Faculty

     Originally from Taylor, Michigan, Megan Coleman Stuart began her training with Ballet Americana. She continued her training at The David Howard Summer Intensive, The Bolshoiat Vail, American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Midwest, and on scholarship with Ballet Met. While studying on dance scholarship at Eastern Michigan University, she won The National Society of Arts and Letters Career Award for ballet and represented Michigan at the nationals.

She performed one season with Detroit Opera House Civic Ensemble before beginning her professional career with Ballet Theatre of Ohio.Megan had the opportunity to dance the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Wicked Witch of the West in the premiere of The Wizard of Oz, Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, and contemporary works in the Heinz Poll Summer Dance Festival. Mrs. Stuart was invited to perform with Verb Ballets for their 2009 winter season before moving to KY to dance for the Lexington Ballet Company.

Her repertoire with LBC included Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen, Dew Drop, Don Quixote Pas de deux, Fairy Doll, Swanilda in Coppelia, The title role in Cinderella, Evil Witch in Snow White, The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, and many original works.Megan freelanced for several years throughout the Midwest appearing as a guest artist Sugar Plum Fairy for several companies' performances of The Nutcracker as well as the title roles in BTO's Cinderella and for the premiere performance of The Little Mermaid.

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     Megan has had the pleasure of guest teaching for The University of Michigan's Musical Theatre Department, Eastern Michigan University, Cecchetti Council's Eastern Michigan Committee, among others and has been on faculty for Lexington Ballet School and Toledo Ballet, along with many schools nationally.

She has been invited for choreographic residencies at Eastern Michigan University and Hillsdale College.

Mrs. Stuart holds a BA in Dance from Eastern Michigan University.

   

 Megan Coleman Stuart is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.

Kim Sulek loves teaching dance. The Ohio born native started at the age of 3 and has never stopped. She attended the University of Akron where she earned a B.A. and a B.F.A. in dance (cum laude). She has studied with Jacques D’Amboise, Paul Taylor, Billy Sigenfeld and her favorite teacher of all time, the world renowned Jerry Burr. She has danced professionally with the Cleveland Cavalier’s dance team and Ballet Theatre of Ohio.

She’s been teaching for over 40 years including 33 years in the Akron area where she founded Dance Kraze a student dance competition team in 1994. Those dancers have received many awards including “Best Technique, Best Emotional Execution, Highest team scores, Best precision, Best Choreography, Best storytelling” and many more.

Kim has also judged dance/show choir competitions and choreographed over 28 musicals for Cuyahoga Falls and Stow High School. She was also fortunate to be a part of Ballet Theatre of Ohio for 30 years where she performed many fun character parts as well as rehearsed and choreographed small portions for many of their productions.

Lastly, she is a very happy wife and mother of 4, all of which seem to have her same energy.

With over 20 years of experience in all phases of dance, Brenda Stygar’s credits include Dancer and Ballet Mistress of Ohio Ballet from 1980 through 1987, dancer with Berkshire Ballet, Bristol Concert Ballet, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival Resident Dance Company, and Western Washington Concert Dance Company. Her administrative positions have been Executive Director for the Tom Evert Dance Company, Development Director and Choreographer for Magical Theatre Company, and The Illusion Factory.Ms. Stygar served as the Director of the Northeast Ohio Dance Academy. She also teaches ballet at Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts and taught Creative Movement at Discovery Montessori School. She has choreographed for regional companies in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Illinois, and Washington, and has taught master classes throughout the United States, South America, and Central America.

     In 2001 she was awarded a special grant from the New York Council for the Art to create a new work for the Albany-Berkshire Ballet.

     Ms. Stygar holds a Bachelor's degree with a major in dance and a minor in education, graduating cum laude from Adelphi University outside New York City. She earned her accreditation in teaching Dance K-12 from Kent State University.

