Faculty and Staff
We're passionate about one thing... Your success
Meet the Team
School Faculty
Jeannine Belliston
Director
Jeannine Belliston- Owner & Director
Jeannine Belliston is the founder and owner of Belliston Academy and has been serving Littleton for over 40 years. Mrs. Belliston has been involved in dance and theater throughout her life. She studied under Gladys Hight, Gus Giordano, Eric Bruhn and Stone Camryn. Mrs. Belliston studied at Northwestern and Brigham Young University, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree. Her diverse background also includes teaching in the public school systems and fashion design studies at the Chicago Art Institute.
Students under Mrs. Belliston's direction have repeatedly been offered scholarship and admissions to some of the finest dance training institutions in the United States. Among the more notable are School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet School, Miami City Ballet School, Shirley Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet, many offering full scholarships. While others have gone on to enjoy Professions in Dance that have carried them around the globe. Her own children, Leah and Seth, were audience favorites during their tenure as members of the Pacific Northwest Ballet.
Leah Foutch
Programs Director/ Instructor
Leah Foutch- Programs Director/ Instructor
Leah Foutch is a Belliston Academy alumni, receiving her early training from her mother, Jeannine Belliston. Throughout her teen years, Leah attended summer courses at Houston Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet & Perry Mansfield in Steamboat Springs.
In 1989, she was awarded first place at the Denver Ballet Guild and was the recipient of the coveted Florence Ruston Award. Following, she received a scholarship to attend the School of American Ballet in New York City. During her time in the school, she performed the principal role in Gounod Symphony at the SAB workshop staged by Suzanne Farrell.
Leah left the School of American Ballet in November of 1991 with an invitation to perform the Nutcracker with Pacific Northwest Ballet and join their Professional Division. Leah performed the Pas de Deux in Stars & Stripes staged by Francia Russell while in the Professional Division. Leah then began her professional career by joining the company in 1992 as an Apprentice and was promoted to Corp de Ballet in 1993.
She performed many George Balanchine works including: corp and soloist roles in Agon, Concerto Barocco, Rubies, Serenade, Swan Lake, Theme & Variations, Western Symphony, Who Cares, & 4 Temperaments. PNB was invited to participate in a tribute to George Balanchine at State Theatre in New York City where she performed Paquita, La Valse & Divertimento 15. Leah performed in original works of Kent Stowell including Carmina Burana & Cinderella. Notably, she performed the principal role of Peacock in his version of the Nutcracker inspired by Maurice Sendak. Leah performed Fairies & Divertissement in the BBC’s 1999 film version of PNB’s production of Balanchine’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream filmed at Sadler Wells Theatre, London. She had the opportunity to tour with the company to Canada, Hawaii, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Melbourne, & Scotland.
Leah returned home to Colorado and joined the faculty in 2006 as Administrative Assistant and served as Studio Director of Belliston Centre of Dance in Westminster from 2006-2015. In 2012, she became Programs Director. Recently, she has embarked in teaching the intermediate & advanced levels to enlighten future generations with a passion for hard work, commitment, & dedication to the Arts as well as developing & embracing their individual potential. Leah resides in Littleton & is married to her sweetheart, Wesley, and has five remarkable children. Her & Wesley are business owners: coaching & encouraging others in the health & wellness industry.
Alexandrea Wright
School Manager/ Instructor
Alexandrea Wright- School Manager/ Instructor
Alex grew up in Littleton, Co and is a Belliston Academy alumni. Alex was a member of the Pre Professional Scholarship program at Belliston for three years and participated as a Dakota Ridge HS pom and captain for two years. She went on to continue dancing in college and danced for the University of Northern Colorado Sugar Bears and for Dream Project Dance Co.
Alex graduated from UNC in 2016 with a bachelors degree in Elementary Education and minor in Reading. When she returned home from college she began her teaching career as a second grade teacher here in Littleton. In 2018, Alex decided to follow her passion and love for dance and is now full time at Belliston Academy managing the studio and teaching many of our youngest dancers!
When Alex is not at the studio she is teaching Pure Barre at Pure Barre Littleton or coaching poms at Columbine High School! She also enjoys spending time with her husband, Dakoda, and their two pups, Milo and Sophie. They love getting outside and enjoying time on the lake and with family. Alex’s combined love for children and dance makes her job at Belliston a dream come true!!
