MEET OUR TEACHERS

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.

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, Virginia and has received training at the Hartford Conservatory and Trinity College.  She has been teaching various styles and levels of dance to all ages since 1989, first with Dance & Company, in VA, 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 has 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 the year 2016 and is currently enjoying teaching with Thread City Classical Dance in Willimantic.  Alana represented AIM and was featured in CPTV’s May 2002 documentary, CT and Its Cities, The Challenge of Renewal.  Her modern training specializes in the Limon and Horton methods with additional training in Modern techniques such as Bartenieff, Cunningham, Duncan and Graham.  Her training also covers Folk Dance and Swing Dancing.  She has studied Anatomy and Kinesiology focusing on the mechanical analysis of movement.  Alana has a background in Live Mannequin work and choreographed thirteen Stafford High School musical productions from 1994 to 2006 along with the 2004 AIM Kid’s Co. production of Once On This Island.  She has worked with Adult Education programs and Arts commissions on dance workshops and is also a National Baton Twirling Association judge and has been actively judging competitions since 1994.  Alana holds a full-time National Supplier Relationship Management position with United Natural Foods, Inc. where she has worked for nearly 23 years.  Alana enjoys gardening in her spare time and is an avid collector of frogs (not real, of course!).