THE STAFF
Andrea Duffin Conway
Director
Director Andrea Duffin Conway began her training at the age of eight with Madeline Cantrella Culpo in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and started her performing career with the Berkshire Ballet, dancing leading roles in such ballets as Cinderella, La Fille Mal Gardée, and The Nutcracker. She went on to become an apprentice with the Boston Ballet Company and performed with the Pennsylvania Ballet while on scholarship at the school. Andrea joined the Washington Ballet Company and toured exclusively throughout South America and Asia.
In 1984, she was a guest artist at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Becket, Massachusetts. She has been a member of the teaching staff at the Ballet School of Pennsylvania for several years, and has served as a dance instructor at Swarthmore College and Bryn Mawr College.
Eva Szabo
Eva Szabo was educated at the Hungarian National Ballet Institute in Budapest Hungary. Eva danced and toured with the Gyori Ballet, a company which she co-founded in Hungary. She received an international teaching certificate from the Hungarian National Ballet Institute. Eva is currently on the faculty of the Rock School for Dance Education and the University of the Arts.
Caitlin McElroy
Caitlin began her early training in Voorhees, NJ, and at the age of 16 moved to Boca Raton, Florida to train at The Harid Conservatory. After graduating from Harid in 2007, Caitlin spent two years in the Graduate Program at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, where she had the opportunity to perform with the main company in ballets such as The Nutcracker, Laurie Stallings’ The Great Gatsby, and the North American premiere of Derek Deane’s Alice in Wonderland. In 2009 she joined the Atlantic City Ballet under the direction of Phyllis Papa and has enjoyed dancing in a wide variety of roles, her favorites being Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Arabianin The Nutcracker, and one of Dracula’s Brides in Dracula. Find out more about Atlantic City Ballet’s performance schedule at acballet.org/attend.
Amanda Valentino
Amanda grew up in South Jersey, where she trained under the direction of Andrea Duffin from the age of 9. While training with South Jersey Ballet School and Theatre, she had the opportunity to perform in many full length ballets with principal roles including Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Cinderella in Cinderella, Swanilda in Coppélia, and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Amanda continued her training in New York with Ellison Ballet ’s Professional Training program under the tutelage of Edward Ellison and Lyubov Fominih with a focus on Vaganova technique. In 2017, she accepted a contract with Houston Ballet II, under the direction of Stanton Welch and Claudio Muñoz. With HB II, she performed and toured many works including Stanton Welch’s The Nutcracker, A Dance in the Garden of Mirth, A Time to Dance, Play, Swan Lake, George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, Ilya Kozadayev’s Molto Espressivo, the US premiere of Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling, Marius Petipa’s Raymonda set by Claudio Muñoz, as well as Swanilda in Claudio Muñoz’s production of Coppélia. Joining Cincinnati Ballet to become a company member, Amanda was able to expand her classical and contemporary repertoire, performing new works by company members as well as classics including Devon Carney’s The Sleeping Beauty, Septime Webre’s Peter Pan and Wizard of Oz, and Adam Hougland’s Rite of Spring to name a few. Amanda is very excited to be back in New Jersey and to have the opportunity to share her passion for dance with others.
Ashley McMichael
Ashley McMichael began dancing at four years old. During her teenage years, she trained in Philadelphia at The Rock School for Dance Education under the direction of Bojan and Stephanie Spassoff. While at The Rock School, Ashley was trained by Christopher Fleming, Mariaelena Ruiz and Eva Szabo, among many others. Ashley has enjoyed dancing lead roles in The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. She has spent many summers away from home to further her ballet education at the American Ballet Theatre in New York City and Orange County, Boston Ballet, North Carolina School of the Arts, Ballet Austin, and the Joffrey Ballet School on full scholarship. While away, Ashley had the honor of studying under George Balanchine’s ballerina, Melissa Hayden, for several summers. Ashley is also an elementary school teacher in Voorhees. She truly loves working with children and offering them all that she has learned over the years.
