Directors & Faculty

Sandra has been a dance educator for over 55 years. She began her training, at the age of seven, in Melrose at the E. Virginia Sawyer School of Ballet where she later became an assistant teacher. Mrs. McNaught attended Melrose public schools and was president of Melrose High School's Dance Club. Upon graduation, she attended the Boston Conservatory as a dance major. Mrs. McNaught has studied and taught at several ballet schools in the Boston area and is a gold pin member of the Dance Teacher’s Club of Boston associated with the American Society of Dance.

In 1971, she founded  Northeast School of Ballet (formally Sandra Marie’s School of Ballet) and along with her daughter and co-director, Denise Cecere, has been committed to maintaining high standards in dance education. Both McNaught and Cecere co-founded Northeast Youth Ballet, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities for young children and playing an active role in the cultural life of the communities they serve. 

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Mrs. McNaught feels privileged to share her love of dance with NSB’s next generation of dancers.

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Denise brings her life's experience to Northeast Youth Ballet. Born in Melrose, Massachusetts, Cecere began her dance training under the direction of her mother, Sandra McNaught, at the Northeast School of Ballet. Later she became a scholarship student at the Boston Repertory Ballet, under the direction of Samuel Kurkjian, Boston Ballet, under the direction of E. Virginia Williams and Violette Verdy, and the School of American Ballet, under the direction of George Balanchine. She performed with Boston Ballet, Ballet Theater of Boston, and North Star Ballet in Fairbanks, Alaska. Her principal roles include The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Don Quixote, Flower Festival, many neo-classical and contemporary works. Her guest appearances have taken her internationally. In 1991 Cecere was a participant in Japan’s 1st International Choreographer’s Competition. 

In 1996 Cecere founded Northeast Youth Ballet. As Artistic Director, she is committed to the cultural development of future generations. It is her mission to educate, inspire, and create opportunities for young aspiring dancers. Cecere has endeavored to provide programs and performances designed specifically for children. NYB has a repertoire of classical, neoclassical, contemporary and modern works. Cecere has choreographed over 35 ballets for the young company and has invited award-winning choreographers to share their work with the school and company. Her collaboration with Boston Musica Viva, under the direction of Richard Pittman, has produced many full-length ballets including “A Boston Cinderella”, “Three Little Pigs”, “Ma Goose”, "The Wrong Child", "Druddigon" and “Paul Revere’s Ride” by contemporary composers. For the past 25 years, Cecere has continued to display the young company’s diversity both at home and abroad.

Cecere is currently director of the Northeast School of Ballet, the official training school of the Northeast Youth Ballet, where she has been teaching ballet technique for over 30 years. Her students have gone on to perform, teach, and choreograph for world-class dance organizations.

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Joseph Jefferies is Assistant Director to NSB’s Conservatory Program.  He has served as director of Portland Ballet Summer Dance Program and has taught master classes and workshops at ballet schools across the country. Mr Jefferies is an award-winning choreographer creating over 30 works for companies including Ballet Memphis, Miami City Ballet, Peoria Ballet, Ballet Trockadero, Harid Conservatory, Ballet Yuma, Walnut Hill School for the Arts and Northeast Youth Ballet. He has won the RDA Emerging Choreographer scholarship twice and had his work selected and performed for New York City’s Ballet Builders Showcase and for the RDA National Convention in Montreal, Canada.

As a professional dancer Joseph was a member of Ballet Memphis dancing the lead roles in Swan Lake, Giselle, Coppelia and Cinderella. As a member of Les Ballet Trockadero de Monte Carlo he toured the world performing in over 25 different countries. Mr Jefferies currently is on faculty at Northeast School of Ballet and Guest Faculty for Chautautqua Dance Institute.

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Jeremy Ruth Howes is a professional dancer, choreographer and educator in the Boston area. She graduated from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Dance with a BFA in Dance Performance and received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College. While at Hartt she performed soloist roles in La Bayadere, Guernsey Fields, Martha Graham’s Steps in the Street and numerous other classical and contemporary works. She has danced professionally with Northern Ballet Theatre and Virginia Ballet Theatre dancing soloist roles in The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and George Balanchine’s Serenade.

