We are a team of experienced dance educators with over 25 years of collaboration. We’ve worked in various settings, from private studios to international productions, and have successfully guided students and professionals through auditions, competitions, and examinations.
REBECCA TSIVKIN (Founder/Director) Rebecca is a master ballet educator whose teaching has shaped dancers at some of the most prestigious institutions in New York City, including The Gelsey Kirkland Academy, Ballet Hispanico, Steps on Broadway, the Joffrey Ballet School, and Ballet Arts NYC. Her contributions extend beyond the classroom: she launched the children’s ballet program at The Gelsey Kirkland Academy and designed a full curriculum and teacher training program for Ballet Hispanico.
A graduate and licentiate of the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and Associate of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), Rebecca has taught across universities, professional company schools, and private studios for over three decades. Her students have earned places at the School of American Ballet and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at American Ballet Theater, and gone on to perform with companies including BalletX, Ballet Austin, Sacramento Ballet, and State Street Ballet.
As Director of International Dance Acclaim, Rebecca brings that same standard of excellence to studios worldwide, adjudicating IDA Awards and leading workshops across the U.S. and internationally. Her guiding belief: that every child deserves access to clean, honest, foundational training — and a studio experience that makes them never want to leave.
Rebecca’s Teaching Philosophy
Ballet is for every child.
Not just the ones born with the “right” body, or the ones who seem destined for a stage. Every child deserves access to clean, thoughtful training — the kind that builds a real foundation. The kind that, if they choose to pursue ballet in college or professionally, gives them every advantage. And if they don’t, gives them something just as valuable: a deep, lifelong love of watching and understanding ballet as an art form.
That belief is at the center of everything I do in the studio.
Teaching is a craft of timing and trust. Knowing when to introduce a new step matters as much as knowing how to teach it. Proper progression — a thoughtfully structured barre, exercises designed to build strength and clarity without strain — protects young bodies and develops technique that is genuinely clean: not simply shaped, but truly understood. I think carefully about every layer of training I offer, because the goal is not just correct movement. It’s technique that grows with them, year after year.
But technique alone has never kept a child in ballet. Joy does.
My classes are designed so that students want to be there. They want to work on the details. They get excited about musicality. They find pleasure in the pursuit of precision. When a child is genuinely engaged — when they feel safe, challenged, and seen — they stop just executing steps and start dancing. That is when performance quality becomes natural, not performed.
The proof of this philosophy lives in my students. So many of them — and my own children — have gone on to dance in college and professionally. I don’t take credit for their talent. I take responsibility for giving them a foundation worthy of it, and an experience in the studio that made them want to keep going.
This is my identity as a teacher: to meet every child where they are, train them with integrity and care, and make the studio a place they never want to leave.
DIANNE SCHILLER (Tap Program Creator and Director) Originally from South Africa, Dianne is a distinguished graduate of the International Dance Teachers Association (member of the British Dance Council).
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.
BRIAN LOFTUS, 1944-2025 (Artistic Advisor) in memoriam.
MERLE SEPEL, 1951-2022 (Founder). Our memorial page for Miss Merle.
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.
