Instructors and Choreographers

Jason is a performer, choreographer and teacher. He is currently on faculty at Joffrey Ballet School teaching Musical Theater. He was a member of the Tony Award nominated Falsettos choreography team with Director and Pulitzer Prize winner, James Lapine. He worked with Josh Prince and James Lapine on the choreography for "Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing." Most recently, Jason was Ryan Reynolds dance coach and dancer for Apple's "Spirited" movie. Jason's performance credits include “White Christmas” (Broadway), “On The Town" (Barrington Stage), “My One And Only” (Stages St. Louis), Rasta Thomas' Tap Stars, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Late Late Show with James Corden, MTV’s Video Music Awards, and Good Morning America. He has performed at the Kennedy Center for Presidents Obama and Bush. Jason is a member of the award winning The JaM Project. Jason’s choreography has been presented on Broadway's Walter Kerr Theater (Falsettos), the Kennedy Center, and Symphony Space NYC. Jason graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Dance.

Jennifer has danced professionally for over 25 years. At the age of 17 she joined The Pennsylvania Ballet and was a member for four years. She was a Radio City Rockette under the direction of Maurice Hines in Las Vegas. Jennifer’s Broadway credits include Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark, Anything Goes, Guys and Dolls, The Boy From Oz, Dance Of The Vampires, and Fosse. Along with being a Dance Captain on Broadway, she served as Kathleen Marshall's Associate Director and Choreographer for the National Tours of the Tony Award-winning Anything Goes! Jennifer has been in the casts of five City Center Encores Productions and was featured opening The Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas with Hugh Jackman performing an Apache duet. Her movie and television credits include CHICAGO, Not Your Time, PBS' Broadway: The American Musical, and CBS' NYC 22. Jennifer has danced in several TV award shows including The Kennedy Center Honors, The Tonys, The Academy Awards, The MTV Movie Awards, and The VMA's with J.Lo and Ja Rule; and she has directed and choreographed shows for Princess, Radisson, Carnival, and Oceania Cruises.

Jennifer is on the permanent guest faculty at The Rock School in Philadelphia, PA. and has taught at Akron University and Pennsylvania University's Dance Arts Company. She has taught all forms of dance at studios and universities across the country sharing her vast knowledge and love for the performing arts. She likes to encourage the importance of being proficient in and respectful to as many forms of dance as possible -- to have the freedom and flexibility to make the choices desired for a long career in dance. Jennifer also loves being able to teach dance as a means of expression and enjoys sharing its positive impact and tools in preparation for her students' future endeavors.

Jordan Serrano, born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, moved to New York City at 18. She worked closely with choreographers and teachers in the city in addition to touring with NYCDA. In 2016, Jordan joined Nevada Ballet Theater in Las Vegas. She has completed six seasons with NBT, where she was privileged to dance featured roles in ballets including Paul Taylor's "Company B," Jorden Morris' "Peter Pan," Ben Stevenson's "Swan Lake" and Septime Weber's "Alice (In Wonderland)," a soloist in the companies "Studio Series," as well as expanding her Balanchine repertoire, including "Serenade," "Western Symphony," and "Slaughter on 10th Ave." Jordan was a guest dancer in Odyssey Dance Theaters "Thriller." She has also performed in collaborations with Cirque du Soleil, including "A Choreographers Showcase" at Mystere Theatre and "One Night for One Drop," performing Alexander Ekman's 'Swan Lake', at 'O' Theatre, nationally televised by CBS. Jordan most recently was on faculty at the Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre as the director of their contemporary program. Jordan is so happy to have officially moved back to NYC and is excited to work with the next generation of movers!

Grace has become a sought after dancer/choreographer/teacher across the USA. Grace has toured the world as Ballet Mistress & performer for Rasta Thomas' "ROMEO & JULIET" and "ROCK the BALLET," choreographed by Adrienne Canterna. She is on faculty with New York City Dance Alliance and Steps on Broadway in New York. Grace can most recently be seen dancing in season 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and her choreography was recently featured on season 3 of NBC's World of Dance.

Sam Crimi trained in various styles growing up and, as a competitive dancer won many awards, including top 20 soloists at the Dance Awards. With the help of Jon Bond (currently a company member of the world-renowned Nederlands Dans Theater alongside DANJ alum Conner Bormann!), she quickly fell in love with contemporary dance. While in middle and high school, Sam continued her training at the French Academie of Ballet, where she studied under Francois Perron, Bivi Kimura, Juan Rodriguez, Brice Mousset & Manuel Vignoulle. Sam then moved to Chicago to be a Trainee with The Joffrey Ballet. Following her time at Joffrey, Sam danced with Cocodaco Dance Project and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She’s also had the opportunity to perform in a variety of performances including the Opera Carmen in NYC, and with Parsons Dance Company.

