ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE STANDARD
ICSB faculty bring professional performing, teaching, coaching, choreographic, and competition expertise to an intentionally individualized pre-professional environment. Under the school’s artistic leadership, dancers have advanced to leading professional companies, trainee and second-company programs, major ballet schools, conservatories, and universities in the United States and internationally.
GEORNÉ AUCOIN | Founder & Artistic Director
GEORNÉ AUCOIN, a California native, has studied with many well-known teachers and choreographers. She has had extensive training at the Dallas Metropolitan Ballet, the Colorado Ballet, and the Joffrey Ballet. She has studied extensively under Petrus Bosman, Suki Schorer, Sven Alexander, Bill Atkinson, Ann Etgen, and Richard Steinert.
Georné Aucoin is the Founder and Artistic Director of The International City School of Ballet, which she established in 2004. For more than two decades, she has directed the school’s classical training program and worked directly in the technical and artistic development of its dancers.
Georné Aucoin has personally received 13 Outstanding Teacher and Outstanding Coach awards across major national ballet competitions, including Youth America Grand Prix, Universal Ballet Competition, and ADC|IBC. Her first YAGP Outstanding Teacher Award came in 2013, recognizing her work in ballet instruction and coaching. Since 2005, ICSB dancers under her training have earned First, Second, and Third Place honors across multiple categories, as well as Youth Grand Prix recognition at YAGP, with selected dancers appearing as featured soloists at the David H. Koch Theater during the competition’s New York City Finals and Gala performances. Under her artistic direction and training, The International City School of Ballet has also received 7 Outstanding School Awards.
Dancers trained under Aucoin’s direction at ICSB have advanced to professional, trainee, and second-company opportunities with The Royal Ballet (United Kingdom), American Ballet Theatre (United States), New York City Ballet (United States), Dutch National Ballet (Netherlands), Royal Danish Ballet (Denmark), Zurich Ballet (Switzerland), Norwegian National Ballet (Norway), Houston Ballet (United States), Stuttgart Ballet (Germany), Alberta Ballet (Canada), Ballet West (United States), Cincinnati Ballet (United States), Ballet Austin (United States), Sarasota Ballet (United States), Béjart Ballet Lausanne (Switzerland), Richmond Ballet (United States), Milwaukee Ballet (United States), Lexington Ballet (United States), The Georgia Ballet (United States), and Ballet San Antonio (United States).
While many ICSB dancers pursue professional careers in ballet, the school’s training is designed to develop far more than professional placement alone. The discipline, intellectual engagement, independence, resilience, and artistic maturity cultivated through serious classical training have also supported students who choose academic, artistic, and professional paths beyond the stage. ICSB alumni have continued their education at institutions including Stanford University, Princeton University, Columbia University, New York University, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, UCLA, Barnard College, Georgia Institute of Technology, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the Ailey/Fordham BFA in Dance, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Fordham University, Butler University, Pace University, Florida State University, University of Georgia, Brandeis University, University of South Carolina, Savannah College of Art and Design, AMDA College of the Performing Arts, and Mercer University School of Medicine.
SELECTED PRESS & INDUSTRY RECOGNITION
Georné Aucoin has been featured by Pointe Magazine as an expert on classical ballet technique, pre-professional training, summer-intensive preparation, and dancer development. Her coaching and teaching have also been documented in national ballet publications and competition features highlighting the development of ICSB dancers.
Pointe Magazine | Are You Gripping Your Quads? Here’s How to Beat the Habit
Georné is featured as a technical expert alongside Dance Theatre of Harlem rehearsal director Juan Carlos Peñuela, discussing muscular coordination, alignment, quad dominance, conditioning, and efficient classical ballet technique. Pointe identifies her as Founder and Artistic Director of The International City School of Ballet.
Read the Pointe Magazine feature
Pointe Magazine | A Ballet Student’s Guide to Researching Pre-Professional Training Programs
Georné is featured among pre-professional program leaders offering guidance to dancers and families evaluating full-time professional-track ballet training.
Read the Pointe Magazine feature
Pointe Magazine | Summer Intensive Audition Overload: How to Avoid Analysis Paralysis
Georné is featured as Founder and Artistic Director of The International City School of Ballet, discussing summer-intensive strategy, training priorities, and the importance of choosing programs that support a dancer’s long-term development.
