BALLET
Director and Master Teacher
Marie Hale






Director and Master Teacher
Claudia Cravey






Director and Master Teacher
Lynda Swiadon






Director and Master Teacher
Steven Hoff

TAP (Children, Teens & Adults)

Kimberly Dawn Smith: Performing credits include; Radio City Music Hall Rockette, A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, Mame, Sugar Babies, Steel Magnolias, Mamaleh, My Catskills, Summer, and most recently Stepping Out with Donna McKechnie.

Her good fortune gifted Kimberly with the opportunity to work with Michael Bennett in A Chorus Line. She performed the role of "Val" and was honored to participate in the Longest Running Show Gala on Broadway. Kimberly was asked by Mr. Bennett to attend his second workshop in N.Y.C. to continue to present his original production in the years to come. She respectfully carries on the tradition of holding true to Michael Bennett's original direction, choreography and staging. Kimberly has gone on to direct and choreograph over 35 companies of A Chorus Line including Regional, National and International touring companies. Other Directing and Choreography credits include; 42nd Street, Mama, Forever Plaid, Nunsense, Westside Story and Sweet Charity -- to name a few.

Ms. Smith has been featured on television and film in shows such as “Another World” and “The Gene Carrol Variety Show” in Ohio. She has judged and critiqued for multiple dance competition companies and passes along her knowledge of dance and performance with the students all over the country who attend  her “Workshops in Musical Theatre”.  In May of 2007 Kimberly co-choreographed with Broadway Choreographer Baayork Lee for the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts GALA -- starring Liza Minelli, Joel Gray and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Over the years, as a teacher and educator, she has become extremely well known while working with Dance Masters of America National Convention, Dance Masters of Ohio & Michigan, Dance Masters of America National Conventions, Dance Educators of America National Conventions, Pompano Beach Civic Center, Etta Mae Smith Studio of Dance (OH), Mickey Lebrecht Studio of Dance (NY), Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Recreational Tappers (TAP Choreo), Riverside Park, Naples (FL), Theatre League of South Florida and The Naples Players.
 
CATHY GOLDSMITH: Dance Teacher, Performer and adjudicator. She has been teaching Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical and Tap for over 20 years. Cathy has been Kimberly Dawn Smith's associate teacher in her Musical Theatre workshops throughout the country. She has performed in regional touring productions of A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, Sugar Babies, Mame and West Side Story -- just to name a only a few. Ms. Goldsmith is also the Company Manager for Broadway Arts Productions.


PRE-BALLET 
Ida Marie Bucheck: Growing up in the world of dance and theatre, Ida Bucheck has had vast experience in the class room, as well as, working backstage and onstage in theatres in the area. She performed extensively with the Academy of Ballet Florida and as a child,  appeared in Ballet Florida's productions of Romeo and Juliet, the Premiere of Vicente Nebrada’s Cinderella in West Palm Beach and at the DanceAspen Festival. In Val Caniparoli's Lady of the Camellias, Ida perfromed the role of Nanine. From a Snow Attendant to a Snowflake Ms. Bucheck also holds has the distinct honor of performing almost every child’s role in Marie Hale’s The Nutcracker.
 
She has appeared with the Palm Beach Opera, Musinc - a local arts colaberative  (through out the State)  and The Palm Beach Principal Players productions of Fiddler on the Roof, Oklahoma and the choreographer of South Pacific. 

Through college she has assisted and taught elememtary ballet classes at the Academy of Ballet Florida. 
Ms. Bucheck returns to Dance Florida Academy with her exuberance of teaching young children to dance and inspiring them to excel. 

HIP HOP (Children, Teens & Adults)
Burcin Grusel: With a strong background in all dance, over the years has become a specialist in Hip Hop dance instruction in schools, academies and workshops -- up and down the East Coast. She has also taught at Dancer of America Workshops.  

Bright, hot and sassy, in addition to being a teacher, Burcin is well known as a brilliant performance artist. Besides just teaching Hip Hop dance, she feels it is important to teach the culture, as well so, her students can totally understand and grasp what Hip Hop is all about.
 