Currently she is a principal dancer with Anna Myer and Dancers creating roles in Myer’s original choreography. Jeremy Ruth is currently on faculty at Dean College, teaching ballet and dance composition, Northeast School of Ballet and Walker’s Dance. Her choreography has been set on several schools and companies in the Boston area and abroad.

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Ms. Pesce began her early training at Northeast School of Ballet under the direction of Sandra McNaught and Denise Cecere. Later she attended Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA working towards her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She has danced with Northeast Youth Ballet, Erie Ballet Theatre, North Star Ballet, Roxey Ballet and Colorado Ballet. She performed many full length classic ballets as well as contemporary works. Her favorites include The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Sleeping Beauty, Balanchine’s Serenade, and Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes.

Caitlin has been a faculty member of NSB since 1996 and currently serves as Rehearsal Assistant during Northeast Youth Ballet’s, The Nutcracker each season.

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Carmela (Molly) Tomeny began studying ballet at age six at the Doris Marsh School of Classical Ballet in Saginaw, MI.  She continued her studies at Virginia Ballet Theater (Norfolk, VA), the Performing Arts School of Classical Ballet (San Antonio, TX) and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (Carlisle, PA). In 2007, Tomeny graduated from the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering with a BSc in Mechanical Engineering.  After working several years in the engineering field, she returned to ballet, dancing professionally with Roxey Ballet (Lambertville, NJ) and Contrapose Dance (Cambridge, MA).

A ballet teacher in the greater Boston area since 2008, Tomeny aims to give her students a life-long appreciation for dance.  Whether through the history, music, performance or choreography, she tries to learn how each student connects to ballet and what inspires them to keep returning to classes week after week. 

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Ms. Cornelius began her ballet training at the early age of three at Northeast School of Ballet, formerly known as Sandra Marie’s School of Ballet. She then became a student at Boston Ballet and performed in many of their productions including, The Nutcracker, Fourth of July at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade, and their 25th Anniversary Gala at the Colonial Theater. She is a 1990 graduate of Suffolk University holding a BS/BA in business management.

Ms. Cornelius has been a faculty member at Northeast School of Ballet for over 30 years where she feels privileged to introduce the wonderful world of ballet to all her creative movement, pre-ballet, and beginner students.

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Erika Lambe is a Boston native who began her training at the Boston Ballet School and later studied at the School of American Ballet, and the Dance Theatre of Harlem school. She danced professionally with the Dance Theater of Harlem, Miami City Ballet, and Boston Ballet where she was Boston Ballet’s first black Sugar Plum Fairy. Over her extensive career, her repertoire includes a number of Balanchine works including Concerto Borocco, Bugaku, Serenade, Stars and Stripes, The Four Temperaments, Square Dance, Jewels, The Nutcracker, Scotch Symphony, Valsse Fantasies, Divertimento 15, Symphony in C, Theme and Variations, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Ballo de la Regina, and Raymonda Variations. Classical repertoire includes Swan Lake, Movanissimanoble, Flower Festival at Genzano, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, Les Corsaire, LA Bayadere, Don Quixote, and Paquita. She has also performed “Creole Giselle”, The Fall River Legend, Firebird, Les Biches, Les Noces, Holberg Suite, and Voluntaries and works by Mark Morris and Lyla York.

Ms. Lambe was featured in a PBS special, “I’LL MAKE ME A WORLD”, which chronicled the lives of African Americans in dance. Since retiring from the stage, Ms. Lambe has taught ballet at Boston Ballet School, Walnut Hill School, Boston Arts Academy, Charles River Ballet Academy, and Acton School of Ballet. As a coach and choreographer, Erika has worked with many dancers in the greater Boston area and is currently teaching at Tony Williams Dance Center.

