Currently the organization has an artistic staff of 29 dancers and 10 Trainees, a professional teaching staff, a production staff of five, and an administrative staff of 3. Up to 30 volunteers serving more than 200 hours per year enable Sierra Nevada Ballet to entertain more than 10,000 residents and tourists annually including 4,000 school children. Sierra Nevada Ballet receives funding for its educational outreach and public performances from a wide range of institutions and donors. SNB is one of only four arts organizations in the state to receive a Challenge America grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for 2015. Rosine Bena is the Artistic Director of Sierra Nevada Ballet, based in Reno, Nevada and is the director of ballet for Western Nevada Performing Arts Center in Carson City, Nevada. She has choreographed and directed over 60 professional productions and numerous non- professional productions and her choreography has been favorably compared to the work of choreographers such as George Balanchine, John Cranko, Kurt Joos and Michael Smuin. She is a guest master teacher for the Regional Dance America Ballet Festivals, and was elected as RDA Adjudicator for the national festival in 2012, as Adjudicator for the Pacific Region in 2013 and as a master Teacher for the Southwest Festival in 2014. Bena is a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science lecturing and teaching ballet and injury prevention throughout the US and Europe. Bena received the 2015 Challenge America Award from the National Endowment For The Arts for her holiday classic, Peanutcracker – The Story In A Nutshell. As a former graduate of the Academy of the Washington School of Ballet, Rosine was one of the alumni honored at the Kennedy Center and the White House by the Clintons and in Who's Who in America in the category of Outstanding Americans. Bena is one of the first master teachers to be fully certified to teach all levels of the curriculum and act as ambassador. Rosine was invited by American Ballet Theatre Artistic Director, Kevin McKenzie, to act as an ABT curriculum consultant and then take part in the ABT Alumni Curriculum training. Bena joined the staff of ABT in 2010 teaching in two of their five national ballet summer programs. In 2008, Bena was awarded an Endowment from the Sierra Arts Foundation and a Fellowship from The Nevada State Arts Council for her outstanding artistic work as a choreographer and director. Bena was given the title of "Outstanding Individual Artist 1992" by the San Mateo County Arts Council and honored by the US Congress and the Ca. State Legislature for her work in the arts. A native of New Jersey, Bena was a professional ballerina who danced throughout the US and Europe with the Stuttgart Ballet, The Washington Ballet, and Peninsula Ballet Theatre. She received critical acclaim for principal roles in ballets such as Giselle, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo & Juliet, Coppelia, La Fille Mal Gardee and contemporary works by choreographers such as John Cranko, Jiri Kylian and many others. In addition to guest performing with various ballet companies, Bena danced opposite Patrick DuPond of the Paris Opera in the movie, She Dances Alone.
