For class information, please contact Holly Mistine at HollyMistine.weebly.com.

Holly Mistine  began her formal training in ballet at the age of seven with Marnell Himes-Ushijima in the Cecchetti Method of Classical Ballet through the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD).   While continuing her training through the Cecchetti curriculum (with additional master teachers such as Raymond Lukens, Franco De Vita, Audrey King, Richard Glasstone, Sheila Kennedy, and Shiela Darby), Holly Mistine became a featured and award-winning dancer in the Classical Dance Department at the Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA) under Colleen O’Callaghan, becoming exposed to other dance forms such as modern, flamenco, hip-hop, African, and Japanese and training with renowned choreographers Charles Maple, Laurence Blake, Bill Hastings, Keith Young, Kurt Weinheimer, Jacques Heim, Sam Piperato, and Deborah Brockus.  At age 17, Holly Mistine held simultaneous apprenticeships with the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet and Carla Luna’s Flamenco Ensemble.  She went on to work with the modern dance company Brockus Project Dance Company and to perform flamenco professionally at various restaurants and private events.  Holly Mistine then returned to her roots as a professionally trained classical ballerina to perform in Inland Pacific Ballet’s Giselle and to work with world-renowned artist of the Paris Opera Ballet, Patrick Frantz and his contemporary ballet company La Danserie, simultaneously working with Sarah Parra’s Esencia Flamenca Professional Dance Company and earning recognition as one of the top 5 dancers for 2003 by the Beverly Hills Outlook.  The Los Angeles Times’ Victoria Looseleaf called her “…stellar…Holly Mistine, all passion – on pointe…;” Mischa Kopitman (Los Angeles-based writer and award-winning composer) stated “…Holly Mistine, all fluidity and grace…;” and L.A. Weekly’s Steven Leigh Morris acknowledged “…robust and erotic flamenco dances provided by Holly Mistine…”  In December, 2005, her first efforts at choreography for the professional realm earned her promising recognition by Los Angeles Times staff writer Lewis Segal:

“…sometimes a contemporary artist will rethink a ‘Nutcracker’ concept and come up with something as distinctive as Mark Morris and Matthew Bourne did in their radically revamped stagings.  That happened…during Holly Mistine’s ‘Spanish (Chocolate)’ solo…a thoughtful, inventive conversation between ballet and flamenco sensibilities.”

Holly Mistine furthered her dance explorations to include Argentine tango, salsa, ballroom, and Middle Eastern dance.  As well as having danced in such prominent festivals as Cairo Carnival and Bellydance Live! at the John Anson Ford Ampitheatre, Holly Mistine has danced with Stephanie Sullivan’s depke company, East West Middle Eastern Folk Ballet; Laura Crawford’s Flowers of the Desert; “Aleya of Cairo”’s Negma International Dance Company, is a featured artist on Orange Coast College Middle Eastern Dance professor Angelika Nemeth’s DVD, Oasis at the Races, and has freelanced professionally dancing Persian, Arabic (belly dance), flamenco, classical and contemporary ballet and as a versatile performance artist for Roy John’s circus-act troupe, Girls On Stilts.  In addition to having taught for over 16 years, Holly Mistine has directed dance programs and concerts, choreographed, and stage managed (including a Los Angeles Theatre Centre concert featuring the renowned flamenco dancer, Andrés Marín).

Holly Mistine currently teaches children and adults classical ballet, flamenco dance, and Middle Eastern dance throughout Orange County.  Email Holly Mistine for class times and locations at HollyMistine.weebly.com.