Native New Orleanian Chara Dillon Mock is an education coordinator and ballet teaching artist at the New Orleans Ballet Association. In addition to dancing her first production of The Nutcracker with the New Orleans City Ballet, she performed works with the Jefferson Performing Arts Society, Ballet Hysell, and the University of Kansas Dance Company at the University of Kansas, where she received her BA in dance. Mock has been studying dance for more than three decades. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jean Cassels is a teacher at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois School of Art & Design, where she received a BA in studio arts. Cassels has received such honors as the Golden Kite Award for Best Illustrated Childrens Book and the LSU Giverny Award, among others. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.