Faculty

Cheryl Whitney (PBW Juniors Ballet Master, PBW Administrator) received an M.S. in Ballet from Indiana University and a B.A. in English Literature and Music from St. Lawrence University.  She was trained and performed professionally in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area. For more than 25 years, she has taught in Princeton Ballet School’s Student Division also serving as rehearsal director for the ARB productions of The Nutcracker. Guest teaching credits include Brandywine Ballet, Peabody Conservatory and NJ Governor’s School. Her teaching in academic settings includes Princeton University, Howard University, Indiana University, The Lawrenceville School, Foxcroft School and Latin School of Chicago. She is an associate professor in the dance program at Rider University. Ms. Whitney has received grants from the New York and New Jersey State Councils on the Arts, and is the 2008 recipient of the Audrée Estey Award for Excellence in Dance Education.  She is Artistic Director of Reverence Dance Company.

Valerie Amiss is a ballet instructor at Princeton Ballet School, focusing on beginning ballet along with Primary A, B, C and Level 1 Conservatory classes in Princeton. She also teaches open enrollment ballet to adults in the school’s Cranbury studio. Ms. Amiss has taught ballet and pointe classes and has been a guest instructor at schools throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. She was co-ballet mistress for the Academy of Ballet NJ and is also a faculty member of The School of Pennsylvania Ballet. Ms. Amiss was a senior lecturer at the University of the Arts, where she taught several ballet classes, and a guest lecturer at Drexel University where she was asked to speak about Balanchine repertoire for the Philadelphia Museum of Dance at the Barnes Museum. She has also taught ballet at Croft Farm in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, as well as ballet classes for children with Down syndrome and special needs. Ms. Amiss was a soloist with Pennsylvania Ballet for more than 15 years. As a professional dancer, she performed numerous principal roles, including Titania and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Odette in Swan Lake, and the Sugarplum Fairy and Dew Drop in The Nutcracker. She also danced featured roles in such works as Giselle, Paul Taylor’s Company B, Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, and Christopher Wheeldon’s Continuum, among others.

Shaye Firer was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and raised in Vancouver, Canada. She received her early training at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and attended various intensive programs such as The National Ballet of Canada, Alberta Ballet, Kaatsbaan International Dance Centre, Houston Ballet’s Ben Stevenson Academy, and Ellison Ballet. Shaye joined the inaugural class of ARB/Princeton Ballet School’s Trainee program. As a Trainee, she performed company roles in Nutcracker, Our Town, and Glazunov Variations, as well as the lead role of Swanhilda in Princeton Ballet School’s production of Coppélia. Shaye has received choreographic awards from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and was chosen as one of five choreographers in Houston Ballet  Academy’s collaboration with the American Festival for the Arts. Since she joined ARB, she has performed as The Chosen One in Douglas Martin’s Rite of Spring, Titania in Martin’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, featured roles in works by Patrick Corbin, Kirk Peterson, and Trinette Singleton. With ARB: 2011 Hometown: Vancouver, British Columbia

Rebeca Maso is a former ballet dancer from Cuba. She received her training at the Professional School of Ballet Arts in Cuba under the direction of Fernando Alonso. She also obtained her diploma as a Ballet Teacher in Cuba and has been teaching for more than 30 years. She was one of the founding ballet dancers of the Professional Ballet Company of Santiago of Cuba in 1990, under the direction of Maria Elena Martinez and choreographer and dancer Jorge Lefebvre, artistic director of Ballet Royal of Wallonie at that time. In 1994, she traveled to Venezuela as a guest ballet teacher to different ballet schools in the southern part of the country, working in regional ballet festivals and teaching Cuban ballet school methodology. In Venezuela, she was a member of the Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas for five years under direction of Zhandra Rodriguez, where she performed neoclassic and contemporary works by choreographer such as Jose Pares, Paulo Denubila, Dennis Nahat, Gabriel Castillo, Hector Montero, Maria Rovira among others, participating in European tour and International Ballet Festivals in Cuba. During her time in Venezuela she had the opportunity to perform with Metropolitan Ballet of Caracas by Artistic Director Keyla Ermecheo in different classical ballet productions like The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake (Pas de Trois) and Giselle. Ms. Maso also was invited from Metropolitan Ballet of Caracas to be part of the world premier “Dejando Rastro,” a modern dance created for four female ballet dancers by Carlos Orta, a leading dancer and teacher with the José Limón Dance Company and director of Corearte Dance Company of Venezuela. Ms. Maso came to U.S in 1999 as a guest artist of Metropolitan Ballet of Caracas participating in the international Ballet in Philadelphia and in a special ballet gala dedicated to Fernando Bujones. She also was part of Dance Theatre Southwest, Albuquerque, NM where she had the opportunity to be part of The Dracula Ballet production cast. Ms. Maso is currently a student at Saint Mary’s College (LEAP), an internationally recognized Bachelor’s degree program specifically designed for current and former professional dancers. Rebeca Maso is an ABT® Affiliate Teacher who is certified to teach the ABT® National Training Curriculum from pre-primary through level 3 and current ballet faculty of the Ballet Hispanico Dance School in NY.

