What a delight it was this morning to receive the contents of the newsletter below from Joseph Phillips, artistic director of Columbia Classical Ballet. In it he shares news of the upcoming production of Don Quixote at Koger Center for the Arts, gives us some background to make it more meaningful, and—most surprisingly from a Columbia-based ballet company—he gives credit where credit is due.
He writes about the dancers!
How refreshing to have an arts admin sing the praises of the artists he reles on to bring his production to life.
Kudos to Joseph Phillips and Columbia Classical Ballet for recognizing the ARTISTS performing rather than making the performance all about himself! And look for our article on Columbia Classical Ballet in the Fall 2026 issue of Jasper Magazine, releasing on Sunday November 8th with a 15th Anniversary Party at the Art Bar!
Here’s what Phillips wrote:
Hi everyone,
Columbia Classical Ballet dances Don Quixote three times this week at the Koger Center, October 1 and 2. Thursday and Friday mornings at 10, for schoolchildren from across the Midlands, with Lawrence Ogina and Johanna Yatco as Basilio and Kitri. Friday night at 7:30, with Lisa Kamiya and Luke Slavich as Kitri and Basilio.
Lawrence is in his fourth season with this company and a Principal Artist this year. Johanna joined us this season. I was one of her teachers in the Philippines, years ago, when I was directing there.
Sergei Zolotarev, our rehearsal director, set this ballet on the company in four weeks. He comes from the Mariinsky Theatre, where he rehearsed Don Quixote, and ours comes down from that staging. The company has been in the studio since the first of September, at the barre at 9:30, behind the glass at 610 Harden. Yuleanne Santos, Lawrence Ogina, Johanna Yatco, Zola Weinberg, Jolie Alonso, Dylan Tobias, Lindan Shivar, Amy Brooks, Bonnie Spafford, Catherine Sistrunk, Karina Zolotareva, Mollie Berk, and Eliza Blackwell. They came from Brazil, Kenya, the Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, New York, and South Carolina. Eduardo Ramirez, Kiyomi Mercadante Ramirez, Leonardo Victorino, and Christina Duffy are dancing with us, along with five dancers from the University of South Carolina and students of the School of Columbia Classical Ballet.
For Friday night, I called Edward Ellison in New York and asked for two dancers. He sent Lisa Kamiya and Luke Slavich. They landed in Columbia on September 17 and were in our studio by eleven. They didn't bring their own Don Quixote. They learned ours, in the studio with the company. For these two weeks they're Columbia Classical Ballet.
Valeri Salnikov is dancing the Don. When I was a boy, I took class in his studio, down the same street, here in Five Points, and he coached me in one of the first Don Quixotes I ever danced. The sets are his too. He designed the backdrops and painted them himself. Look closely at the tavern scene. There's a toreador painted up at the top. The face is his.
Pat Moran's story on the company is in Wednesday's Post and Courier. Irene and I were on WIS, and Sergei and Mollie Berk were on ABC Columbia.