Faculty & Staff

Meet the 2023 - 2024 school year faculty & staff of North Jersey School of Dance Arts

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Ashley Feyrer

Co-Owner/Co-Director

Contemporary & Choreography

Ashley Feyrer was born and bred in New Jersey and received her dancing training at NJSDA from Christine Taylor and Luba Gulyaeva.  She also attended programs at Princeton Dance Theatre and Broadway Dance Center.  Summer programs include scholarship to Point Park University. 

An original company member of New Jersey Civic Youth Ballet, Ashley has performed principle roles in the Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf and La Jeunesse.  She has worked with Geoffrey Doig-Marx, Mark Morris, Kiki Lucas and Jennifer Deckert and has performed in a number of dance festivals including 2010 American College Dance Gala, Women in Dance-Alvin Ailey, Dumbo White Wave and West Fest Dance Festival.   

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Alex Thorpe

Co-Owner/Co-Director

Ballet, Pilates & Yoga

Alexandra Thorpe received her early dance training from NJSDA under the direction of Christine Taylor and was a founding member of the New Jersey Civic Youth Ballet. She attended numerous summer intensives including Cedar Islands with Suzanne Farrell, Boston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet School, New Jersey Ballet, and David Parsons Summer Intensive. In May 2009, Ms. Thorpe graduated cum laude from Butler University with a BA in Dance Pedagogy. While at Butler, she danced corps and soloist roles in Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Giselle, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, and Balanchine’s Serenade. After graduating from Butler, Ms. Thorpe danced and worked with various contemporary ballet companies including Insight Dance Company, Nimbus Dance Works, and the Kennedy Dancers. Along with her dance training, Ms. Thorpe is certified in Pilates and Yoga.


Erin Usawicz

Ballet

Erin’s early training was at Boston Ballet with Sydelle Gomberg and later as a scholarship student with Ballet Theatre of Boston (now Jose Mateo Ballet Theater) where she trained with Jose Mateo, Mary McKenzie Thompson, Elena Martinson & Andrei Ustinov.  Erin was invited to apprentice with the company when she was 17 years old. After apprenticing, Erin danced corps de ballet roles in The Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Cinderella as well as many original works. Erin also trained in NYC with Finis Jung at Broadway Dance Center, and was invited to be a guest artist with Long Island Ballet Theater for their Nutcracker season. Erin attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY for fashion design and later attended Mason Gross School of the Arts and graduated magna cum laude with a BFA in photography. Erin currently owns a photography studio where she specializes in photographing dancers, bringing together her two passions. Erin has taught as an adjunct instructor in ballet at Centenary University’s theater department and has been teaching at NJSDA since 2007. Erin is thrilled to have been a part of so many young dancer’s training over the years and is looking forward to many more years with the school! 

Ramona Kelley

Ballet

Ramona is from Berkeley, CA where she began her training at Berkely Ballet Theater. She went on to earn a BFA in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ramona danced the principal role of ‘Betsy’ in Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away and went on to dance with the Tharp Company creating new roles in addition to performing repertory works. She is a principal guest artist with Oakland Ballet and has performed with Christopher Wheeldon’s An American in Paris, Dance Lab New York, Minnesota Dance Theater, Claudia Schreier and Co, Post: Ballet, Sidra Bell, Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, and Phantom of the Opera (25th Anniversary Tour) among other. Ramona has taught for Pacific Northwest Ballet, as well as master classes in Tharp techniques across the country. She is an adjunct ballet faculty at NYU’s Tisch Dance.


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Shanna Heverly Hingel

Ballet & Jazz

Born in Colorado, yet raised in NJ, Shanna received her initial dance training at NJSDA under the instruction of Christine Taylor and Luba Gulyeava . Shanna was an original company member of the NJCYB! She received her BFA in Dance with a minor in ballet pedagogy at The Boston Conservatory. While in Boston, she also was a principal ballet dancer with the company Ballet Rox and found her love for musical theater while performing in regional houses there. Although, she continued to freelance with various companies, Shanna then shifted her focus full time into the musical theater world where she performed in the Broadway National Tour of CATS, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, White Christmas, Grease, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Beauty and the Beast, 42nd Street, Singin’ in the Rain, Swing, Annie Get Your Gun and Carousel. She also has had the privilege performing as a back up dancer for Ne-Yo, as well as appearing in various music videos and commercials. As a teacher, Shanna is extremely passionate about not only passing on her love for dance, but instilling clean, correct technique in her students, while building the confidence and grace needed to perform and thrive in or out of the performance world.




