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Meet the Staff

MEET THE STAFF

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Elisabetta Spuria

Elisabetta Spuria is originally from Italy, where she started her ballet training at the age of 6. In addition to that, she studied jazz, musical theatre, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, and flamenco. Since she moved to New York City she has been working with such artists as Mariah Carey (“Charmbracelet World Tour”) and Michael Bolton (“Only A Woman Like You Tour”) as both associate choreographer and assistant director. She has been assistant choreographer, dance captain and performer in numerous theater productions: Footloose, Nights on Broadway III, the operas Carmen, Candide and Aida.
Elisabetta has choreographed productions of: Spring Awakening (ReVision Theatre/ TheatreC), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (LIVE Asbury Park), Hair directed by Andrew Goldberg, Chicago at the Michael D. Palm Theatre (Co), The Who’s Tommy directed by Carlos Armesto, Tess A New Rock Opera (NYMF), disOriented (Peter Jay Sharp Theatre), the Off Broadway play Zelda at the Oasis, Standby (NYMF), Madame Infamy (NYMF), Billy Lewis Jr.’s Jealousy (music video). She was the associate choreographer for the PBS children show The Electric Company and for ABC’s One Life To Live musical episodes.
Elisabetta travels extensively to teach master classes and workshops throughout North America and across the globe. She has also been a guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center and at Steps on Broadway in NYC. Elisabetta has been teaching jazz, musical theatre and contemporary/lyrical for over 18 years, she enjoys working with students of every age and level, her choreography has been recognized by many dance competitions all over the US
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JESSICA MUDINSKI

Jessica Mudzinski cannot remember a time in her life without dance. Having started at a local studio at the age of 3, she went on to become a competitive dancer winning numerous title awards. She started teaching dance at the age of 14 and has now been instructing dance and gymnastics for over 15 years. This year will be her 10th year teaching at Performer’s Edge Dance Academy.
After graduating from Cardozo High School’s Performing Dance Program, Jessica attended Long Island University C.W. Post where she obtained a B.F.A in dance studies. At C.W. Post she had the opportunity to work with current and former members of The Jose Limon Dance Company, The Paul Taylor Dance Company and The Alvin Ailey Dance Company. While with the Post Concert Dance Company, Jessica performed as a featured soloist in a recreation of Jose Limon’s “The Winged”. During her time at C.W. Post she was also chosen to be featured in a commercial advertising the university’s dance program.
A month after graduating college, Jessica joined Ballet Deviare. Jessica performed with Ballet Deviare in “Memento Mori” and was also in “Disconsolate” a short film featuring Ballet Deviare that was accepted in the Royal Flush Film Festival.
Currently Jessica teaches all genres of dance including ballet, pointe, lyrical, contemporary, jazz, tap and gymnastics. She has completed the USA Gymnastics course on the Fundamentals of Gymnastics and has completed a Tumbling Effects workshop this past June. As and choreographer for PEDA’s highly acclaimed competitive team she has been recognized with numerous choreography, overall and high place awards at various dance competitions.
In addition to teaching, Jessica judges for several national dance competitions including, Nexstar National Talent Competition, Kids Artistic Revue and Rainbow National Talent Competition. Being a judge reminds her of the excitement she felt as a child attending dance competitions and she loves seeing how far the world of dance has come since she started her career.

It is a great honor to teach all the wonderful dancers at Performer’s Edge Dance Academy and Jessica is delighted to see how much to studio has grown and evolved over the past 10 years. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing the dancers you work with weekly perform on stage doing what they love.

