Valley Dance Theatre Faculty
Betsy Hausburg – Artistic Director and Instructor
Co-founder of the Valley Dance Theatre in 1980, Betsy continues to serve as Artistic Director and Choreographer. She received her BA cum laude in Dance from Butler University where she was Dean of Students for a two year teacher training program. She performed professionally with Syracuse Ballet Theatre and the Hartford Ballet. Betsy has been teaching throughout the East Bay for many years, and has lent her choreography skills to many school musicals and opera companies. Betsy is also a gifted professional costumer and seamstress, and has designed and/or built most of the wonderful costumes seen in VDT performances.
Brenna O'Hair – Director of Children's Division and Instructor
Brenna O’Hair began dancing in 1988. She grew up dancing in the Tri-Valley, and at five years old decided her dream job was to become a dance teacher. She has a strong passion for introducing new people of all ages to the art of ballet and tap dance. Brenna has taken dance lessons in ballet, tap, ballroom, jazz, modern, flamenco, hip-hop, and pointe.Brenna began teaching and choreographing dance in 2001 at Valley Dance Theatre. In 2008, Brenna received a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. After graduating college she began teaching ballet classes at the Academy of Art Recreational department. Brenna currently teaches a variety of classes at VDT including, Pre-Ballet A & B, Rhythm & Motion, and Ballet I, II and III.
Barbara Campbell – Instructor
Barbara has had extensive training in ballet, modern dance and floor barre. Barbara has studied ballet since the mid-1960s. She studied with Maria Vegh, formerly with Harkness Foundation, New York City, and with Alexi Ramov, formerly with Lehigh Valley Ballet Guild, Pennsylvania. She studied Floor-Barre(TM) with Zena Rommett in New York City. Barbara earned her MA in Dance from Mills College in Oakland, where her focus and research was on dance education. While there she studied modern dance with Mary Cochran, Molissa Fenley and Anne Westwick. Barbara's focus as a dance teacher is to help each dancer develop healthy movement capability based on their individual strengths and to help each dancer expand their dance capabilities.
Bryanna Cross - Instructor
Bryanna Cross started her training at age 11 with the New Jersey Ballet School. At the age of 13 she attended the San Francisco Ballet School Summer Intensive and then from there was invited to continue her training at the year around school. At 15, Cross was promoted in to SFB's pre professional program. Additionally, at 15 and 16, Cross attended The School of the American Ballet's Summer Intensive in New York City. At 17, Cross left SFB to train privately with Maria Eglevsky. In 2009, Cross joined the Artesan Dance Company and danced soloist roles in six original pieces choreographed by artistic director, Summer Odell. In the fall of 2010, Cross returned to the San Francisco Bay area to explore more dance and performance opportunities. At this time she started teaching at Valley Dance Theatre.
Genoa Sperske – Instructor
Genoa earned BA degrees in Dance and Drama from University of California, Irvine in 2003 where she performed in undergraduate, graduate and faculty choreographed dance shows and was involved in the musical theatre department. She choreographed for Bare Bones Dance Theatre, a student-produced dance show. Genoa received UCI honors and scholarships for her work teaching dance and music in Orange County elementary schools and hospitals through the ArtsBridge America program. She received a grant to conduct research on dance instructors in New York City, and used the opportunity to study with some of the best teachers in dance. Genoa believes in the nurturing power of movement and loves to discover and explore dance along with her students.
