The Faculty

Diana Dart Harris (Ballet 2-6, Principal of Guilford Studio) -Diana studied ballet, tap and jazz for 15 years under Linda & Sandee Juliano and at Connecticut Ballet.  She earned her BA in Dance Education from Goucher College where she studied under John-Pierre Bonnefoux, Violette Verdy and Gary Masters.  While at Goucher she performed with Goucher’s company, Dancers In Action, and with Choreographie Antique.  She choreographed several pieces for department performances and served as editor of Goucher’s Dance Newsletter.  She returned to Connecticut in 1991 and performed with New Haven Ballet in pieces choreographed by Noble Barker and Jeremy Lindberg.  She directed her own program, Dance Arts, in Clinton for ten years, has been a faculty member at Dance Academy of Connecticut and Dance Unlimited and has been a guest teacher for Dance Educators of America and at Smith College.  She is resident choreographer for The Morgan School and has also choreographed for Clinton Family Theater, Nutmeg Players, Westbrook High School and Walsh Intermediate School.  She has acted as both a judge and coordinator for the Shoreline Arts Alliance Dance Scholarship auditions and has been a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science.  Currently, she is the movement teacher at the Montessori School of Madison.  She is completing her thesis work on Bone Density in Adolescent Ballet Dancers for her Masters Degree in Exercise Physiology and resides in Guilford with her husband, Mark and their two children, Rachael and Caleb.

Eliza Calvert (Children’s Ballet)

Aliza Calvert graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2005 with a BFA in Drama.  While there, she studied musical theatre for 3 years at CAP21 and spent a semester at Stonestreet Studios for Film and Television.  She performed in both university productions and an Off-(off!)-Broadway musical at the Producer's Club II, Come Away.  After graduating, she worked in the Education Department at Hartford Stage Company, working on various theatre education programs, both in-house and at schools in the Hartford area.  While there, she was also the Associate Director and the Costume Designer for a Breakdancing Shakespeare performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and directed a series of one-act plays entitled Sewn Together for Hebrew High School in West Hartford.  Aliza has been a faculty member for the past three years at the Audrey Ward School of Dance in Clinton, teaching tap, jazz, ballet, hip hop, modern, lyrical, and musical theatre.  She also dances with a modern dance ensemble at Starship Dance Theatre in North Guilford, and recently performed with them in the Rebound Dance Festival in New Haven.

Kim Cricchi (Hip-Hop)

Torrance (Torrie) Hanley trained at Dance Circle in Ithaca, NY with Naomi Strichartz, at the Ithaca Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) with Naomi Strichartz and Miranda Strichartz, at Ithaca College with Eugenia Wacker-Hoeflin, and at Cornell University with Byron Suber.  She performed at CSMA and Cornell University, and taught ballet at CSMA for six years.  Torrie received two B.A. degrees, one in Biology and one in English, from Cornell University.  She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University.

Chereé Knight-Camara (Jazz, African)

Bronwen MacArthur has performed in New York, throughout the U.S., Europe and South America.  Since 2000, her choreography has been shown in Russia, New York and around New England.  MacArthur co-directs, with Emily Coates, the dance theater lab Motion In Dialogue (MIND) and directs MacArthur Dance Project which made its debut in May, 2007.  MacArthur teaches ballet and contemporary dance in various contexts and recently participated in the first New England Dance Lab, an initiative of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project.

Carla O’Brien (Ballet)

Carla O'Brien trained with Virginia Capron, Robyn Fattibene and Bryan Lewis in Connecticut. Her professional training was under Carol Sumner, Director of the American Ballet Academy Ensemble in Stamford, CT. Ms O'Brien has also danced and performed at both the Chautauqua Institute and Skidmore College/Saratoga Performing Arts Center, summer residence for the New York City Ballet. Ms O'Brien holds a BS from the University of Rhode Island and MHA from Quinnipiac University.

Nazorene Paglia (Modern)

Lisa Sanborn (Open Division Ballet)

Lisa Sanborn received her early dance training in Chicago, Illinois from Larry Long, Dolores Lipinski and Warren Conover.  Ms. Sanborn danced as a member of the Clinton Contemporary Ballet and Quad Cities Civic Ballet companies in Iowa, performed for several years in the Chicago Tribune Charities production of The Nutcracker, and appeared with the Royal Danish Ballet in Napoli.  As a child, Ms. Sanborn also worked as a model, appeared in television commercials and performed in numerous musical and other theatrical productions.  Ms. Sanborn received her Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Skidmore College and juris doctorate from Albany Law School of Union University.  In addition to providing ballet instruction at New Haven Ballet, Ms. Sanborn currently serves as in house counsel for The Southern Connecticut Gas Company and Connecticut Natural Gas Corporation.

Amy Schendel (Children’ Ballet)

James Teti received his B.A. from Charter Oak College and is an accomplished pianist and organist. Mr. Teti has been with the New Haven Ballet since its inception. He is also on the faculty at the Educational Center for the Arts.

May attended graduate school at the Yale School of Music.  She has received diplomas in piano and theory from Royal Schools of Music in Hong Kong.  She is a state nationally certified piano teacher in the United States.  May has been playing piano for the New Haven Ballet school since September, 1977.

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