Kathleen Moore  trained with Dame Sonia Arova and Thor Sutowski at the Alabama School of Fine Arts (ASFA) and attended summer intensives at the School of American Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) School.  She graduated from ASFA as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and moved to NY to join ABT II in 1980. Invited by Mikhail Baryshnikov to become a member of the corps of ABT in 1982, Ms. Moore was appointed soloist in 1988 and Principal dancer in 1991. Her work included roles across the classical, dramatic, modern and contemporary repertory. Agnes de Mille, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris and other respected choreographers created roles for her and she was a member of the premiere tour of the White Oak Dance Project under the direction of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris in 1990. Ms. Moore has appeared in several dance documentaries, the Herbert Ross movie  Dancers, and was interviewed on The Charlie Rose Show. Ms. Moore began teaching for Princeton Ballet School in 1993 as a guest teacher and has worked with ARB since 2006. She is also a member of the ballet faculty at the Lewis Center of the Arts at Princeton University.  Ms. Moore is certified to teach all levels of ballet through the ABT® National Training Curriculum.

Nanako Yamamoto was born and raised in Japan where she began her training at the Geijutsuza Ballet Studio “Jardin des Arts”, performing such roles as Clara in The Nutcracker, Rose Adagio inThe Sleeping Beauty and the title role in Cinderella. In 2005, she was selected to attend the prestigious Royal Ballet Summer School, then was accepted to the Elmhurst School for Dance in Association with the Birmingham Royal Ballet. While a student, she performed in the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s National Tour of Firebird, Fokine’s Petrushka, Petipa’s Raymonda and David Bintley’s Beauty and the Beast. She performed for his Royal Highness Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall and for the grand re-opening of Birmingham’s town hall. Since graduating in 2009, she has performed with New Tampa Dance Theatre, Dance Theatre of Tampa, Ballet Fleming, in Giselle with Boca Ballet Theatre alongside Julie Kent and Marcelo Gomes, and as soloist in La Bayadere with Gillian Murphy and Jose Manuel Carreño. Since joining ARB, she has danced featured roles in Nutcracker, including Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen, and in Gerald Arpino’s Confetti and Sea Shadow, Kirk Peterson's Carmen and Glaznov Variation and many other featured roles in works by Douglas Martin, Kirk Peterson and Mary Barton. With ARB: 2013 Hometown: Shizuoka, Japan

Rachel Stanislawczyk began her dance training at Princeton Ballet School in 2003. She recently graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. Rachel Stanislawczyk is a certified instructor of the Elemental Body Alignment System, and a Lead Teacher for the Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for PD program. She recently earned her Masters in Dance Education from Rutgers University.

Jessica Totaro is a Contemporary and Choreography Skills teaching artist from Asbury Park, NJ.  She received her BFA in dance from Rutgers, Mason Gross School of the Arts. She is the founder and Artistic Director of the Movement Arts Project; a student-based, educational dance company based in Brielle, NJ that focuses on preparing students who want to further their education at a collegiate level. Jessica is currently a teaching artist for Derling Dance Arts, 10 Hairy Legs and Dance New Jersey’s Young Audiences. Jessica was featured in Dance Studio Life Magazine for her choreography methods and program. She continues to teach master classes and choreograph throughout the tri-state area at various studios and performing arts schools. Her teaching method is to not dictate but guide each dancer deeper into their own creative ability and communicate authentically through movement.

Lindsay Jorgensen (Lawrenceville, NJ) received her dance training at Princeton Ballet School. She supplemented her training at summer programs like Miami City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre in New York, and Carolina Ballet, to name a few. After high school, she was a trainee with American Repertory Ballet, where she performed alongside the company. Lindsay graduated summa cum laude with an honorable mention in Dance from the Ailey/Fordham BFA Dance program, double majoring in Dance and English. She performed in school concerts, outreach, and various events including the Ailey Spirit Gala at Lincoln Center (2018). She performed choreography by Alvin Ailey, Karen Arcenaux, Robert Battle, Amy Hall Garner, Gabrielle Lamb, and Chuck Wilt. She supplemented her training by attending rigorous contemporary dance-theatre programs like Northwest Dance Project’s Advanced Platform, where she performed works by Patrick Delcroix and Elijah Labay, and Vim Vigor’s Summer Program, where she studied research movement under Shannon Gillen and Victoria P. Miranda. Professionally, Lindsay currently dances for Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theatre. She also apprentices with Buglisi Dance Theatre, where she has performed Jacqulyn Buglisi’s Moss at their 2019 Gala, and in the weekly Table of Silence Project Meditation Variation, which is used to spread unity during the COVID-19 pandemic (ongoing since March 2020). She also was one of twenty-eight dancers that performed the reimagined Table of Silence Meditation Variation, the tenth anniversary of the tribute and the first live performance held at Lincoln Center since the shutdown in March 2020. She also performs with CES Danceworks, which has recently partnered with Brooklyn’s Spoke the Hub. Lindsay has choreographed on Axelrod Contemporary Ballet Theatre, students of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Dance Program, Dance Connection in Hillsborough, and Axelrod Performing Arts Academy. Her work has premiered at Bellworks and Ailey Citygroup Theatre. Lindsay is so excited to continue her choreographic endeavors with American Repertory Ballet’s Trainees Program and fostering growth and creativity with the dancers at Princeton Ballet School.