DANIELLE MEDICI

Chris is a dancer, actor and model. He is the Brooklyn Nets Hype Man. He is truly spirited and extremely outgoing with a personality like no other. . He has always had a true passion for the fine arts and uplifting the youth. Chris consistently involves himself with individuals who are vigorously passionate about their dreams, goals, and aspirations in life. like himself If you ask those who know Chris, they’ll tell you he is a HUGEE ball of ENERGY and a thriving young leader. He works HARD to achieve all his goals, while still being a tremendous team player. He strives to teach all his students not only HipHop technique but to never give and always work hard. Chris’ words of wisdom to all his students, “I’ve always believed you should CHASE AFTER YOUR DREAMS because if not, you’ll end up working for someone who did” ~Chris
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MIA LATONE

Mia grew up in Rochester, New York where she trained and competed with Little Red Dance Studio. Mia studied all genres of dance with her favorite being jazz. She began her dance journey at the age of two and her competitive life began at the age of five under the direction of Lisa Allain and Ballet training under Sarah Rothrock-Rickel. Mia holds many prestigious titles and high scores for her solos as well as award-winning groups. She was an assistant, on tour for the well-known dance convention, Adrenaline. She was awarded a scholarship to AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) where she graduated with a degree in Dance Theater. Mia is now a full-time dance instructor in New York City where she has choreographed award-winning groups as well as solos.
At Performers Edge you can always find Miss Mia teaching with a smile on her face. She teaches dancers ranging in the ages of two to eighteen. Miss Mia loves sharing her passion for dance with all her students

Mr Marcello

Mr. Bernard received his early training at “Armonia Danza” (directed by Mariangela Bernacchia) in his native Italy; during this time he also trained with Member of International Vaganova Method Society’s Marit Bech, as well as receiving numerous awards in well renowned European competitions such as “Eurocity” and “DanzaEuropa”. In 2011, after a brief visit at the Contemporary Academy , Codarts, in Rotterdam, he joined the Ajkun Ballet Theatre, under the Artistic leadership of Leonard and Chiara Ajkun, where he performed a wide variety of traditional repertory ballets such as “Don Quixote”, “The Nutcracker” and “La Bayadère”, as well as being the lead role in multiple contemporary masterpieces choreographed by Mr. Ajkun, including “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” &“Goya, the Spanish Master”. In 2018 Mr. Bernard joined Connecticut Ballet as a featured dancer directed by Brett Raphael, as well as joining the Carole Alexis Dance Company, first as company member then as ripetitor for the company. As a guest Artist over the years, Marcello has appeared and performed with companies like Orange County Ballet Theatre, Pennsylvania Youth Ballet & Kodiak Dance Theatre, as well as international dance showcases and workshops like the Dance in Italy Festival and Danzainfiera.

Currently, Mr. Bernard is part of the faculty at Movement Dance Center,  Dance Mixx Dance Studio, Ballet Des Amériques, Performers Edge Dance center and Diamond Dance Academy.

Ciara Mercado

Ms. Ciara grew up in the Bronx, NY. She began dancing at age 2, training in various genres such as ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, lyrical, contemporary, and salsa. She joined the PEDA family and competition team at 11 years old. During her time at PEDA, she was a part of the regional and national award-winning company team and became an assistant teacher to Ms. Angelique Rodriguez. She also served as co-captain of the Preston High School Hip Hop Dance Team. After she graduated from PEDA, Ms. Ciara became a member and secretary of the Pace University Hip Hop Dance Club. In March of 2022, Ms. Ciara became a full-time teacher in our Eastchester location as our hip-hop teacher and just completed her first year-long season as a full-time teacher in June of 2023. Ms. Ciara recently graduated from Pace University in Pleasantville, NY this past May with her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She will continue her education at New York University for her Master’s in Social Work while teaching at PEDA.

 

Ms. Ciara always wants her students to believe in themselves and be confident. She wants to pass on her love and passion for dance to the next generation. 

 

“Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.” -Martha Graham

Corey Wright

Corey Wright trained mainly in gymnastics growing up before starting dance at 16. After completing the professional semester at Broadway Dance Center Corey worked as a free lance dancer performing at the Museum of Natural history, upstate with Dance lab NYC and other interesting projects. Now he’s currently a member of the commercial contemporary dance company TreadFast under the direction of Steven Blandino

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