THREAD CITY CLASSICAL DANCE
959.929.2514
A 501c3 non-profit, parent-run dance school serving the Windham area and surrounding communities
Meet Our Teachers
We have an excellent team of caring, supportive and highly skilled instructors.
All Thread City Classical Dance staff are passionate about making a lasting impact in the lives of their students.
ALANA MAHDALIK
Tap & Jazz
Alana J. Mahdalik holds a Bachelor of Science degree with a double major in Dance and Economics from James Madison University in Virginia. She's received training at the Hartford Conservatory and Trinity College. She's been teaching various styles and levels of dance to all ages since 1989, first with Dance & Company, in Virginia, next with Greater Mansfield Council for the Arts and with the former Arts in Motion (AIM)from 1995-2007 where she also served on their Board of Directors for several years.
She's been the Artistic Director, instructor and choreographer for the Dance Ensemble she founded in January 2002 and historically the group had performed for numerous public events throughout Eastern CT. She began teaching at Capitol Theater Arts Academy in the summer of 2007 through 2016 and is currently enjoying teaching at Thread City Classical Ballet in Willimantic.
Alana enjoys gardening in her spare time and is an avid collector of frogs (not real, of course!).
ELINA CATE
Pointe, Choreography, Stretch and Strengthen
Elina Cate has been in the entertainment industry since childhood and has lived, worked, and trained in Los Angeles, Chicago, NYC, and Phoenix. She has performed in music videos, musical theater, ballets, independent and feature film projects, t.v. shows, commercials and has been featured in print/editorials.
Elina is primary trained in Vaganova ballet technique, but also has experience in Contemporary, Modern Dance and Musical Theatre. At the New School for the Arts, she was a dance major, with a ballet focus. After graduation, she continued to train at Columbia Chicago, Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, Millennium Dance complex, and The Edge.
Elina has also worked as a lyricist, vocalist, and music producer. She founded publishing house Blink of a Mind in 2007. Her solo production received radio play in San Francisco circa 2008.
As a photographer, Elina's products have been sold at Urban Outfitters and her piece "Woman, Veiled" was featured in The Smithsonian Magazine, Retina, in 2011.
Elina is an experienced acting coach and creative mentor. Her coaching clients have been principal performers in plays, musicals, short films, independent features and have been accepted to Columbia, Boston University, Pace, Fordham, Purchase, and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
Elina recently graduated summa cum laude from UConn and is now exploring film production and voice-over work, while continuing to work as a freelance photographer, ballet instructor, ballet-based fitness instructor, dancer, choreographer, lyricist, acting coach, and every so often, is employed on local union projects. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA, ASCAP, and is AEA eligible.
AMY REUSCH CHIBEAU
Artistic Director
Amy Reusch/Chibeau began her training with Paris Opera trained Germaine Pacaud and her husband Roger Pacaud with whom she headlined the ballet company resident for decades at Radio City Music Hall. At the age of 11, Amy transferred to New Jersey School of Ballet, the official school of the professional company New Jersey Ballet. There she studied with teachers who had been soloists with American Ballet Theater, The Joffrey Ballet, Roland Petit’s Ballets des Champs Elysees, Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, Iranian National Ballet, Vienna State Ballet and The Australian Ballet. In high school, she taught young children in her basement to raise money for pointe shoes. As a dance major at SUNY Purchase, she studied with principals and soloists of New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater, as well as with dancers and repiteurs from the Martha Graham company, Jose Limon company and Merce Cunningham company. She studied Improv with Mel Wong and Composition with Kazuko Hirobayashi. After college she continued to study ballet in New York City, at David Howard’s, NY Conservatory of Dance, Steps and Ballet Arts. Realizing that a 5’10” woman faces an unlikely professional ballet career, she transitioned from pursuing a professional performing career into capturing dance on video. She worked as a NABET generalist for TimeWarner in their Manhattan Cable television studio. While living in Philadelphia, and working as the company videographer for Pennsylvania Ballet, a former classmate brought her in to teach and choreograph ballet at Ballets des Jeunes. She has shot dance all over the country (NY, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Fort Worth, Lexington, Kansas City, Hartford, Stamford), working as house videographer for Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the National Doris Humphrey Society, as well as many many smaller companies and independent choreographers. She was awarded a Pew Charitable Trust National Initiative to Preserve American Dance grant to preserve 5 Humphrey masterpieces which was reviewed by the NY Times, and was honored to shoot several coaching videos for the George Balanchine Foundation’s Interpreter’s Archive. She never stopped studying ballet, continuing to take class at The Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, The Ruth Page Foundation, The School of the Hartford Ballet, and in New York. She takes class when she travels, and so has studied in Boston, Seattle, London and Paris. Amy has taught ballet continuously here in Connecticut since 2007.
SHANNON MALONE
Director of Children's Classes
When Shannon was three years old her mother took her to see a Hartford Ballet production of Peter Pan. She fell in love with Tinker Bell and her toe shoes. She started taking classes when she was four years old and has not stopped dancing since.
Shannon's early years in the late 1960s and early 1970s were spent in Connecticut studying with dancers from the Hartford Ballet. At age twelve she won a scholarship to study at the School of Boston Ballet. In high school she won a scholarship to the National Academy of Arts in Illinois, where the director of dance was Petrus Bosman of the Royal Ballet. She's since studied and performed with many of the great companies in United States and the world.
Most recently, Shannon served as the head of dance for Melodica, a music and dance institute in Dubai. She's taught ballet, jazz, and modern dance to adults and children and often choreographs and leads community performances for special events.