About

Jeffry Foote: Tap Instructor

Jeffry Foote joined NJTap in 2001.  Some of his community/regional credits: “Shades of Harlem”, “Dance Bojangles Dance”, “Lady Be Good”, “Tribute to the Rat Pack” (Sammy Davis Jr), “A Raisin in the Sun”, and the student film “Grey” (Vaudeville hoofer) which was nominated at the First Run Film Festival. Jeffry also teaches tap in Morris and Passaic County.

Alberta Handelman: Acting Instructor

For more than 25 years, Alberta has been teaching acting in private and public schools, including the Bank Street School in Manhattan, Arts High School and Science Park High School in Newark, Orange County Community College, the Montclair Adult School, and the Blooming Grove Theater Conservatory, and she has served as theater director and teacher in a number of summer theater-training programs.  While Alberta is also a professional actress, director, and Founder and past Artistic Director of the award-winning Blooming Grove Theater Ensemble.  Her greatest pleasure continues to be in training young actors, in enabling them to use theater as a means of self-expression, and in directing them in plays characterized by fine acting and high production values.  Highlights of Alberta’s acting credits are the roles of Mrs. Cage in Mrs. Cage, Edna in Prisoner of Second Avenue; Kate in Broadway Bound, and Golde in Fiddler on the Roof. Favorites among the many student productions she has directed are Death of a Salesman, The Fantasticks, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Crucible, and the premier of Comedy and Travesty. Alberta’s favorite professional directorial credits include Romeo and Juliet, A Man for All Seasons, and the premier of the operetta Rappaccini’s Daughter. Alberta earned her M.A. from Columbia University, her B.A. from Barnard College, and received her theater training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Northwestern University.  She studied dance at the Lippel School and studies voice with Dr. Stephen Oosting. Alberta is a member of the Actors Equity Association and holds a NJ Teaching Certificate in Speech Arts and Dramatics.

Ana Luiza Luizi: Dance Instructor

Ana Luiza Luizi, was born on 06/06/1984 in her hometown Belo Horizonte, in Brazil. Initiated her dance education in the year of 1992 at Meia Ponta Studio de Dancas, with Juliana Grillo, Marisa Monadjemi, Andrea Leao and Eurico Justino.  In 1999, entered Centro Mineiro de Dancas Classicas, where she studied under Maria Clara Salles and the Cubans Maitres Ofelia Gonzalez and Mercedes Beltran.  In the same year, Ms. Luizi graduated in the Royal Academy of Dance Method. In the year 2002, she joined the Sesiminas Dance Company under direction of Madame Cristina Helena and Cuban Maitre Pablo Moret.  During this period, Ms. Luizi toured throughout Brazil and all Latino America, performing in renowned venues such as Teatro Castro Alves, Teatro Nacional, Palacio das Artes and Teatro Colon in wich she performed lead roles in The Nutcracker, Slepping Beauty, Cinderella, La Fille Mal Gardee, Coppelia, Don Quixote and Raymonda.   In 2006, she was a participant and laureate at the prestigious Brasilia International Dance Seminar, where she received a Bronze Medal and a scholarship to study at Europe Ballet Conservatory of St. Polten- Austria, with its renowned faculty of Schyda Mubariakova, Vaquil Usmanov, Chopin Usmanova, Sabina Horn and Michael Fichtembaum.  Ana had the opportunity to perform lead roles in varies ballets Conservatory’s repertoire, and had a very successful tour through China.  Ms. Luizi came to United States in December 2007 guesting for the International Ballet Theater- PA in their Nutcracker Production, and joined the New Jersey Ballet Company right after that.  With the company she toured trough Russia in 2008 and perform as a soloist in Cinderella(Fairy God Mother), The Nucracker(Arabian, Mirlintons, Flowers and Guardian Angel) and La Bayadere.

Karen Mae Masbang: Dance Instructor

Karen Mae Masbang is thrilled to be a part of the Broadway Performing Arts!  She is a recent graduate from Montclair State University with a degree in Family and Child Studies and is a Certified Elementary Education Teacher in the state of New Jersey. Karen has been dancing since the age of three as a student of Kathryn Collins Dance Studio, where she later became the Hip Hop and Jazz dance instructor.  She also studied dance in England where she spent a semester abroad.  While at MSU, Karen was a co-chair and member of cultural organizations such as Unified Asian American Student Organization where she learned and danced a variety of Asian cultured traditional dances for special events.  She was also extensively involved in a dance organization called Rhythm Nation Dance Club where she taught and choreographed different dances of tap, jazz, ballet, modern, and specialized in hip hop and breakdancing. She competed in several dance competitions with her organizations and won 1st place in some of the events such as MSU’s annual Dance-Off. Karen has also choreographed and taught ballroom dancing for birthday cotillion courts and debuts.  She has choreographed and directed dance shows for several schools in Jersey City and Secaucus.

