member of the corps de ballet at age fifteen, and was later chosen by Teen People Magazine as one of “Twenty Teens Who Will Change the World.”
While at the New York City Ballet, Miss Knapp learned over forty ballets and performed full‐ time at Lincoln Center. She originated roles in Christopher Wheeldon's Carnival of the Animals, Peter Martins' Romeo and Juliet, and Robert La Fosse’s Land of Nod. She toured with the company to Saint Petersburg and Copenhagen, and appeared in the PBS documentary “Bringing Back Balanchine.” Due to an injury, Miss Knapp retired from performing in the spring of 2007.
Since her retirement, Miss Knapp has taught classes for Columbia University’s Columbia Ballet Collaborative program, which was acknowledged in a 2008 Time Out New York Magazine article as being “the best kept secret in New York”, as well as The Ballet School of Stamford under the direction of Michael Vernon. Miss Knapp has guest taught for the Pacific Ballet Academy in Mountain View, CA, Allegheny Ballet Company in Altoona, PA, and Ballet Theater Company in Hartford,CT. She has been commissioned five times by the Stamford Symphony to choreograph for its annual “American Experience” children's show. In 2013, Miss Knapp was one of twenty-three ballet school directors and teachers invited by SAB to attend its National Teachers Weekend. In the fall of 2014, Miss Knapp was named Associate Director of The Ballet Class in Rye, NY. Over the years, Miss Knapp’s students have gone on to dance at the School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, North Carolina School of the Arts, Boston Ballet School, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, Indiana University’s Ballet Department, and The University of Utah Department of Ballet.