Midland Festival Ballet

Taylor Swezy has been jazz walking, fan kicking, and pirouetting through most of her life. A Midland native and former MFB company member, Taylor has traveled throughout the country to hone her craft. Most recently, she danced professionally with Pulse Dance Company in Anchorage, AK, where she was also a featured choreographer. Taylor is excited to share her passion, creativity, and perspective with students at MFB’s Summer Intensive, inspiring them to move big, dig deep, and maybe laugh a little along the way.

A Texas native, Kerri McClatchy Hawk is proud to call Midland home.  She received her early training from Georgia Harston, and was a part of Permian Civic Ballet with Bill Martin-Viscount. She continued her dance and academic studies in Champaign, Illinois at the National Academy of Arts under the direction of Michael Maule and Gwynn Ashton.
At age 17, Kerri graduated and moved to New York where she danced with Ballet Repertory Company, American Ballet Theater’s Studio company and at age 19, she joined the Houston Ballet, the fourth largest company in the United States.
During her 13 years as a dancer, Kerri was a critically acclaimed soloist, dancing featured roles in all the full-length classical ballets as well as contemporary pieces. She worked with such luminaries as Ben Stevenson, O.B.E., Ronald Hynd, Glen Tetley, Margo Sappington and Sir Kenneth MacMillan. She has danced for Presidents and dignitaries at the Kennedy Center in our nation’s capital and around the world from Monte Carlo to Scotland, Singapore, Jakarta, Europe and Spain.
Upon retiring from dancing, Kerri taught in the Houston Ballet Academy and then Centerstage in Sugarland.
In 2013, she moved to Kingwood Texas where she continues to teach and educate dancers hoping to pass on her passion for ballet. Kerri currently shares the directorship of Kingwood Ballet, a local, non-profit, pre-professional ballet company founded by Sheryl Rowland.

Cara Radke is a multi-faceted performer, choreographer, teaching artist, and business professional. Her technical dance training credits include Houston Ballet Academy, Houston Met, and Royal Academy of Fine Arts (RAFA). In addition to her extensive training, she also attended the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Houston, TX.
Cara had a very versatile professional dance career performing for Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre, Houston Rockets Basketball, PMT Productions, and Juxtapose Arts Collective. Some of her favorite performances, to name a few, include The Nutcracker (Ginger Child to Sugar Plum Fairy), Cinderella (Autumn Fairy), Swan Lake (Pas De Quatre), Firebird, A Chorus Line, The Wild Party, and many mixed repertoire performances. 
Since 2006, Cara has had the pleasure of teaching multiple dance disciplines at RAFA, Juxtapose Emphasis Theatre and Performing Arts Center, and Midland Festival Ballet. In 2016, Cara co-founded a non-profit 501(c)(3) dance company with friends, Juxtapose Arts Collective, where she was company manager, resident choreographer, and performer before moving to Midland, TX and joining the Midland Festival Ballet family in 2022. Cara currently lives in Midland, TX with her husband, Dan, and daughter, Ada.

She began dancing in her home state of Texas and attended Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Massachusetts. She received further training in New York City at The School of American Ballet and American Ballet Theater summer programs and in Canada at the Banff Centre. Dance has taken her throughout the U.S., Canada and Asia. In her professional career, she was featured in solo and principal roles in the Atlanta Ballet, Ballet British Columbia, Ballet Hawaii, Hawaii Ballet Theatre and the Oregon Ballet Theatre.
Allegra and her husband Mark Morgan moved to Santa Fe in 1996. From 1997-2004 she worked with NDI New Mexico in positions including Residency Director, Associate Artistic Director and Master Teacher. Allegra was the Founding Director and Operator of Dance for Joy, a dance school that offered creative movement and ballet for all levels from 2004-2011. In 2011 she returned to NDI New Mexico as The Dance Barns Artistic Director where she held that position until August 2018. Allegra is currently the Director of Young Children’s Curriculum at NDI New Mexico and continues to teach and to share her experience and knowledge with those who work with children.