San Antonio Dance’s mission is to inspire and promote the appreciation of dance through artistic excellence. To this end, we will offer productions of professional caliber, engage in meaningful collaborations, celebrate the diversity of our community, and illuminate an accessible, equitable pathway which promotes cultural awareness.

Through dance, we will enrich and strengthen the creative landscape in San Antonio, making the performing arts available to all.

Quenedit Dance Theatre was founded as a non‐profit 501(c)(3) organization in May 2014 by Artistic Directors, Catalina Garza and Ernesto Quenedit. QDT’s premier performance was The Nutcracker Ballet in December 2014, and The Nutcracker has been performed by the company each year since then. As the company grew, a spring show was added to the company’s season in the spring of 2016. The following year, the company wanted to include more of the San Antonio dance community in their spring performance, and by doing so, the San Antonio Dance Festival was born.

By 2019, the San Antonio Dance Festival had become an international event, hosting dancers from all over the world, In October 2022, it was decided to officially adopt the name San Antonio Dance as a DBA of Quenedit Dance Theatre. Even though we will be operating under a different name, we will continue building our pre-professional dance company, participating in community outreach programs, and offering high quality performances such as The Nutcracker Ballet and the San Antonio Dance Festival.

Quenedit Dance Theatre has always been committed to the diversity of our San Antonio community and will continue to embrace diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for all cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds.

CATALINA GARZA, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, trained professionally and graduated from the Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey which is part of Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (class of 1990).

Following graduation, she joined Ballet of Monterrey performing a long list of roles in major ballets. In 1995, she joined the National Company of Dance in Mexico City and later traveled to the United States to dance with The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago under the artistic direction of Gerald Arpino.

Some of her roles include Mr. Arpino’s Confetti and Light Rain and the role of Sugar Plum in Joffrey’s Nutcracker. She also performed for Ballet Met in Columbus, OH and The Lyric Opera of Chicago. Ms. Garza has toured internationally and danced in such countries as Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Israel.

Ms. Garza has had teaching experience both in Mexico and the United States and has staged, directed, and choreographed such projects as Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, Beauty and the Beast, the Nutcracker, and Etudes. She has coached students who placed in and won the junior and senior divisions in the Youth America Grand Prix.

Ms. Garza moved to San Antonio, TX in 2010 and co-founded Quenedit Ballet School with her husband, Ernesto Quenedit. Since the school’s inception, the students have had the opportunity to perform a vast repertoire of works in many dance genres.

In 2014, she became co-founder and artistic director of Quenedit Dance Theatre’s non-profit pre-professional dance company. QDT’s premier performance was The Nutcracker Ballet in December 2014 featuring over 100 young dancers. As the company grew, a spring season was added to include the multi-day San Antonio Dance Festival drawing international and national dancers of all ages.

ERNESTO QUENEDIT is a native of Havana, Cuba where he graduated in 1984 from the National School of Ballet as both a dancer and teacher having trained under the direction of Alicia Alonso. He then became a member of the National Ballet of Cuba, where he was promoted to principal dancer in 1990. Mr. Quenedit toured Latin America, Europe, and Asia with the National Ballet of Cuba and later traveled to Mexico where he danced with both the Ballet of Monterrey and The National Company of Dance.

In 1996, Mr. Quenedit joined the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago under the direction of Gerald Arpino. He also performed as a principal dancer with Arizona Ballet, and it was the Don Quixote Pas de Deux that introduced him to audiences of Ballet Met in Columbus, OH. He later danced for three seasons with the Chicago Lyric Opera. Mr. Quenedit has danced extensively in the United States as a guest artist at ballet companies such as Tulsa Ballet, Peoria Ballet, Salt Creek Ballet in Chicago, and Ballet International in Indianapolis.

Mr. Quenedit has been a guest teacher with Ballet of Monterrey in Mexico under the direction of Robert Hill, and has taught extensively throughout the Chicago area where he choreographed the full length Giselle for the students at Dance West Ballet in Naperville, IL.

Mr. Quenedit moved to San Antonio, TX in 2010 and co-founded Quenedit Ballet School with his wife, Catalina Garza. He was awarded the Youth America Grand Prix Outstanding Choreographer Award and has brought to the school his passion for dance.

As co-founders of Quenedit Dance Theatre, Mr. Quenedit and Ms. Garza has staged The Nutcracker Ballet, Les Sylphides, Paquita Grand Pas, The Pharaoh’s Daughter, The Fairy Doll and numerous original contemporary works.

Rafael Quenedit comes to Cincinnati from the National Ballet of Cuba, where he quickly ascended to the role of principal dancer. He began his training in 2006 in Cuba at Escuela Elemental de Ballet Alejo Carpentier where he trained for five years. He then spent eight years training with the National Ballet School of Cuba. He graduated in 2014 and joined the National Ballet of Cuba as a corps de ballet dancer. Quenedit Castro was quickly cast in soloist and principal roles, before being named principal dancer at the prestigious, international company.

He has also worked with internationally-renowned choreographers including Alicia Alonso, Alexei Ratmansky, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Giuliano Peparini, Alberto Mendez, among others. Sharing his art with dance lovers around the world has been one of his passions. He has performed lead roles in the United States, Italy, Spain, France, Canada, Mexico and several others. Competitions awards include: Bronze medal at the International Ballet competition in Havana, Cuba; Junior division. Gold medal at the International Ballet competition in Cape Town, South Africa; Junior division.Gold medal at the XX International Ballet competition in Havana, Cuba. Also awarded best Artistic Performance; Senior division. Winner at Amici Word Dance competition in Italy. Principal roles with the National Ballet of Cuba: Sawn Lake; Don Quixote; Giselle; La Fille Mal Gardée; The Nutcracker; Romeo & Juliet; Carmen; La Bayadere; Cinderella, Theme & Variations.

