Faculty
Who We Are
Thiago Silva
School Director, Refinement & Artistry
Ballet Instructor
Thiago Silva is originally from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He Began his dance training at Boca Ballet Theater in Boca Raton, Florida, under Dan Guin, Jane Tyree and Helen Greenford. He continued on to study with former Ballet Florida principal dancer Deborah Marquez at School of Ballet Arts in West Palm Beach. He later went on to perform professionally with Boca Ballet Theater and Arts Dance Generation in productions of The Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Giselle, La Bayadere, The Nutcracker and George Balanchine’s Serenade alongside American Ballet Theater and New York City Ballet principal dancers: Julie Kent, Marcelo Gomez, Jose Manuel Correno, Daniel Ulbricht, Irina Dvorovenko, to name a few. In 2011, Mr. Silva danced a collection of jazz repertoire for the YPO Funding Organization of the Florida Grand Opera in Miami and taught at the inaugural session of the Ballet Central New Jersey Intensive. Mr. Silva was a 2012 member of O Dance, a dance festival which takes place in West Palm Beach, FL. He has performed as a guest artist with the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and has taught ballet for Rutgers University. Mr. Silva is delighted to have trained dancers for the Prix de Lausanne, Youth America Grand Prix, Miami International Ballet Competition, among other renown international ballet competitions. His students have been received top placements and highest awards, as well as invitations to international final events where they have placed and have been awarded prestigious scholarships. Mr. Silva has received the "Outstanding Teacher" Award at the Miami International Ballet Competition, as well as Youth America Grand Prix. He is proud to be the Founding School Director of BalletCNJ and looks forward to working with his students and helping them achieve their goals and dreams.
Nicolette Peron
​Young Dancer Director, Discover & Develop, Foundation & Technique, and Refinement & Artistry, Ballet, Jazz, and Tap Instructor
Originally from Branchburg, New Jersey, Nicolette Peron started her training in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, and contemporary at her local dance studio. She furthered her studies at Somerset County Vocational Technical High School in the Gifted and Talented Honors Dance Program. Through many community outreach programs and internships, her true interest in teaching sparked. She loves sharing and passing down all of her knowledge and training with younger generations. In May of 2021, Peron graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors and obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at Shenandoah Conservatory (Winchester, VA) under the guidance of Maurice Fraga, Matthew Pardo, Shylo Martinez, and many others. Additionally, she has been involved in choreographic works by Tiffanie Carson, Jacob Brent, and Erica Helm, to name a few. She has also broadened her education by taking classes in kinesiology, dance history, stage lighting, costume design, dance composition, and methods for teaching dance. Peron has choreographed several works including, “the lives they leave behind”, “eidolon,” and “Drowning.” She is thankful for her study abroad opportunities at SU. These include the Ekilibre Annual Contact Improvisation Festival (2018) and attending Balett Akademien’s Study Abroad Program in Gothenburg, Sweden (2019). While in Virginia, she began her teaching career and was awarded the Robyn Hart Schroth Dance Education Scholarship. Her intent is to inspire, educate, and create for those around her, and to always have her passions coincide with her career. She is excited to be able to educate BalletCNJ's students with numerous styles as well as teaching BalletCNJ's youngest aspiring artists!
Tori Vinjamuri
Preparatory and Refinement & Artistry Ballet Instructor and Rehearsal Mistress
A native of Freehold, NJ, Tori received her ballet training at Princeton Ballet School. Upon graduation, she moved to Charlotte, NC where she was a trainee and apprentice with North Carolina Dance Theatre under the direction of Jean Pierre Bonnefoux for three years. In 2012, Tori moved back to New Jersey and danced professionally with Lustig Dance Theatre for four years. She has also danced with The Oakland Ballet in Oakland, CA for several years and with ARC Dance in Seattle, WA since 2012. Tori has been featured in many classical and contemporary works by chorographers Graham Lustig, Edwaard Liang, Alex Ketley, Gerard Theoret, Bat Abbit, Marie Chong, to name a few. In addition to professionally dancing, Tori has taught throughout New Jersey. Tori is excited to share her knowledge and passion with the BalletCNJ dancers.
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Cynthia Gordon
Refinement & Artistry Ballet Instructor
A native of upstate New York Cynthia has been teaching for over thirty years from the youngest of dancers to college bound and beyond. Cynthia graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors from Rowan University with undergraduate degrees in Education and Psychology. Cynthia is currently pursuing her Master of Arts at Rider University with a concentration in Dance Movement Therapy and a double major in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Career and Life Coaching. She has studied with numerous artists, highlights include Sulamith Messerer former Prima Ballerina from the Bolshoi Ballet, Briansky Saratoga Ballet Center, under George Balanchine and Oleg and Mireille Briansky, School of Berkshire Ballet, Hallenbeck School of Dance, and on scholarship to Princeton Ballet School and Joffrey Ballet. Cynthia also had the privilege of training with Hines & Hatchett the original dance teachers of the now renown Broadway Dance Center. She is certified by Dance Educators of America, a graduate of Empire State Theater and Mercer High School of Performing Arts, a certified aerobics instructor by American Aerobic Association International and on the faculty of Ballet Central New Jersey. Versed in every style of dance and performing arts Cynthia began a professional career as a child and has performed on Broadway, in television, movies and modeled for the World Modeling Association. Cynthia has numerous professional credits, her most memorable include performing at Radio City Music Hall, high wire flying with Peter Foy and walking Mercedes Fashion Week in NYC. Cynthia is a nationally awarded choreographer and was named by Dance Spirit Magazine as one of the top 50 “Dance Teachers on the Move”. Cynthia has extensive experience working with children of all abilities and ages in multiple education settings with a successful record of meeting student benchmarks, educational and life goals, college acceptances and professional careers. She also has extensive experience in curriculum development, early education, and applied behavioral analysis. On top of her numerous artistic credits, Cynthia also works as an in-home Behavioral Therapist working with children with autism and developmental disabilities and holds a full time position as an Administrative Assistant at the Montgomery Township School District. Cynthia is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and passion for the arts to inspire her students to achieve their goals and dreams.
