Zane Tahvildaran-Jesswein

JOINED BSA 2024

Zane Tahvildaran-Jesswein is a classically trained ballet dancer currently in his second season as a Company Member with Ballet San Antonio for the 2025–26 season. He is deeply grateful to continue dancing with this vibrant company and to be part of its growing artistic vision.

Zane was born and raised in Santa Monica, California. He began his ballet training at the age of four at Westside Academy of Dance, a Balanchine-based school founded by the late Yvonne Mounsey of New York City Ballet—who was one of Zane’s first teachers. At Westside Ballet, he trained under Martine Harley (Artistic Director), Francine Kessler Lavac, Johnny Zhong, Seth Belliston, and guest artists including Patricia Neary, Robert Fairchild, Tiler Peck, Harrison Ball, and Indiana Woodward.

Zane attended three American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensives: Irvine (2017), and New York City (2018 and 2019), as well as two Fall Intensives: Romeo and Juliet (2017) and Don Quixote (2018). In 2019, he performed in Shanghai and Beijing with Santa Monica College’s Global Motion Dance Company as part of a cultural exchange program.

During the summer of 2020, he trained at the official school of Utah Metropolitan Ballet. In the fall of 2021, Zane began his studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance. While at NYU and with the Second Avenue Dance Company, he performed in José Limón’s Missa Brevis and Laja Field’s Votes for Mars.

Outside of ballet, Zane is an avid fan of Animanga—his favorite mangaka is Araki Hirohiko. He also enjoys film, a wide range of music genres, and all forms of dance.