Dance Department

Aaron Blizzard is a professional dancer, former national competitor, teacher, and assistant director of Northern Classical Ballet. With a versatile dance background reaching over the last two decades, he holds dance training and teaching certifications in many forms of dance including Ballet and Ballroom. He is the owner of Blizzard Art & Performance, providing Cleveland and Erie, Pennsylvania with ballroom instruction, performance, and competitive coaching. To complement his dance background, Aaron is a personal trainer specializing in corrective exercise techniques, strength and conditioning, and flexibility.

Aaron started his dance training at the age of 10 at the Waterbury Arts Magnet School (School of Performing Arts Division) Located in Connecticut. Throughout high school he attended Earl Mosely’s Institute of the Arts where he had the privilege of training with and working on repertoires under artists such as Sidra Bell, Camille A. Brown and Meredith Rainey. Aaron trained in Ballet under Nutmeg Conservatory’s Senior Ballet Master and Russian Choreographic School Graduate Donna Bonasera at the Connecticut Dance Theatre. Upon graduating high school in 2010 he went on to apprentice under Donna Bonasera in teaching the Vaganova Method. While at CDT, Aaron completed an apprenticeship with Elm City Dance Collective–a postmodern company based in New Haven, Connecticut through Yale University. This venture took him into Ballroom dance at Fred Astaire Dance Studios where he trained and competed professionally and taught private dance lessons. Aaron left Connecticut Dance Theatre and Fred Astaire in 2017 to relocate to Cleveland, Ohio.

Aaron moved to Cleveland in order to further his competitive dance career with dance partner Jenny Lu. In 2019, Aaron joined the staff at Above the Barre Dance and Gymnastics as a ballroom instructor. Upon its reopening in late 2020, Aaron was promoted to Assistant Director of the Ballet Program where he teaches and assists in the direction of their Nutcracker Ballet production. Aaron still teaches at ATB but retired from dancing competitively in 2020.

During the height of the pandemic and after his competitive retirement, Aaron completed his CDCA and became a licensed therapist in the State of Ohio. He then integrated dance into his therapy in order to create his own Dance Therapy curriculum. In 2020, Aaron and his partner Dr. Nathal founded the wellness center BN Wellness Group where this dance therapy curriculum is used today.

Noelle Boyages began her ballet training at age 12 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Ballet quickly became her passion; she trained at several different summer intensive programs including Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Orlando Ballet Theatre, Miami City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre (NY), and Ballet Austin. 

 While training with Ballet Austin for the summer, she was awarded a full scholarship to train with the company through their Butler Fellowship Program. After an amazing year in Texas, Noelle then decided to take a break from ballet and pursue academic interests at Denison University. She graduated in 2021 with a BA in History, Women and Gender Studies, and Black Studies. With an undergraduate degree under her belt, Noelle is once again pursuing ballet as a career, with intentions to attend law school sometime in the near future. She is very excited to join Baldwin Wallace’s Community Arts School program and to help other young dancers work to hone their craft and pursue their passions, whatever they may be! 

Heather Dennen, Director of Dance, Community Arts School, began her training in New York City where she trained extensively in multiple dance genres. She traveled nationally, competing and winning multiple awards, top honors and titles. After graduation, Miss Dennen worked with Ohio Dance Theatre performing in ballets such as The Nutcracker, Firebird, The Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. She then went on to do a national and international tour of Sesame Street Live, Super Grover Ready For Action! as the first cast role of Zoe. After completing her years on tour, Miss Dennen began pursuing her passion for dance education and choreography. Certified at the highest levels through Dance Masters of America and the Cecchetti Council of America, she has been teaching various dance genres and choreographing for over ten years. Miss Dennen has expanded her choreography credits to include musicals, figure skating programs and gymnastic floor routines at the national level. Since January of 2019, Miss Dennen has been the Director of Dance for the Baldwin Wallace Community Arts School. Here she not only teaches, but also provides curriculums, program structure and shapes the culture found at CAS dance. As of 2022, Miss Dennen also serves as adjunct faculty for Baldwin Wallace University and is enjoying the additional experience of working with undergraduate students.

Ari is a dancer, performer and dance instructor. Ari graduated in 2018 with a BFA in Dance from The Ohio State University. During college, she received her 200-Hour Yoga license and an Opacize Greek Dance Fitness license. After graduation, she worked with Ballet Chicago as a summer chaperone, began teaching at The Mark Morris Dance Center as an assistant teaching artist, and moved to NYC. In summer of 2019, she completed the 3-month Training Program at Broadway Dance Center focusing on Street Styles. Since moving to NYC, she performed at Lincoln Center-Keenan Fellowship performance, ABC T.V.’s Annual Columbus Day Parade, NYC Korean Choseok Festival, Broadway Dance Center, and for many peer/teacher projects. She has also acted background on several T.V. shows such as Mr. Robot and The Deuce. Ari loves teaching all styles and is so excited to be working with the students of CAS this season.

