Emily Cordies-Maso started her training at her mother Rebeca Maso’s studio in Somerset, NJ at a young age. At age 12 she attended Ballet Hispanico under the direction of Dr. Ana Maria Correa and later with current director Michelle Manzanales. Cordies-Maso was part of the Pre-Professional program for her last three years there under a full scholarship. During that time she was able to travel to Cordoba Mexico for the Festival de Danza and to Havana Cuba for the Ballet Nacional Festival International de Danza. In 2019 Cordies-Maso started studying under the direction of Aydmara Cabrera at the Princeton Ballet school and was later a trainee with the ARB/PBS in 2021. In December 2020 Emily left to Switzerland to study as a stagiare at Ecole Rudra Bejart in Lausanne with a full scholarship, under the direction of Micheal Gascard and Julio Arrozarena where she got to perform at Vaison la Roman, France and Martingy, Switzerland. Cordies-Maso has also attended various summer intensives including Sarasota Cuban Ballet School, Taina Morales and Jesus Corrales Summer Intensive in Montreal, Canada, and Leonel Morales & Friends Dance Course in Granada, Spain. Her American Repertory Ballet credits include The Nutcracker, Da’Von Doane’s Kaleidoscope Mind, Ethan Stiefel and Johan Kobborg’s Giselle, Arthur Mitchell’s Holberg Suite, and Stiefel’s VARIANTS.
Archives: People
Cheryl Whitney
Cheryl Whitney (Ballet, PBW Ballet Master and Coordinator) received an M.S. in Ballet from Indiana University and a B.A. in English Literature and Music from St. Lawrence University. She was trained and performed professionally in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area. For more than 30 years, she has been involved with Princeton Ballet School and American Repertory Ballet, serving as a faculty member, rehearsal director for both the ARB productions of The Nutcracker and the Princeton Ballet School shows, and Coordinator for Princeton Ballet Workshop. Ms. Whitney is the 2008 recipient of the Audrée Estey Award for Excellence in Dance Education. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the dance programs at Rider University.
Guest teaching credits include Brandywine Ballet, Peabody Conservatory and NJ Governor’s School. Her teaching in academic settings includes Princeton University, Howard University, Indiana University, The Lawrenceville School, Foxcroft School and Latin School of Chicago. and has received grants from the New York and New Jersey State Councils on the Arts. She is Artistic Director of Reverence Dance Company.
Carol Bellis
Carol Bellis received her training on scholarship at the School of American Ballet, official school of the New York City Ballet. She danced with the Garden State Ballet and has taught for Garden State Ballet School, Gloria Govrin’s New Hope Ballet Academy, the School of Performing Arts at Somerset Vo-Tech, and NJ Governor’s School. Bellis has been a member of the Princeton Ballet faculty for over 30 years, and is the principal of the Cranbury studio and the Coordinator of Princeton Ballet School’s summer programs. She is a two time recipient of the Audrée Estey Award for Excellence in Dance Education. Bellis is also an Adjunct Professor of Ballet at Rider University.
Eileen Nelson
Eileen Nelson joined ARB’s staff as the Development Associate in August of 2021. Prior to joining American Repertory Ballet, Eileen was the Development Associate at NORWESCAP and the Development Operations Associate at Princeton Theological Seminary focusing on gift processing, prospect research, and donor database management. Her work involved streamlining processes, increasing efficiency and accuracy, and generating requested information. After having worked in higher education and nonprofit organizations, Eileen is looking forward to the opportunity to continue to work in development at ARB.
Mandy Donato
Mandy Donato started her career at American Repertory Ballet in 2018 as a Dance Power teaching artist and subsequently took on the role of assistant children’s stage manager for their annual Nutcracker that fall. With extensive training in dance, gymnastics, and baton twirling, she developed a passion for behind-the-scenes work in studio management, dedicating her off-dance hours to mastering the skills needed to run a successful school. Now, she sits as the Office Manager at Princeton Ballet School while also serving as the PBCW and PBW Coordinator and acting as Children’s Stage Manager during productions.
Jaclyn Vela
Leighton Chen
Egan Jimenez
Egan is a Visual Design Specialist at Princeton University where he works on different design projects involving photography, graphic design, and video production.
Eduardo Patino
Eduardo Patino is a professional photographer in New York City, serving an international clientele spanning the worlds of the Performing Arts to the Corporate arena.
With a unique background as a high school and college football quarterback, turned theater director and professional dancer, Eduardo brings to his work a passion for Art and an extraordinary understanding of the human figure.
His understanding of the athleticism and artistic sensibilities come from his former career as a dancer. A career-ending injury redirected him to his earliest “mother driven” pursuit – Photography.
Eduardo’s clients depend on him for forward-thinking, style-driven advertising, promotion and publicity shots, posters and magazine covers.
His photography communicates a strong sense of timing, movement, shape and line. His knowledge for how the body moves allows him to capture the exact peak of a movement or a moment, whether in full body or dynamic portrait.
Both in the studio and on location Eduardo’s superbly efficient technical skills and control of light, combined with his easygoing, direct nature, makes the subject of his lens, comfortable and trusting. Qualities that provided exceptional results, for a vast Clientele.
Specialties: Conception, Exploration, Production, Casting, Efficient Execution and Creation; to name a few, relating to the business of Photography.
Rosalie O’Connor
Rosalie O’Connor was born in Vienna, Austria and raised in New Orleans. She moved to New York City at the age of 15, to attend The School of American Ballet. At 17, she became a professional dancer with American Ballet Theatre, where she remained for fifteen years until her retirement in 2002. Rosalie began photographing the company from within. For her last six years she juggled both passions and taught herself on the job. In addition to most dance periodicals, her photographs have also appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair and The New York Times. Rosalie’s images have been displayed in solo exhibitions at Lincoln Center in New York and The John F. Kennedy Center for The Performing Arts, in Washington, DC. She resides in New York City yet she travels extensively for assignments as a freelance photographer.