THE CHICAGO SCHOOL OF BALLET
Open Enrollment
CLASSES AUGUST 21st-JUNE 15TH
Our Mission at The Chicago School of Ballet is to provide students of all levels with more than just dance classes, but a unique experience in which our students grow and thrive both mentally and physically as dancers. Classes will include:
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Ballet
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Pointe
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Variations
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Contemporary
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Modern
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HipHop
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Pilates
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Jazz
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Pre-professional Ballet Program
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Now Registering! Please call the school or drop by to register in person.
About Us
Our mission at The Chicago School of Ballet is to provide students of all levels with more than just dance classes, but a unique experience in which the student can grow both mentally and physically as a dancer. Owner/Director, Steve Norman has assembled a team of some of the finest instructors, all of whom have extensive professional experience teaching and performing in their various styles.
Our Pre-Professional students are among the top in the country, receiving scholarships and placing in such prestigious competitions as Youth American Grand Prix, World Ballet Competition, Carey Rose and more.
Here at The Chicago School of Ballet, we have a passion for the art of dance and for helping others discover their inner dancer.
For more information regarding our program, please contact us at: 630.418.5525
HOURS OF OPERATION
Mon - Fri: 3pm-10pm
Saturday: 10am - 4pm
Sunday: By Appointment
**Private Coaching Available Upon Request**
Meet Our Team
STEVEN NORMAN
Founder, Artistic Director
Steven Norman, formerly of the Chicago Ballet Conservatory, began his classical ballet training at the age of 11 in Elgin Illinois. In 1990 he was awarded full scholarship to train at Houston Ballet Academy. Steve began his professional career in 1992 in the Corpe de ballet at Houston Ballet. In 1995 he was invited by Artistic Director Helgi Thomasson to join the prestigious San Francisco Ballet. He danced numerous soloist roles. Most memorable for him include Hilarion and Pas de Cinq in Tomasson's Giselle, Snow Prince, Lead Russian, Arabian Prince and Spanish in Nutcracker. He toured and performed in cities throughout the world including New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, London, Paris, Athens, Edinburgh, Reykjavik, Belfast, Nervi, Copenhagen, Madrid, Bilboa and Barcelona.
After retiring from his 13 year career with San Francisco Ballet, he has dedicated his efforts to fulfilling a very specific vision of creating a world-class environment for dancers who desire to pursue the highest level of ballet training.
Joyce Smith
BALLET, POINTE, PILATES & REPERTOIRE
Joyce Smith began her initial training in classical ballet and pointe with Lisa Boehm and continued studying ballet, pointe and jazz in the Chicagoland area before later training in modern dance (specifically the techniques of Martha Graham and José Limón) while completing her undergraduate degree as a scholarship dance major. She has also studied at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and has taken master classes and intensives with numerous dance artists such as Randy Duncan, Peter Sparling, Denise Vale, Jan Erkert and former Balanchine ballerina Jillana. With her range of training in both classical and modern dance, Joyce enjoyed dancing for independent choreographers as well as modern based companies and feels fortunate to have had the opportunities to dance the diverse repertory of choreographers that include Paul Taylor, Joel Hall, Claire Porter among many others. While still performing, Joyce spent ten years simultaneously working behind the scenes in arts administration and dance production for organizations that include The Juilliard School Dance Division, Vanderbilt Summer Dance Festival, New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance, the American Dance Legacy Institute and Illinois Summer School of the Arts. Joyce has been teaching dance for many years, including eight years as a member of the dance faculty at Vanderbilt University and Harpeth Hall School, where she also served as director for the Upper School Ballet and Modern Dance Companies. In addition to teaching dance, Joyce earned her Pilates Mat certification through New York’s PhysicalMind Institute.