Melissa Hazard is a fitness professional with over 20 years’ experience in fitness education. She is the owner of Serenity Yoga, LLC. At Baldwin Wallace University, Melissa is as an adjunct professor in the Department of Allied Health, Sport, and Wellness. She teaches a variety of wellness classes including yoga, mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, techniques of relaxation and in the First Year Education program acclimating students to college. She structures her yoga and meditation classes to welcome all levels from the very beginner to the advanced practitioner. Her goal is to share her passion for yoga and meditation to help her clients build resiliency, strength, quiet their mind, and return to their day refreshed, renewed and ready to meet the challenges of life. Melissa has a bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is a certified Koru mindfulness educator and yoga instructor.

Clarence Keith is a dancer-choreographer born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He began his passion for dance at the age of 5 attempting to emulate the stylings of Michael Jackson. At the age of 19, after years of street dancing, Clarence began his studio hip-hop training out of various studios in the greater Cleveland area. Shortly after he began to teach. He has since expanded his training from Cleveland to LA, and plans to do much more!

His plan is to spread this art form throughout the city, and inspire young folks to follow their artistic passions. He wants to show young people the importance of balance in art. That is fun, respect, professionalism, and dedication.

Leanna began dancing since age 3, and began her ballet training at age 11 at Robert Thomas Dancenter in Ames, IA, under the instruction of Robert Thomas and Miyoko Kato Thomas, former Joffrey Ballet dancers. She was a member of the Iowa Youth Ballet for seven years and performed in Iowa State Center’s production of The Nutcracker Ballet for ten years, and in addition, she led rehearsals for certain roles for three years. Throughout her early years of training, Leanna had the privilege of taking master classes at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago for seven summers from company member Derrick Agnoletti and former members Kim Sagami, Willy Shives, and Suzanne Lopez, among others.

In 2017, Leanna graduated from the University of Iowa with a BA in Dance and a certificate in Arts Entrepreneurship. During her time there, she performed in numerous concerts in both faculty- and student-choreographed work, and in 2016, her choreographic work was selected to be performed in the Dance Department’s Undergraduate Concert.

After two years in full-time youth ministry, Leanna is dancing with North Pointe Ballet for their 2019-2020 season here in Cleveland. Leanna has ten years of lead and assistant teaching and choreography experience at Robert Thomas Dancenter, Inspiring Dance, University of Iowa Youth Ballet, and Charlee’s Elite School of Dance, primarily in ballet and pointe technique to students of all ages. She is excited to be sharing in her love for ballet with her students here at BW CAS.

Read more on Leanna’s teaching philosophy and artistic inspirations here: https://mycreativecompass.org/Community/Cleveland-Artist-Spotlights/Leanna-Mullen

Janet Strukely-Dziak founded North Pointe Ballet, a non-profit organization with the mission to make classical ballet accessible, in 2016 following a career as a professional ballet dancer and earning a B.A. in Dance from Mercyhurst University. As Executive Artistic Director of NPB, she continues to manage mission-based initiatives and programs as well as choreograph and direct full-length ballets. Choreographic highlights for NPB include full-length ballets Cinderella, Peter Pan, The Sleeping Beauty, The Wizard of Oz, and The Nutcracker as well as various contemporary works. Janet is an adjunct faculty member of Oberlin College, a guest teacher for various organizations, and is on staff at Jillian Rian Dance School. She holds a teaching certificate through the National Dance Institute and is also certified to teach Physically Integrated Dance through Dancing Wheels. Janet currently serves on the board of directors for OhioDance as the chair of its Education and Community Engagement Committee. She lives in North Ridgeville, Ohio, with her husband and two children.

Lauren Stenroos is a founding dancer with Cleveland Ballet under the artistic direction of Gladisa Guadalupe and Ballet Mistress Cynthia Graham. Previously, she has danced professionally with Lake Erie Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Dayton Ballet, and Ballet Montana. She has also appeared as a guest dancer at Williamsport Civic Ballet, James Sewell Ballet, Texture Contemporary Ballet, Lake Erie Ballet, and Mercyhurst University.

Lauren received her early training from the Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet (Now called Ballet Excel Ohio) under Nan and Mia Klinger. While at CVYB she had the unique opportunity to perform in original ballets choreographed by Michael Vernon, Francis Patrelle, Tom Gold, James Sewell, and Bill Hastings. She also attended summer intensives on scholarship at Chautauqua Institution, Richmond Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and Cleveland San Jose Ballet. She graduated with a B.A. degree in Dance with a Minor in Music Composition from Mercyhurst University.

At Cleveland Ballet, she has performed many soloist and principal roles such as Swanilda in Ramon Oller’s Coppelia, Hippolyta in Oller’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Queen of Hearts in Margo Sappington’s Alice, Soloist in Les Sylphides and as Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker.

She has also enjoyed performing in works by George Balanchine, Gerald Arpino, Septime Webre, Stuart Sebastian, James Sewell, Jon Rodriguez, Amy Seiwert, Gina Patterson, Gina Walther, Lesley Bories-Scalise, Paul Vasterling, Gladisa Guadalupe, and Ramon Oller.

In addition to dancing, Lauren is a composer and has created many original works for dance. In addition to teaching ballet, she also is certified in Pilates and teaches mat and reformer classes. In her free time she enjoys spending time with family and friends, fitness, food, and the outdoors.