Kathryn Morgan is a modern-day ballerina, blazing a career path for herself outside of the confines of company life. In addition to being a popular performer, teacher, judge, and influencer, Kathryn is the founder of Kathryn Morgan & Friends, a community focused on the joy that ballet can bring to dancers when they are valued for who they are above their level of proficiency.
Kathryn began her professional career in 2006 as an apprentice with New York City Ballet, and was promoted to soloist in 2009. She left the company in 2012 while battling an auto-immune illness, and made an awe-inspiring return to the stage seven years later as a soloist with Miami City Ballet.
She danced with MCB for a year before making a decision to step away from company life in 2020 to pursue dancing on her own terms.
As a performer, Kathryn is known for her feminine, artistic quality and musicality; some of her more notable performances include Aurora in Peter Martins’ Sleeping Beauty, Juliet in Peter Martins’ Romeo & Juliet, and the Striptease girl in George Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.
Maria Montanez is a marketing strategist who comes to KM & Friends with over 10 years experience working at Gaynor Minden, ultimately as their Marketing Director. She’s also worked as a consultant for Cloud & Victory, for lululemon, and in 2020 she co-founded Other Space Innovation, a consulting firm offering discovery and strategy services for the dance product industry.
Currently, in addition to running KM & Friends, she is a certified Level 1 GYROTONIC® instructor, and trains privately in Philadelphia.
As far as ballet goes, Maria trained pre-professionally in Columbia, SC before receiving her BFA in dance with a concentration in business administration from Florida State University, and dancing with The Tallahassee Ballet.
Carrie Stein comes to KM & Friends after having been a chemistry professor for over a decade at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. She brings her teaching background to help plan curriculum and organize events, as well as assist Kathryn with longer-term projects.
In terms of ballet, Carrie trained pre-professionally in the Monterey County area before attending Westmont College for her undergraduate degrees in chemistry and dance. She still dances regularly, and has taught adult classes locally.
