Keith Robinson- Intro to Dance, Ballet
Keith grew up in the Denver, Colorado area and attended Boston University and the University of Colorado. He began his dance career with Polly L. Thomas and was a founding member of the Robinson Ballet under the direction of Ralph Robinson. Keith trained with madam Nora Kiss in paris, France and with Leonidas de Pian in Athens, Greece. Keith and his wife Maureen have danced professionally in Europe with the ballet Classique de Paris, a touring company based in Paris, France and the Athens Ballet Theater is Athens, Greece. Keith is the Artistic Director of the Robinson Ballet and has choreographed numerous works for the Robinson Ballet as well as for several other community-based arts organizations. He has performed as an actor with the Belfast Maskers, New Surry Theater, Penobscot Theater Company and Ten Bucks Theater. Keith presently teaches ballet at the University of Maine at Orono, Belfast Dance Studio, and the School of Robinson Ballet. Keith is most proud of his son, Ian, who is currently dancing in Israel with Batsheva Dance Company.
Shana Bloomstein - Hip Hop Fusion, African Fusion, Saturday Morning Yoga
Shana grew up in Freedom, Maine, and discovered her love of dance at Forest Friends Nursery School with Lisa Newcomb! She has studied dance throughout Maine, at Hampshire College, in New York City and in Senegal, West Africa. She danced professionally as a member of Nia Love's Blacksmith's Daughter Dance Theatre Co. in NYC for 4 years and currently performs throughout New England. Shana is the artistic director of Women's Works. Her experience and knowledge as a Mother, yoga instructor, massage therapist, and physical therapy assistant provide important tools for creating a safe and loving environment to move in!
Heléna Melone - Belly Dance, Flamenco
Heléna Melone is an international teacher and performer of both her signature Flamenco-Belly fusion, as well as Oriental dance and Flamenco. In 2010 she was selected to participate in the American Top Belly Dancer competition as well as for the prestigious New York Theatrical Belly Dance Show in 2011. She has trained extensively, both in many styles of “belly” dance, including Turkish Roman, as well as in Flamenco, studying throughout the U.S. and in Egypt, Turkey and Spain. Interviewed for her knowledge of flamenco for the novel "Flamenco Academy," as well as for Oprah magazine, she is an arts educator with an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies/Dance Therapy from Lesley University.
In addition to teaching at the Belfast Dance Studio and at the Thomas School of Dance in Bangor, Heléna is a dance teacher and choreographer at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH, and a juried arts educator for the Maine Arts Commission. Her work in schools focuses on teaching both Andalusian and Middle Eastern dance, music, and culture, as well as helping Maine’s 4th-graders learn the hard science of local ecosystems through “Dancescapes,” an intellectual, imaginative, and movement-based interactive process she created for children to experience and learn from both their own bodies and the environment.