Staff
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| Michelle Raider —Artistic Director |
Michelle Raider graduated from Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts in Natick, Mass., with a major in ballet. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from West Virginia State College where she graduated summa cum laude.
Ms. Raider choreographs original works as well as classical ballets for the River City Youth Ballet Ensemble. She has studied with Nicholas Pacana and the Atlanta Ballet, David Howard, and L’Ecole Superior in Montreal.
Ms. Raider was a member of the National Youth Ballet, an affiliate of the Boston Ballet, and the Charleston Ballet under the direction of Andre Van Damme. She has performed the principal role in several ballets including "Passing By," staged in Boston, and "Sleeping Beauty," staged in New York where she was directed and partnered by Istvan Robovsky, a former premier dancer of the Hungarian Ballet.
The former chair of Dance West Virginia and the founder and artistic director of the River City Youth Ballet Ensemble, Ms. Raider has been teaching ballet locally since 1993.
Contributing Faculty
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| Kara Duncan |
Kara Duncan graduated summa cum laude from Radford University in Virginia with majors in elementary education and dance. Ms. Duncan is a Charleston native and studied dance and performed with the Appalachian Youth Jazz-Ballet Company under the direction of Nina Denton-Pasinetti for 10 years. She also has performed with the Charleston Light Opera Guild for many years, with featured roles in "Chicago," "Grease," "Guys and Dolls," "Company," and "Oklahoma."
Ms. Duncan has been a teacher and choreographer with the River City Youth Ballet Ensemble since 2003. She is a member of Morris Memorial United Methodist Church where she is actively involved in Bible schools and the preschool program. She and her husband, Matt, were married in 1999 and have two beautiful boys, Ryan and Bradley.
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Kristen Hackman |
Kristen Hackman is the owner and director of Dance Underground in South Charleston also the director for the Elite Wildcatz Hip Hop Team, 2 competitive dance ensembles in the Kanawha Valley. Kristen started her dancing career at the young age of 3 under the direction of Kim Tyree. From there she went on to do competitive gymnastics until the age of 14, within her gymnastics training she was trained in ballet and jazz. Upon entering high school Kristen danced with Patricia Edwards in the Capital High Dance Company and was the captain of the Contemporary Ensemble. Kristen went to college on a dance scholarship to RICKS College in Rexburg, Idaho. There she was able to travel to New Zealand, Fiji, and Brazil on professional dance tours. She also danced at Utah Valley State College on the contemporary dance company "Synergy" for a year before returning home to finish up her college education. While in West Virginia Kristen was the director for JADCO at January's Academy of Dance for a few years and also started and taught their hip hop classes. Kristen has trained with professional dance instructors such as Mia Michaels, Wade Robson, Cris Judd, Shane Sparks, and Brian Friedman from "So You Think You Can Dance", and many more. Her group Dance Underground trains with master teachers 3 to 4 times in the year. Kristen recently got married a year ago to Andy Hackman and just had her first baby on June 25th, Kayden Alexander Hackman. Kristen is very excited to be on the faculty of RCYBE this year.
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| Brittany Javins |
Brittany Javins has enjoyed the art of dance from an early age, and began her ballet training with Kim Pauley at the American Academy of Ballet, school of the Charleston Ballet. In 1997, she joined the Charleston Ballet Company and continued performing with it for 10 years.
Throughout her years as a dancer, she has had the opportunity to work with noted choreographers and teachers from various genres of dance including Miguel Campaneria, David Howard, Duncan Noble, Cynthia Gregory, Oleg Briansky, Yves de Bouteiller, Devon Carney, Ronnie De Marco, Donald Laney, Shane O’ Hara, and Luis Montero. She has performed at the W.Va. Dance Festival for many years and attended programs with Columbia City Ballet and Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. In 2006, Ms. Javins was a regional winner in the National Society of Arts and Letters dance competition, and represented the Ohio-River Valley chapter at the national level.
Ms. Javins performed in a variety of classical and contemporary works with the Charleston Ballet, including "Sleeping Beauty," "The Flappers," "She Love You," "Play Ball," "Bolero," and "The Nutcracker." Most recently, audiences have seen her on stage with the Charleston Light Opera Guild, performing as Kristine in "A Chorus Line," and as Annette in "Grease."
Ms. Javins holds a degree in English education from West Virginia State University, and is married to fellow educator, Mark Javins. She has a vested interest in the development of the arts and dance community in Charleston, and hopes to contribute to that community as a whole through her love of dance.
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| Margaret Lieberman |
Margaret Lieberman was born and raised in South Africa where she studied ballet at the Sturman studio in Johannesburg and Pretoria. She holds the advanced certificate in classical ballet issued by the Royal Academy of Dancing in London, and holds certificates in national and modern dance through the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in the U.K.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Natal, majoring in theater performance. Ms. Lieberman has many years of experience teaching dance, both in South Africa and in Baton Rouge, La. She has directed and acted in a number of local theater productions, as well.