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Sean Kelly

Ballet

Sean was a principal dancer with Houston Ballet for many years, where he eventually became the ballet master. He danced lead roles in many classical ballets including Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker to name a few. Most recently he was the Resident Director/Associate Choreographer for the Broadway show and national tour for An American in Paris. He also took a tour to Asia and Paris. And most recently Staged the Production in Australia. His other theater credits include Billy Elliot, Moving Out, and Swing.

He was awarded Best Partner at the International Ballet Competition in Helsinki, Finland.

Mr. Kelly is a regular Guest Ballet Master for Houston Ballet and Diablo Ballet.

He teaches Adult Ballet Classes at Ballet Academy East in NYC, as well as for the Metropoltian Opera.

He is a guest teacher at a variety of schools around the nation.

Mr. Kelly values the students and the positive but disciplined environment at NJSDA and is pleased to be a part of the Faculty.

Alexandra Limeburg

Ballet

Alexandra Limeburg was born and raised in New Jersey. She began training at the age of three at North Jersey School of Dance Arts under the direction of Christine Taylor and Luba Gulyaeva. Some of her performance highlights with NJSDA include Clara in “The Nutcracker”, Cinderella in “Cinderella”, and Swanhilda in “Coppelia”. She danced with NJSDA until the age of fifteen before moving to Miami to train in the pre-professional division at Miami City Ballet School under Arantxa Ochoa. While in Miami, she learned and performed many Balanchine ballets including “Raymonda Variations” and “Serenade”. She also had the opportunity to perform Balanchine’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” with the company while a student at MCB. She is now dancing professionally at New Jersey Ballet and will start her second season with the company this fall.


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Cari Sanchez

Musical Theater

Montclair State University Graduate. Her vast musical theatre background includes Footloose, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music, Cabaret, Crazy for You, Parade,Tommy,
Bye Bye Birdie, Peter Pan, Shrek, Pippin, Elf, and the list goes on.


Cari spent 5 years touring with Norwegian Cruise Line as a principal Vocalist/Dancer on numerous ships around the world including the Norwegian Getaway where she originated the role of Elle/Margot in Legally Blonde the Musical at sea. She also performed as the principal vocalist for the world-wide ballroom sensation Burn the Floor.


You can find her choreography in various productions at The Growing Stage. Also, contact her for voice & audition coaching! On her free time she is the percussionist/vocalist in the Chuck Wood Band, a world beat band performing all over the Northeast. She lives locally with her hubby and their two little girls and is thrilled to be on the faculty at NJSDA!


Kaileigh Cagnassola

Ballet

Kaileigh started dancing at NJSDA when she was 3. When she was 9, she also joined NJCYB where she performed in the Nutcracker every year and other ballets such as Fairydoll, Coppélia, Carnival of the Animals, Peter and the Wolf, and more. Throughout her high school years, she enjoyed teaching the younger students at NJSDA. After graduation, she attended Point Park University for two years where she performed works choreographed by George Balanchine, Jay Kirk, Daniel Karasik, and more. This year, Kaileigh has accepted a trainee position with the American Repertory Ballet in Princeton, NJ. Kaileigh is thrilled to be given the opportunity to come back and teach at NJSDA for the 2023-24 school year!

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Sara Brians

Broadway Tap & Jazz

Sara Brians is an award winning, New York City based director, choreographer, and educator. She began her dance career as a Radio City Rockette, then, made her Broadway debut in the revival of 42nd Street. She has worked on six Broadway shows as a performer, resident and associate choreographer, including White Christmas, Matilda, Billy Elliot, The Terms of My Surrender, and After the Night and the Music.

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Samantha Johnson

Tap

Sam began dancing at NJSDA in 2004 when she was in kindergarten and continued until the present day! Throughout her time at NJSDA, she has taken classes in all dance styles, but mostly rhythmic, rockette, and contemporary tap.

She has danced the roles of the Dormouse and John Pillar in North Jersey’s productions of Alice in Wonderland. In the fall of 2017, she began teaching her own tap classes at NJSDA. Sam choreographed and performed a tap dance that appeared in her high school’s marching band show in 2013.

She also played saxophone in her high school’s jazz band and pit orchestra playing in shows such as Shrek and 42nd Street. She recently attended Jersey Tap Fest in the summer of 2018. Sam currently attends Centenary University majoring in Environmental Science.