Rali Jordanova
BALLET, POINTE, VARIATIONS
Ms. Ralitza Iordanova – Rali, is an American Ballet Theatre Certified Teacher, with training in Vaganova, RAD, and Cecchetti ballet techniques. Rali studied ballet and contemporary theatre in Sofia, Bulgaria, at the Vaganova ballet school “Krassimira Koldamova,” under the instruction and directorship of prima ballerina Academician Krassimira Koldamova. Rali furthered her dance education in Auckland, New Zealand; there she trained with “L’Academie de Dance,” under the RAD ballet system and “Black Grace” – a NZ contemporary dance company. Rali’s early career as a performer and a young choreographer includes ballet and contemporary productions, dance tours, TV productions, musical theatre, movies, and music videos.
Rali received her teacher training and certification at American Ballet Theater in New York, USA, through the “ABT National Training Curriculum” program, under the instruction of Raymond Lukens and Franco De Vita. Her career in the performing arts continued as a teacher, choreographer and performance producer at Faubourg Theatre in Chicago, USA. As an instructor and choreographer, Rali trained and coached dance students and future dance professionals for international ballet competitions, including YAGP, Prix De Lausanne, WBAC, WBC, and IDO Championships. As a performance producer, she directed theatre staging, casting, choreography, lights and sound design.
Currently, Rali has dedicated her career as an instructor at The Chicago School of Ballet in Chicago, USA, under the directorship of Steven Norman. Rali’s focus is on developing young dance artists with impeccable technique, musicality, mental agility, and love of life and creativity.
Amanda Hickey
JAZZ & CONTEMPORARY
Amanda discovered a passion for dance at the age of ten. She began her serious training at Faubourg School of Ballet under Watmora Casey, Tatyana Mazur, and Ernesto Quenedit. She later graduated from Butler University in 2014, where she studied on both academic and talent scholarships earning her BFA with honors in Dance Performance. While at Butler she had the opportunity to spend a month studying abroad in Europe where she trained and performed in Warsaw, Krakow, and St. Petersburg. As a senior, she was asked to choreograph for the study abroad program, exposing her choreography to venues across Eastern Europe . Throughout the years Amanda has had the pleasure of performing as a guest artist for State Street Dance Studio, The Dance Factory, Elan Artists, and The Schaumburg Dance Ensemble to name a few. Upon returning to Chicago after graduation, Amanda joined Nomi Dance Company where she danced for four years. In addition to being a dancer with the company, she has also worked as a choreographer for three of the Nomi's shows, and has set choreography on the Ballet Theatre of Indiana as well. Currently, Amanda is dancing with Giordano Dance Chicago as a Senior Performing Associate. Besides performing, Amanda enjoys teaching and choreographing for studios across the Chicago-land area.
Ela Olarte
MODERN
ELA OLARTE, originally from Davao City, Philippines, is a Chicago-based teacher and choreographer. Ela has worked professionally with The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cocodaco Dance Project Professional Company, Visceral Dance Chicago, Thodos Dance Chicago, AJA Talent, Purus Motus Cinema, Brian McGinnis, Hanna Brictson (Dance For Life/Chicago Ideas), Jessica Miller Tomlinson, and Jon Sloven amongst others. As a choreographer, Ela created work for Dance in the Parks’ 11th season. She was awarded first place for her piece, “Nocturnal Detail” at the College of DuPage Choreography Competition (2017). Additionally, Ela has presented work for A&A Ballet, Cocodaco Dance Project, College of DuPage, Detroit Dance City Festival, DanceWorks Chicago's Dance Chance, Foster Dance, and has produced independent dance films. Ela holds a BFA from The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago with a focus in Choreography and minor in Dance Pedagogy. Further training credits and respective summer programs include The Joffrey Ballet, Visceral Dance Center’s Professional Scholarship Program, River North, Ballet Lab, and Hip Hop Connxion.