Ms. Lieberman is the director of Fund for the Arts in Charleston, and hosts the TV show "Arts a la Carte" on KCS-TV promoting local culture and arts. She also has a store, Carousel Antiques, on Charleston's West Side, and lives in a hundred-year-old house with two dogs and four cats.
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| Cyan Maroney |
Cyan Maroney is a native of Renick, West Virginia, a graduate of Connecticut College, where she received a BA in Dance, and currently dances with the West Virginia Dance Company.
Cyan began dancing at age six at The Dance Studio in Lewisburg , WV where she studied under Elizabeth White, Carli Mareneck, and Barbara Michaelson. During high school, she was a member of Trillium Performing Youth and the Alderson Dance Ensemble where she worked with choreographers Tara Miles, Donald Laney, Toneta Akers-Toler, Ilene Evans, and others. While working with both groups she was able to tour schools and elderly care facilities in her local community. In 2002, she was selected to participate in the West Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts where she received training from Melinda Bower and Anna Pishner; In 2003, she attended The American Dance Festival in Durham, NC and studied with Brenda Daniels of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Kraig Patterson of Mark Morris Dance Group, and Jeffery Bullock; And in 2004 she began her first of three summer seasons with Theatre West Virginia where she performed in Honey In The Rock, Hatfields and McCoys, Annie, Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, and High School Musical.
During her time at Connecticut College , Cyan studied under David Dorfman, Heidi Henderson, Lan-Lan Wang, Lisa Race, Robyne Watkin, Adele Myers, and Richard Schenk among many others. She was a participant in both the 2007 and 2008 New England ACDFA competitions and has performed works by choreographers Doug Elkins, David Dorfman, Isadora Duncan, and Paul Taylor.
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| Julie McKinney |
Julie McKinney began her dancing career at the early age of four. At 16, she became a member of the Charleston Ballet Company. Under the guidance of Andre van Damme, she came to appreciate dance as a performing art.
Throughout her career with the Charleston Ballet, Ms. McKinney was singled out for her elegant stage presence and flair for dramatic, earthy dancing. Favorite performances include "Romeo and Juliet," "The Seasons," "Coppelia," "The Three Cornered Hat," "Carmina/Burana," "The Creation," "Pavane pour L’enfant," and "Bolero," where she partnered with Jeff Satinoff of the Feld Ballet.
Ms. McKinney graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Bachelor of Science in journalism. While attending college, she performed as a company member and soloist with Orchesis, a modern dance honorary, under the direction of Mary Katherine Wiedebusch. Later, Ms. McKinney was a founding member of the Mountain State Jazz Ensemble. She has danced with the Charleston Light Opera Guild in productions of "42nd Street," "Anything Goes," and "Jerry’s Girls."
She also has studied with internationally known dance teachers such as Duncan Noble, David Howard, Alvin Ailey, Gus Giordano, and Miguel Campaneira. Ms. McKinney has been teaching dance in West Virginia since the early 1980s.
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| Lauren Richardson |
Lauren Richardson has been a member of the River City Youth Ballet Company for the past three years.
She has received training from several acclaimed ballet, jazz, and Irish dance instructors, including Peter Frame, Jiri Sebastian Voborsky, Kevin Alan, Daniel Simmons, David Howard, Maxine Olsen, Lester Holmes, Ross Brierton, Ilona Kessell, Janie Parker, Tamara Buel, Ronnie De Marco, Kate Trammell, Oscar Rouseaux, Heather Hawk, Joni Cantrell-Prince, Valery Lantratov, Emily Barry Bodah, Kathy Thibodeaux, Tamara Flores, Sabrina Gidley, and Cristina Maciel.
In 2005, Ms. Richardson attended the Royal Academy of Dancing Summer School. In 2006 she studied at Ballet Magnificat!’s School of the Arts, and in 2007 she completed Ballet Magnificat!’s teaching curriculum.
She is a member of American Academy of Ballet and has completed levels five through10 of the American Academy of Ballet’s Performance Awards, receiving a gold with distinction on all levels. She also holds the intermediate certificate with the Royal Academy of Dancing, and received honorable mention in the National Society of Arts and Letters competition.
In 2002, she founded Macholah, a professional Christian ballet company for girls from fourth-to-sixth grade that performed in various churches. She now works to help other churches in the area supplement their ministries to include ballet and worship dance, and desires to glorify God with her own dancing and instruction
Ms. Richardson also makes and designs custom knitwear for her web-based business, Failli Handknits.
