ARB Position: Outreach Staff

Alexandra “Ali” Jans has been training in ballet and other dance forms for over twenty years. She grew up a military kid, stationed across the U.S. as well as abroad, which presented opportunities to work with many world-renowned instructors and choreographers. She trained under various acclaimed instructors including Stefan Grebeldinger, Franca Desinia, Paula Weber, David Justin, Gary Abbott, DeeAnna Hiett, Ronald Tice, and Mishic and Valentine Liberatore. Jans trained for three years in Italy at the feeder school to Teatro alla Scala in Milan. While in Europe she performed The Nutcracker with the Croatian National Ballet and Don Quixote with the State Ballet of Georgia (Europe). She also attended an invitation-only summer intensive in Novi Sad, Serbia. Jans spent two years pursuing a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where she worked with a variety of choreographers including Nilas Martins and Cleo Parker Robinson. She is currently earning a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Nonprofit Management. As a freelance professional dancer, she performed in various ballets including Don Quixote, Swan Lake as Odette in Swan Lake with Fredrick Davis and the title role in Paquita with Michael Crawford. For two seasons, she was the the Assistant Artistic Director for two seasons at Central New Jersey Ballet and the Junior Company Ballet Mistress for one year. Jans is a certified teacher of the Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) strengthening program for dancers.

Rachel Stanislawczyk, ED.M is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Rutgers University, where she earned her masters degree in Dance Education with a K-12 teaching certification in 2020. During her time at Rutgers, she taught as a Part-Time-Lecturer of Ballet in the Dance Department at Mason Gross School of the Arts. Currently, Rachel is a full-time Dance Educator at David Brearley Middle High School, where she developed the high school dance curriculum for Kenilworth Public Schools. Rachel danced professionally with Rock Dance Collective, and is a teaching artist at Washington Rock Dance.

She is also the Director and Founder of the Dance for Parkinson’s Program at American Repertory Ballet: a program for people diagnosed with PD and their caregivers. She has expanded the program to three locations, performed at Princeton University’s Healing for Music Concert Series, and presents at PD events throughout the state of New Jersey. In 2017, Rachel advanced from an intern to a lead teacher of the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) Dance for PD® program, where she taught classes at MMDG, New York University, Juilliard and Ballet Academy East.

Rachel graduated with a BFA in Dance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. In the spring semester of her junior year, she was a student in the University of South Florida’s Dance in Paris Program, where she studied and performed with various celebrated dance artists in Europe. Rachel is a proud alumni of the Middlesex County Magnet School where she developed her foundational dance training under Cleo Mack.