Melissa Gelfin began her ballet training with Lisa Collins Vidnovic at Metropolitan Ballet Academy and continued with Barbara Sandonato and Andrea Long-Naidu at Barbara Sandonato School of Ballet. She joined the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theatre in 2009, under the direction of Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens, and was awarded a National Training Scholarship with ABT.
Prior to dancing with Cincinnati Ballet, Gelfin danced for Orlando Ballet II and Orlando Ballet Company from 2011-2014 and was a finalist in the 2014 Jackson International Ballet Competition. Gelfin joined Cincinnati Ballet as a New Dancer for the 2014-2015 Season and was promoted to Corps De Ballet in February of 2015. She was promoted to First Soloist in 2017 and Principal Dancer in 2018.

As a dancer with Cincinnati Ballet, Gelfin’s repertoire includes classical and contemporary works by Septime Webre, Yuri Possikov, Victoria Morgan, Val Caniparoli, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Nicolo Fonte, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Adam Hougland, and Ma Cong. She has danced Principal roles in Septime Webre’s ALICE (in Wonderland) and The Wizard of Oz, Victoria Morgan’s The Nutcracker, King Arthur’s Camelot and Romeo and Juliet, Kirk Peterson’s Coppélia and Swan Lake, George Balanchine’s Rubies and Serenade, Devon Carney’s The Sleeping Beauty and originated roles in Penny Saunders Nannerl, Myles Thatcher’s Anamoly, Andrea Schermoly’s Swivet and several works by Jennifer Archibald. Gelfin most recently debuted her world premier Clockwise in Cincinnati Ballet’s 2019 The Kaplan New Works Series and choreographed and performed a solo work in the inaugural 2018 Female Choreographic Initiative Festival hosted by Houston Ballet.

Ludwig García of Mexican nationality, Ludwig García was born in 2002 in the city of Morelia, Michoacán.
In July 2024, he completed his classical ballet studies at the Escuela Superior de Música y Danza de Monterrey (ESMDM).
During his time at ESMDM, he performed solo variations in productions such as The Nutcracker, Bluebird, Paquita, and Coppelia.
He participated in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City for the 45th Anniversary of ESMDM.
He competed as a finalist in the Youth America Grand Prix (2024) in New York City in the ensemble category.
He has performed in various festivals across Mexico.

Currently, he continues to improve his dance skills by taking classes with Ballet de Monterrey under the guidance of Yosvani Ramos. At the same time, he continues training with his former teachers at ESMDM: Alejandro Jáuregui, Roberto Machado, Rosalinda Moeller, Rosalinda Farías, Aisel Delgado, among others.

Aldo Kattón is a Mexican artistic director, rehearsal director, choreographer, and former dancer with extensive professional experience. He has participated in the creation and production of numerous ballets and shows with companies and projects around Mexico, USA, and Guatemala. His expertise is not limited to the technical and artistic aspects of dance, but extends to collaboration and coordination of logistics, sound, set design, costume design and publicity aspects of small and large-scale theatrical productions. He is committed to excellence and the development of individual artists and artistic institutions. As a ballet teacher, he has taught all levels in dance education, from absolute beginners to seasoned professionals. Kattón is a member of the International Dance Council CID (The United Nations of Dance). Kattón’s choreography and pedagogical approach promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion as means to preserve the art of classical ballet by allowing it to evolve. Currently Aldo Kattón is Artistic the Artistic Director and founder member of Central New York Ballet, and professor of dance for Syracuse University in the Drama department.

Lelan Lewis was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. In 2011, he joined a small dance studio named Willow Street Studios, where he studied classical ballet, contemporary, tap, hip-hop, and musical theater dance. In 2016, he competed in the Youth America Grand Prix. Following the competition, he was accepted into University of North Carolina School of the Arts, under the direction of Susan Jaffe, Artistic Director and Dean of American Ballet Theater (ABT) who was a former principal ballerina for ABT. After graduation, he joined Ballet Theater of Maryland as a Soloist in 2020. In 2022 he joined Ballet San Antonio.

His repertoire includes the Cavalier in Ethan Stiefal’s The Nutcracker, the Blue Bird Pas de Duex in Sleeping Beauty, the Grand Pas de Duex in Paquita, the Pas de Sclave Variation in Le Corsaire, First Pas de Duex in Susan Jaffe’s Carmina Terra, First Solo in Azure Barton’s Happy Little Things, Jonathan in Ballet Theater of Maryland’s production of Dracula and the White Stripes Pas de Duex in Ballet Theater of Maryland’s production of American Ballads.

Pedro Vega started his dance at the National School of Art in Havana, Cuba, graduating as a Dancer-Teacher from the renowned Cuban Ballet School. Joining the Laura Alonso Ballet company in 2007, he flourished under the artistic guidance of Fernando Alonso. In 2010, he ascended to the position of first soloist at the National Ballet of Ecuador, later becoming a First Dancer in 2011. Throughout his career, Pedro has assumed leading roles in classical, neoclassical, and contemporary productions.

Pedro Vega’s dedication extends beyond the stage. He has received training from international luminaries such as Laura Alonso, Frank Andersen (Royal Danish Ballet), and Jose Manuel Carreño. As a teacher, Pedro has shared his expertise with the professional casts of the National Ballet of Ecuador and the College of Arts, overseeing assembly and graduation for five consecutive years (2018-2022). Additionally, he has conducted workshops on dance-related topics, including National Curriculum and Dance Curriculum, planning and evaluation of learning, physical preparation for dancers, and musical education.