Delta Ballet Academy Instructors:

Sharon Sobel, Artistic Director

Sharon Sobel, a Pittsburg native began her ballet training at age 3 through the City of Pittsburg. She then studied under Helga Ishikata at Delta Ballet Academy from age 7 to 18. Ms. Sobel joined Delta Children's Ballet Theatre in 1992 and performed many principal roles in The Little Match Girl, Enchanted Toy Shoppe, Peter and the Wolf, and Bolero.

She holds a degree in Dance from Cal State University, Long Beach. She is the recipient of the 2004 Jason Robins Dance Scholarship. During college Ms. Sobel studied under a wide variety of accomplished dance educators and choreographers, such as Sophie Monat, Alaine Haubert, Keith Johnson, Sharon McKinney, Douglas Neilson, and many other guest instructors. She has performed in historic ballets such as Balanchine’s Serenade, Petipa’s Les Slyphides, among many other original works while attending CSU-Long Beach. Sharon has danced with Peninsula Ballet Theatre.

She is the owner of Delta Ballet Academy and recently made her debut as Artistic Director of Delta Children’s Ballet Theatre with their premiere of Peter Pan in April 2008. Currently, she is the President of the Pittsburg Creative Arts Building Corporation, a non-profit organization dedicate to the restoration of the historic 2,000 seat big theater, and 242 little theater in Pittsburg. This December she'll make her debut as Associate Director of the newly formed Black Diamond Ballet Theatre - East County's First Professional Ballet Company with Artistic Director, Michael Lowe. Black Diamond Ballet Theatre will make the Pittsburg Creative Arts Building their home theater.

Joseph Cancino

Joseph Cancino, a graduate from Walter A. Haas School of Business in UC Berkeley in December of 2008, started dancing at the age of 7 with training in ballroom (specifically Cha-cha) and traditional filipino dancing.  He maintained this interest in dance until he was twelve years old, when he decided to focus more on school and playing competitive tennis in high school.  When one of his college friends forced him to try-out for UC Berkeley's largest student dance organization called The Movement and eventually made it to the group in the Spring 2006 semester, his passion for dance was rekindled.  He has been a consistent member ever since and was one of the main choreographers for three semesters (Fall 2007, 2008, and 2009).  He was also invited by the founders of Main Stacks, UC Berkeley's only competitive hip-hop dance team, to become one of the founding members in January of 2008.  While he was in the team as a choreographer and dancer, Main Stacks has won hip-hop dance competitions, placing 2nd in 2009 Max't Out Dance Competition and 3rd in 2008 Prelude Dance Competition.  As one of the youngest crews in California, Main Stacks also grabbed 1st place in Breakthrough Hip-hop Dance Competition in April of 2010 (during the semester when he took a break from competitive dancing!)

Whenever people ask when he'll be done with dance, he always tell them that he'll be dancing until his back breaks.  Dance has given him the opportunity to develop his talents as a dancer and share his creativity as a choreographer, and he intend on doing that as long as possible.  His motto in dance has always been to inspire and be inspired by the art of dance.  Some of his inspirations have included works by world-renowned choreographers such as Mia Michaels, Napoleon and Tabatha, Mariel Martin, Keone Madrid, Shaun Evaristo, and Phillip Geniza. 

Other than that, he wants you to come take his classes!  You'll have a great time.  While he's still finding my own hip-hop style, he loves creating pieces that are fun, groovy and with alot of energy.  Dance with him before he breaks his back!

Sarah Hernandez

Sarah has been dancing since she was 4 years of age, beginning with the Delta Childrens' Ballet Theatre where her roles included the Little Matchgirl (The Little Matchgirl), Bird (Peter and the Wolf), Ugly Duckling (The Ugly Duckling), Cinderella (The Fractured Fairy Tales) and Queen (The Enchanted Toyshop).  From 2000-2003 and in 2006, she danced for Oakland Ballet under the direction of Ronn Guidi.  In OBC's yearly productions of The Nutcracker, she has been cast in the roles of Marie and Louise, as well as a Snowflake, Flower, and in Spanish Chocolate.  Other productions by Oakland Ballet in which Sarah has performed include “The Secret Garden”, “Les Biches” and “Hansel and Gretel”.

