Faculty

Faculty

Kassi Abreu, Instructor

Kassi Abreu is a dance artist, choreographer, director, and aerialist originally from Miami, Florida. She began her training at Southern Dance Theatre, Fort Lauderdale Ballet Classique, and Miami City Ballet. She has danced professionally with Miami City Ballet, Florida Dance Theatre, Central Florida Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem, O Dance, CineDance Jazz company, Brazz Dance, Royal Caribbean international, and Orlando Ballet. She has taught in Palm Beach County Schools, sharing her love of dance as the Academy Director at Boynton Beach Community High School. She continues to pursue her career in the arts by working with YoungArts. As an alumni winner of the competition, she has been working with their outreach programming. Through YA’s patronage, she was able to create “Dance Jam”, where she hosted in their jewel box dance studio. She also performed in one of YA’s artist-in-residence live showings of “el ciclón” and at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art for YoungArts’ end-of-year Gala. 

Ines Aperlo Lopez, Ballet Instructor and BBT4PD

Born in Argentina, Ines Lopez began her ballet education and training under her mentor, renowned ballet mistress Cristina Sanchez. Her formative years under her wing were carried out in her hometown of Carlos Paz, Cordoba. With her guidance, Ms. Lopez was awarded 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in several regional and international dance competitions and began her teaching career at 17. Seeking new opportunities abroad, she left Argentina in 2000 and relocated to Boca Raton, Florida. She quickly found a place to continue training and performing at Boca Ballet Theatre, sharing the stage with many ballet stars in productions of The Nutcracker, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Flower Festival at Genzano. In 2003, she became an instructor for BBT, taking on most of the Children’s Division classes, becoming the anchor of that program. She is passionate about inspiring the youngest dancers at BBT to love the art and discipline of ballet through movement and music. A testament to her costume design and seamstress skills, Ms. Lopez has been the Wardrobe Mistress for BBT and the Harid Conservatory for 15 years, displaying her creations on our local stages.

Carina Castañeda, Ballet Instructor

Carina Castañeda is a West Palm Beach, Florida, native and began her serious ballet training at Boca Ballet Theatre at age 10. While dancing at BBT, she performed roles such as the principal couple in George Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie and Paquita pas de trois. She went on to attend the Houston Ballet Academy starting in 2014 to continue her training. Under the guidance of Cheryne Busch and Sabrina Lenzi, she performed repertoire in the Academy such as Stanton Welch’s Ladies and A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Performing alongside Houston Ballet’s second company, HBII, she performed as a soloist in Stanton Welch’s The Long and Winding Road and Garrett Smith’s Mortal Form. She was the Academy’s Ben Stevenson Scholarship Award Recipient for the 2015/2016 year. During this time, she also attended summer programs at the Houston Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, and the Harid Conservatory. Carina joined BBT as an instructor in 2021, continuing her passion for dance as a mentor to students.  

Clarissa Castañeda, Instructor

A native of Lake Worth, Florida, Clarissa Castañeda began dancing on and off at the age of five but did not start ballet until the age of 13 at Boca Ballet Theater under the direction of Dan Guin and Jane Tyree. While at BBT, she performed many roles, including Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, The Sacrifice in Dan Guin’s The Rite of Spring, George Balanchine’s Serenade, George Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie, and Arabian Lead in The Nutcracker. After graduating in 2015, she went on to attend The Juilliard School. While at The Juilliard School, Castañeda performed new works by Helen Simoneau, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, Roy Assaf, Stefanie Batten Bland, and Madison Hicks. She also performed repertoire such as Crystal Pite’s Grace Engine, Richard Alston’s Sheer Bravado, Alejandro Cerrudo’s Little mortal jump, and Peter Chu’s Smile Masking (solo excerpt). Castañeda has furthered her training at summer programs such as Alonzo King LINES Ballet (full merit scholarship) and Springboard Danse Montréal, where she performed William Forsythe’s WorkWithinWork (duet excerpt) and a new work by Jasmine Ellis. After receiving her BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School in 2019, Castañeda moved back home to establish herself as a teacher and choreographer in the South Florida region.

Andréa Gregori, Ballet Instructor

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Andréa Gregori graduated from the Maria Olenewa State School and Rio Dance Center. In 1980, she joined the trainee program at the Joffrey Ballet. Transitioning to teaching, she gained extensive training in the Vaganova System and later became certified in Cuban (Escuela Nacional de Ballet de Cuba) and English (Royal Academy of Dance) methodologies. She is also an ABT® Certified Teacher in the ABT® National Training Curriculum, Primary through Level 7 & Partnering. Andréa has trained over 100 teachers in the Art of Teaching Creatively, focusing on the kinesthetic and psychological development of healthy students. She taught at the Boston Ballet School for eight years before relocating to Florida in 2015.

Stephanie Hugg

Stephanie grew up throughout the East coast, but calls Columbus, New Jersey her home. She trained under Julie Caprio at Hamilton Ballet Theater and attended programs at Gelsey Kirkland Academy and American Ballet Theater. Professionally, Stephanie danced for Baltimore Ballet, Mystic Ballet, Wonderbound Dance Company, and James Sewell Ballet.

