Teacher Bio's - We are so proud of our staff and all that they bring to Stage Door. Please read th following so that you become more aware of how special these teachers are....
Mary Giattino is a proud Stage Door Graduate! She recently toured the country, with the BROADWAY National Tour of Billy Elliot, acting as the Resident Choreographer. Mary also worked for Billy Elliot on BROADWAY as the tap teacher, to all of the "Billy's" and "Michael's". Mary has assisted Tony Award nominee choreographer Randy Skinner, on BROADWAY, in White Christmas and No No Nanette. She has also kicked her legs with the famous Radio City Rockettes and toured with the BROADWAY National Tour of 42nd Street. Mary has choreographed both 42nd Street and Thoroughly Modern Millie, at the Gateway Playhouse, in addition to performing in over 20 productions there. Mary specializes in Musical Theater Tap and Jazz.
Pat Monaco danced with Mikhail Baryshnikov in the movie, The Turning Pointe, and she danced with the American Ballet Theater (ABT) in NYC and was a feautured soloists for many productions. Miss Pat has brought a world of Ballet to Stage Door for over 20 years.
Nuala DeGeorge dance career of 20+ years encompasses a wide variety of techniques including Modern, Tap and Hip-Hop as well as competitive Latin Ballroom. In addition to performing, Nuala has established herself as a teacher, director, judge and choreographer throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. A native New Yorker, Nuala holds a B.A. in Theater-Dance from C.U.N.Y. Queens College. Her proximity to New York City during college allowed her to regularly perform and work with artists from major companies such as Martha Graham Dance Company, American Tap Dance Foundation, Limon Dance Company, Dance Theatre Etcetera, Manhattan Tap and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. This helped develop her eclectic teaching-style which led Nuala to be recruited from the US to Canada to develop and implement dance programs for Vancouver’s leading dance institutions such as Ballet Classique, The GOH Ballet, Pacific Dance Arts and Harbour Dance Centre. In her classes, Nuala allows dancers to develop their individual voice through a variety of techniques, experimentation and improvisation. Nuala participates, supports and is an advisory board member of several organizations dedicated to fostering the art of dance through choreographic residency programs, public and private school curricula and professional performance based projects responsible to issues of audience development, community development, and dance literacy. Nuala currently teaches at Stage Door School of Dance and C.W. Post University.
David Guggino recently finished, creating, choreographing and producing he first off-Broadway show entitled What Guys Do! He played the role of Bobby Fisher in the dance play Ward 9 in the New York Musical Theater Festival. Past performance credits include West Side Story at TUTS, Damn Yankees at the North Shore Music Theater, and Grease at the Kansas City Starlight Theater. Company credits include Momix, Joffrey Ensemble, Chase Brock Experience, Rebecca Kelly Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet. He has performed at the Joyce Theater the Fire Island Dance Festival, Gypsy of the Year, at Dance New Amsterdam and toured nationally and internationally. His choreography credits include West Side Story for the Westhill School, Rocky Horror for BackPocket Productions, Sid in the City at the New Dance Group created and self-produced, We were always coming back, a new rock ballet for CW Post at Symphony Space. He started his training with the world-renowned Hip-Hop company, Rennie Harris and Pure Movement. David holds a BFA in Dance from Joffrey Ballet School/New School University
Sara Michelle Reardon is a graduate of The University of the Arts with a BFA in Jazz and Theatre Dance performance. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and has been teaching tap, jazz, lyrical, contemporary and theatre dance in the Tri-State area since 2007. Performance credits include the 25th Anniversary National Tour of CATS as Victoria the White Cat, soloist in the 2008 New York Musical Theatre Festival in the Premiere of "Wild About Harry"--a new dance musical, and as a featured dancer for Randy Skinner in the Career Transitions for Dancers Benefit at City Center in NYC this past fall. She is ecstatic and honored to be working with Mr. Skinner as well as the fabulous Kelly Barklay in the Papermill Playhouse's production of "White Christmas" this holiday season! Sara has also served as assistant to the choreographer and dance captain for the off-Broadway show "What Guys Do" choreographed and directed by David Thomas Guggino. She has appeared as a guest judge for several national dance competitions and conventions since 2007. Sara is excited and grateful to be returning to her Stage Door family for a second year! You betta werk dancers!
Stephanie Vertichio is a Scholarship Recipient and graduate of Stage Door and of Brockport - majoring in dance and specializing in Modern. She performs with the Modern Dance Company in NYC. Stephanie was a student teacher with Mrs. G. then Melissa G and recently Mary G. I'd say she is part of our TAP family.
