MEET Uptown Dance Centre’s Faculty

Beth Gulledge-Brown,
Founder & Artistic Director

International choreographer, instructor, and dancer Beth Gulledge-Brown began her lifelong relationship with dance at the age of three under the instruction of her mother, Carolyn Gulledge. She holds a degree in dance from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa. She has performed with companies around the world, including UCT Ballet Company and the CAPAB Ballet Company in South Africa, as well as Delia Stewart Dance Company, Texas Dance Theatre, and Joan Karff’s New Dance Group in the United States.

Ms. Gulledge-Brown opened Uptown Dance Centre in 1999, and formed a pre-professional dance company to provide a performing outlet for her advanced students. In 2008, Gulledge-Brown launched Uptown Dance Company, a professional dance company.

A talented and versatile choreographer, Ms. Gulledge-Brown has set choreography for multiple projects and festivals, including the Texas Tanzsommer Festival, Jazz Dance World Congress, Choreographer’s X 6, JCC SummerDance Repertory/Performance Project, Dance Houston, and Dance Month. In 2013, Gulledge-Brown choreographed her first opera for the University of Houston Moore’s School of Music’s production of Shoshtakovich’s Moscow Cheryomushki. Her choreography has been presented internationally in Mexico, Costa Rica, Austria, and China.

Adrian Ciobanu, Co-Director

Adrian Ciobanu was born in Cluj, Romania, where he graduated with honors from the Liceul de Choregrafie, Octavian Stroia, under the direction of his father, Florin Ciobanu. He performed with the Romanian Opera Ballet for one year then moved to the Hungarian Opera Ballet for five years, where he achieved the rank of principal dancer. He toured throughout Europe including France, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Romania, and the Czech Republic.

In 1996, Mr. Ciobanu became a member of the Sarasota Ballet, dancing major principal roles as well as creating many roles. His repertoire includes major classical and contemporary ballets by such choreographers as Robert North, Alberto Alonso, Katherine Posen, Steven Mills, Todd Allen, and Ament Istvan. Beginning in 2002, he taught and coached for Sarasota Ballet School, Dance the Next Generation, and local and regional schools throughout Florida. In 2003, Mr. Ciobanu was promoted to Principal of Academy, Sarasota Ballet, where the number of students doubled and the budget increased significantly under his direction. He staged full-length productions for the Academy, including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, The Nutcracker, La Boutique Fantasque, and Paquita. In 2008, Mr. Ciobanu was promoted to Ballet Master of Sarasota Ballet and worked extensively with the Academy. He worked with such stagers and choreographers as Hans Van Manen, Monica Parker, Alexander Grant, Dominic Walsh, Sandra Jennings, Joyceanne Sidimus, Julian Moss, Andre Prokovsky, Gilles Maidon, Jackie Hollander, Donald Mahler, and Margaret Barbieri.

Mr. Ciobanu has been the Co-Director of Uptown Dance Centre and Uptown Dance Company for the past thirteen years.

Mauricio Cañete,
Marketing Director & Ballet Master

Mauricio Cañete is a native of Santiago, Chile where he began his dance training. In 1995 he was invited to join Houston Ballet by Artistic Director Ben Stevenson, and in 2000 he was promoted to soloist. In 2003 Mr. Cañete joins Ballet Florida by Artistic Director Marie Hale and in 2012 he danced with Ballet Eloelle by artistic director Victor Trevino.

After Dancing for Houston Ballet, Ballet Florida and Ballet Eloelle Mr. Cañete received notable acclaim from the international press when he performed in England, Russia, Hong Kong, Canada, Austria, Germany, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Japan.

Ben Stevenson, Fernando Bujones, Paul Taylor, Lila York, David Parsons, Christopher Bruce,Trey McIntyre, Dominic Walsh, Manuel Castro, Maria Eliana Azocar, Marie Hale, Paula Abdul among many others have been a great experience for Mr. Cañete to work with.

Mauricio’s title roles include Peter Pan, The Pied Piper, The Jester in Cinderella, Renfield in Dracula, The Slave in Le Corsaire, The Blue Bird in Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker Prince, Puck in Midsummer Night Dream, Ugly Stepsister in Cinderella, Romeo and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Ptolemy in Cleopatra, The Bugle Boy in Company B and The Prince in Swan Lake. He has also been featured in Five Poems, Four Last Songs, Smile with My Heart, Bakers Dozen, Ghost Dances, Sergeants Early’s Dream and Second Before The Ground.

From 2014 to 2016 Mr. Cañete worked with So Danca USA as the director of Social Media and Photoshoot Ads campaign.

From 2014 to 2016 Mr. Cañete created the Florida Youth Dance Gala, an annual performance to help the new generation of dancers to have the opportunity to perform in a professional environment.

Mr. Cañete’s Highlights
Danced at the Bolshoi Theater Moscow Russia
Danced with Fernando Bujones Miami Florida
Danced at the Kennedy Center Washington DC
Danced at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre London England Danced with Paula Abdul at the Universal Studios Singapore Danced at Sabados Gigantes Univision Miami Florida Danced at Americas Got Talent Los Angeles CA

In 2017 Mr. Cañete retired after dancing for 28 years.

Skylar Campbell, Guest Faculty

A native of Laguna Beach, California, Skylar Campbell trained under Victor and Tatiana Kasatsky and David Allan in Orange County before joining The National Ballet of Canada as an RBC Apprentice in 2009. He was promoted to Principal Dancer in 2018. He joined Houston Ballet as Principal Dancer in January 2022.

