Our Faculty & Staff
Our faculty includes current and former professional dancers who are dedicated to sharing their knowledge and joy of dance with their students.
Jessica Boelts
Artistic Director, Choreographer, Ballet & Pointe
Jessica Boelts joined The Ridgefield School of Dance from Ballet Austin, Austin, Texas where she both taught at the Academy and performed with the Company. Under the direction of Ballet Austin Master Teacher Truman Finney, Ms. Boelts has danced principal roles in Balanchine's Raymonda Variations, Who Cares?, and Valse Fantasy, as well as The Nutcracker, La Sylphide, and Le Corsaire. She has performed in Balanchine's Serenade, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cinderella, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet and Peter Pan. She also danced with the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Massachusetts Youth Ballet.
Ms. Boelts teaches students from Ballet 2 through the Ballet PreProfessional Divisions. In addition to teaching she has staged the Grand Pas from Paquita, selections from Swan Lake, Giselle and Romeo & Juliet and choreographed many pieces for the Upper Level and individual dancers.
Spring 2021 Ms. Boelts staged an an original classical/contemporary ballet Four Seasons, to the music of Antonio Vivaldi and Max Richter. She has also staged an original version of Alice in Wonderland, Carnival of the Animals, and The Nutcracker for The Ridgefield School of Dance. Ms. Boelts' original choreography includes the 2018 premiere of Madeline, based on the children's classic. Her choreography also includes the 2017 premiere of "Untitled" a short, contemporary ballet performed by our Ballet & Jazz Company.
Rebecca Tschan
Ballet & Pointe, Adult Ballet
Rebecca Tschan trained at Ballet Academy East in New York City under the direction of Darla Hoover prior to training privately with Fabrice Herrault.
Rebecca graduated Summa Cum Laude from Butler University in Indianapolis, which she attended on a full merit dance and academic scholarship. She received her BFA in Dance Performance, as well as a minor in Psychology. Under the direction of professors Marek Cholewa, Rosanna Ruffo, Derek Reid, and Susan McGuire, Rebecca danced various soloist and principal roles, including Giselle, Snow Queen and Dewdrop, and also worked on and performed in Gerald Arpino's “Light Rain”.
Following graduation, Rebecca joined Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's Graduate Program on scholarship. She performed with PBT's Corps de Ballet in Terrence Orr’s “The Nutcracker”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and more, as well as learning Susan Jaffe’s restaging of “Swan Lake,” George Balanchine’s “Diamonds” and “Theme and Variations", and Michael Pink’s “Dracula”. Rebecca also performed principal roles with the Graduate Program, including the Grand Pas de Deux from “The Nutcracker”, one of the soloist variations in “Paquita”, and Big Swans in “Swan Lake”. She also performed the Sugar Plum Fairy variation with Pittsburgh's Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall.
Rebecca has attended prestigious summer intensive programs, many on scholarship. Among them, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Houston Ballet, Ballet West, National Ballet of Canada, and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. She is also fully certified in the ABT National Training Curriculum for levels Pre-Primary through 6, 7, and Partnering.
Violeta Katz
PreBallet and Ballet 1
Violeta Katz began her study of ballet at the age of 12, with Frank and Rosalia Bourman in Union City, NJ. At 15, she auditioned for, and received a scholarship to train at The Center Ballet of Buffalo, under the direction of Kathleen Crofton. She studied with Edward Caton, Anna-Marie and David Holmes and Bronislava Nijinska who restaged Les Biches and Brahams Variations. These were performed at Jacob’s Pillow where she danced the role of one of the Pink girls in Les Biches.
Upon returning to New York, Violeta continued studying with William Griffith, Meredith Baylis and Ann Parsons at The Joffrey Ballet School and with Darisuz Hochman at Morelli Dance Studio.
For over twenty years, Violeta has been teaching ballet to dancers of all ages, most recently in Westport, CT and Scarsdale, NY. Her focus and joy is introducing our youngest dancers to ballet and she is certified to teach Leap n‘ Learn early childhood dance education and ABT dance curriculum from Pre-Primary-aged dancers on up.
Stevi Van Meter
Jazz, Musical Theatre Dance, & Tap
Stevi comes to The Ridgefield School of Dance by way of Radio City Music Hall, where she was a Rockette for 15 years. She has performed and served as dance captain on musicals including Damn Yankees, Bubbling Brown Sugar, 42nd Street and Mame, to name a few. Stevi has also performed in national commercials and worked with many stars including Liza Minnelli, and Bette Midler. She has appeared in over 20 MTV videos and has been choreographer for regional productions of The Fantasticks.
photo credit: Patrick Fraser
Carla Körbes
Consultant, Coach, Private Lessons
Carla moved to Ridgefield, Ct. in 2023 and joined our faculty for the 23-24 season. in 2024 Carla was invited to join the faculty of The Julliard School, one of the most prestigious ballet programs in the country. She is now a consultant for the school as well as a coach and offers private lessons.
Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Carla began ballet training with local teachers at age five. At age 11, she began studying at Ballet Vera Bublitz. In 1996, Peter Boal, former New York City Ballet (NYCB) principal dancer, danced with her as a guest artist of the school and encouraged her to come to New York to study at the School of American Ballet (SAB). For the 1997-98 academic year, her tuition was paid for by Alexandra Danilova so she could continue studying at SAB.
In 1999, Körbes won the Mae. L. Wien Award and was made an apprentice with NYCB. She joined the company as a corps de ballet member in 2000 and was the Janice Levin Dancer Honoree for 2001-02. She was promoted to soloist in 2005 and joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a soloist later that year. She was promoted to principal dancer there in 2006.
Körbes's repertory included numerous ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon, William Forsythe, Alexei Ratmansky, Twyla Tharp, Nacho Duato, Jirí Kylián, Mark Morris, and many more. She also performed in most of ballet's classical works, including Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, and Don Quixote.
In 2015 she joined the L.A. Dance Project as associate director and started teaching at The Colburn School in Los Angeles. In 2017, became a professor of music in ballet at the prestigious Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She is a certified wellness life coach and runs a Wellness Program for New York City Ballet dancers.
Jamie Rae Walker
Ballet, Partnering, Contemporary Modern, Fusion, Lyrical,
Offered a scholarship by Violette Verdy, Jamie Rae danced at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) throughout high school and participated in summer programs with Pacific Northwest Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. Upon graduating she was invited by Edward Villella to join Miami City Ballet where she performed principal and soloist roles in Balanchine and Paul Taylor dances. Then in 2001, she was cast by Twyla Tharp in the Broadway show "Movin' Out" while simultaneously studying at the Taylor School. Jamie Rae joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in September 2003 and took her final bow at Lincoln Center in November, 2019. In 2018, she performed in the feature film The Chaperone to John Carrafa's choreography.
Combining a contemporary vision with classical ballet, Miss Jamie teaches ballet technique to our upper level dancers and is now offering Modern technique to dancers ages 9 and up.
Irene Zimmerman
NIA
An accomplished instructor, performer, and choreographer, Irene Zimmerman teaches NIA - a body, mind, spirit class.
Irene trained in New York at the Neubert Ballet Institute, the International Dance School and Ballet Arts at Carnegie Hall, Steps, and Broadway Dance Center. Her studies included both the Vagonova and Cecchetti methods and she holds a black belt in NIA.
In addition to her extensive ballet training with such luminaries as Stephan Hoff, Sandra Balestracci, Lisa Danias, Primavera Boman, David Howard, George Tomal, Michele Assof, and Susie Taylor, Irene also studied jazz with Lillian Heitzman.
Irene’s performance credentials include dancing New York City Opera Ballet, New Jersey Ballet (The Nutcracker), and Dig-Pointe Ballet Company. She has toured extensively and appeared in The Music Man, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, Annie, Little Shop of Horrors, and West Side Story. In addition to her teaching, Irene has choreographed and directed local musical theatre productions.
Alison Brown
Executive Director
Alison Brown became executive director of the Ridgefield School of Dance in July 2014 after working as the school business manager for the previous 9 years. She has always enjoyed the business side of entertainment working with creative teams and clients to ensure smooth operations. Managing the school and interfacing with the instructors, parents and dancers provided Ms. Brown with the experience and dedication needed to continue the excellence for which the school is known.
Ms. Brown was one of the founders of Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Robots, Rio), a world-class computer-generated animation and effects studio, and she was the executive producer for its award-winning commercial division. She also served as executive producer for the New York division of Kleiser-Walczak, an animation and visual effects studio formerly located in the Berkshires, New York and Los Angeles.
Nancy Andrews - 1941 - 2017
Ridgefield School of Dance Founder
Nancy Andrews founded The Ridgefield School of Dance in 1997, and brought her love of dance to hundreds of students as both director and teacher. She shared her talent and experience, which included dancing with The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, Merce Cunningham, and the Martha Graham School, with all of her students including Skidmore College where she was the department director.
Nancy directed and taught at The Ridgefield School of Dance until 2014, when she sold the school, and continued teaching through 2016. Teaching was her great passion. Her creative spirit and devotion to her students established the strong foundation for the school, which continues to grow and excel, building on her legacy.
The 2017 Spring performance was dedicated to her memory.
