The Company
Established in 2019, Ballet Roots is Pleasanton's very own premier ballet company. Our mission is to provide the local community with professional-quality performances exhibiting both classical and contemporary ballet. While strongly rooted in a ballet foundation, our repertoire includes a variety of dance styles, showcasing our multi-talented dancers and appealing to a wide audience of all ages. We are honored to have the opportunity to share our joy of dance with the Pleasanton community!
Our Dancers
Andrea Herrera
Andrea Herrera began her ballet training at Delta Ballet Academy in Antioch, CA at age 9 under Helen Piernik and Helga Ishikata. She trained in ballet, contemporary, and jazz under Alexei Badrak, Ricky Navarro, Michael Lowe, and Sharon Sobel Idul. She enjoyed being a competition and production dancer as a student and is a freelance professional dancer to this day. Andrea has performed in ballet productions with Delta Children’s Ballet Theater, Moving Arts, Peninsula Ballet, Oakland Ballet, Black Diamond Ballet Theater, Menlowe Ballet, and Ballet Roots. Andrea has a B.A. in Linguistics and Communications majors from U.C. Davis. She is a pediatrics speech-language teacher by day, and a ballet instructor by night.
Aysha Cunningham
Aysha began dancing at Pacific Ballet Academy in Mountain View at the age of 4, training under Rima Chaeff, Sarah Arnold, Anton Pankevich, Brianne Ackroyd, and Ommi Pipit-Suksun. During high school, she attended Rachel's Ballet in Dublin, CA, where she learned the Royal Academy of Dance Syllabus and notably received the highest score of Distinction in intermediate and advanced exams under the guidance of Isabelle Sjahsam, Leigh-Ann Koelsch, Jeanie Pors, Maria LaMance, and David Eck. Aysha discovered a love for contemporary ballet while training at Alonzo King Lines Ballet in San Francisco. She is currently pursuing a BA in Dance and BS in Physiological Science at UCLA, where she trains in classical ballet, release technique, contemporary floorwork, and martial arts. After she graduates, she hopes to dance professionally and pursue a doctorate in physical therapy so that she can treat dancers like herself.
Hope Clark
Hope Clark has had a love for dance since her Tippy Twos class for the City of Antioch. She first knew she wanted to be a ballet dancer after seeing The Little Match Girl through Black Diamond Ballet. Hope began training at Delta Ballet Academy when she was six years old under Sharon Sobel Idul, Sara Hernandez Van Wert, Ricky Navarro, and Terrin Kelly. She has performed in productions like The Little Match Girl and The Nutcracker as well as competed in dance competitions. From ages fourteen to eighteen Hope danced under the direction of Lauren Main de Lucia for the Deer Valley Dance Program where she learned various dance styles, choreographed with other dancers, and performed for the school. At age eighteen she took a break from dance to earn her Associates in Math and Science, and is thrilled to be dancing for Ballet Roots and share her passion again.
Talia Fallis
Artistic Director
Talia began dancing at the age of 2 and has been dancing ever since. While trained in a variety of different styles of performance dance, her true passion has always been classical ballet. She trained locally under teachers such as David Fonnegra, Terrin Kelly, Derek Sakakura, Ikolo Griffin, and Lindsey Salvadalena. In addition to directing and performing with Ballet Roots, Talia has performed with various ballet companies around the greater Bay Area. She is thrilled to be bringing professional ballet right here to Pleasanton! In addition to performing, Talia teaches ballet to dancers of all ages, and in 2013, she and her sister opened their own school here in Pleasanton, Vineyard Ballet Academy, where she continues to teach today.
Tenaya Fallis
Tenaya can't remember a time when dance, especially ballet, was not a part of her life. She started out as a ladybug in a year-end production when she was only three years old, and has since danced in productions as varied as The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Messiah, The Jungle Book, and of course, The Nutcracker. After graduating high school, she spent a few years dancing professionally while also teaching ballet before she and her sister opened Vineyard Ballet Academy where she continues to teach. She has also dabbled in various other styles of dance including tap, jazz, lyrical, Scottish country dance, Irish ceili, and most recently social ballroom dance. She hopes to bring a wide variety of influences to Ballet Roots while staying true to her favorite, ballet.