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Kathy Stark Dia danced professionally with Ballet Met in Columbus, OH and was a principal dancer of Southern Ballet Theatre (now Orlando Ballet). She is currently on the faculties of Acton School of Ballet and the Conservatory at Northeast School of Ballet in Boston. She served as Director of Walnut Hill School’s Community Dance Academy for 14 years and was the Founder and Director of their Youth Summer Dance Program.

She has been a summer faculty member at Pittsburgh Youth Ballet, Boston Ballet, and Chautauqua Institution, where she taught for five summers. Ms.Stark  received her dance training at North Carolina School of the Arts, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, and as a child in Pittsburgh with Jean Gedeon and Eduard Caton.  

Ms. Lee received her early training with Phillipa Annesley in Scottsdale, Arizona. At the age of thirteen, she attended The National Academy of Arts in Champaign, Illinois where she studied under Michael Maule, Lupe Serrano, Gwynne Ashton, Peter Franklin-White, Antony Valdor, Stella Applebaum, Chester Wolenski, Gemze DeLappe, and Buzz Miller, among many others. Upon graduation, she joined the National Ballet of Illinois for two years as Principal Dancer, touring nationally and abroad. Ms. Lee went on to dance with Ballet West under the direction of Bruce Marks, touring extensively throughout the United States. As a principal dancer, she performed leading roles in both classical and contemporary ballets including Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Billy the Kid, Bugaku, Symphony in C, Inscape, Don Quixote, and Coppelia. She had the honor of performing at the Kennedy Center twice in Washington DC and at New York City Center. She has taught at Boston Ballet School and Christensen Academy and has been a guest teacher at Walnut Hill School for the Arts and the University of Utah.

Rhonda is currently a faculty member at the Northeast School of Ballet. Her favorite role is mother to her three beautiful children, Olivia, Quinn, and Isabelle. 

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Kristopher Masszi began his early ballet training at Northeast School of Ballet, eventually becoming a member of Northeast Youth Ballet under the direction of its founder and director, Denise Cecere. Performance opportunities with NYB included Aurora's Wedding, Cinderella, A Boston Cinderella, Ma Goose, and the Nutcracker performing the roles of Prince, Snow King, Herr Drosselmeyer, and divertisement. Kristopher than continued his ballet education as a scholarship student at the Rock School of Dance in Philadelphia and became a soloist at the Horizon Dance Alliance in Doylestown, PA, performing in roles such as Prince Albrecht in Giselle, Conrad in Le Corsaire, Romeo and Juliet, La Sylphides, and Dracula, under the direction of George Thompson.

Kristopher moved to Budapest, Hungary where he continued his ballet and folk dance training at the Magyar Táncművészeti Egyetem BA program (Hungarian Dance University). Upon graduation, he accepted an invitation to join the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theater in Donetsk, Ukraine under the direction of Vadim Pisarev. Here, he had the pleasure to perform in ballets including Spartacus, La Bayadere, Scheherazade, Le Sacre du Printemps, and Peer Gynt and toured with the traveling company division throughout Eastern Europe. 

Kristopher left the ballet world to pursue his Master of Education degree from Loyola University and completed his Montessori elementary training at Washington Montessori Institute. He had spent several years teaching at international Montessori schools in Frankfurt, Germany and Hong Kong. In 2019, Kristopher returned to the United States where he opened the elementary Montessori program at the Melrose Montessori School. He is thrilled to rejoin the faculty at NSB.  

Lorraine Chapman danced professionally with Eliot Feld Ballets/NY and Ballet British Columbia (under the Artistic Direction of Balanchine muse Patricia Neary) as well as for several Boston-based choreographers including Amy Spencer, Richard Colton, Diane Arvanites, Jose Mateo, and Marcus Schulkind. As a choreographer Chapman has received several grants and has created works for numerous festivals and companies, officially forming her own company, LCTC, in 2002. LCTC (http://lorrainechapman.org) is one of Boston’s most notable contemporary dance companies and was represented by Pentacle – a NYC-based management support organization 2013-2016. Chapman’s awards include a Boston Dance Alliance Rehearsal & Retreat Fellowship, a Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation, a Boston Center for the Arts Dance Residency and a Summer Stages Dance/Baryshnikov Arts Center Residency as well as being featured in Dance Magazine as one of “25 To Watch”. Chapman received her training at The Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and L’Ecole Superieure De Danse Du Quebec as well as from Boston veterans Frances Kotelly and Samuel Kurkjian. With equal training and professional experience in all of the classical ballet forms as well as in many of the modern and contemporary dance modalities, Chapman brings a particular and unique knowledge into her classroom. She also teaches at the Ballet Arts Centre of Winchester where she is co-director of their pre-professional performing groups.

