Kimberly Cowen, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, received most of her ballet training from Nathalie LeVine. She has also studied at St.Louis Ballet under Ludmila Dokoudovsky and Antoni Zalewski, at Pacific Northwest Ballet with Fleming Halby and Nina Danilova and at The Joffrey Ballet with Francesca Corkle and Winthrop Corey. She studied at the Kansas City Ballet School with Todd Bolender, Una Kai, and Lisa Dillinger before joining the Kansas City Ballet in 1991, where she danced for 20 years. Ms. Cowen has danced as Swanilda in Coppélia, Odette in Swan Lake, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, the title role in Giselle, Carmen and Romeo & Juliet. She has had the pleasure of dancing a wide variety of styles by famous choreographers such as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Anthony Tudor, Todd Bolender, David Parsons, Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, Twyla Tharp, Vincente Nebrada, Nacho Duato, Margo Sappington, Trey McIntyre, Jessica Lang, Val Caniparoli, Mary Wigman and William Whitener. Ms. Cowen began teaching at the Somerset Ballet in 1998 and joined the KCBS staff in 2002. Ms. Cowen is responsible for the students of the Upper School and is the director of the Kansas City Youth Ballet. She is dedicated to teaching the next generation of dancers and passing on all she has learned in her time as a student and a professional.