Staff
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| Michelle Raider —Artistic Director |
Michelle Raider
Founder and Artistic Director of the River City Youth Ballet
Michelle Raider graduated from Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts in Natick, Massachusetts with a major in ballet. She also holds a BS in Chemistry from West Virginia State University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She was recently featured on a television commercial as one of the Universities successful graduates. In 2008 she was named and featured on the cover of WV Executive Magazine as a “Young Gun”. She has been asked by the Moscow Ballet to be their local children’s coordinator for the Great Russian Nutcracker and by the Clay Center to set choreography on a local children Munchkin cast for the traveling off Broadway production of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. 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 Ecole de Dance de Quebec 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. In Sleeping Beauty, she was directed and partnered by Istvan Rabovsky, a former premier dancer of the Hungarian Ballet. Ms. Raider is the former chair of Dance West Virginia and has been teaching ballet in West Virginia since 1993. She is the proud mother of Byron age 8 and McCartney age 17 months.
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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| Jennifer (Fields) Griffith |
Jennifer (Fields) Griffith began her dance career with January’s Academy of Dance (now known as The Art Academy at January’s) at the age of 3. She took Tap, Ballet, Modern, Lyrical, Hip Hop and Jazz. She was a member of their traveling competition group called JADCO where she performed, choreographed, and designed costumes and make-up for the JADCO productions of Thistledown Faeries. Under the direction of Michelle Raider, Jennifer studied ballet and became one of the first members of River City Youth Ballet Ensemble. In high school Jennifer was a member of Capital High School Dance Company and eventually became the president and captain of the pointe, tap, & jazz troupes. She has attended North Carolina School of the Arts summer camps, Point Park College, and Dance Masters of America teacher training school in New York. She has trained with professional instructors such as Ashley Canterna, Sarah Fazio, Bruce Marks, Annette de Boise, Becca Retter, Bradley Rapier, Mia Michaels, Cris Judd, Brian Friedman, and Mandy Moore. Jennifer has performed in musicals with the Charleston Light Opera Guild (CLOG), 42nd Street, Footloose, and Chicago to name a few. Jennifer is owner of Groovez n’ Movez dance classes that she started to help bring dance to other areas of the state. The past two years she has worked in Comfort, WV brining the art of dance to the All About Kids Sports GYM in Boone county. Jennifer is currently working for Black Castle Mining (Massey Energy Company) in the engineering department. She obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing and Managment, and Drafting from West Virginia State University. She married Fredrick Griffith in 2009 and they have a beautiful son Zavier.
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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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| 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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| Heather Looney |
Heather Looney, originally from Elkview, WV, holds an MFA in dance from the University of Maryland and a BFA in dance from Brenau University in Gainesville, GA. She has worked as a teacher, director, performer and choreographer for universities, public schools, private studios and academies in Atlanta, NYC, Washington DC, and Indianapolis. Most recently Ms. Looney spent two years as the artistic director, senior division coordinator, performance director and ballet mistress for Dance Theatre Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alaska. Among others, Ms. Looney has worked with world renowned choreographers such as Mark Morris and Twyla Tharp. She and her husband are excited to be back in WV with her family to share the joy of their new baby boy, Daniel.
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| Lauren Bone |
Lauren Bone is a former member of the River City Youth Ballet Ensemble. She has received training from various ballet, modern, and jazz dance teachers including Michelle Raider, January Johnson Wolfe, Nick Harris, Dorothea Hereford, Margaret Lieberman, Cyan Maroney, David Howard, Peter Frame, Yoko Ichino, Catherine Yoshimura, Maria Glimcher, Darla Hoover, Melinda Howe, Nina M. Scattaregia, Joni Cantrell-Prince, and Michelle Legg. Lauren trained for two summers at BalletMet in Columbus, OH and at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Carlisle, PA. In 2008, she began using dance as a form of Christian ministry by attending a workshop at Ballet Magnificat!’s School of the Arts and by dancing with the Macholah ballet.
Lauren completed a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from WV Wesleyan College before spending a year mentoring teen girls and serving families through Doulos Ministries, Inc. in Independence, MO. Lauren currently serves as a board member of the RCYBE. She has recently introduced dance into worship services at Canaan United Methodist Church in Charleston, WV where she is a member. She thanks God for the ability to dance and desires to glorify Him through her dancing and instruction. She believes everyone should have the opportunity to express themselves through dance and is passionate about encouraging confidence and creativity in dancers.
