CYBT Staff

CYBT STAFF

About the CYBT Artistic Staff

A dedicated and experienced faculty and staff are credited for steering the Dance Company's directions towards the successful implementation of its program. Led by Artistic Director, Liza Mata, and a line-up of outstanding faculty members and guest teachers, each faculty member has a different dance background with a wide range of skills and challenges for the Coastal Youth Ballet Theatre company members.

About Artistic Director: Liza Mata

Liza received her formal dance training in the Philippines and was director of two dance schools for 27 years prior to moving to the United States with her family in 2002. She is a certified teacher of the Royal Academy of Dance, and has participated in teacher training seminars, RAD Teachers' refresher courses, dance festivals and competitions in the United States, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines. She prepares and enters her students to the annual RAD ballet examinations and ballet competitions such as the Youth America Grand Prix, American Ballet Competition and local competitions, where a good number of her students have won and garnered awards and scholarships. She was recognized as the Outstanding Choreographer at the Youth America Grand Prix Greenville Regional Competition in 2006. Under her stewardship, Coastal Youth Ballet Theatre won the Impeccable Customer Experience (ICE) Award as the Best Non-Profit organization presented by the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce in 2008. That same year, the full length production of "The Nutcracker" was presented in
partnership with the Palace Theatre management, also under her stewardship.

Liza believes in the value of good quality education in all the arts. In her more than thirty years of dance teaching experience she is producing students who are making careers as dance professionals and enthusiastic dance supporters. Teaching dance and fostering the love of dance to others continues to be the highlight of her teaching career.

Aside from being a dance professional, Liza is also a musician. She is a product of the University of the Philippines' Conservatory of Music where she was a piano major and a violin minor. At the age of sixteen, she was the first place winner of the National Piano Competition sponsored by the Piano Teachers Guild of the Philippines. She has coached and served as accompanist for the Cabanatuan City Children's Choir that competed and represented the Philippines' Central Luzon region in the finals of the National Music Competition for Young Artists for three consecutive years. In the course of her music teaching career, she has produced students who are now music teachers, studio owners, arts council researchers and musicians in the Philippines.

Roster of CYBT Guest Teachers and Choreographers Since 2006:

Kee Juan Han - Artistic Director of Washington School of Ballet, former faculty member of North Carolina School of the Arts and former Director of Ballet Arizona School

Ivonne Lemus - formerly with the Cuban National Ballet, former faculty member of Coastal Dance Centre, Boston Ballet School, and now with the Orlando Ballet School, Patel Conservatory in Tampa, Florida

Hernan Justo - Artistic Director and Choreographer of Carolina Ballet Theater in Greenville, SC

Vicky Fischer - former faculty member at Steps on Broadway, New York City

Ibis Montoto - Associate Artistic Director of The Art of Classical Ballet, Pompano Beach, Florida, and former Ballet Mistress of Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami

Kristin O'Neal - Modern Dance choreographer, faculty member of University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Sandra Burnham - Master Teacher and Examiner of the Royal Academy of Dance

Howard Burnham - Columbia, South Carolina-based stage and drama coach and actor

Dusty Giamanco - former two-time national Tap champion, New York City-based Musical Theater artist

Burke Daniel - Jazz Choreographer, former Artistic Director of Movin' South

Heather White - Contemporary Choreographer and Studio Director, Inverness Florida

Reyneris Reyes - Master Teacher, former Principal Dancer of the Cuban National Ballet, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Boston Ballet, Miami City Ballet

Vivienne Bews Sulkoski - Master Teacher, introduced the Musical Theatre Program at the Elmhurst School of Dance, the official school of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, England; founder of Myokinetics

Philip Pegler - Master Teacher, Royal Academy of Dance Vocational Examiner and faculty of the Elmhurst School of Dance, the official school of the Birmingham Royal Ballet in England

Kelley Regan - Dancer, pursuing a dance degree at the Royal Academy of Dance in England

Magaly Suarez - Master Teacher; Artistic Director, The Art of Classical Ballet, Florida and former Co-Artistic Director, Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami

Fiona Fairrie - Master Teacher, formerly with the Royal Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet; Youth America Grand Prix Outstanding Teacher Awardee

Carlos dos Santos - Master Teacher and Choreographer, Faculty member of Alvin Ailey School in New York City and Youth America Grand Prix organization.