While in Mystic, she served as the director of the Pre-Primary and Primary Divisions at Mystic Ballet School. She also taught various adult classes at St.Paul Ballet. Some of her most memorable performances include works by Gabrielle Lamb, Lauren Edson, and Sergei Vaneav. She has also performed in Vail Dance Festival’s “Night Of Dance” and alongside the Colorado Symphony, The FloBots, and the Breckinridge Orchestra in the Breckinridge Music Festival.

Toby Lewellen, Ballet Instructor

Toby Lewellen is originally from Peoria, Illinois, where he trained at Peoria Ballet Academy. He then studied Dance and Arts Administration at Butler University. In 2011 he joined Ballet Arkansas, where he has performed in lead roles in The Nutcracker, Cinderella, Coppelia, Swan Lake, Agnes de Mille’s The Other Pas de Deux, Christopher Wheeldon’s The American Pas de Deux, and George Balanchine‘s Who Cares? As well as dancing he was a Community Cast Ballet Master, working with the community cast to set and clean choreography for the Nutcracker and Cinderella. Mr. Lewellen also taught in multiple studios in the Little Rock Area. He also was the Summer Residence Director and Summer Faculty at the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia. He has also guested and performed all over the country including Boca Ballet Theatre.

Dennis Lue, Outreach Director

Dennis Lue was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up in Queens, New York, where he fell in love with performing in his high school’s musicals and dance shows. He continued dance studies at SUNY Purchase where he earned a BFA. Dennis began his professional career with the Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble and as a featured dancer with the Metropolitan Opera. He went on to dance with Tulsa Ballet, Alberta Ballet in Canada, and appeared as a guest artist with Louisville Ballet, State Street Ballet in Santa Barbara, CA, and Boca Ballet Theatre. He returned to his musical theater roots when he joined the Broadway cast of Disney’s The Lion King where he also served as Dance Captain. Other musical theater credits include associate choreographer for Hello Dolly! and The Wiz at the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY; performer in Susan Stroman’s Contact at Virginia Stage Company and Side Show at the Gallery Players; and performer and Dance Captain for West Side Story at La Scala Opera in Milan, Italy. As a teacher, he’s been on faculty at Ithaca College and Penn State University, and taught workshops at Elliot Feld’s New School. He is the Jazz dance instructor at the Harid Conservatory and a full-time faculty member and an outreach director at Boca Ballet Theatre.

Daniela Nascimento, Ballet Instructor

Daniela Nascimento is a Royal Academy of Dancing certified teacher originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has 15 years of experience teaching ballet, pointe and character and 16 years of experience as a professional dancer. Daniela has performed locally for Boca Ballet Theatre and in Brazil for Ilara Lopes and Nice Leite Nucleo de Danca. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education from the Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas in Sao Paulo and received her RAD certificates in 1997 from legendary ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn, the president of the Royal Academy.

Renee Rich, Instructor

Renee Rich has an extensive background as dancer, educator, producer and is known for her versatility in many dance genres teaching all ages. Ms Rich has been a professor in dance for the New World School of the Arts, the Florida International University and has been a master teacher and adjudicator for the prestigious “YoungArts” Scholarship Foundation and Competition program for over ten years. She has received numerous awards locally and nationally for excellence, versatility,choreography and leadership. Ms. Rich was a principal dancer for the Freddick Bratcher Modern Dance Co, The Ballet Flamenco La Rosa dance company and the Mia Michael’s Movement Dance Company receiving rave reviews.

Renee specializes in teaching Creative Movement ,Pre Ballet, Primary Ballet, Modern dance, Tap, Jazz , Mommy & Me and more. Ms Rich is multilingual and certified in the Progressing Ballet Technique. She also created the “EnRich Barre” Ballet fitness program for adults. She has been a driving force in the South Florida dance community for over 25 years with references including Daniel Lewis Dean of Dance, New World School of the Arts, Janna Kirova, Kirova Ballet Academy.

Amanda Sewell, Ballet Instructor

Amanda Sewell is originally from Annapolis, Maryland, where she began her professional experience with Ballet Theatre of Maryland. She graduated from Butler University with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in 2011 and performed with Sarasota Ballet the following year. In 2012, Amanda joined Ballet Arkansas. During her 10-year career there, she enjoyed performing the roles of Cinderella, Odette, the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Juliet. In addition to these roles, she performed in Agnes de Mille’s The Other; George Balanchine’s Who Cares?, Glinka Pas de Trois, Valse Fantasie, and Donizetti Variations; Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias; Gerald Arpino’s Birthday Variations and Confetti; Harrison McEldowney’s Group Therapy; and world premieres by Kiyon Gaines Ross. Amanda also served as a Community Cast Ballet Master for Ballet Arkansas’ performances of The Nutcracker and Cinderella.

Jenny Alexander

Aly Tejas