Teaching Faculty
Erin Antoville
Born and raised in New York, Erin began dancing at the age of 2. She has competed all over the country at both the regional and national level winning numerous awards. In high school Erin's family moved to Dallas, TX where she was a member of the National Championship winning dance team the Grapevine High School Fabulous Fillies. Erin attended Texas Tech University where she double majored in Dance and Marketing. She was a member of the Texas Tech University Dance Company where she was a finalist at the American College Dance Festival. This is also where Erin fell in love with teaching dance at a local studio. During her summer vacations in college Erin interned with Rockettes, Broadway Stars, and other Professional Dancers.
When Erin is not at the studio she is a consultant at a software company. She love to ski, hike, camp, paddle board, go to concerts, travel, and hang with her bulldog, Lucy. Erin is so thankful to be a part of the Belliston family. She loves getting to work with the dancers at Belliston Academy and helps to inspire them to love dance and themselves!
Andrea Blankstein-Otloski
Andrea Blankstein-Otloski- Instructor
Andrea Blankstein was born in Boras, Sweden, and grew up in Tempe, Arizona. It was in Tempe where she received her training with Mary Moe Adams at Adams Ballet Academy R.A.D. She was awarded a prize in the National Arts and Letters competition.
Andrea was also awarded the Bartholin prize at the Bartholin Seminar Copenhagen, Denmark. There she was discovered by Peter Schaufuss, and was invited to join the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Berlin, Germany at the young age of 16, where she performed such ballets as Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker. She also had the opportunity to work with many world class choreographers and perform at many festivals including, the Spoleto Festival in Italy, Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, and Festival Internacional de Danza in Seville, Spain and in London, England during her time with the company.
Upon her return to the United States she worked with Cleveland/San Jose Ballet, Cleveland, Ohio. Andrea has danced with Ballet Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, Milwaukee Ballet Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ohio Ballet, Akron, Ohio, and Sate Street Ballet, Santa Barbara, California. She was a principal dancer with Virginia Ballet Theatre, where she performed such roles as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and the White Couple in Les Patineurs, partnered by her husband former ClevelandSan Jose principal and Groundworks Dance Theatre member Mark Otloski.
Andrea was a principal dancer with Ballet Theatre of Ohio. Where she has been seen performing such roles as Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, the Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen and Dew Drop in The Nutcracker, and many other various principal roles. She has also done many guestings with companies such as Ballet Western Reserve, Youngstown, Ohio dancing Cinderella in Cinderella, and the Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen in The Nutcracker with Albany Berkshire Ballet. For 13 years Andrea has been a Principal guest artist with Hawaii Ballet Theatre in The Nutcracker in Honolulu, Hawaii. Andrea has been teaching for over 25 years at various studios in Arizona, Ohio, Virginia, California, and Hawaii. Since moving to Denver, Colorado she was the director of a ballet program in Cherry Creek. Andrea is so excited to be joining the staff at Belliston Academy of Ballet and Dance.
Norberto Cardenales
Norberto- Instructor
Norberto Cardenales is a Software Engineer, Linguist and ballet teacher. He was born and raised in the island of Puerto Rico where he started his training at EABA (Escuela de Bellas Artes) in Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico. There he trained in ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance, acro-partnering and aerial dance. He then moved to San Juan where he became an apprentice at Balleteatro Nacional de Puerto Rico, later joining the company.
He trained under the Cuban ballet curriculum and with the guidance of pillars of Latin-American ballet like Ballet Master Joaquín Banegas, Principal Dancer of Puerto Rico Laura Valentín, Principal Dancer of National Ballet of Cuba Osmay Molina, contemporary choreographer Rodney Rivera, Lourdes Ortega, Lázaro Carreño, Lara Berríos, José Rodriguez, Silvia Marichal, Daniel Ramirez and George Amil.
Norberto has had the opportunity to perform soloist roles for Sylvia, The Nutcracker, Pharaoh’s Daughter, Flames of Paris, Don Quixote and Harlequinade. He also has performed other classics as La Bayadere, Giselle and Coppelia and neo-classics like Majísimo, Red Riding Hood, Carmen, Techo de Cristal and Celtic Fire.
Norberto’s teaching focuses on ballet, pointe, character, style, partnering and acting, the last two being his focus and an integral part of the Cuban ballet methodology.
