| About The Center for Dance and Body |
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The Center for Dance and Body is located on the Upper East Side of New York City and offers a wide range of dance and fitness classes. Body Ballet, our signature class, was created by CDAB founder Anna Lederfeind and is a unique Ballet Barre Workout that allows even non-dancers to achieve a ballet dancer physique. Each class, for amateurs, pre-professionals, and professionals alike, takes place in an atmosphere of serious purpose, concentration on physical improvement, personal care and attention, and a sense of joy and musicality. We offer private instruction in addition to classes. Custom-designed training, in particular audition preparation for pre-professional schools, are special features of the curriculum.
Anna Lederfeind, Director and Creator of Body Ballet
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Michael J. Novak was born in the suburbs of Chicago where he received his early dance training in competition jazz and tap. Since graduating high school in 2001, he has studied at the University of the Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, Barnard College, and Springboard Danse Montréal. He has performed featured roles in works by Bill T. Jones, James Kudelka, Stephen Petronio, and Paul Taylor, and was recently highlighted in Dance Magazine and TimeOut NY for his performance in Vaslav Nijinsky’s “L’Après Midi d’un Faune.” Michael graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University with a B.A. in Dance in 2009, and currently is a member of the Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company and Gina Gibney Dance. He has been teaching at Center for Dance and Body for over two years. His 
Francoise began ballet in Paris aged 6 with Olga Alexendrovitch,
principal dancer from the Paris Opera, becoming a student there as well, studying with Raymond Franchetti, Alexandre
Kalioujny, Rene Bon, Gilbert Mayer and Daniel Franck, later joining the company as a corps member. In the US she has studied jazz at the Roland Dupre Dance Academy in Los Angeles. When a knee injury cut short her dance career, she became an actress and performed for several years at the French National Theatre, la Comedie Francaise. She also worked on TV and films. In the past few years she has returned to dance, working with actors doing choreographic work for theater and films in France and in the US.
A Chicago native, Rio trained with Larry Long of the Ruth Page Dance Foundation on scholarship, also while dancing for the school’s resident company, Civic Ballet of Chicago. Rio continued her training in ballet and expanded into contemporary work at Point Park University on presidential and dance scholarship. She performed with the Pittsburgh Playhouse Dance Company under Susan Stowe, and also danced for The Pillow Project, a dance, media, and film collaboration in Pittsburgh. As an advocate for human rights, Rio founded and led the International Justice Mission - Point Park University Chapter, raising awareness and funds to help victims of slavery around the world. To express this passion for equality, she was also privileged to premiere her work “Wavering Grace” at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.
Jennifer's professional theater career has included numerous regional and off-Broadway credits, including the national tour of Peter
Pan(Dance Captain, Swing). She choreographed and assisted at the
Little Theatre of the Rockies production of A
Chorus Line,and is currently on staff as resident choreographer
for the off-Broadway Tax Deductible Theatre Company. She directs the tap program at AYDT, and teaches tap, Broadway jazz, ballet and voice. Jennifer
began her dance career in Overland Park, Kansas. She soon discovered her passion for Broadway jazz and tap dance, and was graduated from the University of Northern Colorado, with a B.F.A. in musical theatre with a dance emphasis. While in college she co-founded the professional tap company, Tone
Def, and performed throughout Colorado with UNC's Tour Troupe from
1998 to 2000. In 1992, she performed at the Starlight Theatre and at the World's Fair in Seville. Jennifer's approach to teaching dance starts with passionate appreciation for the gifts and skills of each individual, and that building
solid technique leads to the most creative and fulfilling class. She feels
truly blessed to work with the talented and hard-working instructors
at CDAB.
Born and raised in Madisonville, Kentucky, Holt Walborn dreamt his whole life of making a career out of dance in New York City. Holt studied at Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan for Junior and senior years of high school, graduating as a dance major. After Interlochen, Holt moved to Indianapolis to study at Butler University. At Butler, he learned classical Vagonova ballet technique from professors such as Tong Wang and Marek Cholewa. Through Butler, Holt was able to perform in rolls as diverse as Paul Taylor’s Cloven Kingdom, to Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies, to performing as Nutcracker Prince for Butler Ballet presents The Nutcracker. Holt graduated from Butler on May 10th, 2010 and promptly moved to New York City to pursue a career as a modern dancer. Holt is very happy to be a part of the Center for Dance and Body faculty and is looking forward to seeing you in class!
Milan Misko was raised in Centerview, Missouri where he began his training with Jo Noth's White Oak Dance Academy and the Kansas City Ballet School. He later performed with the Kansas City Ballet Company as an apprentice before continuing his professional training at SUNY Purchase where he graduated summa cum lade with a BFA in Dance. He has received awards at a national level including "Mr. Dance" from Dance Masters of America, the National Merit Scholarship from ABT, and scholarships from San Francisco Ballet School and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Milan has had the honor to work with numerous dance companies including Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company RUG, Take Dance, Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, Connecticut Ballet, Adams Company Dance, Wendy Osserman Dance Company, Collective Body Dance Lab and Setsuko Kawaguchi Ballet Company, Japan.