Catie Leasca is a dance artist currently based in Brooklyn, NY. With roots in Massachusetts, she has traveled and danced abroad in Israel, France, Belgium, and Germany. Catie has worked professionally with Netta Yerushalmy, Helen Simoneau Danse, Jessie Young, Ambika Raina, MG+Artists, She Me Zoo and Bryn Cohn + Artists. Catie has been awarded choreographic residencies at Gibney Dance through Work Up 5.0, New Dance Alliance through LiftOff and was a 2019 Space Grant Recipient, as well as an Upstart artist at Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She has shown her work at Movement Research through Judson Church, FAILSPACE at The Woods, Center for Performance Research, Dixon Place, Triskelion Arts, WIP IV at STUDIO4, CreateART/Dance in Bushwick, and Salt Dance Fest, among others. She has performed at theaters such as Suzanne Dellal Centre in Tel Aviv, The Joyce Theater in NYC, The Montalban in Los Angeles and has participated as a dancer in residencies at The Yard (Martha's Vineyard), MANCC (Florida State University), LMCC (Governor's Island and Maiden Lane), New York City Center, NYU Center for Ballet, and Gallim Dance. Catie has taught in NYC at Gibney Dance, Bridge for Dance, Joffrey Ballet School, Joffrey SPECTRUM, Dance Device Lab, Boston Contemporary Dance Project, FAILSPACE, PMT House of Dance, Z Artist Group, Koin+Co, as well as MG+Artists.

She has assisted and co-taught for choreographer Netta Yerushalmy at Princeton University. Most recently, Catie received the Masterworks Foundation Choreography Award and was a dancer in Janessa Clark's newest work, COMMUNION, a 2021 Bessie nominated work, which has been shown at American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, Here Arts Center, as well as in Stockholm and Berlin. Catie's writing can be found in Dancegeist Magazine.

Catie graduated with her B.F.A. in Dance from The University of the Arts, under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield. She received the Dean’s Award for Excellence and the School of Dance Sustainability award upon graduation. Catie studied intensely under Katie Swords and Jesse Zaritt, among many other incredible mentors.

Catie currently teaches a weekly open class in NYC at Peridance Center and is on guest faculty at Sarah Lawrence College and the Joffrey Ballet School.

Jess

Juliana was a Division I gymnast at the University of New Hampshire where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. She also served as an assistant coach, helping lead the Wildcats to a conference championship and qualifying for the NCAA tournament. Juliana was named a Scholastic All-American three times. Juliana earned her master’s degree from Bowling Green State University in Ohio where she served as an Assistant Women’s Gymnastics Coach for the Division I gymnastics program. Juliana has extensive experience coaching and choreographing for gymnastics clubs and as the tumbling and acrobatics coach for competitive dance teams and recreational dancers.

Kristilee Maiella, native of Landing, NJ, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Montclair State University where she was a recipient of the Linda Roberts Outstanding Senior Dance Award. She is also a recipient of NJPAC and Dance NJ’s "Jersey New Moves" fellowship for emerging young choreographers. Maiella began her early dance education at DANJ, where she trained in ballet, contemporary, lyrical, jazz, modern, and musical theater. In her time competing in dance competitions, Maiella received the title of America’s 2016 Female Dancer of the Year at American Dance Awards. In her concert performance career, Maiella has performed featured roles in works by many eminent choreographers such as Martha Graham, Larry Keigwin, Nancy Lushington, and Frederick Earl Mosley. She has also worked closely with Stacey Tookey and was the lead dancer in her piece entitled “Gift” set on Montclair State dance majors. Maiella has performed at venues such as Symphony Space, Prudential Center, MMAC, and NJPAC. Her most notable performance involves dancing backup for ASAP Live in New York at the Barclays Center. Maiella is the artistic director of her own contemporary dance company, KM Dance Collective.

Suzy Fischbach has been choreographing and teaching contemporary and jazz for eight years. She has performed in many events including, The Ace Awards, Sybarite, and Peridance Faculty Show. She has had pieces selected to perform in many events including AIM Invitational, Dancin’ Downtown at the Joyce, and many more. Working with competition dancers is what Suzy loves to do, but above all, her primary goal is helping them develop into artists!

Sondra Steiner started her dance career at the Budzynski Studios of Ballet. She trained with The Pennsylvania Ballet School (The Rock School) and performed with The Pennsylvania Ballet. Sondra was accepted by The Boston Ballet, Richmond Ballet, BalletMet, Joffrey Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet into their intensives. Sondra has studied and worked with Melissa Hayden, Gloria Govrin, Trinette Singleton, Christopher d’Amboise, Jacques d’Amboise, David Howard, Fernando Bujones, Roy Kaiser, and Barbara Sandonato. Her repertoire has included principal, soloist, and corps roles in the ballets Paquita, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, La Fille Mal Gardee, Dracula, The Nutcracker, La Sylphide, Giselle, and Petrushka. Sondra attended college at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with a major in ballet and traveled abroad to perform with The Hungarian Ballet Academy and in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Sondra's daughter, Leah graduated from DANJ (her dance eduction :))!

Elisabetta started her professional career as a dancer and choreographer, working as associate choreographer and assistant director for artists such as Mariah Carey and Michael Bolton. Elisabetta was assistant choreographer, dance captain and performer in theater productions including “Footloose”, “Nights on Broadway III”, “Carmen”, “Candide” and “Aida.” She assisted directors and choreographers AC Ciulla, Michele Assaf, Josh Bergasse, and Terry Beeman; choreographed regional productions of “SPRING AWAKENING,” “HEDWIG and the Angry Inch,” “HAIR,” “CHICAGO,” “The Who’s TOMMY,” and “TESS A New Rock Opera.” Elisabetta was nominated for an NYIT award for her work in “disOriented” and has been a guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway in NYC.