Madison Elizabeth Egyud was raised in Newtown, Pennsylvania and began her formal ballet training at the Princeton Ballet School at the age of 6. In 2012, she attended American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensive in New York City on full scholarship, awarded by Philadelphia Dance Access. That summer, she was invited to study year-round at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at ABT where she continued her training for the next five years under the direction of Franco DeVita and Cynthia Harvey. It was here she had the honor of performing pieces such as Alexei Ratmansky’s Rondo Capriccioso in ABT’s 75 th Anniversary Gala, and participated in the development of Jeremy McQueen’s Garden of Dreams, which premiered at the Kennedy Center in Ballet Across America. She danced as a trainee with American Repertory Ballet for two seasons before joining ARB2.

Jonathan Montepara started his training at the age of seven in his hometown Orsogna, Italy and he graduated in 2018. During the 2017/18 season he was chosen to create the Rome Ballet Junior Company where he performed the neoclassical version of Coppélia by the choreographer Milena Zullo. He also performed in Switzerland Notti Bianche, a new choreography by his Russian teacher Alexandre Stepkine and played by pianist Vovka Ashkenazy. In 2018 he joined ARB2 and performed Coppélia staged by Douglas Martin, The Nutcracker, Trois voix (world premiere by Mary Barton), Beauty and the Beast (world premiere by Kirk Peterson) and the lead role of Basilio and Espada in Don Quixote staged by Aydmara Cabrera for PBS. During his second season with  ARB2 danced with the main company in Paul Taylor masterpiece Airs; Beyond the Normal, a world premiere by choreographer Riccardo De Nigris; The Nutcracker; and the new production of Giselle, staged by Ana Novoa and José Manuel Carreño. In the last triple bill, Jonathan was cast as a lead in Trey McIntyre's Blue Until June, performed by the company in NYC. In December 2020, Jonathan was invited by Princeton Symphony Orchestra to dance the role of the Cavalier in "The Nutcracker Grand Pas de deux", alongside Nanako Yamamoto. Jonathan performed for American Repertory Ballet's Digital Program 2021 Strange Sentience, a world premiere choreographed by Colby Damon and the leading role in the Swan Lake, Paquita, and Le Corsaire. This is his second season as a Company Artist.

Luis Napoles began his dancing training as a child at the National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba. Upon graduating he danced with Dance Contemporary of Cuba and later with Ballet Theatre of Havana. He danced principal roles and traveled the world with both companies. In the U.S, Mr. Napoles danced as a soloist with the Oakland Ballet, and in 1997 joined the Sacramento Ballet where he was a principal dancer for over 8 years. Mr. Napoles was also a resident choreographer at the Sacramento Ballet, creating over fifteen ballets. ​​In the classical repertory, Luis has performed the role of Spade in Don Quixote, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Thesious in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Cavalier in the Nutcracker. He has danced principal roles in David Parson's The Evelope and Instinct, Septime Webre's Fluctuating Hemlines, Van Cannaparoli's Devil Sonata; and Ron Cunningham's Bolero, Carmina Burana, Rite of Spring, Fire Bird, Incident at Blackbriar, Etosha, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Tempest, Hamlet among others  Mr. Napoles is the founder/artistic director of Napoles Ballet, Contemporary Cuban Company.   

Yuliya Rakova was born in Russia and began her ballet training at the age of ten at the Perm State choreographic college in Russia, home of the famed Russian ballet traditions, where her studies included classical ballet, history of theater, history of art and music, acting, stage makeup, history of European and American ballet, character, historic dance, and pas de deux. Upon graduation in 1995, she was invited to join the Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theater. Ms. Rakova danced with the company for five years before moving to Moscow. She joined the Moscow Dance Theater of Alexei Fadeechev as a soloist. She was featured in the modern dance choreographer Stanton Welsh`s world premiere Opus X. In 2001 she was invited to join Russian National Ballet and danced with the company until she moved to the United States to teach. She toured nationally and abroad, enjoying great success and quickly building a classical repertoire while performing such roles as Odile, the Sugarplum Fairy, Lilac Fairy and Maria Taglioni from Pas de Quatre. Yuliya has worked with notable choreographers such as Trey McIntyre, Ben Stevenson and Alexei Ratmansky. Her repertoire includes soloist roles in Swan Lake, Coppelia, Don Quixote, Paquita, Raymonda, Nutcracker, Chopiniana, The Sleeping Beauty, Le Corsaire and others. She taught for professional ballet schools such as Kirov Academy of Ballet, Ellison Ballet, Joffrey Ballet School, and Pennsylvania Ballet. Ms. Rakova continues to teach as well as stage classical productions and original works around the country and abroad. As an accomplished dancer and experienced teacher, Yuliya Rakova would like to share her knowledge with passion for young dancers.