“As a young dance artist, I always took my training seriously and I gravitated toward those teachers who I knew would advance me at the pace I desired – but not only the teachers. I also gravitated toward other young dancers like myself who wanted nothing more in the world than to dance professionally. The combination of the dance educators I thankfully found and the students I trained side by side with (including Denise Cecere) fueled my ambition and drove me to constantly strive for an ever-elusive perfection. It is with this philosophy that I inspire, train and nurture my students.” – Lorraine Chapman 

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Nathan Duszny is a New Hampshire native that started his professional career at the young age of fifteen. He performed at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH all through his teenage years. Productions include “Chicago”, “Singing in the Rain”, “Joseph and the amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat”, “Cats”, and many more. He was also a proud member of the American Show Dance Team and had the opportunity to compete at the World Championship in Riesa, Germany for two years in a row. After high school and graduation from The New Hampshire School of Ballet he moved abroad to Tokyo, Japan to work for Disney. After three years overseas performing in a variety show called “OneMan’s Dream”, he moved to New York City and danced for small dance companies including The Chase Brock Experience and The Next Stage Project. His Musical theater career took off in 2010 when he had the honor of touring with Radio City’s “Christmas Spectacular! “featuring the famous Rockettes.

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From there he has toured the country and performed in many of the nation’s great theatres and music halls in various other shows. Other past productions include “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast" national tour, “The Aluminum Show”, “Flashdance the Musical” 1st national tour, the NY Stage and Film Festival’s play of “Finks”, “Cats”, “Hello Dolly” featuring Sally Struthers, “Hairspray”, “Chicago”, “She Loves Me”, and most recently the 1st National tour of “Finding Neverland”. He is currently a proud member of the contemporary company NSquared based in Manchester, New Hampshire! His choreography and teaching career also began at a young age. By age eighteen, Nathan had won a choreography award for his piece, “Prelude Trois”at the American Dance Awards in Las Vegas and Headliners in Lancaster, PA. He had the opportunity to choreograph as an alumni artist at Merrimack High School in New Hampshire with the production of “Once

Upon A Mattress” and “Aladdin”. With the numerous tours he was a part of, Nathan had the opportunity to teach at various schools, universities, and workshops around the United States and Canada. His class styles include Ballet, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Tap, and Contemporary. Past schools of note are: University of Nebraska, PACE University, University of New Hampshire, Ballet Misha, New Hampshire School of Ballet, Petrov Ballet School, and many more. While teaching and dancing in New York City, he was invited by the Ehrstrand Dance Collective to perform and create amazing works in Viksjöfors, Sweden in 2010 with the amazing Julia Ehrstrand. For almost a decade, he has been going to Europe and most recently Taiwan to create new choreography and teach workshops to the local student body and professionals alike under the umbrella of the Ehrstrand Dance Collective.

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He’s currently a professor at Boston University after dancing professionally for twenty years in NYC. He proudly began his training at the age of seven in Worcester, Massachusetts with Jo-Ann Warren. He has danced with Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Elisa Monte Dance, Parsons Dance Company, and Buglisi Dance Theatre. He is a Guest Choreographer and Teacher at The Fine Arts Center in Greenville, South Carolina, and continues to conduct Master Classes and workshops alongside his National and International touring. Brian has had the opportunity to perform at Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center, Cultural Center of the Philippines, The Bolshoi Theatre, American Dance Festival, The Joyce Theatre, NYC CIty Center, Spoleto Festival, Italy and The Kennedy Center. In 2009, Brian co-created and presented a commissioned evening-length work of Romeo and Juliet-a death marked love at The Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina.

