DENISE CECERE

Artistic & Executive Director

Ballet

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

Summer Intensive Principal

Ballet, Character, Yoga

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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CAROLINE JEWELL

Educational & Business Administrator

Modern

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.​​​

JEREMY RUTH HOWES 

Ballet

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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CAITLIN O’CONNOR PESCE

Ballet

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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KIM CORNELIUS

Ballet

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

Ballet

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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RHONDA LEE

Ballet

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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CHRISTIANA MARIE CECERE

Ballet, Jazz

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 was spent in London as a trainee in English National Ballet's Professional Programme.

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Now Christiana is a company member with The Florida Ballet Company in Jacksonville, Florida.

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MAURICIO MEJIA

Ballet

Mauricio was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He started his professional ballet studies at the age of 15 at ProVer located in Veracruz, México where he received his certificate of 4th grade from the Cuban Nacional Ballet School.

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In 2017 Mauricio participated at the YAGP México where he performed a self-choreographed contemporary variation which gifted him a full scholarship for the Orlando Ballet SI. He participated in the 2018 YAGP finals with a contemporary ensemble, placing in the top 12 and performing at the Gala Ceremony. In the summer of 2018 Mauricio received an invitation to the Orlando Ballet Trainee Program, and later was promoted to OBII. In 2020 he performed at the YAGP Tampa Semifinals receiving Top 12 in classical and 2nd place in contemporary for a self-choreographed piece, as well as, the invitation to perform at the Gala Ceremony.

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In 2020, Mauricio joined The Florida Ballet Company under the direction of Roberto Forleo. Mauricio has performed principal roles including Spectre de la Rose, Roger VanFleteren’s Cinderella, La Bayadere, Don Quixote, Carmen, “La Jeune Fille et la Mort” by Christophe Garcia and “Songs” by Mauro Bigonzetti, among others. Mauricio has also presented his contemporary choreographic works with the Company, most recently presenting Varja in the 2022/2023 season.

GIA DILISIO

Cross-Training

Gia DiLisio is a Massachusetts native where she trained at the Northeast School Ballet under the direction of both Denise Cecere and Sandra McNaught.

In addition to her training at NSB, she also attended summer programs at Charlotte Ballet, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Boca Ballet Theatre Director’s Workshop, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Oregon Ballet Theatre where she was a member of their junior company OBT2.

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Gia performed with Oregon Ballet Theatre’s main company as well as professionally with Roxey Ballet. Throughout her training at NSB and through her professional experience she has been so fortunate to perform in many ballets. Her favorite ballets to perform in were George Balanchine’s

The Four Temperaments, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, Les Sylphides, Coppelia, Swan Lake, Paquita, and various original contemporary works.