Artistic Team

Adam W. McKinney

Artistic Director

Adam W. McKinney has a diverse and accomplished background in arts leadership across the globe, having served as an arts organization director, tenured professor, choreographer, dancer, educator and activist. McKinney was most recently an Associate Professor of Dance in Ballet with tenure in the School for Classical & Contemporary Dance at Texas Christian University. There he taught courses in classical ballet, modern dance and choreography. He was the Co-Director/Co-Founder of DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization committed to healing through the arts and dialogue. Previously, he was the inaugural Dance Department Chair at New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe.

 He has danced with some of the world’s preeminent dance companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Béjart Ballet Lausanne (Switzerland), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet and Milwaukee Ballet Company.

 McKinney has led dance work with diverse populations across the U.S. and North America, and in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. A leader who is committed to making ballet and dance accessible to all, he served as a U.S. Embassy Culture Connect Envoy to South Africa through the U.S. State Department. McKinney has created community social justice and awareness projects including the interactive Fort Worth Lynching Tour: Honoring the Memory of Mr. Fred Rouse and “The Borders Project” at the Mexico/U.S. and Palestine/Israel borders. He was also honored with the NYU President’s Service Award for his dance work with populations who struggle with heroin addiction.  

McKinney was named one of the most influential African Americans in Milwaukee by St. Vincent DePaul. He holds a BFA in Dance Performance with high honors with a focus on classical ballet from Butler University and an MA in Dance Studies with concentrations in Race and Trauma theories from the Gallatin School at New York University.

Steven Annegarn

Rehearsal Director
Mr. Annegarn became a rehearsal director after retiring as a Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre principal dancer in 2003. Mr. Annegarn received his advanced training from the Royal Ballet School in London and toured with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet Company before joining the London City Ballet in 1984. He was promoted to principal dancer two years later. A highly-acclaimed performer with both impeccable classical technique and powerful dramatic ability, Mr. Annegarn has also been a principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. His repertoire included Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, George Balanchine’s Apollo and Jiří Kylián’s Return to a Strange Land. Mr. Annegarn is married to former PBT principal dancer Erin Halloran and together they are the proud parents of their sons Aiden, Leo and Ronan.

Marianna Tcherkassky

Rehearsal Director
Marianna Tcherkassky, born of Russian and Japanese descent, was brought up in Kensington, Maryland, where she began her training with her mother, Lillian Oka Tcherkassky. She continued her studies on full scholarship at Mary Day’s Washington School of Ballet and then the School of American Ballet in New York. She joined American Ballet Theatre in 1970, became a soloist in 1972 and was elevated to principal dancer in 1976 after making her debut in the title role of Giselle opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov. Ms. Tcherkassky excelled in the romantic, classic ballets and was reviewed by Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times as “one of the greatest Giselles that American ballet produced.” Since retiring from the stage in 1996, she has taught and coached dancers and served as a judge for the World Ballet Competition in Orlando, Florida. In 1997, she received a Golden Ring Award honoring artistic excellence from the Asian-American Arts Foundation in San Francisco. In 1999, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from the University of Cincinnati and, in the spring of 2017, was honored to have her personal Act I Giselle costume on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. She is married to Terrence S. Orr, former artistic director of PBT.

Marjorie Grundvig

School Director
Ms. Grundvig began her ballet training in her hometown of Davis, California, and with Marguerite Phares in Sacramento, California. Additionally, she spent summers on scholarship with San Francisco Ballet School. At the age of 17, Ms. Grundvig joined the North Carolina Dance Theatre. She continued her performing career as a soloist with both the Tulsa Ballet and the Boston Ballet. She has taught at the Boston Ballet, Margo Marshall School of Ballet, and the University of Oklahoma. She has guest taught at many schools, both nationally and internationally, in addition to touring nationally to audition students for the annual summer programs of Boston Ballet and PBT School. Ms. Grundvig directed the ballet department of the Washington Academy of Performing Arts in Seattle prior to being appointed co-director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School in August 2005. Since starting at PBT, Ms. Grundvig has been part of a leadership team that has increased overall annual enrollment by 79 percent.

Yoland Collin

Principal Pianist/Music Administrator
A native of Belgium, Yoland Collin began his musical training at the Académie de Musique in Hannut where he later served as a piano instructor and accompanist. In 1998, Mr. Collin graduated from the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège with a Diplôme Supérieur in Piano and Premiers Prix in Chamber Music, Accompaniment, Solfège and Harmony. In 1991, he was awarded Premier Lauréat of the “Concours National du Crédit Communal de Belgique”competition. Mr. Collin relocated to Pittsburgh, his wife’s hometown, and joined the PBT School Staff in November 1998. In 2003, he was promoted to the position of company pianist. Mr. Collin also serves as the principal pianist for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra.