Staff

Melanie Epps

Executive Director

Melanie Epps joined the Omaha Academy of Ballet as Executive Director in January 2024. Before OAB, she served as Community Engagement Manager for the Omaha Conservatory of Music, overseeing operations of the String Sprouts program, collaborating with metro schools to provide supplemental music activities, and coordinating efforts to promote the Conservatory in the community. Her career began at the Omaha Community Playhouse, serving as Director of Education and Development Coordinator during her tenure.

As an award-winning choreographer, Melanie has choreographed for high school/collegiate music programs and local theaters including the Omaha Community Playhouse and BLUEBARN. Her work has been seen in OCP productions of Hair, Escape to Margaritaville, Beautiful, School of Rock, Spamalot, Mamma Mia!, Young Frankenstein, Parade, Legally Blonde, Altar Boyz, Caroline, or Change, Evil Dead, The Producers, and Sister Act, and in BLUEBARN productions of A Chorus Line, The Wild Party, Die Hard: The Musical, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Indecent. She is also an accomplished performer, performing roles such as Lady of the Lake (Spamalot), Eva Peron (Evita), Velma Kelly (Chicago), Cassie (A Chorus Line), and The Narrator (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat).

Rachel Vickrey

Artistic Director

Rachel began her ballet training at age 5, receiving full scholarships from San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Boston Ballet. Her professional career spanned over 22 years, starting with Banff Festival Ballet in Balanchine’s Agon, Concerto Barocco, Allegro Brillante, Valse Fantaisie, and others. She later danced with Ballet Omaha, Tulsa Ballet Theatre, North Carolina Dance Theatre (Charlotte Ballet), and Omaha Theater Ballet, where she performed principal roles including Juliet, Aurora, and the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Rachel has taught for Cirque du Soleil, Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet, Wilmington School of Ballet, and Charlotte Ballet School, and Omaha Theater Ballet. She has worked with ballet legends such as Suzanne Farrell and Salvatore Aiello. In Nebraska, Rachel is the only ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 6/7 & Partnering of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.

A proud ABT® Certified Teacher, she was the Director of Dance Educational Outreach at The Rose Theater and served as Artistic Director of Heartland Youth Ballet, helping it become a Regional Dance America Honor Company.

In 2014, she re-founded Heartland Conservatory of Dance, incorporating her expertise in fitness and nutrition, along with comprehensive Pilates certifications. Rachel’s passion, extensive background, and dedication make her a beloved teacher and a strong representative of American ballet’s virtuosity and artistry. Her history of successfully operating her own dance studio further underscores her capability to inspire and elevate OAB’s artistic programs, focusing heavily on the alignment of all ballet classes with the AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE® National Training Curriculum.

Andrew Parker
Artistic Administrator/Senior Full-Time Faculty

Andrew Parker is a ballet educator, choreographer, and artistic leader with over thirty years of experience teaching and mentoring dancers across North America. He has served on the faculties of Canada’s National Ballet School, Boston Ballet School, Texas Ballet Theater, Kansas City Ballet, and Southern Methodist University, and as Artistic Director of Chattanooga Ballet and Dean and Director of the School of Nashville Ballet. At Boston Ballet, he also served as Artistic Administrator and Principal Teacher of CITYDANCE, helping lead one of the company’s flagship community engagement programs while advancing his longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Throughout his career, Parker has built, revitalized, and expanded ballet training programs, boys’ initiatives, teacher development, and community partnerships throughout the United States and Canada.

A graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program for Professional Dancers, Mr. Parker earned his Pedagogy Diploma with Distinction in 2000. His principal mentors in Toronto included Mavis Staines, Glenn Gilmour, Robert Sirman, and modern dance specialist Patricia Miner, with additional studies of the work of Irene Dowd. He subsequently pursued advanced pedagogical studies with internationally renowned master teachers Jurgen Schneider, Gilbert Mayer, Nicole Cavallin, and Mme. Tatiana Legat. He began ballet at age nine in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying with Carol Jordan before continuing at Boston Ballet School, where Bruce Wells and James Capp introduced him to Balanchine’s neoclassical ideals, and at Milwaukee Ballet School, where his training embraced the classical clarity of American Ballet Theatre and the stylistic versatility of the Joffrey Ballet under Basil Thompson, Paul Sutherland, Brunilda Ruiz, and other distinguished teachers. Parker went on to enjoy an eleven-year professional performing career with Milwaukee Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, and Ballet Iowa, dancing a broad repertoire of classical, neoclassical, and contemporary works.

Mr. Parker has choreographed for numerous companies and schools, including Canada’s National Ballet School, Chattanooga Ballet, and Southern Methodist University. He also toured internationally as Ballet Master for Édouard Lock’s Montréal-based company, La La La Human Steps. A passionate advocate for creativity, Parker develops choreographic curricula, fosters student composition, mentors emerging choreographers, and invites every student into the creative process as an essential part of ballet training. His teaching integrates classical ballet principles with contemporary approaches to dance education, awakening musicality, artistic excellence, curiosity, resilience, and the whole artist.

Parker’s interest in artistic pedagogy has also been enriched through the writings of his grandfather, Hans Weisse (1892–1940), the Viennese-born music theorist and professor at the Mannes School of Music in New York City who helped introduce Heinrich Schenker’s ideas to the United States. Inspired by Weisse’s educational philosophy, Parker believes that the highest standards of ballet training cultivate artists of depth whose artistry is strengthened through the development of their humanity, allowing for its fullest and most honest expression.

Elizabeth Dauner
Academy Manager

Elizabeth joined OAB in 2017 with over 15 years of retail management experience. She also owned and operated her own photography business in the greater Omaha area for seven years. She specializes in management, accounting, and business organization. In her free time, Elizabeth likes to spend time with her husband and their three children.

2026-27 Faculty