Just Dance!
2024-2025 Schedule
Classes Start Monday, Sept. 9
Fees/Tuition:
Class Fee: $575 (Dance)
Class Fee: $600 (Acting)
Costume Fee: $150/$190 (single dance class or double dance class, respectively.)
Registration Fee: $65 Includes Recital Video
You will receive an email confirmation detailing all costs!
Total fees will be paid over an 8 month period from September to April!
Registration:
Register online or download registration and mail to Yorktown Stage, PO Box 877, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598. Credit cards are required for monthly billing.
Classes Begin:
Classes start on Monday, September 9. Classes will be held weekly through May 22. In the event of snow, you will receive an email/text concerning our open/closed status. A calendar indicating dates when classes are closed due to holidays or school recesses appears above. Students are asked to arrive 5-10 minutes before the class to get ready.
Payment Terms:
Registration and costume fees will be paid over a 4 month period, September – December.
Class fees will be paid over an 8 month period, September – April.
A student may cancel a class. If so, monthly charges will cease the month following cancellation.
There will be no refunds or credits of any fees at any time.
Each class will meet at least 30 times in the season.
A valid credit card will be required for monthly payments.
A fee of $25 will be charged for declined credit cards for any reason.
Winter Recital Performance:
Saturday, December 14 @ 2:00 pm.
Performances will be at Yorktown Stage.
Tickets will be available in October.
Dance For Joy’s Nutcracker for Children Performances:
Saturday, December 21 @ 2:30 pm and 5:00 pm.
Sunday, December 22 @ 2:30 pm.
Performances will be at Yorktown Stage.
Tickets will be available in September.
The Nutcracker for Kids is a one hour, condensed and narrated version of the full story of the Nutcracker, in which all parts are danced by students. It allows audience members of all ages to experience the magic of the Nutcracker during the holiday season!
The first production was in 2008 in the Tom Thumb stage. It expanded to the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill in 2010, and was fortunate to be able to move to the beautiful Putnam Valley HS Performing Arts Center in 2012 when Paramount closed. In 2014 it moved to Yorktown Stage, where all further performances have taken place.
All YS students taking ballet may audition.
Auditions are held in October.
All who audition will be cast if possible.
Casting depends largely on size and ballet level
Parents are required to volunteer in some capacity
There is an audition and participation fee which is non-refundable
Dancers must commit to all rehearsals
The number of rehearsals depends upon the role, with the younger roles requiring fewer rehearsals
Rehearsals are mainly Saturday afternoons with some key roles on weeknights.
Spring Recital Classes and Rehearsals:
Monday – Thursday, May 5-9. Classes will be held on the stage.
Monday – Thursday, May 19-22. Classes will be held on the stage.
Tuesday–Thursday, May 27–29, tech and dress rehearsals.
Spring Recital Performances:
Friday, May 30 @ 7:00; and
Saturday, May 31 @ 2:00 pm.
Performances will be at Yorktown Stage.
Tickets will be available in January.
Teachers
Debbie Mellone (Hip Hop/Lyrical, Technique/Production, Tap/Jazz) been teaching dance for over 32 years. Debbie teaches a variety of dance classes including tap, jazz, lyrical, hip hop and tumbling. She has been teaching a competitive dance team for over 20 years. Debbie and her teams have attended many competitions and achieved many awards and placements. She is also certified to teach Zumba and Zumba for children. She currently teaches at a local gym and works with Yorktown’s town camps teaching Zumba and dance to the children at the camps. Debbie’s classes are filled with fun and structure but strives to get her students to their fullest potential.
Donna Scheer (Acting, Broadway). In 35+ years of teaching, Donna has been on the theatre and dance faculties of Long Island University CW Post and the State University of New York at New Paltz, the Director of the School for Performing Arts for National Dance Institute New Mexico in Santa Fe, and established a full dance program at Santa Fe High School. She has performed, directed and choreographed in regional theatres throughout the country. Her principal roles include those in major musicals (West Side Story), contemporary American drama (Angels in America: Perestroika), and Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew) as well as many others. Her choreography includes works in modern dance as well as musical theatre and has been seen in regional and stock theatres across the United States. She has directed or choreographed, among many others, Oklahoma, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, and A Little Night Music. She holds a BA in Theatre with a Dance Emphasis from Santa Clara University and an MA in Theatre from San Jose State University, and also studied at Stanford University in the Graduate School of Education with additional work in the Harvard Graduate School of Education Project Zero Program. She is a highly sought-after instructor for her extensive understanding of theatre and dance curriculum and teaching methodology.
Jenna Kelly has been dancing for 20 years and teaching ballet and jazz for the last 6 years. She studied at Dance for Joy for 12 years and holds a BFA in Dance and Performance from SUNY Brockport with a minor in English. She studied at American Academy of Ballet and Manhattan Youth Ballet Summer Intensives for 7 years. She has worked with Doug Varone and Dancers for 3 years at their Summer and Winter Workshops. She has worked with artists like Tammy Carrasco founder of WILD Beast Dance, Adam and Chelsea of Anatomiae Occultii, and Keith Johnson of Keith Johnson and Dancers, among others. She is excited to give all her students a strong foundation in ballet and create a safe and fun environment for them to express themselves.
Stefanie Mellone has been dancing for 17 years and teaching for over 5 years . Stefanie teaches a variety of different genres such as tap, jazz, lyrical and hip hop. She was a competitive dancer for 4 years. Stefanie has attended many competitions and achieved many different awards. Stefanie’s classes are all about having fun and letting your imagination run free on the dance floor giving her students the best experience possible.
Jenna Mastro trained at The Westchester Ballet Center for 10 years and has been teaching at YS Just Dance! since 2021. Jenna studied ballet, pointe, modern, tap, Broadway, jazz, contemporary, hip hop, lyrical, Bollywood and Hawaiian and attended several WBC Summer Intensive programs. She was a member of Dance Theatre in Westchester which performed at Brooklyn College, West Point, the Yorktown Stage and The Paramount Hudson Valley. Jenna was a guest dance teacher for the Ossining Central School District’s Saturday Explore and Learn program for the Fall of 2022. Jenna was the dance instructor for several years at the Yorktown Stage Summer Camp and choreographed for the Yorktown HS Dance Company. Jenna is excited to share her love of dance in a structured, yet fun way, focused on technique, creativity and confidence.