JAZZ
Traci-Ann Pearce: Originally from Port St. Lucie, Florida and began her training at the age of nine at Simply Dance under the direction of Pam Refner. Traci-Ann first attended The Middle School of the Arts followed by The Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts. She furthered her studies at Peggy Brown’s Dance Academy in Wellington, FL.

At the age of seventeen, Traci-Ann moved to Purchase NY to join S.U.N.Y Purchase’s Dance Conservatory where she performed works by Kevin Wynn and Sidra Bell. A year later in New York City, she trained at the Ailey School working with various choreographers and was grateful to perform a piece by Troy Powell.

Over the next three years she attended Marymount Manhattan College where she received a Bachelors degree in Business. While studying for her Bachelors degree, Traci-Ann joined Synthesis Dance Project, a contemporary dance company under the direction of Tracie Standfield. During her time in Synthesis Dance Project Traci-Ann performed in New York City, Kentucky and Pennsylvania including The International Dance Festival, Save The Music Concert benefiting hurricane Katrina survivors, The Dicapo Opera Theatre, AIDS Benefit Concert at the Pulse Convention, and White Wave/ D.U.M.B.O Festival.

Recently, Ms. Pearson has moved back to South Florida and is choreographing for various studios while teaching Jazz, Lyrical, Modern, Contemporary and Technique across the West Palm Beach area. Traci-Ann looks forward to giving back to the dance world and choreographing in the South Florida community.


LATIN CARDIO
Geneveve Gort: Bio and Pic SOON!
 

BALLETFITNESS, PILATES MAT & PILATES REFORMER
Carl King: Began formal dance training at Ballet Arts with Marie Hale prior to pursuing a professional career. He danced in productions at the MGM Grand (now Bally's) and the Lido (Paris, France). Carl's film and television credits include Grease 2, (Director Pat Birch), Night Shift (Director Ron Howard) and Superstars and Supercars (producer Dick Clark). He toured in the US and Europe with the Broadway Musicals Miss Saigon, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, Ain't Misbehavin, Hair and Rocky Horror.

While in Europe, his career transitioned to that of singer/soloist -- celebrity status in Germany and Austria. As a well known entertainer and performance artist, Carl's appearances in regional and local venues are numerous.  As a dance instructor and a fitness trainer, Mr. King is internationally known with B.A.S.I. Pilates and  A.F.A.A. Certifications as a personal and group  trainer!

VOICE & PIANO

Evan Ferrar: Evan Ferrar originally hails from Palm Beach where he studied piano with Dr. Jack Jones. He returned to Florida this past autumn after ten years in Ireland to study singing with Madame Zeani and to sing with Palm Beach Opera. 

While in Ireland he became the assistant repetiteur and assistant chorus master for Castleward Opera, working on Tosca, La Rondine, Rigoletto, Albert Herring, The Magic Flute, and Carmen. Mr. Ferrar won a bursary to study as a repetiteur at the Hand Made Opera Summer Course in Umbria, Italy. In  Dublin, he sang with the Wexford Festival Opera, the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and The Anna Livia Opera Fringe. He then became Chorus Master of both Lyric Opera and Festival Productions. For Lyric Opera he prepared Carmen, Nabucco, La Traviata, and Elisir d'Amore at the National Concert Hall. His chorus for Festival Productions production of the Mikado won Best Chorus at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England in 2007.

He has worked throughout Ireland and the UK with Live Music Now! and Opera Theatre Company as a pianist and singer in their education and outreach programs. Evan has performed solos in oratorios and lead roles in operas in Ireland, the UK, Italy, Austria, Sweden, and the United States. Recent roles include: Parpignol (La Boheme) and Don Ottavio (Opera in an Hour: Don Giovanni) for Palm Beach Opera, Ralph Rackstraw (HMS Pinafore) for Rush Musical Society, Don Giocondo (La Pietra del Paragone) and Don Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro) for the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and Giuseppe (La Traviata) for Lyric Opera in Dublin.
 
