Francis Veyette

A California native, Francis Veyette began his dance training at age 10 at Dance Arts in Visalia, CA. His professional training took place at Westside Ballet in Santa Monica under the guidance of Yvonne Mounsey, Rosemary Valaire, and Nader Hamed. Mr. Veyette joined Pennsylvania Ballet in 1997 at the invitation of Roy Kaiser. In August 2003, Mr. Veyette joined Kansas City Ballet under the artistic direction of William Whitener, where he danced for two seasons. He appeared as a guest artist for Pennsylvania Ballet on three occasions during the 2004–2005 season, before returning to the company for the 2005–2006 season as a member of the corps de ballet.

Mr. Veyette was promoted to Soloist in 2007, and to Principal Dancer in 2011. Mr. Veyette’s featured roles include almost every major role for a classically trained male dancer. Mr. Veyette has appeared as a guest artist internationally on multiple occasions. He also has had the opportunity to work with cutting-edge choreographers as a guest artist with BalletX. He created several of his own works for Shut Up and Dance, Kansas City Ballet’s “In the Wings” program, Pennsylvania Ballet II, and Kansas City Youth Ballet. Mr. Veyette served as assistant to the choreographer for Philadelphia Ballet’s resident choreographer Matthew Neenan in the creation and staging of multiple ballets. Mr. Veyette was the director of Pennsylvania Ballet II from 2014–2016, and a faculty member of the Miami City Ballet School from 2016–2021. Mr. Veyette joined the faculty of Kansas City Ballet School in 2021. Mr. Veyette has been teaching ballet for many years.

While he teaches a wide variety of ages and levels, his unique specialty is mentoring and teaching intermediate to pre-professional dancers. His resume includes Miami City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Westside Ballet Academy, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and numerous other established schools across the country. His areas of differentiated expertise include technique, men’s technique, partnering (both classical and contemporary), variations, pointe, and repertoire. Mr. Veyette takes particular pride in preparing his students not just physically but mentally for the rigorous world of professional ballet.

Lauren Fadeley Veyette

Lauren Fadeley Veyette trained at the Orlando Ballet School and the School of Performing Arts in Florida before moving to New York City to study full time at the School of American Ballet. She began her professional career at 16 with the New York City Ballet at the invitation of Peter Martins, performing works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon, and Peter Martins.

After 2 years with NYCB, she chose to further her academic and dance education by attending Indiana University. In 2007, she graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance and an Outside Field in Kinesiology. Ms. Fadeley then joined the corps de ballet of Pennsylvania Ballet. She was promoted to Soloist for the 2011 season and Principal Dancer in 2012. Lauren later joined Miami City Ballet as a Soloist in 2016 and was promoted to Principal Soloist in 2017.

During her career, she performed featured roles in a vast array of classical, Robbins’ and Balanchine works, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™, Serenade, Jewels, Coppélia, Giselle, Swan Lake, The Four Temperaments, Concerto Barocco, Agon, The Cage, Walpurgisnacht, La Valse, Dances at a Gathering, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, In G Major, Cinderella, Other Dances, NY Export: Opus Jazz, Ballo della Regina, West Side Story Suite, and La Sylphide. She’s also performed leading works by some of ballet’s most noted contemporary choreographers, including Twyla Tharp, Alexei Ratmansky, Jiří Kylián, Wayne McGregor, Liam Scarlett, William Forsythe, Justin Peck, Mauro Bigonzetti, and Nacho Duato. Lauren originated featured roles in new works by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Nicolo Fonte, Matthew Neenan, Brian Brooks, Pam Tanowitz, Melissa Barak, and Ratmansky.

Ms. Fadeley performed in the Academy Award-winning film Black Swan and danced for Pope Francis at the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. She has appeared as a guest artist with the Carolina Ballet, Stars of American Ballet, as well as BalletX, at the Vail International Dance Festival and The Joyce Theater in NYC. In the summers of 2018 and 2019, Ms. Fadeley joined Barak Ballet for performances at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, CA, The Joyce, and Jacob’s Pillow.

Lauren started her teaching career working with young dancers in creative movement and beginning ballet while attending Indiana University. Seeing the love of the art form through her students’ eyes ignited a passion for teaching that continued to grow while she danced professionally. While a Principal of the Pennsylvania Ballet, Ms. Fadeley served on the faculty of their school, as well as the children’s ballet mistress for the Hoops in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker™. Over the past 10 years, Lauren has taught summer intensives and master classes at the Cincinnati Ballet School, Indiana University Ballet Theater, The Colburn Academy, Nantucket Dance Festival, Westside School of Ballet, Swarthmore Ballet, Pennsylvania Regional Ballet, Juneau Dance Theater, Ballet Elite, Toledo Met, Indianapolis School of Ballet, and Virginia Regional Ballet. In 2018, together with her husband Francis, they founded Veyette Virtual Ballet School, which specializes in private instruction, coaching, and mentoring for dancers of all ages.

She retired from Miami City Ballet and dancing professionally in 2021 after accepting the position of Daytime Principal of the Kansas City Ballet School. While at KCB she served as children’s ballet mistress for all company productions involving the school, including works by Devon Carney, Val Caniparoli, and Septime Webre. She ran and grew the focused daytime program and oversaw all aspects of the school’s many competition participants. Lauren became the Head of School at Indianapolis Ballet in January 2025, bringing her love of dance and many years of experience to the Indianapolis School of Ballet.