He holds his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Juilliard School under the directorship of Benjamin Harkarvy and an Associate’s Degree in Occupational Science for Massage Therapy. Brian is currently a professor at the Boston Conservatory and on faculty at Northeast School of Ballet.

Leah Misano was born in Leominster, MA but grew up in Florence, SC. There she found dance at the age of eleven at South Carolina Dance Theatre where Leah studied classical ballet under Susan Rowe. Starting her sophomore year of high school, she attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities (SCGSAH) under Josée Garant. Her primary teachers there were Irina Ushakova, Miriam Mesa-pelly, and Tracy Vogt. At SCGSAH, Leah continued to grow in her classical training while being first introduced to modern techniques such as Graham and Horton. During this time, Leah also spent her summers attending intensives at American Ballet Theatre in New York City and The Juilliard School. 

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Upon graduating from SCGSAH, Leah decided to attend the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. At Boston Conservatory, she started to explore contemporary movement  while pulling inspiration from her classical training. When she started working with former Pilobuls dancer, Jun Kuribayashi, she found an affinity for the floor and going upside down. At the Conservatory, Leah performed works by many renowned choreographers including Loni Landon, Jennifer Archibald, Kate Weare, and several others. 

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Since graduating in 2021, Leah Misano spent a year freelancing and teaching in Boston. In summer of 2022, she joined the ranks of Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance for their 2022/2023 season. With Whim W’Him, Leah worked with choreographers of the likes of Nicole von Arx, Rauf “Rubberlegz” Yasit, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Olivier Wevers. 

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Leah is looking forward to returning to her artistic home in Boston in the summer of 2023. Starting in the fall, she will join faculty at Northeast School of Ballet and join Boston Conservatory at Berklee as an assistant professor as well as continuing to engage in performance work and dive into her own improvisation and movement practice.

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Andrea Fanikos began her dance training at the Dance Studio of Wakefield. She trained in ballet, contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, tap, and Latin ballroom. In 2010 she graduated from DTCB’s Dance Education Training Course. From 2011-2013, she toured with​ Excel in Motion dance convention as an Elite Dancer assisting ​So You Think You Can Dance Stars ​headliners such as​:​ tWitch, Lauren Froderman, and Alison Holker. Andrea continued her dance career throughout college at Boston University as a member of the schools Division 1 Varsity dance team. During her time on the team she won two NDA National Championship titles for D1 Hip-Hop and Jazz.

Some of her recent performances include: ​Wayfair ​commercials, ​Boston Community Dance Project’s Internalize, ​the​ Liberty Hotel’s Illuminate Gala​, and Boston’s Contemporary Dance Festival ​with ​Urbanity Dance Company​. More than anything Andrea loves sharing her passion for the art of dance with others and is excited to join the Northeast School of Ballet family!

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Jodi Fitzgerald grew up playing sports and dancing ballet, tap, and jazz with Jacqueline Casey in North Reading. Always active, Jodi has been teaching fitness classes since 1997. She is a Certified Health Coach and passionate about health and wellness. Jodi has certifications from AFAA, Mad Dog Spinning, Pilates, TRX, and Personal Training.

Jodi received a degree in Business Finance from Northeastern University and has been a licensed real estate agent for 30 years. Jodi works in the family business, Fitzgerald & Associates, with her mother and has received the professional designations of CBR (Certified, Buyer Representative) and GRI (Graduate, Realtor Institute).

