Our Faculty
Julianne Spratlin, Artistic Director, Founder
After her successful, twenty-plus year professional career dancing with Atlanta Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Milwaukee Ballet, Ms. Spratlin established the Dance Training Center / San Francisco in January of 2014. She sensed the need for a new kind of ballet school in San Francisco: one with the highest quality of training, smaller classes and a warm and supportive environment. DTC/SF gives individual attention to students in a healthy, positive atmosphere, and is a place where professional dancers and students from other ballet schools come to tune-up and work on their technique. In SF, Ms. Spratlin has taught for Amy Seiwert's Imagery and regularly teaches company class for Smuin Ballet. She also regularly returns to the Atlanta Ballet Center for Dance Education as a faculty member for both the Advanced and Professional Summer Intensives. The ‘24-’25 school year will be Ms. Spratlin’s 30th year of teaching ballet!
Kristin Long, Associate Artistic Director (Teaches all levels and Director of Ballet Prelude)
Kristin Long enjoyed a 23-year career as a principal dancer at San Francisco Ballet, before embarking on a teaching career upon her retirement as a performer.
Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, she trained at Allegheny Ballet Academy, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet School. Named an apprentice in 1989, she joined the Company in 1990, was promoted to soloist in 1992, and to principal dancer in 1999. She performed the lead role in full length works such as Tomasson’s Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet, and Nutcracker; and Tomasson/Possokhov’s Don Quixote.
Many of the worlds most important choreographers created roles for her, including Christopher Wheeldon, Yuri Possokhov, Alexei Ratmansky, David Bintley, Stanton Welch, Paul Taylor and Helgi Tomasson and she danced leading roles in numerous ballets by Balanchine, Ashton, Forsythe, Robbins amongst many others.
She was in frequent demand as a guest artist, including most notably, performing the role of Odette/Odile with English National Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
She was awarded the Princess Grace Foundation award in 1990 and an Isadora Duncan Dance Award in 2001. She was one of the subjects of Lucy Gray’s groundbreaking book “Balancing Acts”, which followed three prima ballerinas becoming mothers and juggling their careers with motherhood.
She started teaching towards the end of her performing career and retired from dancing in 2012. She taught at City Ballet School of San Francisco, before joining Dance Training Center of San Francisco in 2017. She enjoys being able to teach students at the highest level, whilst balancing a positive approach to the rigorous training, helping to ensure their love of dance continues throughout their life.
Samantha Clark, Associate Artistic Director (Teaches all levels)
A Bay Area native, Samantha began her training under Damara Bennett and Henry Berg while spending summer’s training at American Ballet Theater (ABT). She began her professional career dancing with the Oakland Ballet and Northern Ballet Theater. In 2004, Samantha moved to New York where she danced for the innovative Cedar Lake Ensemble , the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and Nejila Yakin/Dance among others.
Samantha teaches DTC/SF dancers in Level 3, 5, 6, Pre-Professional and has a loyal following in our Adult Ballet classes.
Julia Adam
Julia Adam was born in Canada and began her early dance training in her hometown of Ottawa, Ontario. At the age of thirteen, she continued her studies at the National Ballet School in Toronto, graduating in 1983. Julia then spent five years honing her skills with the National Ballet of Canada before joining San Francisco Ballet in 1988, where she completed her illustrious dancing career. As a principal dancer, she gained recognition for her lyricism, musicality, and broad theatrical range, performing a wide array of roles under the direction of Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson. Julia retired from the stage in the spring of 2002.
Upon retiring, Julia turned her focus to choreography, a passion she had cultivated throughout her dancing career. Her first ballet, The Medium is the Message, created for San Francisco Ballet’s Choreographic Workshop in 1993, received acclaim for its wit and distinctive movement style. This success was followed by many other works and led to commissions from variuos companies and earned an Isadora Duncan Award for Choreography.
In collaboration with composer Matthew Pierce, Julia created Night for San Francisco Ballet’s 2000 Discovery Program, which was met with critical and popular acclaim. The ballet toured internationally, performing at venues such as the Paris Opera’s Palais Garnier, The Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden, and City Center in New York. Julia and Pierce continued their collaboration with Crossing for The Joffrey Ballet in 2001 and Reverence for Cincinnati Ballet in 2002. The success of Night led to further commissions by San Francisco Ballet, including Angelo (2002) and Imaginal Disc (2003), another collaboration with Pierce. In 2008, she created a rose by any other name for San Francisco Ballet’s New Works Festival, celebrating their 75th anniversary. In 2009, Julia choreographed her first full-length ballet, The Nutcracker, for Marin Ballet, and subsequently created full-length works for Diablo Ballet and Ballet Memphis.
