Artistic and Executive Director
Karen Mareck Grundy

As the artistic director of Missouri Contemporary Ballet, Karen Grundy states, “My goal is to give dancers a positive yet disciplined space to discover their center core and expand their hearts and minds while allowing them to explore the diverse aspects of dance.”

Karen Grundy was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV, where her dance training began at the age of 3. At age 6 she trained with Macio and, later, at age 8, began her training in modern dance with Ronnie Greenblatt who trained under Martha Graham. Her extensive ballet and jazz training was under the direction of Inez Mourning and Belinda DeBecker. Grundy’s love of contemporary ballet was discovered in working side by side with L. J. Ballard as a dancer and as an assistant choreographer. Karen has been a member and featured dancer in various dance companies including Opus Dance Ensemble, New Works Project and Ballard’s Cafe Dance Co. She performed in Las Vegas for 11 years as a featured and lead dancer, as well as working in television. Grundy has taught master classes throughout the country and also as an assistant for choreographer Tiger Martina.

Karen is an instructor at Columbia Performing Arts Centre and prior to starting Missouri Contemporary Ballet she was the Artistic Director for Cedar Lake II. Karen is thrilled to be able to create her vision while collaborating with Sean France, the Missouri Theatre Center for the Arts and the many supporters of dance in Columbia and across the state of Missouri.

Associate Artistic Director
Ballet Master
Sean France

Sean France, a third generation performer and teacher, was raised in a well-known theatrical family, whose history includes grandparents and vaudevillians, Jerome & France. Sean’s father Richard France, a renowned Broadway performer and dancer, and Sean’s mother, choreographer and performer Ellen Ray, whose credits include working the Jack Cole, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Fred Astaire and Sean’s late godfather, the incomparable Gene Kelly. Sean’s dance training began with his parents at the France Academy of Dance. At the age of eleven he began to study ballet, tap and jazz. In 1978 and 1979, Sean was awarded full summer scholarship to the San Francisco Ballet School. In 1981 he was awarded a full scholarship and monetary stipend to study at the Houston Ballet Academy. He finished his studies at the Centre International de Danse with Rosella Hightower, in Cannes, France and graduated from the CID where he performed the lead roles in Hightower’s Coppelia and Bejart’s Firebird.

Sean has danced professionally in the following dance companies: the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Norwegian National Opera Ballet, Ballet Nuevo Mundo of Caracas, the National Ballet of Venezuela, the Athens Ballet of Greece, Cleveland Ballet, and Oakland Ballet. In addition, Sean has been principal guest performer with numerous regional, civic and international companies and ensembles.

Prior to moving to Columbia in 2004 to work as Ballet Master and Rehearsal Director for Cedar Lake II, Sean served as Visiting Professor of Dance at Grand Valley State University, choreographer for Grand Valley Opera Theater, and Ballet Master of G.V.S.U. Dance Ensemble. Sean teaches all levels of ballet, Pointe technique, men’s ballet technique, variations and pas de deux and is also well versed in the classical ballet repertory.

Costume Designer
Erin France

The Board

President           
Mark Grundy 
         
Vice-President          
Rebecca McHugh

Treasurer    
Lisa Wright

Secretary
Candy Young

Chairman
William B. Bondeson

Members of the Board
Tracy Barnes, Deb Corkery, Jo Fountain, Amy Gardner, Mariano Gomez, Matt Harline, Sara Harper, Barbara Hodges, Jennifer Larmie, Lisa Morovitz-Geger, Carol Moseley, John Olmstead, Amy Pugh, Beth Riggert, Susan Roberts, Daniel Schuffman, Jennifer Sovich, Larry Young