school     

Registration for the 2012-13 year has begun, and admission into the program is done on a rolling basis. Please call 716-664-9766 for more information or click the links in the column at right to download and print current forms.

Snow Day Policy:  We do not automatically close on Snow Days since the weather often clears by late afternoon.   Decision to close is generally made by 1:00 and is posted on the website, facebook and also send via email.

Faculty

Monika Alch |Elizabeth Schmitz |Sue Spencer / Melody Overendm Paterniti

MONIKA ALCH, Artistic Director

Ms. Alch began her ballet training at age four in the Vienna Conservatory, Vienna, Austria.  Her first professional engagement followed after receiving her diploma as a soloist in dance at age 15.  In the summer in 1960 in Cannes, France, she studied in an advanced student seminar under teachers Rosella Hightower, Anton Dolin, Jerome Robbins and Alicia Markova and with such illustrious fellow students as Rudolf Nureyev, Eric Bruhn and Milorad Miskovitch.

Ten years of professional experience followed in opera theaters of Klagenfurt, Gratz, and Salzburg (summer festivals under Herbert von Karajan with ballet master Waszlav Orlikovsky).  In the United States, she performed with Ballet Metropolitan for five years with director Wayne Soulant.

Her first choreography in the United States was in the production of Smetana’s TheBartered Bride, an opera theatre production at SUNY-Fredonia.   She also has choreographed La Traviata, Die Fledermaus, Romeo and Juliet and un Ballo in Maschera for Opera/Columbus, in Columbus, Ohio, and The Merry Widow, The Magic Flute and Carmen for Ohio State University.

Ms. Alch also has held staff teaching positions teaching ballet and ballet history at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music, in Winchester, Virginia.  She operated her own private ballet studio while living in Columbus, Ohio.  She was rehearsal director for the Columbus Dance Ensemble and taught on the staff of Ballet Metropolitan.  She served as president of the Lily Dale Fine Arts Council for ten years.

Ms. Alch has been artistic director with the Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet since 2000.

ELIZABETH SCHMITZ, Instructor

Ms. Schmitz  joined the staff at the Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet in 2004 She is a graduate of the three-year teacher training program at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Prior to joining CRYB, Ms. Schmitz taught Cecchetti-based classical ballet for ten years both in private studios and for George Brown College School of Dance and the children's program at York University.

SUE SPENCER, Instructor(Artistic Director of Struthers Library Theatre)
Sue has spent her whole life on stage or behind the scenes of area
theatres. Ms. Spencer’s experience includes directing and co-directing
musicals, producing, performance, dance and choreography with
experience in costuming and set design. Sue is presently also employed
at the Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet, Jamestown, N.Y. as dance
instructor with Artistic Director, Monika Alch. Following her time working
with the Reg Lenna Civic Center’s Drama Enrichment Program with
Director Michele Constantino in Jamestown, NY Sue began the Allegheny
Regional Theatre Experience musical theater educational classes at the
Struthers Library Theatre. Sue’s recent directing credits include Maury
Yeston’s, Phantom, John Ferry’s,Servants of the Wind, and Titanic. Sue lives in Russell
with her husband, Steve.

GINA SMERAGLIUOLO, Instructor

Gina Smeragliuolo began her ballet training at the age of five under the direction of Chelsea Destefano at the Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet in Jamestown, New York. Throughout her years with Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet, she has studied with many outstanding instructors including world-renowned Jean Pierre-Bonnefoux, Beth Elkins, Daniel Ulbricht and Jonathan Stafford, both principal dancers with New York City Ballet, Denis Malinkine and Tatiana Jouravel, both from Milwaukee Ballet, Lenny Holmes, from New York City, Joe Cipolla, artistic director of Configuration Dance Theatre, and her current teacher Monika Alch, who is the artistic director of CRYB.

Gina has attended a summer program at Neglia Ballet Artists in Buffalo NY, where she got to work with instructors including Sergio Neglia, Heidi Halt, Mario Galizzi, and Beverley Bagg. In 2008 she graduated from the Pre-Professional Division at CRYB and was accepted into the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, where she worked with instructors including Marjorie Grundvig, Dennis Marshall, Janet Popeleski, Anastasia Wovchko, Polly Ribeiro, and Alan Obuzor