FACULTY & STAFF
We are proud of our diverse Faculty and Staff! Please roll over any image to read their bios.
Lindsay trained at Acton School of Ballet for 12 years under the directorship of Kathryn Anderson and continued her studies at Butler University where she received a B.S. in Dance and Arts Administration. While at Butler she performed soloist and principal roles including Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, as well as in George Balanchine’s Walpurgisnacht and Nacho Duato’s Por Vos Muero. She also had the opportunity to study and perform internationally at the Polish National Ballet School in Warsaw, Poland and at the Rimsky-Korsakov Music Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. Upon graduation, she joined Colorado Ballet where she performed several Corps de Ballet roles and worked with world-renowned choreographer Steven Mills on Light, The Holocaust and Humanity Project, as well as Glen Tetley’s Rite of Spring and George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations. Lindsay has worked in Development and Fundraising for several prominent dance organizations including American Dance Festival in Durham, NC, Charlotte Ballet, and most recently worked for several years as the Assistant Director of Donor Relations at Walnut Hill School for the Arts. Lindsay is an American Ballet Theater® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. Lindsay served as Regiseusse for Commonwealth Ballet for four years where she is now a member of the Board of Directors and performs as the Sugar Plum Fairy for their performances of The Nutcracker.
Lindsay Moncrieff
Artistic Director & OWner
Juliana holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree from The College at Brockport, State University of New York where she specialized in Dance Performance and Choreography. She also received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Dance Education from Radford University. She lives in Boston where she is Artistic Director of Turning Key Dance, performing and presenting her choreography nationally and internationally. Her work has recently been showcased at the American School in Switzerland, The Commonwealth Ballet Company and at the Rochester Fringe Festival. She also dances for the bi-coastal company, VVWdance, under the direction of Vanessa Van Warmer, and has recently performed at the Pasadena Dance Festival, Ticino en Danza Festival in Switzerland, Core Project Chicago, and the DUMBO Festival NYC. Juliana has also studied and performed with Mariah Maloney Dance, performing at Jacobs Pillow and the Rochester Fringe Festival.
Juliana Utz
Ballet, Modern, Contemporary
Bronwyn is from Acton, Massachusetts where she began her dance training at the age of four, attending the Acton School of Ballet under the artistic direction of Chip Morris and later Lindsay Moncrieff. She was a member of the Commonwealth Ballet Company from 2017-2019 and performed in their Nutcracker for eight years, returning in 2022 as a guest artist performing the role of Sugar Plum Fairy. She graduated Cum Laude with High Distinction from Butler University in the spring of 2023 with a B.S. in Dance-Arts Administration. While at Butler she received the Jordan College of the Arts Dean's Scholarship, Department Leadership Award, Margaret Sear Rosenblith Memorial Scholarship, Directors Award for Outstanding Service, Leadership, Performance, & Scholarship, as well as being elected Junior & Senior Class Representative and 2023 Student Commencement Speaker for the Jordan College of the Arts. She performed soloist and principal roles in several of Butler’s productions including choreography by Derek Reid, Susan McGuire, Cynthia Pratt, and Marek Cholewa. In the fall of 2023, she joined State Street Ballet in Santa Barbara, CA as a trainee, touring with the company throughout their season in soloist and corps roles. She is now a company dancer with Deos Contemporry Ballet in Grand Rapids, MI.
Bronwyn Smith
Social Media, Guest Faculty
Melenie is a graduate of the Acton School of Ballet and a former member of the Commonwealth Ballet Company. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance performance from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She started out her professional career with Urbanity Dance and currently dances with three other Boston-area based companies; Pantos Project, Luminarium Dance Company, and Turning Key Dance. Throughout her career, she has performed works by prominent choreographers including José Limón, Alwin Nikolais, Thang Dao, and Larry Keigwin. She has performed in venues such as the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the Jacob’s Pillow Inside Out Stage, and events such as the APAP Conference in New York City, TEDxCambridge at the Boston Opera House, and many other festivals along the East Coast. Melenie currently serves as régisseuse for Commonwealth Ballet.
Melenie Diarbekirian
Ballet
Mrs. Moncrieff spent many years working for Arthur D. Little, Inc. first as a scientist in cancer research and then as a Senior Manager in their Chemical Consulting practice. Susan has had many volunteer responsibilities including PTO Chair for the Conant Elementary School in Acton, Girl Scout Leader and as the Volunteer Coordinator for Danny’s Place. For the Commonwealth Ballet, Susan served as the Volunteer Coordinator, the Producer for their annual production of The Nutcracker, and eventually joined the Board in 2005 where she served as Chairman before moving to North Carolina. While in NC she was active in the arts and chaired Charlotte Ballet’s annual auction for two years to raise money for their Outreach program. Susan and her husband Ian returned to MA in the spring of 2018 and are excited to be involved once again with the Acton School of Ballet and CBC.