Casey Dalton
Casey Dalton- Instructor
Casey grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, training at the School of the Washington Ballet under Mary Day, and later at the Kirov Academy of Ballet where she was fortunate enough to be a member of Alla Sizova’s last graduating class in the United States.
As a student, she attended summer intensives on scholarship at American Ballet Theater, Kaatsbaan International Dance Center, and Boston Ballet. In 2004 she joined Colorado Ballet, and spent 11 years dancing corps de ballet, demi-soloist and soloist roles in all of the classical and neoclassical repertoire, as well as originating roles in many contemporary works by choreographers such as Dwight Rhoden, Jodie Gates, Val Caniparoli, and more.
For the past several years, she has been teaching and coaching students throughout the Denver area, working in a class setting as well as offering private instruction to students of all ages and levels. Casey is also certified to teach Marie Walton-Mahon’s Progressing Ballet Technique method and has a great passion for creating smart, healthy dancers.
Markeith Douse
Markeith Douse - Instructor
Markeith Douse is a classically trained dancer from St. Augustine Florida. He had his start with the St. Augustine ballet where he trained for the majority of his teenage years under Luis Abella. He continued training and performing throughout high school and college, attending two prestigious universities FSU and UA where he acquired a deep understanding of dance kinesiology and artistic development.
In recent years Markeith has found a love for teaching and supporting the next generation of dancers as well as working as a realtor, with ambitions of sponsoring upcoming dancers while creating performance and work opportunities for the arts and culture community.
Sophia Graves
Sophia Graves- Instructor
Sophia has been apart of the Belliston family since she was 5 years old when she began dancing. She balanced training at Belliston Academy and being a Columbine Pom dancer from 2015-2018. After graduating high school, Sophia danced as a CSU Golden Pom for 4 years while completing her Bachelors in Social Work.
Currently, Sophia is a graduate student at the University of Denver in process of completing her Masters in Social Work. As well, she is a first year member as a Denver Broncos Cheerleader. Sophia is very excited to come back to teach for the 2022-2023 season.
Mark Otloski
Mark Otloski- Instructor
Mark Otloski, (Dancer, Teacher, Education Coordinator), a native of Flint, Michigan, is a former principal dancer of 22 years with the Cleveland/San Jose ballet under the direction of Dennis Nahat. During his tenure with the company he established himself as one of the company’s leading danseurs performing an extensive range of principal and soloist roles as well as having danced nearly every role in the company’s repertory.
Mr. Otloski was also a performing artist for 7 years with GroundWorks DanceTheater, a contemporary-dance company based in Cleveland, Ohio under the direction of David Shimotakahara. In addition to performing Mark also served as GroundWorks Education Outreach Coordinator for the past 17 years providing access and opportunities for students throughout the greater Cleveland and Akron school districts to participate in creative movement workshops, interactive performance-demonstrations and residencies alongside the artists of GroundWorks.
Mr. Otloski was awarded the 2010 Sunshine Award by Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio which recognizes individuals and organizations who best exemplify the qualities of collaboration and partnership in the work they do with arts-integrated programming. In 2013 he received the Outstanding Outreach Project Award by the Akron Area Arts Alliance in recognition of the educational programming and workshops associated with the Rite of Spring Project with GroundWorks Dance Theater and the Akron Symphony. For the past 12 years he has also been a Principal guest artist Hawaii Ballet Theatre in Honolulu, HI.
Mr. Otloski is an accomplished teacher with knowledge of the Vaganova and Cecchetti syllabus’ with over 30 years of teaching experience.
Dave Reuille
David Reuille - Instructor
David Reuille is the Artistic Director of Apex Dance. Mr. Reuille (pronounced “Roy”) has a distinct artistic vision for dance that fuses many different dance styles into a vibrant and exciting movement style accessible to everyone, no matter their level of exposure to the arts. He has created dances for numerous professional and regional dance companies including: Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Lexington Ballet, AYBT, Illinois Ballet, and more.
As well as directing Apex, Mr. Reuille is currently a professional teacher, choreographer, and dancer based in Denver, CO. He was a resident choreographer and teacher at Denver School of the Arts for 11 years, and provided dance content and instruction for Douglas County High School’s IB Dance program for 9 years. He has taught master classes around the world including the International Dance Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, American Dance Festival, and throughout the U.S. as the touring master teacher for DCDC. For 13 years he has been a teaching artist with Think 360 Arts where he provides residencies in schools throughout the front range, with the emphasis of using dance to teach core curriculum. As well as teaching students curriculum using dance, he provides teachers Professional Development classes and workshops to enable them to use the arts to teach curriculum. Six times he has taught for Think 360 Arts’ summer Institute for Creative Teaching. Think360 Arts is currently engaged in a new affiliate program with Wolf Trap Early Learning For The Arts, and he is training as part of the first select cohort of artists in this program.