During his tenure at The National Ballet of Canada, Mr. Campbell created the title role in the world premiere of Will Tuckett’s Pinocchio* and danced the title roles in John Neumeier’s Nijinsky and Guillaume Côté’s Le Petit Prince*. His repertoire also includes principal roles such as Hilarion in Sir Peter Wright’s Giselle; Gurn in August Bournonville’s La Sylphide; Mercutio and Benvolio in Alexei Ratmansky’s Romeo & Juliet; Alain in Sir Fredrick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée; Jack/The Knave of Hearts and Lewis Carroll/The White Rabbit in Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Florizel in Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale; Camille in Ronald Hynd’s The Merry Widow; Bluebird in Rudolf Nureyev’s The Sleeping Beauty; Puck in Sir Fredrick Ashton’s The Dream; Levin in John Neumeier’s Anna Karenina; and Alan in John Neumeier’s A Streetcar Named Desire.

Mr. Campbell has worked with world-renowned choreographers including Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Justin Peck, John Neumeier, James Kudelka, Sir Peter Wright, Ronald Hynd, William Forsythe, Crystal Pite, Wayne McGregor, Alex Ekman, Kevin O’Day, Will Tuckett, David Allan, Guillaume Côté, Jiří Kylián, and Robert Binet. He has danced featured roles set on him in Night, Unearth, Orpheus Alive, The Dreamers Ever Leave You, Dialogue Dances, Being and Nothingness, Frame by Frame, and Black Night’s Bright Day.

The recipient of the MyTheatre Award for the Best Ballet Performance in Robert Binet’s Unearth, he also was recognized by Dance Magazine as one of the “Top 25 Dancers to Watch” in 2015. Mr. Campbell is also the Director/Founder of the Skylar Campbell Dance Collective; a nonprofit organization aiming to unite and collaborate with artists from across North America.

*roles created on

River Hemming, Faculty

River Hemming began dancing at Christian Dance Center in Cypress, Texas. In 2017, she began work as a trainee with Next Generation Ballet in Tampa, where she performed lead and various corps roles in Peter Starks’ Cinderella and Philip Neal’s The Nutcracker

The next season, as a member of Vitacca Ballet Pro in Houston, Ms. Hemming performed lead and corps roles in La Bayadere and Paquita and competed in ADC/IBC where she won a full scholarship to Tulsa Ballet’s summer program. 

She joined Tulsa Ballet as a trainee the following season, where she trained on merit scholarship with Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education and danced in corps and understudy roles with the company. She has also enjoyed summers with Houston Ballet Academy, ABT Austin, and the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Company Experience. She is passionate about teaching dance to the next generation and is thrilled to also be a part of Uptown’s teaching faculty.

This is Ms. Hemming’s third season with Uptown Dance Company 

Kaitlyn Blake, Faculty

Kaitlyn Blake began dancing at Carol Ehler Dance School and from age 13 to her high school graduation she trained at Ballet Center of Houston.

While at the Ballet center, she also performed with the pre-professional company, Houston Repertoire Ballet. As a company member she performed roles such as the Dew Drop Fairy in Victoria Vittum’s Nutcracker and the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty.

Ms. Blake’s summer training included Ballet Magnificat!, Houston Ballet, Ballet Hawaii, and Tulsa Ballet. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Belhaven University and was the female recipient of the 2022 Artistic Achievement Award.

After graduation Ms. Blake spent a year teaching dance at Ballet Center of Houston and performing as an Artist in Residence with Houston Repertoire Ballet. She is excited to join Uptown Dance Company this year as a performing artist and teacher.

Maxine Silberstein, Faculty - Mentor

Maxine Silberstein has had a distinguished career as a performer, teacher, educator, and mentor.  Over the span of 50 years, Maxine has curated and organized dance programs at the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston.

 During Dance Month at the Kaplan Theatre, nationally known performers appeared on the Kaplan stage such as Gus Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago,

Ohad Naharin Dance Company, Danielle Agami’s ATE9 Dance Company,

Dallas Black Dance Company, Koresh, and Gallim.  International companies presented were Vertigo, Inbal Dance, and Sheketak. Diane Walker, Acia Gray, Sam Weber, Jason Samuels Smith, and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards were a few of the tap greats that appeared at the Kaplan Theatre.  I W Marks Jewelers Master Classes, a partnership with SPA, included members from Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Bella Lewitzky Dance Company, and Jose Greco Dance Company. Locally favorites were Houston Choreographers X6, Houston Ballet II, and International Folkdance.

 As Dance Director at the J, she introduced Maccabi Dance to the Maccabi Games, presided over JCC Summer Dance Camps, directed the Dance Event for the Senior Olympics, developed the JCC Dance Initiative bringing together independent choreographers and dancers to present a concert, and Summer Dance Festival “Texas Tanz” featuring workshops, master classes and performances.  She created What’s happening on Houston’s Dance Scene, a forum to discuss dance events in Houston.

 Silberstein is the recipient of the inaugural Buff Orpington Houston Contemporary Dance Achievement Award (also known as the Buffy), the Jerry Wische Staff Excellence Award from the ERJCC and in the Houston JCC Maccabi Hall of Fame.

Currently Silberstein serves on the Performing Arts Houston Education and Community Committee. Additionally, she has served on numerous boards including the Board of Trustees of the Houston Dance Coalition, Discover Dance Group, Weave Dance Company, Kinetic Architecture, Uptown Dance Center, the Advisory Board of Sandra Organ Dance Company and the HCC Central College World Dance Institute Board.