Jennifer Mastin
BALLET
Miss Jenny trained at Classical Ballet Center in Tampa, Florida under the direction of Haydee Gutierrez and Miguel Campaneria. She performed lead roles in Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Paquita, Les Sylphides, Le Corsaire and original choreography. Jenny performed as an apprentice with Tampa Ballet in their productions Nutcracker, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Ms. Mastin spent summers with Joffrey Ballet New York City and School of American Ballet with performances in Saratoga Springs. Under the direction of Ms. Gutierrez, she began training as a classical ballet instructor at the age of 15. She danced two seasons with Cincinnati Ballet, Knoxville Ballet Theatre and New Orleans Ballet before receiving a Bachelor of Science from University of Tampa. Miss Jenny attended North Carolina School of the Arts studying under Duncan Noble, Melissa Hayden and Mabel Robinson. She performed lead roles in Nutcracker, Serenade, Symphony 13 and accompanied NCSA for a six-week performing tour in Budapest, Hungary. She became Director of Classical Ballet Center in Tampa, Florida with students professionally contracted with Joffrey Ballet, Sarasota Ballet and Ballet Hawaii. Jenny has been teaching at Salt Creek Ballet for 13 years and coaching their yearly production of Nutcracker for the past four years. She has been a registered nurse for 28 years.
Jordan Buchanan
CONTEMPORARY & HIPHOP
Jordan Buchanan is an up-and-coming choreographer and dance instructor that is extremely excited to share their artistry and passion for dance with the community. Jordan began training in genres such as jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, lyrical, and hip hop at Center Stage Dance Academy at the age of 6 years old, and continued there up until they graduated high school in 2019. Jordan competed with Envision Dance Company for years, and ended their competition career as a consecutive title winner with Starbound Dance Competition. Jordan was also a part of LA Dance Magic Company, where they assisted incredible choreographers and performed around the US. Jordan has always had an intense love for performing. At a young age, they performed in Disney’s Dance the Magic Parade in Disney World, Orlando Florida, where they led the parade dancing through Magic Kingdom. Jordan also appeared on TV in ABC’s Disney Christmas Day Parade for two years, where they got to dance with Neil Patrick Harris and Broadway’s Cast of Newsies. Jordan gained a love for teaching by traveling with dance artists such as Amanda Preiser and Sky Nowotnik, who they closely assisted for several years. Jordan began teaching by becoming a trusted substitute teacher to instructors such as Debbie Nowotnik, Sky Nowotnik, and Amanda Hickey, and has since made a debut with their own choreography at several studios in the Chicagoland area. Jordan is ecstatic to be teaching the younger generation, and is looking forward to continuing to spread their adoration for the art of dance for years to come at The Chicago School of Ballet.
Kseniia Stetsenko
BALLET, POINTE, VARIATIONS
Originally from Kyiv, Ukraine. I began dancing at age 7 at FORS Dance School under the direction E. Bichko. Then studied at Lifar Academy of Dance. At the Academy I received my classical and modern training from Dmytro Klyavin, G. Zarytska and Tetyana Golyakova. During the study I got 1 place in International Competition of Classical and Contemporary Choreography (Kyiv) and received an award from the mayor for success in developing the culture of the Kyiv city . Also educated in Drahomanov Pedagogical University. I’m graduated from Lifar Academy in June, 2016. After graduating I was accepted into the National Opera of Ukraine (2016-2022), where joined as a soloist and had performed several roles in classical ballets including Giselle, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty and many others. And also toured around the world performing in theatres in Japan, Taiwan, Italy, France, Brazil. Since 2020 to 2022 I have been a ballet teacher in the National figure skating team of Ukraine.After February 2022 I moved to the Netherlands and joined in UUB company with great direction Alexei Ratmansky, Jiri Kylian, Igone de Jongh, Thom Stuart and Rinus Sprong. At the end of 2022 I came to United States, Chicago. In 2023 I began working at the West Suburban Ballet Conservatory as a faculty member. Teacher for ballet, conditioning, pointe lessons and variations. And already in 2024 received Outstanding teacher awards at two different competitions. In March 2024 I am very happy to start working at the Chicago School of Ballet as a faculty member under the direction of Steven Norman and share my knowledge and experience with students.