Hillary-Marie Michael: Tap Instructor

“Hillary-Marie, a woman way beyond her years, has feet like feathers with steel bones”-Carl Schlessinger.  A Native of New Jersey, HILLARY-MARIE is best known throughout the Tri-State area as a tap soloist, performer, choreographer and teacher who specializes in the American art form of rhythm tap dance.  She established an entrepreneurial stance at a young age by managing local musicians in the tri-state area under Fireshot Promotions and is now the Founder and Director of Jersey Tap Fest, an annually fantastic New Jersey tap dance even that will educate and serve diverse students with great passion for tap dance.  As a reputable tap dance instructor, Hillary teaches weekly tap dance classes across the state of New Jersey.  In addition to the dance, look forward to seeing her featured in the Crystal Glass Cosmetics catalog. Hillary-Marie has been mentored by and assistant to Dr. Harold ‘Stumpy’ Cromer since 2007 and mentored by Karen Callaway Williams since 2004.  As a belter and actress, she made her theatrical debut as Val in a regional production of A Chorus Line and now provides audiences with an afternoon of song and tap dance in her new show, What’s On Tap? Hillary proudly became a member of the New Jersey Tap Ensemble in April 2006 and has since become a principal dancer for the New Jersey Tap Ensemble under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director Ms. Deborah Mitchell. She has been so fortunate as to work with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Ballet, Russian Moscow Ballet, American Tap Dance Foundation, as well as award-winning composers Marvin Hamlisch, Leonard Oxley and Nikki Denner. Hillary-Marie has performed in many New Jersey venues, including Cafe Arabica, the Edward Nash Theatre, Montclair Arts Museum, the Morristown Community Theatre, the NJ State Theatre, NJPAC, Patriot’s Stadium, Pianos, the Richardson Auditorium, Skipper’s, the South Orange Performing Arts Center, The Priory, the Union County Performing Arts Center, the Westminster Arts Center and the Wilkins Theatre, as well as New York City’s Battery Park, Cobi’s Place, the Duke Theatre on 42nd Street, the Fashion Institute of Technology Haft Auditorium, Peter Norton Symphony Space, Small’s Jazz Club, Showman’s, The Kitchen, Washington DC’s Duke Ellington Theatre and Smithsonian Museum, St. Louis’ Blanch M. Touhill PAC, and Los Angeles’ Hamilton Performing Arts Center.  Outside of teaching and performance, she is a writer for Terrence Taps’ Tap Dance Blog.  Additionally, Hillary-Marie is a member of the International Tap Association and New Jersey Jazz Society, where she dedicates herself to keeping the art form of tap dance alive.   …Hillary-Marie certainly [makes] her presence known with her commanding, elegant dancing.”-Jazzville NJ “Hillary-Marie, the lone female in the group at the time, more than [holds] her own, drawing forth the crowd with her swaying arms and ever-ready grin.”-Jazzville NJ

Deborah Mitchell: Tap Instructor

She is the Founder and Artistic Director of New Jersey Tap Dance Ensemble.  This distinguished tap professional is a recipient of 3 of tap dancing’s most prestigious awards including the Lifetime Achievement Flo-Bert Award 2007 from The New York Committee to Celebrate National Tap Dance Day; Hoofer Award 2007 from the American Tap Dance Foundation; Living Treasure Award 2007 from Oklahoma City University; and Savion Glover’s Award in 2006 in recognition of National Tap Dance Day.  The protege of Leslie “Bubba” Gaines of the Copasetics and student of Broadway Choreographer Henry LeTang, her many credits include The Cotton Club Motion Picture, Broadway and Paris productions of Black and Blue, PBS Great Performances, 5 international tours with the legendary Cab Calloway, and a partnership with Philadelphia native Germaine Goodson as The Rhythm Queens.  Most recently she was invited into the 2nd Generation of the Silver Belles, the dancing divas of Harlem’s Golden Age which were the subject of the Heather MacDonald’s award winning documentary Been Rich All My Life; she was guest artist, master teacher and choreographer at 2008 UCLA’s 1st Conference on Women in Tap and she is one of the many subjects in the new book, Tap Dancing America by tap historian and journalist Constance Valis Hill.