Mr. Reuille was also the President of the Board of the Colorado Dance Alliance, presiding over the organization in a critical transition period to become Colorado Dance Education Organization. CODEO is a state affiliate of the National Dance Education Organization. CODEO has since blossomed from its wilting dance advocacy, as the previous organization, to a vibrant and thriving dance education organization. As a Board Member with CODEO, Mr. Reuille was a part of the process to get Colorado State Certification and Licensure for Dance teachers in Public Schools.
As a professional dancer and choreographer, Mr. Reuille’s career has spanned 26 years and 8 countries. He began his professional career with Lexington Ballet where he quickly established himself as a soloist and principal dancer. Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (DCDC) was his home for six years after leaving Kentucky. While in Dayton, he performed in the works of such master choreographers as Jose Limon, Donald McKayle, and Tally Betty. David has also danced in new works created by choreographers Bill T. Jones, Dwight Rhoden, Bebe Miller, Ron Brown, and Kevin Ward. Following DCDC, Mr. Reuille was a member of the New York based Parsons Dance Company where he toured nationally and internationally to great acclaim. He has also been a guest dancer with Louisville Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Central Illinois Ballet, Peoria Ballet, and various other regional companies. His television credits include the PBS documentary “Free to Dance.” In the theatre genre, Mr. Reuille has worked with Curious Theatre on their productions of “The War Anthology,” “Curious New Voices,” and “Dead Man’s Cell Phone.” He has received several awards and fellowships for his choreography, including the Montgomery County Arts Fellowship.
September Stowell
September Stowell- Instructor
September has been dancing for 10 years focusing on mainly jazz, contemporary, and ballet. September danced at Belliston for 5 years all while attending Columbine Varsity Poms for 2 years.
Currently, September is starting her rookie year as a Denver Nugget Dancer. Outside of dance, she loves to go hiking, hangout with friends and family, and has a passion for fitness.
Makenna Swanson
Makenna Swanson- Instructor
Makenna is a Colorado native and grew up in the Littleton area. She started dancing at 3 years old and quickly fell in love. She danced and competed at a local company for 10 years. She later joined the varsity poms team at Columbine High School and participated in athletic events and competitions all four years!
Makenna is currently a freshman at The Colorado School of Mines studying Quantitative Biosciences and Engineering. She is also apart of the Mines Dance Team where she’ll get to attend and support many school wide events.
Dance has always been a consistent joy in her life and she’s thankful for all of her past instructors and coaches for allowing her to get to this point. She is so excited to teach and instill a love for dance in her students!
Jennifer Shinefeld
Jennifer Shinefeld- Instructor
Jennifer Shinefeld has been a professional ballet instructor in the Denver Metro area for almost 30 years. She received her Teaching Certification with the Royal Academy of Dance (the largest teaching organization for classical ballet in the world) in 1998 with Distinction.
Additionally, she is the only teacher in CO to hold her Advanced teacher certification for the Cecchetti Council of America, which she received in 2010. Ms. Shinefeld has been an active member of the Colorado committee of the CCA for over 25 years, and has worked to maintain those standards of excellence. She has been working with Belliston Academy of Ballet for over 11 years.
Kerry Wilson
Kerry Wilson- Instructor
“There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good.” - Edwin Denby
Dance has always played a large role in Kerry’s life. Her dance training began at a young age and she has studied from such notable dancers as Tony Coppola, Pattie Obey, Janet Johnson, Monte Black and more. She studied dance and business at The University of Northern Colorado and received her MBA from Regis University.
For years Kerry has trained dancers of all levels in tap, jazz, and more. Kerry has been a part of the Belliston Academy family since 2008 and is committed to promoting creativity and engaging dancers to experience movement in new and challenging ways. In additionation to teaching, Kerry has been a company member of Colorado based tap company, Rocky Mountain Rhythm, since 2017. She currently lives in Aurora with her loving husband and their feisty dogs. In her free time, she enjoys photography, hiking, listening to TONS of music and of course…dancing.
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