Christopher Stygar’s career as a professional dancer started at 16 years including tenures with such renowned companies as Ballet West, The Houston Ballet and Ohio Ballet. During that time he performed the works of such well-known choreographers as George Balanchine, Merce Cunningham, Jacques D’Ambois, Ruthanna Boris, Lew Christensen, Willam Christensen, Heinz Poll, Kathryn Posin, Tomm Ruud, Anna Solokow and Paul Taylor. His touring credits include the European cities of Athens, Biarritz, Milan, Florence, Geneva, Paris, Spoleto (both in Italy and the US festival in Charleston, SC) and Verona. After retiring from dance he was appointed Company Manager with Ohio Ballet where he coordinated the artistic and business operations of that company which included the beginning of their bi-annual seasons in New York at the Joyce Theater. He helped organize and conduct Ohio Ballet’s successful two-month tour of South and Central America and Mexico that culminated in a week of performances at the prestigious Cervantes Festival in Mexico City. Mr. Stygar taught at the university level at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana where he began a dance department. While at Notre Dame he conducted special classes for Fighting Irish football team members to aid in flexibility and injury control. He has been on the faculty of The Dance Institute of the University of Akron.

     He is on the faculty of the Northeast Ohio Dance Academy and served as Co-Director of the Northeast Ohio Dance performing company. He holds a Bachelor’s degree with a double major in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and is currently employed as a Business Development Representative with Concept Services Ltd. in Wadsworth, OH.

Lauren Satink was raised in Wadsworth, Ohio and started dancing at Northeast Ohio Dance when she was five years old. Lauren took all forms of dance including ballet, jazz, modern and hip hop.

She was part of NEOD’s pre-professional company under the directorship of Brenda and Christopher Stygar for six years. During her years with the company, she performed many lead roles in NEOD’s annual production of the Nutcracker.

To further her training Lauren attended summer intensives at the Dance Institute (Akron, OH), BalletMet (Columbus, OH), Ad Deum (Houston, TX), Inlet Dance Theatre (Cleveland, OH) and Ballet 5:8 (Chicago, IL). After graduating high school in 2020, Lauren continued her dance training with Ballet 5:8under the direction of Julianna Rubio Slager for their 2020 - 2021 season. She performed in some of Rubio Slager’s various works including Strangers and Angels and Beyond the Nutcracker. After leaving Chicago, Lauren decided to switch her focus from ballet to modern. Lauren joined Inlet Dance Theatre under the directorship of Bill Wade in 2021. She is trained in Erick Hawkins’ release technique and Alison Chase non-traditional partnering. She has performed some of Wade’s various works including Cohering (2023) with the Cleveland Orchestra and What Do You Do With An Idea? (2024) at the Civic Center in Des Moines, IA.

     She has been teaching jazz, hip hop, modern and ballet at Northeast Ohio Dance since 2021 and performed the role of Sugar Plum Fairy as a guest artist in their 2023 production of the Nutcracker.

Outside of the studio, she loves spending time with her family, hiking, reading and playing with her dog, Savannah

Julia Webb was born and raised in Lodi, Ohio and started dancing at Northeast Ohio Dance when she was three years old. Julia has studied many forms of dance including but not limited to Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Modern, and Hip-Hop. She was also a part of NEOD’s company under the directorship of Brenda and Christopher Stygar for four years. Julia decided to further her career at Kent State University not only to obtain a BA in dance studies but also a BFA in photography with a study in graphic design. She has performed in many productions at Kent State including Fall Faculty Concerts (2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022), Student Dance Festival (2021, 2022, and 2023), Kent Dance Ensemble (2022 and 2023), and Kent State 8. Julia has worked with many Choreographers for staged pieces throughout her college career including Catherine Meredith, Barbara Allegra Verlezza, Jennifer Black, Samuel McIntosh, Jeffrey Marc Rockland, Alice Blumenfeld, Micaela Taylor, Lisa Viola, and Amy Hall Garner. In the 2022-2023 season she joined the Hip-Hip company Levitated (the training group for Elevated) performing/competed at the World of Dance in Chicago (2022) and The Elevated Gala (2023).

Julia Performed at the Lords Of The Land II (2022) put on by the 10kMovement and still trains/works with the organization today under the directorship of Samuel McIntosh. She most recently competed in the Red Bull Dance Your Style Audition (2024).

Julia currently teaches at Jillian Rian’s Dance School and Northeast Ohio Dance.

     Outside of teaching she is a freelance photographer and a photographer/graphic designer for the photography company Ripcho in Cleveland.

In her freetime she enjoys exploring other art forms such as painting, drawing, and exploring with photoshop. She is looking forward to continuing to learn and grow throughout life’s adventures.

Julia loves spending time with her family, friends, and her many pets at home! She is looking forward to continuing to learn and grow throughout life’s adventures while helping others through their dance journey along the way!