Sarah has also used her talent and love of working with children to teach dance (ballet, jazz, tap and lyrical/contemporary) for 7 years.  She has taught at Rivertown Dance Academy and Step-2-This Dance and Performing Arts, and her students have been included on several competition teams.

Her choreography credits include Clayton Valley High School's production of "Suessical" (2006); Mountain View's Talent Show production of "Karoke Shrek Style!" (2007); Silverwood Elementary's production of "California Bound: A Fourth Grade Musical" (2008) and Highlands Elementary Talent Show "Rock On Highlands" (2008).

Throughout her career, Sarah has competed in and won numerous titles and scholarships in Northern California.  Currently, she is dancing for COterie under the direction of Kimberly Valmore and the Black Diamond Ballet Theatre.  When not up on her toes, Sarah is a teacher's assistant at Silverwood Elementary School in Concord, CA, as well as a student at Cal State East Bay where she is pursuing her degree in psychology.

She cannot wait to see what is in store for her next!

Terrin Kelly

Terrin Kelly has been teaching and dancing professional for the last 13yrs. Ms. Kelly has performed with Oakland Ballet, Moving Arts Dance, Peninsula Ballet Theatre, Theatre Ballet of San Francisco, Ballet Magnificat, and is currently a member of the newly formed Black Diamond Ballet Theatre. Aside from performing both nationally and internationall, Ms. Kelly has also won top taleny awards through the Miss America Organization.

Ms. Kelly's choreography has won numerous awards at competitions and has been perfomred at warriors games, parades, and many other venues. Ms. Kelly is very proud of her many students that she has had the opportunity to mentor throughout the years. Ms. Kelly's students have gone on to dance at NYU, ASU, UCLA, on cruiselines, various dance companies, and on full scholarships at San Francisco Ballet.

Michael Lowe

Michael Lowe began his dance career 1974, and has achieved acclaim not only for his dancing, but also for his choreography. He was nominated for the Izzie (Isadora Duncan Dance) Award 1998 for his restaging of The Emperor and the Nightingale, and received the Izzie Award in 2003 for his choreography of Bamboo.

Born in Oakland of a Korean mother and a Chinese father who worked in a grocery store, Lowe was active in sports as a teenager. He was a varsity football player in high school, and also participated in tennis, baseball and tumbling. Lowe always loved music, and discovered his love for dance when his sister encouraged him to join a ballet class during high school. Lowe danced with the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, Old Souls, New Shoes with Mark Morris, Gilbert Reed Ballet of San Luis Obispo and Pacific Ballet prior to joining Oakland Ballet in 1980. During his 20 years with Oakland, Lowe served as assistant artistic director under Ronn Guidi for two years while he trained younger dancers in classical ballet technique as well as served as the archivist and historic consultant. He also served as director of the company's First Steps program for eight years till his retirement in 2000. One of his favorite projects was developing shows for children in hospitals to foster hope and healing. Lowe joined Moving Arts Dance in 2001 as Resident Choreographer, Director of Education for the Open Door project and Dance Master for the company. Mr. Lowe was appointed Artistic Director of Peninsula Ballet Theatre in August of 2004. Recently, Mr. Lowe was appointed Artistic Director of the Black Diamond Ballet Theatre based in East Contra Costa County.

Lauren Mindel

Bio to come!

Ricky Navarro

Ricky Navarro, I was born in Pittsburg and trained at dance schools all over Contra Costa County, including Delta Ballet Academy.  He later attended the California Academy of Performing Arts under the Direction of Joan Robinson, where he studied Ballet, Jazz and Lyrical, and Tap.  While at the California Academy of Performing Arts he participated in several competitions and was awarded many high honors and titles from those competitions.  

In later years he attended San Francisco Ballet School and studied under some of the world’s best ballet master, primarily in classical ballet, with an emphasis on Balanchine’s stylistic technique.  Following his many years of training at SF Ballet, he joined the company and danced as a company member for 4 years.  As a company member he performed beautiful ballet pieces such as Romeo and Juliet, Balanchine’s Donizeti, and Helgi Tomasson’s Stars and Stripes. 

Mr. Navarro is currently on faculty at Delta Ballet Academy where he teaches classical ballet, lyrical, and jazz.  He has also coached competition dancers of Delta Ballet to award winning honors. He currently dances with Black Diamond Ballet Theatre