Jodi has been NSB's Pilates and Conditioning Coach since September 2019 and loves sharing her cross-training techniques with such passionate and athletic dancers.​

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Jessica Curley is a graduate of the Washington School of Ballet’s Professional Training Program, where she studied with Lupe Serrano, under the direction of founder, Mary Day. She holds a Bachelor’s of Arts and a Master’s in Social Work. In 2004, she obtained an Advanced Systems Certification in Pilates Mat and Apparatus, from Power Pilates in NYC, under the direction of Bob Liekens, co-creator of the original Pilates teacher training manual. She then opened the Pilates Studio of Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she trained Pilates enthusiasts, aspiring Pilates teachers, and artists in residence from Saratoga Performing Arts Center and Yaddo. She has since taught in Pilates studios and teacher training centers in the greater New York and Boston areas. Jessica has continued her study of biomechanics and specialized applications of the Pilates method with Irene Dowd, Eric Franklin, and master teachers, Michael Fritzke,Ton Voogt, and Bob Liekens. In 2017, Jessica opened Winchester Pilates, where she teaches private lessons in Pilates mat and apparatus, in the classical tradition of Joseph H. Pilates.

Born in France, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux joined the Paris Opera Ballet at age 14 and was named Danseur Etoile at 21. He has danced with the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets and in 1970 became a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine. In 1977, Bonnefoux joined the faculty of the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet, and began to realize his lifelong ambition of training young dancers. His final performance was in 1980, after which time, he dedicated himself to work as an artistic director, choreographer, and teacher.

Bonnefoux’s choreography includes works commissioned by the New York City Ballet, The Lincoln Center Institute, the Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company, and the Pennsylvania Ballet. Bonnefoux has served as choreographer and ballet master for the Pittsburgh Ballet, as Chairman and Artistic Director of the Ballet Department in the School of Music at Indiana University. He has served as the President of the Jury at the Prix de Lausanne (2005 and 2007). He came to the Charlotte Ballet and School of Charlotte Ballet in 1996 where he served as the President until 2016. Bonnefoux has been the Artistic Director of the Chautauqua’s Summer Dance program since 1983 and actively coaches the next generation of dancers. 

Kurt A. Douglas graduated from New York’s famed high school of music art & performing arts. Originally from Guyana, South America Kurt earned his Master’s of Fine Arts degree in dance from Hollins University in association with The American Dance Festival, Frankfurt Conservatory of Performing Arts and the Forsythe Company in Frankfurt, Germany. He attended and earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in Dance from the Boston Conservatory. There he was the recipient of the Ruth Solomon Ambrose Scholarship Award and the Jan Veen Dance Award. He performed with the Boston Dance Theater and The Boston Conservatory Dance Theatre in works by Jose Limon, Sean Curran, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Lar Lubovitch, and Murray Louis. After graduating from the Conservatory in 2001 he joined the Limon Company where he performed in many of Limon’s most influential works. During his second season with Limon he received a 2002 Princess Grace Award and was honored by an invitation to perform for His Serene Highness Crown Prince Albert of Monaco and The Royal Family. While a soloist with the Limon Company.  Kurt has performed in works by Yuri Kililan, Donald Mckayle, and Billy Singenfied. In 2007 Kurt became the first African American to portray”Iago” in “The Moor’s Pavane”, José Limón’s most famous work. Kurt was named one of Dance Magazine’s TOP 25 TO WATCH” in the January 2006 issue. He danced from 2002-2007 in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the world famous Rockettes. 

In 2009 he joined the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company for it’s 40th anniversary season touring throughout the United States and Asia. In 2011 joined the Graham based Buglisi Dance Theater, and began touring with the Tony award winning musical “A Chorus Line” throughout United states, Japan, and Australia. He has been a Guest Artist with The Thang Dao Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico, and the Sean Curran Dance Company. Kurt has been guest faculty and conducted Limon Dance workshops in Boston, South Dakota, New York, Oregon, Dallas, Porte Au Prince, Haiti, Guadeloupe, France, Bristol, England, Sydney Australia, Harvard University, The Juilliard School, Suny Purchase, and the Boston Conservatory. Kurt has been on faculty with the “Limon for Kids” program and has re-staged “The Winged” for the Limon Company’s 2014 Gala in New York City.

Kurt is currently a professor of dance at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, directs the BoCo Summer Dance Intensive for teens and is on faculty at Northeast School of Ballet.

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Christiana Marie Cecere is a native of Massachusetts where she trained at The Conservatory at Northeast School of Ballet under the tutelage of her mother, Denise Cecere (director), and grandmother, Sandra McNaught (founder).