Here in West Palm Beach he sang the role of Uncle Ernie for the Palm Beach Principal Players 2009 production of The Who's Tommy. He also was the musical director for their most recent production: Miss Saigon at the Jupiter Maltz Theatre.
ADMINISTRATION
Director and Administrator
Joseph J. Bucheck III
1
GUEST TEACHERS AND ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE
Frank Chaves: Former Dancer with Hubbard Street Dance, Internationally known Master Teacher and presently the Artistic Director of River North Chicago Dance Company.
Clara Cravey: Former Principal Dancer with The Harkness Ballet, Former Principal of The Houston Ballet Academy, has been named three times most Distinguished Teacher from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts. Ms. Cravey has served on the artistic council of University of Oklahoma and former President of the National Association
of Schools of Dance. Read more...

Julie Gumbinner: Former student of Ballet Arts (Academy of Ballet Florida), Former Principal Dancer with Houston Ballet and currently Principal Dancer with Texas Ballet Theater.

Steven Hyde: Former Student of Marie Hale and Claudia Cravey, Former Principal Dancer with The Royal Winnipeg Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, awarded the certificate for “Excellence in Partnering” at the 14th International Competition in Varna, Bulgaria and has served on the faculty of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre. Mr. Hyde is currently the Director of Classical and Contemporary Dance at the Orange County High School of the Arts, Santa Ana. Read all...

Tina Santos-Wahl: Began her professional career in dance in her native Philippines. She became a founding member of Dance Theatre Philippines in 1968 and its youngest principal dancer. In 1970, she pursued her dream of dancing in the USA and eventually became a Soloist with The Harkness Ballet of NY, wherein she toured all over Europe and Latin America. In 1973, Ms. Santos and her partner/husband, Gary Wahl, joined the San Francisco Ballet and rose to prominence in less than a year. The SF Bay Area and Filipino fans knew Ms. Santos for her versatility on stage. National and international critics called her acting talents "absurdly comic" to "intensely dramatic" while her technique in dance encompassed classical virtuoso, Balanchine ballets, jazz and modern-contemporary. In 1978, Ms. Santos was elected as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Women of California and received a "Medal of Distinction in Dance" in 1979 from the Arts Council of the City of Manila, Philippines.

As a teacher, Ms. Santos has developed a style of her own that emphasizes purity of movement and unmannered technique. The Filipino critic from Dance Magazine described her classes as "energetic, musical, positive, tough and precise". She taught students and professional dancers in major schools in the SF Bay Area before moving to South Florida and joining The Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton as Resident Faculty from 1989-1997. In 1998, she joined the Faculty of the New World School of the Arts in Miami, wherein she toured with the NWSA Dance Ensemble as Ballet Mistress.

Ms. Santos has won six Teacher Recognition Certificates sponsored by the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and has taught for many dance organizations around the USA. She has been appointed by the Florida State Division of Cultural Affairs to serve on its Dance Organizations Panel. Ms. Santos currently serves as Assistant Professor of Dance and stages/coaches ballets of visiting choreographers.


Ben Stevenson: Former Artistic Director of Houston Ballet and currently the Artistic Director of Texas Ballet Theatre .
Mauricio Wainrot: Artistic Director of Ballet Contemporaneo del Teatro San Martin of Bueno Aires and Permanent Guest Choreographer of The Royal Ballet of Flanders, Belgium
...And internationally renowned choreographer.
ACCOMPANISTS
Jerry Ludiker, Sascha Vagner, Evan Ferrar, Lydia Kass and Olga Wescott

STUDENT ASSISTANTS
Mia Cushine, Lucia DePoli

"You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in
museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls."
Merce Cunningham

Dance Florida Academy is a 5o1 (c) (3)  Charitable Organization.
A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER AFFIARS BY CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE.
REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.

Dance Florida Academy     P.O. Box 8036     West Palm Beach, FL 33407     (561) 713-713-3604    

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