Sheryl-Marie Dunaway, Artistic Director
The owner and Artistic Director of Ballet Caliente for 16 years, Sheryl-Marie Dunaway has taught dance for over 30 years.   She began her training at the tender age of 3 with the British Ballet Academy studying RAD.  At 16, she was invited to become an apprentice with the San Francisco Ballet Company and danced with it for five consecutive summers.  She attended the National Academy of Dance in Champaign, Illinois, a performing arts boarding high school that was a feeder school for the American Ballet Theater.  During the summer months, she furthered her dancing interests by attending dance sessions at several famous dance schools and companies.  Mrs. Dunaway has received scholarships to study with an extensive list of well-known dance organizations.  Some of the most prestigious are the San Francisco Ballet, Ballet West, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; Dance Aspen and the School of American Ballet.  She has studied with world-renowned teachers such as Lupe Serreno, Violette Verdy, Michael Maule, Harold and Lew Christiansen, Bene’ Arnold, Gus Giordano, and Joe Termaine.  Mrs. Dunaway attended college on a dance scholarship at the University of Texas, El Paso, for one year then transferred to Southern Methodist University and received her BA, majoring in dance.  Mrs. Dunaway has also performed as a professional dancer and a guest artist with several regional dance companies including Ballet El Paso, Ballet de Las Americas in Mexico, Ballet Fantastique,
and the Monterey Peninsula Arts Company.

Mrs. Dunaway enjoys writing and choreographing story ballets.  Locally, she choreographed pieces and her troupe has performed with the St. Mary’s River Concert series in collaboration with Jeffery Silberschlag.  Additionally, her group has performs the Nutcracker annually in conjunction with COSMIC orchestra, and the National Ballet of the Ukraine.  The wife of an active duty Navy man, she has moved 17 times in 26 years of marriage and has taught several hundred students everywhere the Navy has taken her family, including Japan.  Although many of her students are dancing professionally, or are enrolled at highly accredited dance schools and universities, Mrs. Dunaway feels her greatest success is in touching others.  Her fondness for children has led to her greatest joy . . .teaching.