Erin Ambry
Contemporary Dance Instructor
Born and raised in South Amboy, New Jersey, Erin Ambry began her dance training at Dance Stop Dance Education Center. She trained heavily in ballet, contemporary, modern, lyrical, jazz, tap, and hip hop, under the guidance of Gina Forcella, Thang Dao, Julie Shulman Friedrich, Al Blackstone, Sara Pyun and Rosemary Sabovick-Bleich. Early on, Erin was exposed to performing frequently through dance competitions and conventions. This exposure greatly aided in her desire to pursue dance as a career. In 2019, Erin graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Here, she continued to study modern and contemporary dance styles, as well as ballet. While in school, Erin performed choreographic works by Christian von Howard, Mark Morris, Lar Lubovitch, and Maxine Doyle. Throughout the summer months, Erin attended Pilobolus Summer Series (2016), NorthWest Dance Project Summer Intensive AP Platform (2017), and Hubbert Street Dance Chicago Summer Intensive (2018). In addition, Erin became a certified yoga instructor through the Om Factory School of Yoga. During the next few years after graduation, Erin continued to educate herself in different contemporary styles throughout the New York City dance scene, such as VimVigor Dance Company and Yin Yue Dance Company. Erin’s professional accomplishments include performing with Mignolo Dance Company, Ocampo/Wang Dance in Brooklyn, New York and Taipei, Taiwan, and Vanessa Long Dance Company. In 2021, Erin joined the Company of Collaborative Artists (CoCA) Moves under the direction of Camille Rennie and continues to dance with the company.
Leonora Lima
Foundation & Technique and Refinement & Artistry Ballet Instructor
Leonora Lima has been a classical ballet teacher for 35 years, graduated from the RAD - Royal Academy of Dance, with international certification - CBTS Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies. She has an MBA in Art Direction for Theater and Television. Postgraduate Specialization in Cultural Production, Art and Entertainment. She also has an academic background in Psychology, with a focus on Psychomotricity and Sports Psychology. As a dancer, she graduated from the Centro Mineiro de Danças Clássicas, and studied with important teachers such as Graça Salles, Tindaro Silvano, Pablo Moret, Mercedes Beltran, among others. She studied at the National Conservatory of Lisbon, in Portugal, and at the Centro Pró-Danza de Cuba, in Havana. As a professional dancer, she danced in the Companhia Jovem do Sesiminas, alongside important dancers such as: Igor Zelensky, Ana Botafogo, Cecília Kerche, Marcelo Misailids. She teaches Classical Ballet classes with the fundamentals of Biomechanics, Gyrokinesis® and Gyrotonic for dancers. She was a master teacher and artistic director of a young company in Brazil: responsible for re-staging and artistic direction of ballets such as Giselle, The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, La Fille Mal Gardee, Fairy Doll, Chipollino, Arlequinade, Swan Lake, among others, and authorial productions of contemporary dance and neoclassical dance. As artistic director of the pre-professional “Grupo Minas Gerais de Dança”, she trained young dancers to enter the following schools: The HARID Conservatory, Atlanta Ballet School, San Francisco Ballet School, Philadelphia Ballet School, Joffrey Ballet School, Ecolé National du Marselhe (France), Escola Teatro Colon (Argentina), Ballet Jovem da Bélgica, Hamburgo Ballet School, as well as winning students in competitions such as: YAGP, Prix de Lausanne, GPAL, WBC, among others. Leonora Lima believes that the training of high-performance dancers needs to be focused on efficient work, where technique and physical and emotional health can come together to obtain good results.
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Erin Ryan
Adult Ballet Program Instructor
Ms Ryan has been fitting pointe shoes for 8 years, dancing on pointe for twice as long. Erin has a minor in Ballet from Kennesaw State University and has published an academic article on Dance. Some favorite roles they've performed include Giselle, Sugar Plum Fairy, Cinderella and Swanilda. Ms. Ryan has been teaching ballet for 5 years and served as an artistic director for 1 year before choosing to take over Arena Dance (Hamilton, NJ). Erin Ryan took over Arena Dance in 2023, but has been working for the company since 2016! Erin still dances as a guest artist with local contemporary companies. Their main passion is aiding anyone to find their love for dance - whether it be 20 hours of ballet a week or line dancing once a month!
Julia Cronce
Office Manager
Julia began taking dance classes at the age of 3 at Simone Dance Studio, where she trained in Ballet and Tap. She continued her training in dance, acting, vocal, and costuming at the OCVTS Performing Arts Academy high school. Through her teenage years she expanded her dance training, gaining extensive experience in musical theater dance, modern, ballet, and pointe. Upon graduation, she received her associates from Ocean County College in Theatre Arts. She has portrayed the Diana Morales swing for a 2021 production of A Chorus Line along with working on other performances, such as, Legally Blonde, Chicago, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Blueberry Hill Accord, among others. In her free time she enjoys singing with her band. Julia is very enthusiastic about performing arts and helping young dancers develop their passion and talents. She is excited to be a part of helping BalletCNJ dancers achieve their goals.