Read the Pointe Magazine feature
Pointe Magazine | Dancers Gear Up for the 2023 USA International Ballet Competition
ICSB dancer Julie Joyner discusses her preparation for USA IBC and her work with coaches Georné Aucoin and Musashi Alvarez, including their emphasis on technical detail, artistry, and layering classical variations.
Read the Pointe Magazine feature
World Ballet Competition | Interview with 2022 Grand Prix Winner Julie Joyner
In an official World Ballet Competition interview, Grand Prix winner Julie Joyner describes her daily training and private coaching at ICSB and identifies Georné Aucoin and Musashi Alvarez as her coaches for the competition.
Read the World Ballet Competition interview
Georné’s teaching and coaching have received repeated recognition from major ballet organizations, including Youth America Grand Prix, ADC|IBC, and Universal Ballet Competition.
JULIE LEE HOFFMAN | Classical Technique, Women’s Variations & Pointe Technique
From Rochester, New York, JULIE HOFFMAN began her training at age 14. With natural talent and work ethic, she was able to train solely on full scholarship within 2 years for the remainder of her training. Following a trip to the Bolshoi Ballet, she relocated to Philadelphia, PA to study with Mikhail Korogodsky. However, the bulk of her training came with Margarita De Saa and John White at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet in Cuban Vaganova technique, also on full scholarships.
Julie’s professional performing career started at the Colorado Ballet, then moved to USA Ballet, followed by Peoria Ballet under Erich Yetter where she then began teaching and truly fell in love after attending a teacher training program at Pacific Northwest Ballet. She continued her career at The Georgia Ballet under the direction of Gigi Hyatt and that became her home as a principle dancer with the company and principle teacher in the upper academy. It was at that time that Julie also began to travel to Warner Robins, GA to work with Georne Aucoin, who was building an academy of highly talented aspiring dancers at the International City School of Ballet.
In her performing career Julie was known for her technique, musicality, and ability to tell a story. She enjoyed having roles created on her in new ballets including Mina in Dracula and Katrina in A Sleepy Hollow Story. Working with choreographers was one of her pleasures and in a recommendation Julie was described as “a choreographer’s dream”. Classically she danced principle roles with favorites being the title role in both Giselle and La Sylphide. In mixed repertoire she enjoyed performing the Grande Pas De Deux from both Don Quixote and Le Corsaire as well as the lead in Balanchine’s Valse-Fantaisie among many others.
Cammi Nevarez | Contemporary Technique & Choreography
CAMMI NEVAREZ is a Southern California native who specializes in teaching contemporary styles and techniques built on Horton fundamentals. While Cammi grew up doing commercial dance, she was always drawn to the athleticism behind movement and focused on ballet and modern-style dance while pursuing her education. During this time, Cammi performed works by the Martha Graham Company, Koresh Dance, and Ori Flomin. In 2016, she earned her B.A. in Dance with a concentration in Modern and a minor in Business Entrepreneurship from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. Upon graduating, Cammi moved to New York to join Michael MaoDance in 2017, and she also worked alongside Parsons Dance in 2018. Additionally, Cammi joined Sweetbird Productions on their 2018-2019 Germany and Switzerland tour of Rock The Ballet X as well as their France tour of Best of Rock The Ballet.
Cammi has performed in numerous productions throughout her professional performing career. Between 2019-2020, she played as Juliet Adrienne Canterna’s “Romeo and Juliet” in Germany, while in 2022, she was a principal dancer in Kevin Jenkin’s theatrical ballet, “Remember Me.” Cammi also served as the lead dancer and actress for Annie Kane’s adaptation of “The Red Shoes.” Furthermore, Cammi was the winner of the Southern California Spotlight Artistic Scholarship in the non-classical dance category in 2012. Cammi has also done past work with both Nickelodeon and Sony Pictures.
As a choreographer and instructor, Cammi holds several choreograph credits. From 2013-2017, she was an instructor for Millennium Dance Complex PGH that taught choreography and helped to grow the adult heels program. In 2016, Cammi was hired as the on-set choreographer for Concussion starring Will Smith, and in 2021, she was the choreographer for the indie-film Way Down Bundy starring Jeremy Ford. She has also choreographed competitive numbers for numerous companies, including Hudson Conservatory, Academy of Ballet Arts, and Temecula Dance Co., and she created a full production number for Scriva’s Dance that combined jazz, contemporary, and ballet dance styles. Cammi currently resides in Atlanta, GA, where she is pursuing a choreography and dance career in the TV and film industry.
