REBECCA TSIVKIN (Founder/Director) is the director of International Dance Acclaim (IDA), adjudicating and teaching workshops across the United States and internationally. She has been on the faculty at Ballet Hispanico for over 15 years, currently serving as a Curriculum & Teacher Development Consultant. Rebecca also teaches classes at Steps On Broadway and Ballet Arts in New York City.
Rebecca is a graduate and licentiate of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and is an Associate of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD).
Her RAD training included a 3-year in-depth program that covered ballet, anatomy/kinesiology, dance pedagogy, child psychology, labanotation, character, modern, and dance history.
Rebecca has taught in universities, private dance studios and company schools. Her students have gone on to attend advanced training programs in such places as School of American Ballet (SAB) and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theater (JKO), and to dance in professional companies such as Ballet Austin, Sacramento Ballet, and BalletX, among others.
Rebecca was on the teaching faculty at American Academy of Ballet, where she was also the Executive Coordinator and International Judge for the Performance Awards program under the direction of Mignon Furman. She was the Head Children’s Instructor at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy, and has taught master classes at Dance Teacher Summit NYC, Dance Teacher Web Live Las Vegas, Dance Teacher Summit LA, Toronto Dance Teacher Expo, and Calgary Dance Teacher Expo.
DIANNE SCHILLER (Tap Program Creator and Director) is originally from South Africa. She began her dance training early on in her mother’s studio. She is a distinguished graduate of the International Dance Teachers Association (member of the British Dance Council).
In 2017 Dianne was commissioned to create the IDA Tap program consisting of 13 progressive levels. She embraced the project and the result has exceeded expectations on all levels. Teachers and students alike have eagerly engaged in the program with much success.
The annual master classes that Dianne teaches at the Dance Teacher Web Conference and Expo are always enthusiastically attended by teachers of all levels from recreational through pre professional.
Her teaching style combines rhythm (jazz) tap and broadway tap, with an emphasis on clean technique to achieve optimum articulation and clarity.
Dianne moved to the United States in 1976 to pursue a professional career and further her dance education. She is honored to have studied under such tap luminaries as Dianne Walker (Lady Di), Maceo Anderson (one of the 4 step-brothers who performed for European kings and queens in Europe as well as every night club and theater of importance in the USA), Henry Letang (Tony Award-winning choreographer), Linda Sohl-Donnell (Rhapsody in Taps) and Fred Stickler (Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Riverside).
Dianne’s vast performance and choreography experience has taken her across the U.S. and throughout South America. Credits include Follies Bergere, Bare Touch of Vegas, Fire and Ice, the David Copperfield show, Wayne Newton, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, and Tony Orlando. A career highlight was working with the renowned Argentinian Gauchos, whose act incorporated fiery Boleadoras, drums and rapid fire flamenco style footwork.
IDA is honored and excited to have Dianne as a valuable member of the creative team!
BRIAN LOFTUS trained in London and Paris, and danced professionally with Sadlers Wells Opera Ballet in London and with Grand Ballet Classique de France in Paris.
For 23 years he taught at Arts Educational School in London, where he was Director of the Student Dance Course. For 22 years he held “Open Professional Classes” in London’s Covent Garden, where many well-known dancers attended on a regular basis.
Mr. Loftus has been a guest teacher with numerous large ballet companies, including London Festival Ballet (now called English National Ballet); Rambert Dance Company; London Contemporary Dance Company; London City Ballet; Koblenz Ballet Company; Kiel Ballet Company in Germany and the Deborah Colker Company from Brazil. On the recent tour of the world famous “Trocks,” Brian taught their company class.
Brian Loftus is now an international guest teacher, lecturer and choreographer of repute. He teaches regularly in London, Paris, Germany, Israel and Japan.
MERLE SEPEL, 1951-2022 (Founder). Please visit our memorial page for Miss Merle.
Our Story
We are colleagues who’ve worked together for over 25 years, collaborating and teaching in private studios, company schools, international summer schools and productions, as well as successfully coaching students and professional dancers for auditions, competitions and examinations.
Having assessed thousands of dancers in so many schools, we were in the privileged position of truly understanding the needs and difficulties experienced globally in the dance community. We recognized that there were many experienced teachers who produced beautiful dancers and who appreciated outside validation and honest feedback, as well as teachers who were just starting out and thirsting for input.
It seemed that the next step was to create a program that offered teachers fresh tools and ideas. Hence the birth of International Dance Acclaim (IDA), a developmental program for dance studios that applies the principle of artistic and technical progress through performance. The program complements all teaching methods, and accelerates students’ training through a series of choreographed exercises and dances specifically designed to improve technique, enhance performance quality, and increase stamina in addition to providing performance opportunities. The specially arranged and composed music is unique to this program and provides further training in musicality and artistry.
Ballet choreography and staging by Merle Sepel, Rebecca Tsivkin and Brian Loftus, with the additional choreography of Le Foulard by Robynne Edwards and Dame Rose by Heather White Hagar; tap choreography and staging by Dianne Schiller. Music created and arranged by Steven Mitchell and Brian Sepel.