Jessica Colosa is a proud alumnus and scholarship recipient from Stage Door! During high school, Jessica was invited to study ballet under Maggie Black and performed in Paris, France. Following her dreams, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance Performance with a K-12 teaching certificate at the highly acclaimed Towson University. Through her studies, she was selected for the Towson University Dance Company and was chosen to perform in the American College Dance Festival. She also studied and performed repertoire from members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Amy Marshall Dance Company, and Ballet Theatre of Maryland. Jessica has worked for Universal Dance Association as a dance instructor and competition judge throughout the United States. Jessica specializes in Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, and early childhood classes. Jessica regularly attends classes at Broadway Dance Center and is currently working under the direction of Nancy Duncan for the restaging of a Bebe Miller modern piece entitled "Guardian Angels".
Marissa Rignola was an MTV Dancer in its DAY. She continued to dance with different companies on Long Island and also modeled in dancewear publications. Marissa brings a very special gift to our students and that is the love of teaching. Her creative themes for her classes have won many awards and recognition at regional and National Competitions. Marissa has been teaching for 15 years at Stage Door.
Jill McArdle has been teaching at Stage Door for 28 years! She specializes in our very young, pre-school and Elementary school age students. She is nicknamed "The Pied Piper of Dance". Her students never want to leave her class. Now we have her former students returning with their 'little ones'. Oh the joy of being a part of all of these families.
Wendi McArdle is a graduate of Stage Door. She has been teaaching in many locations for over 10 years. She too (as her mother above) has a special talent for bringing out the best in a young student. Her choreography is recognized and rewarded in many competitions.
Lindsay Arndt is a graduate of Stage Door. She continures her education at Suffolk Community College. After asssisting Mary G. in classes for several years, Lindsay earned the honor of teaching her own classes and excels in sharing her love of dance and fun to all of her students.
Kelly Alcantara is very excited to be joining the Stage Door family. She has been teaching dance for 20 years, choreographing high school and middle school musicals for 15 years in the William Floyd and Plainview Old-Bethpage School Districts, had created and choreographed for the middle school kickline in Plainview, and has traveled the country performing at events with a dj dance company. During that time she pursued a career in school counseling which she enjoyed in the Plainview Old-Bethpage School District for 6 years before deciding to take some time off to raise her children who are now 6 and 2. Kelly also received her Zumba Certification this summer and is looking forward to bringing her many dance experiences to the students of Stage Door and creating many wonderful new ones with them.
Christina Stiriz is very excited to be a part of the Stage Door family. She has been passionate about dancing all her life and has many years of experience. She has been taught by many of the talented and highly experienced dance teachers in our area. She was captain of the William Floyd Rockettes and was a back up dancer for the boy band 98 Degrees. Additionally, Christina had the opportunity to pursue her dream of owning her own dance studio, and has taught at various dance studios for over 13 years. Christina has also choreographed multiple community children’s theater productions. She is looking forward to be teaching ballet, tap, jazz, kickline, and the intro and creative classes. Christina specializes in jazz and kickline, and loves working with the younger children in helping them to learn, and become more creative as they grow.
Ashley Cole is one of our Creative Movement and DanceAbility teachers. She joined the studio last year and helped to create an amazing dance program for special needs students who just "want to dance." Ashley is also a certified special education and elementary education teacher. She has been dancing her whole life and her passion for dance and teaching is a perfect combination for our youngest students and our DanceAbility program for children with Special Needs.
Linni Diehl has many degrees in child development through movement. She brought her expertise to DanceAbility here at Stage Door trained and encouraged teachers and students teachers She gave us the tools needed to make this a tremendously successful program. Before devoting her life to children she danced and performed with the American Ballet Theater in NYC .
Liz Balestracci has been our BellyDance teacher for the past nine years. She performs & teaches classes all around Long Island. Liz also performs in the office as the Studio Manager
Diane Giattino opened the doors of Stage Door 36 years ago in a local church in Bellport with 30 students. Over the years the studio grew and Grew and GREW to a size that now offers 4500 square feet of dance studios space. The new studio offers 40 inch Monitors for viewing in the waiting areas, professionally designed floor for injury prevention and a Big Hello at the Door. Stage Door has produced 5 Radio City Rockets..... 3 Broadway dance cast members........ 2 Independent Dance Studio Owners and many many students who gained a tremendous sense of accomplishment through dance. To all of them I say Thank You for all of the good energy given to Stage Door and I am always so excited when we see each other again