In addition to training with Northeast School of Ballet’s renowned faculty, including her coach, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Christiana participated in intensive programs at The School of American Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet School, and The Chautauqua Dance Institute. Upon graduation from the Northeast School of Ballet, Christiana moved to Arles, France to dance with The Arles Youth Ballet Company under the direction of Norton Fantinel and Karina Moreira.

Christiana has had the privilege to perform in a wide range of repertoire in her formative years. Classical ballets include Giselle, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Raymonda, Paquita, and Cinderella. She has performed ballets by George Balanchine including, Who Cares, Raymonda Variations, and Walpurgisnacht Ballet. Christiana has also performed neo-classical and contemporary works by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Mark Godden, Sasha Janes, Joseph Jefferies, Anthony Williams, Jeremy Ruth Howes, My’Kal Stromile, Kin Sun Chan, Young Soon Hue, Patrick Delcroix, among many other prominent choreographers.

Christiana received her diploma from Wakefield High School and graduate certification from The Conservatory at Northeast School of Ballet in 2022.  Her 2023/2024 season will include training, teaching, and performing at home before she relocates to London to be a trainee in English National Ballet's Professional Programme.

Holly Stone is an interdisciplinary alchemist creating dance and theater in the Greater Boston area. Currently teaching at Tufts University, their movement backgrounds in ballet, contemporary, and ballroom dance allow them to move seamlessly between genres and to challenge expectations of gender and partnership. Their recent gender-expansive partnering collaboration with Michael Winward, unpacking their time in the mainstream commercial ballroom studio system–INSIDER BALLROOM– has been presented at the Boston Open and at the Providence Fringe Festival. Holly’s original story ballet THE QUEEN OF NORI has been presented at Starlight Stage, Windhover Center for the Performing Arts, Boston Center for the Arts, & Paliku Theatre in Hawaii. Holly was also the Resident Choreographer for Wanderlust Theatre, and has created dance films for festivals internationally. Recent theater credits include CATS for Quincy Musical Theatre, A NEW BRAIN for FSU Theatre, CANDIDE for FSU Opera, and an immersive horror production with Boston Opera Collaborative. Holly believes in the power of ‘what if’ and is a master schemer, organizer, and storyteller. They have a B.S. in Bioengineering and Neuroscience from Syracuse University and an MFA in Dance from Florida State University, where their master’s thesis work focused on synthesizing modes of thinking as engineer and artist. 

Caroline Jewell is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she obtained a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance in 2021. Caroline began dancing at the age of three and grew up training at Piedmont School of Music and Dance under the directorship of Daniel and Rebecca Wiley. Her childhood studies were rooted in classical ballet and she also studied modern, contemporary and jazz. In the summers of 2015 and 2016, Caroline studied at the Juilliard School at their Summer Dance Intensive. She worked with choreographers Spencer Dickhaus and Bret Easterling. It was at Juilliard where Caroline discovered her love for Conservatory style learning, and she developed goals to pursue a BFA in Contemporary Dance.

From 2017 to 2021, Caroline studied at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. While at Boston Conservatory, she worked with many talented professors including, Brian McGinnis, Marissa Parmenter, Kurt Douglas, Ruka White, Russell Clarke, Denise Pons, Daniel Pelzig, Adriana Suarez, and Gino DiMarco. While at the Conservatory, she also worked with choreographers such as Joseph Toonga, Loni Landon, Chien-Ying Wang, Daniel Pelzig, Gino DiMarco, Brian Brooks, and Gabrielle Lamb.

She received her BFA in Contemporary Dance in 2021, and after taught modern and ballet at several schools in the Greater Boston Area including, Northeast School of Ballet, The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory, and The Dance Laboratory. Now, Caroline works as an Educational & Business Administrator remotely from her home in Nashville. While in Tennessee, she is continuing to grow her love for dance education and administration through her role with NSB, as well as continuing her love for dance performance as a freelance teacher and dancer.

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