David McCauley began his dance training while a student, first a Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and later at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has trained in ballet, modern, jazz, and ethnic dancing. As a dancer based in New York City, David enjoyed almost 15 years with the Alivin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation, as student, instructor, and performer. He has also performed with the Pearl Primus Dance Company and Omega Liturgical Dance Company. Since 1990, David has been a resident of San Francisco, and has been performing with Wing It! Performing Ensemble and Omega West Dance Company. He has been directing Berkeley/Oakland Aileycamp at Cal Performances since its inauguration in the fall of 2001.

Photo by John Gerbetz  

Karen Denise Gabay was born in San Diego , California and began her ballet training at the age of eight at the California Ballet School, and later studied in New York at the School of American Ballet.

A principal dancer with Ballet San Jose, Miss Gabay’s diverse repertoire includes Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, the title role in Giselle, Swanhilda in Coppélia, the pupil in Flemming Flindt's The Lesson, the title role in Roland Petit's Carmen, the principal female in George Balanchine's Theme and Variations, Tarantella and Serenade, the Cowgirl in Agnes DeMille's Rodeo and has had many ballets choreographed for her by Ballet San Jose Artistic Director, Dennis Nahat.

Miss Gabay has been a guest artist with many different companies that include North Carolina Dance Theater, Ballet Tucson, Ballet Nuevo Mundo, The Eglevsky Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, and Los Angeles Classical Ballet and has toured with Cynthia Gregory's Dance Galaxy throughout South America. 

She has performed at various galas and festivals that include the Vail International Dance Festival, the Career Transitions for Dancers Gala in New York City , the Spoleto and Edinburgh Festivals with Rudolf Nureyev

In 2006, she assisted Fleming Flindt in rehearsing The Lesson, for the Kings of the Dance with Ángel Corella, Johann Kobberg, and Nikolay Tsiskaridze, and later performed in the Hungarian Festival of Freedom Tribute with members of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Miss Gabay is also a rehersal assistant for Ballet San Jose, staging and rehersing the repertoire of the company and she is frequently invited as a guest teacher for many ballet schools across the nation.

As a choreographer, she has produced ballets for Pointe of Departure, Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet, Ohio Ballet, Dancing Wheels, Cleveland San Jose Ballet, Chautauqua Dance Company, Minnesota Ballet, Key Concerts for the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Cleveland Composer's Guild.

Miss Gabay is co-artistic director/resident choreographer of Pointe of Departure, a Northeastern Ohio based company that performs in the summer. Her film and television work includes the feature film, RENT, The Drew Carey Show, and the Queen of Denmark’s silver anniversary gala for Scandinavian television.

By: John Gerbetz

A native of California, Catharine Grow grew up in Encinitas where she began her training at the age of seven at Janice Lee's School of Ballet. In 1996, Catharine joined Ballet San Jose. Since then she has performed such roles as Maria in Dennis Nahat's The Nutcracker, Sally in Blue Suede Shoes, soloist roles in Who Cares?, Theme and Variations, Celebrations and Ode, and other various roles in Carmen and Serenade. Catharine has also performed in several different cities throughout Italy, France, and Germany with her husband, fellow dancer, Zuri Goldman.Photo