Yi was born in ChongQing China, and studied at the Beijing Dance Academy (Vaganava curriculum) in Beijing, China. While there, he received full scholarships every year for seven years and graduated with Honors . He was awarded a gold medal in the Junior Ballet Group of the Fifth National Juvenile “Tao Li Cup” Dance Competition in 1997, Junior Finalist at the Paris International Ballet competition in France in 2000, and Third Prize (Bronze Medal) in the Senior Division (age 20-25) at International Ballet Competition in Helsinki, Finland in 2001.

Yi danced with Tulsa Ballet for six years as a Principal member of the company. Prior to dancing with Tulsa Ballet he was First Soloist and Principal with Zurich Ballet in Switzerland and Universal Ballet in South Korea. During his 13 year performing career, Yi has performed principal roles in works by William Forsythe, Jiri Kylian, George Balanchine, Nacho Duato, Marcello Angelini, Ben Stevenson,Twyla Tharp, Hans van Manen, Kenneth MacMillan, Ma Cong, Heinz Spoerli, and others. Yi has been invited to the Final Gala of the Youth American Grand Prix in New York City as the Guest of Honor, and the Denver International World Star Performance to give a Guest Star Performance.

In 2012 Yi retired from performing and began teaching. He returned to China to work with ChongQing Ballet as a Guest Ballet Master/Choreographer for a year. While there, he created his first full length ballet Finding Shangri-La. He developed his own ballet workshop in ChongQing with more than 150 students, and also worked with the Chinese Dancers Association to create educational programs for children’s dance. Yi has been invited to provide instruction for dance teacher training throughout China and has trained over three hundred teachers in the past three years.

In 2016, Yi returned to Tulsa Ballet to join the Center for Dance Education as a faculty member and is excited to start his new career on faculty with South Tulsa Dance Co.

McKenzie started dancing at 11 years old and prior she was a USAG Junior-Olympic training gymnast. She was born in West Des Moines, Iowa, and is trained in jazz, contemporary, ballet, modern, tap, ballroom, hip hop, and more. At the age of 13, she began traveling with the Tremaine Dance Convention around the country as an assistant and guest performer. During this time she was also a part of Ballet Des Moines pre-professional group. Shortly after, McKenzie signed with various talent agencies and began pursuing commercial acting. Most notably you can  find her dancing on a package of Trident Gum and in their PR and advertisements. She went on to film various national commercials and even a TV show. She has been a part of many dance award cases and invited to dance at various college showcases throughout the country. In 2018 McKenzie was able to attend Chapman University as a dance major to further her career in dance. McKenzie currently attends the University of Iowa and plans on attending law school in 2022.

Lori Grooters is a Des Moines native and former soloist with Tulsa Ballet, Lori Grooters became Assistant Principal of the Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education.  While with Tulsa Ballet, she danced numerous roles in both classical and contemporary ballets, including those of Kitty in Anna Karenina, Nichette in Lady of the Camilias, the Cowgirl in Rodeo, Red Girl in Celts and the Rum and Coca Cola girl in Company B, as well as Pas de Quatre and Four Little Swans in Swan Lake.  She also toured Portugal with the Tulsa Ballet in 2002.  Before dancing with the Tulsa Ballet, Grooters was a dancer with Ballet Iowa from 1994-1997.  Her ballet training included study with Ballet Iowa, Boston Ballet School, School of American Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. Her instructors at Ballet Iowa included Lynn Andlauer, Irina Vaselini-Uralsky, Konstantin Uralsky, and Kennet Oberly.  Grooters, with her husband, Artistic Director Serkan Usta, moved back to Des Moines to be instructors at The School of Classical Ballet & Dance and raise their children Emma and Uzay.  She joined Ballet Des Moines as Ballet Mistress in July of 2005.  Since then she has choreographed for Ballet Des Moines’ spring shows on the pre-professional dancers, Illumine, Ascending, Penumbra, and Stars & Stripes.  She also co-choreographed Wizard of Oz, Snow White, and our annual productions of The Nutcracker with Serkan.  Most recently in BDM’s fall productions with the professional and pre-professional dancers, she choreographed Nesting and Vivaldi in Motion. Grooters has also taken on the role as dancer with BDM and performed Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and Snow White in Snow White.  Contemporary performances have included Ma Cong’s ballets: Melodia, Within the Bodies, Fragmented Figures, Luscious and Angeli and Serkan Usta’s ballets Kelemandi, Primavera, Bubbles, The Awakenings and Death & the Maiden. Lori also currently assists in training the resident company of professional and pre-professional dancers of Ballet Des Moines.