Susan Moncrieff
Administrator
Kathryn came to Acton School of Ballet from Walnut Hill School where she served as Director of the Community Dance Academy for 14 years. She was also the Founder and Director of Walnut Hill’s popular Youth Summer Dance Program. She was a member of the faculties of Pittsburgh Youth Ballet and the American Academy of Ballet in Buffalo, NY, and spent five summers on the faculty of Chautauqua Institution. Ms. Stark is an American Ballet Theater® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.Ms. Stark received her dance training at North Carolina School of the Arts, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, and as a child in Pittsburgh with Jean Gedeon and Eduard Caton. She danced professionally with Ballet Met in Columbus, OH and was a principal dancer of Southern Ballet Theatre (now Orlando Ballet) where she performed roles including “Lisette” in La Fille Mal Gardee and lead roles in Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie and Allegro Brilliante.
KathRyn Stark
Ballet
Chip began his dance training in Madison, Wisconsin where he directed Jazzworks Dance Theatre and choreographed for Choreographer’s Consortium and the Madison Savoyards. Since coming to Boston in 1985, Mr. Morris has performed with the modern dance company, Choreo, and danced as a soloist with The Dance Prism. Mr. Morris has choreographed for several companies in the Boston area including the Harvard-Radcliffe Dance Company and Wheaton College. With Kathryn Anderson he is co-founder of the Commonwealth Ballet Company and currently serves as its Artistic Director. He has choreographed more than 25 ballets, including full-length productions of Dracula, Beauty and the Beast, Hans Christian Anderson’s The Nightingale, and The Secret Garden. Mr. Morris holds a PhD in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Chip Morris
Director Emeritus
Lorraine Chapman danced professionally with Eliot Feld Ballets/NY and Ballet British Columbia as well as for several Boston-based choreographers including Amy Spencer, Richard Colton, Diane Arvanites, José Mateo, and Marcus Schulkind. As a choreographer she has received several grants and has created works for numerous venues. She officially formed LCTC in 2002 (www.lorrainechapman.org) and her awards include three NEST grants from NEFA, a Live Arts Boston Grant and a Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation as well as being featured in Dance Magazine as one of "25 To Watch". She received her training at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School and L'Ecole Superieure De Danse Du Quebec as well as from Boston veterans Frances Kotelly and Samuel Kurkjian. She teaches at the Northeast School of Ballet, Urbanity Dance, and Ballet Arts Centre of Winchester where she is the co-director of their Emersion program.
Lorraine Chapman
Ballet, Pilates, Improvisation
Genevieve was born in Montréal, Canada and started her professional ballet training at age 11 at l’École Supérieure de Ballet du Québec, one of the most prestigious dance conservatories in Canada. As a student, she twice won the first prize at the “Festival International de dance Encore” in the ballet category. Before she graduated at age 19, she already secured a Corps de Ballet contract with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens and danced several seasons with this prestigious company.
After leaving the company, she started teaching ballet in various ballets school in Montréal, while studying Fine Art and Music in universities. She is now settled in the Boston area where she is teaching ballet and giving private piano lessons to beginners. She is also involved with the Tufts University dance department where she continues to train, teach, and get inspired.
Nell Mancini is a contemporary dancer, choreographer and educator based in Somerville, Massachusetts. She joined KAIROS Dance Theatre in 2021, just two months after graduating from college, and is now an apprentice with the company. While dancing with the company she was able to work with Paula Josa-Jones, Billie Jo Joy, and performed in the one act Opera, FOXY created by Artistic Director DeAnna Pellecchia. She also joined NOZAMA Dance Collective as a company member at the beginning of their 2021-2022 season and has performed in works by artistic director Dana Alsamsam and other company members. She received her BFA in dance from The University of Massachusetts Amherst in just three years and while there she had the opportunity to perform in the masterwork Boats Leaving by Doug Varone, where she was apart of the first ever non-company cast to perform the work in its entirety. She was born and raised in Massachusetts, and she attended the Acton School of Ballet for her formative dance training. She has also trained with David Dorfman, and has performed in his original repertory works created at Bates Dance Festival and Connecticut College, Pantos Project dance, Urbanity Dance, and The Ailey School.