Brianna R Furnish Is a native of Dallas, Texas, Furnish danced alongside her mother as a young child. At age 6, Furnish began formal studies in the Martha Graham modern dance technique, under the instruction of Julliard Graduate, Jerry Bywaters Cochran. At age 13, Furnish was encouraged to begin ballet training as a means for augmenting her chances for a professional modern dance career, and quickly fell in love with ballet. She began training with Denise and Evelyn Brown and a year later, on talent scholarship, with Dallas Ballet’s professional program, under the direction of Royal Danish Ballet‘s Flemming and Vivi Flindt. It was there that she first met and trained with the late great Madame Nathalie Krassovska, former prima ballerina with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, who became a significant mentor. A year later, Furnish was accepted to the School of American Ballet in New York, where she had the exceptional opportunity to study with Mme. Alexandra Danilova, Suki Shorer, Mme. Antonina Tumkovsky, Andrei Kramerevsky and Stanley Williams. She was then granted admission to the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she studied under the careful attention of former New York City Ballet ballerina, Ms. Melissa Hayden. Furnish performed for ballet companies in Dallas and Tennessee, including Krassovska Ballet Jeunesse and Tennessee Ballet (Memphis), while continuing private instruction with both Mme. Krassovska and the late Robert Scevers (Harkness Ballet). In June of 1997, Furnish founded Ballet Renaissance.