With over 90 works to her name, Julia has choreographed for numerous prestigious companies, including San Francisco Ballet, Houston Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, Atlanta Ballet, The National Ballet of Canada, and The Joffrey Ballet. She has also created and staged ten works for Ballet Memphis, where she served as Artistic Associate from 2010 to 2013.In 2014, Julia co-founded Julia Adam Dance with her partner and husband, Aaron Lucich, a project that reflects their shared passions for art, community, food, and the natural world. She was named Performance Director and Resident Choreographer at Marin Ballet in 2022 where she continues to teach and choreograph for the students. Julia continues to choreograph across the country, earning critical acclaim while also teaching and mentoring the next generation of dancers.
Cassidy Isaacson
(Contemporary, Ballet, Levels 5R, 5P, 6)
CASSIDY ISAACSON, originally from Redmond, Washington, trained at Pacific Northwest Ballet before joining Grand Rapids Ballet Company at age 16. Some favorite works performed during her eight years at Grand Rapids Ballet include Trey McIntyre’s Wild Sweet Love, Alejandro Cerrudo’s Extremely Close, Penny Saunders’ In Frame and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Written and Forgotten. Isaacson joined Smuin in 2019
Adult Classes
Marc Lapierre (Guest Teacher)
Marc began his early training at Ballet Etudes in Norwalk CT under the direction of Nanette Vallas. While at Ballet Etudes he trained closely with Christina Fagundes. He then attended Ballet Academy East in New York City under the direction of Darla Hoover and at age 16, Marc furthered his training at The School of American Ballet. He then went on to dance with Los Angeles Ballet, where he had the pleasure of dancing works by August Bournonville, George Balanchine, Aszure Barton and Alejandro Cerrudo. Two years later he joined Oregon Ballet Theatre as an apprentice and was promoted to the Company corps de ballet in his second season. During his time with OBT, he danced works by Alvin Ailey, Ben Stevenson, Nicolo Fonte, Christopher Stowell, and Trey MyIntyre. LaPierre joined Smuin in 2021. Marc began teaching Boys and Level 6 pas de deus class at DTC in the ’24-’25 school year.
Henry Berg
Called "one of San Francisco's leading dance teachers", Henry Berg has, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "carved a strong artistic niche as a teacher". With a career that spans over three decades in dance, film, television, theatre and academia, Mr. Berg has established himself as one of the foremost dance teachers in the country. (Read one of his interviews with Dance Magazine). He created the Berg Method, a floor barre technique that serves as a basis for improved balance, stability, and coordination.
In 1962, he joined the San Francisco Ballet. Subsequently, he danced for over seven years with the Joffrey Ballet and assisted choreographer Twyla Tharp in New York City. In 1975, Mr. Berg created the Pacific Ballet Company with co-founders John Pasqualetti and Sue Loyd. He was a co-founder of City Ballet School in San Francisco, and later opened The Ballet Studio - a haven for professional dancers when recovering from an injury. For many years, Mr. Berg taught the company dancers’ “rehabilitation class” at San Francisco Ballet.
Jennifer Polyocan (Int/Adv Adult Ballet)
A native of Great Neck, New York, Jennifer Polyocan (she, her) received her training at the prestigious School of American Ballet and with Nancy Bielski at the David Howard School of Dance. After graduating from Professional Children's School in NYC, she joined the Miami City Ballet where she remained for five years having the opportunity to perform soloist and principal roles. Jennifer later joined Wes Chapman's Alabama Ballet and the Washington Ballet where she performed soloist and principal roles. Jennifer performed title roles in Coppelia and Giselle and danced principal roles in works by Antony Tudor, Nacho Duato, Septime Webre, Kirk Peterson, and Dwight Rhoden. In addition to a career in ballet, Polyocan is a graduate of New College of California with a degree in Arts and Social Change. She has taught ballet for over 20 years to both children and adults. She has taught at ODC, UC Berkeley, For Smuin Ballet, Amy Stewart’s Imagery, Belvoir Ballet, and the University of San Francisco. She acquired a certification in the Vaganova method of levels 1-3 from the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, and training in RPM (Revolutionary Principals of Movement). Polyocan has studied extensively with her mentor and friend Augusta Moore, and shares many of her teaching pedagogies as she had the most significant influence on Jennifer as a teacher. She has completed a three-year training course at the Alexander Technique Center of Cambridge and is ATI certified and also certified in PBT (Progressing Ballet Technqiue™) Throughout her career she experienced mind-body techniques as an essential and valuable measure for preventing injuries and firmly believes that body awareness and curiosity leads to an intelligent dancer, performer and artist.
Brennan Wall
(Adult Beginner Ballet)
Brennan Wall, originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, studied at Los Angeles Ballet Academy. She danced with Silicon Valley Ballet (previously Ballet San Jose) as a trainee before joining The New Ballet’s Studio Company. In 2017, Wall joined Ballet de Monterrey under director José Manuel Carreño. She performed in Luis Serrano’s La Bayadere, Swan Lake, and Don Quijote, and danced soloist roles in The Nutcracker, Alberto Méndez’s Phantom of the Opera, and Diego Landin’s Shorthand of Emotion. Wall joined Smuin in 2019.