Julianne Young
In 2009 Julianne Young began her dance journey. She started out dancing at a small local studio performing in a performance troupe and competing in dance competitions. At the age of 11 Julianne joined Ballet de Juenes and Flamenco Y Mas. At 15 years old, Julianne began interning as a dance teacher with the director of Ballet de Juenes, Donna Tambussi. She attended Gloucester County Institute of Technology with a dance major for high school, and at the same time started at South Jersey Ballet. Eventually she joined their company and participated in South Jersey Ballet Theatre performing in the annual Nutcracker and spring shows. After completing high school she moved to NYC to attend Peridance Center for their certificate program. In 2022 she began her teaching journey at South Jersey Ballet, as well as assisting rehearsals for South Jersey Ballet Theater. Julianne still performs with Flamenco Y Mas and the Delaware Valley Opera Company for their summer opera series. She is very excited to continue teaching for the years to come.
Julia Udine
Julia Udine is thrilled to return to South Jersey Ballet School, where her own journey as a dancer and performer began. Julia trained at SJBS for 15 years, and it was here that she developed the foundation, discipline, and love of performing that would ultimately shape her professional career.
Julia made her Broadway debut as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera. Before that, she toured the country as Christine Daaé with the original cast of the restaged North American National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera. She has performed the role of Christine Daaé over 900 times between both productions.
Other professional theatre credits: The Pirates of Penzance (Mabel, New York City Center), Sunset Boulevard (Betty Schaefer, Broadway at Music Circus), Beauty and the Beast (Belle, Walnut Street Theatre), The Music Man (Marian Paroo, Broadway at Music Circus Sacramento), Shrek The Musical (Princess Fiona, Walnut Street Theatre), Tell Me on a Sunday (Emma, Walnut Street Theatre).
Julia has been fortunate enough to perform with The Philadelphia Orchestra under Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, celebrating Leonard Bernstein, and has also performed with Josh Groban in the opening of his Stages tour in Atlanta.
TV credits include : Law & Order: SVU (supporting), All My Children (guest star).
In addition to performing, Julia is a comprehensively certified Pilates instructor and Senior Therapeutics and Pilates Instructor with Erika Bloom Wellness. Her teaching is rooted in alignment, movement efficiency, breath mechanics, and helping each individual develop a deeper understanding of their body and movement.
Returning to the studio where she spent so much of her childhood is incredibly meaningful to Julia. She is so excited to share what she has learned throughout her career with the next generation of dancers at South Jersey Ballet School.
Jen Silver
Jen Silver, originally from Mount Laurel, New Jersey, is a dancer, dance teacher, and Pilates/fitness instructor. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with her B.F.A. in Dance Performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University and then went on to receive her Master's Degree in Dance Education from Rutgers University. Jen has spent the last decade dancing professionally as a contemporary modern dancer in NYC, with companies including Ballaro Dance, Carolyn Dorfman Dance, Spark Movement Collective, Arsenal Movement Dance Project, Marked Dance Project, eSKay Arts Collective, and Humanistics Dance Company. In addition to dancing herself, Jen also enjoys sharing her passion for dance with students of all ages! She is an ABT® Certified Teacher and currently teaches ballet, pointe, modern, lyrical, jazz, and Pilates at studios throughout NJ. Jen grew up training at South Jersey Ballet since the age of 7 and has continuously participated in SJBT’s annual Nutcracker performances ever since! She is so excited to be back in South Jersey and officially join the faculty at SJB.
Nicole Maldonado
Nicole Maldonado, originally from Voorhees, NJ, began her ballet training under the direction of Andrea Duffin at South Jersey Ballet School. For 12 years, Nicole studied classical ballet with Andrea Duffin, Cherie Noble, and Eva Szabo. While at the South Jersey Ballet School, Nicole was a company member of the South Jersey Ballet Theatre where she performed lead roles in The Nutcracker, Coppelia, Cinderella and Swan Lake. Nicole continued to study ballet with Margot Parsons while attending Boston University where she received her BS in Special Education. After graduating from BU, Nicole was a company member in Margot Parson’s contemporary ballet company, Dance Visions from 2006-2012. In June 2012, Dance Magazine featured Dance Visions in a review and recognized Nicole as “the most technically accomplished member of the company”. Nicole is thrilled to be able to share her passion for dance and return to her roots at the South Jersey Ballet School.
