Owner / Director
Elizabeth Waddell became the director and owner of the Royal Academy of Ballet in 1997 and brings professional experience to her students. Elizabeth began her ballet training at the age of nine, under the tutelage of Ginger Burke, founder of the Royal Academy of Ballet. She continued her training at Mercyhurst College, the Boston Ballet, the Hartford Ballet, and the University at Buffalo.
Elizabeth performed with the Hartford Ballet, the Eglevsky Ballet of Long Island; the Cygnus Contemporary Dance Company of New Jersey; and the Mercyhurst College Dance Ensemble. Locally, Elizabeth has performed with the Pick of the Crop, the Chautauqua Regional Ballet, the Thomas Dance Collection, the Buffalo City Ballet, the University at Buffalo’s Zodiaque Dance Company and the Greater Buffalo Opera Company and the Greater Buffalo Youth Ballet. Elizabeth’s credits include principal roles in Coppélia, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Balanchine’s Serenade and Swan Lake.
Elizabeth was also the Ballet Mistress for the children performing in the Moscow Ballet’s, BalletMet and the Pittsburgh Ballet’s Nutcracker. In 1989, Elizabeth was one of the youngest women to be to crowned Miss Buffalo under the Miss Buffalo Scholarship Program.
Elizabeth is the founding Artistic Director of the Greater Buffalo Youth Ballet, a not for profit youth ballet company, where she has set and choreographed many original classical and contemporary ballets. Among these are Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Firebird, Coppélia, Danse Macabre, Reflections of Motion, At the Savoy, Rush, Mind Heist, Peter and the Wolf, Toy Shop Fantasy, Three Wishes and excerpts from La Bayadère, Don Quixote, Raymonda and the Nutcracker.
Elizabeth has also taught ballet at the University at Buffalo’s Theatre and Dance Department and is a core ballet instructor for Dance Master’s of America Teacher Training School.
Advanced Ballet
Stephani Foraker (Achuff) began dancing at 8 years old, after trying to sit still under the piano as her mother played for ballet class. She danced professionally for 17 years, with Alberta Ballet and Ohio Ballet (Heinz Poll, Artistic Director), as well as in many guest artist appearances around the United States. Her repertoire spans classical and contemporary choreography alike. She danced the principal ballerina roles in Coppelia, The Nutcracker, Giselle, and Cinderella, performed lead roles in classic works by Balanchine, Tudor, Ashton, Taylor, Joos, and Limón, and worked with several contemporary choreographers, including Lynne Taylor-Corbett, Laura Dean, Charlie Moulton, Lucinda Childs, David Shimotakahara, and Lambros Lambrou. She was hailed by Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times as “a dancer of impressive versatility.”
Before joining RABD, Miss Stephani taught ballet classes at several dance schools, including The Dance Institute (Akron, OH), and Hyde Park School of Dance (Chicago). Her early ballet training was in the Cecchetti, RAD, and Vaganova techniques at the Edmonton School of Ballet and Alberta Ballet School (Canada), in addition to summer programs at the Banff Centre, Jacob’s Pillow, and Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Her modern dance training includes Limón and Graham techniques.
Dr. Foraker is also currently a professor at SUNY Buffalo State in the Department of Psychology. She continues her fascination with expression through the body in her research examining the roles of hand gestures in communication and memory.
Mandy Licata began her dance training at Royal Academy of Ballet and David DeMarie Dance Studio. Mandy was a 2013 graduate from the State University of New York Fredonia with a Bachelors of Fine Arts for Dance as well as a Bachelors of Science in Communication. While at Fredonia, she danced with the Fredonia Dance Ensemble, Orchesis Dance Company and performed numerous times at the American College Dance Festival. Mandy has attended many intensive training programs such as, LehrerDance, Bates Dance Festival, Doug Varone and Company, River North Dance Chicago and Complexions Contemporary Ballet Company. Mandy is an adjudicator for Turn It Up Dance Competitions. She is director, coach and dancer for the Buffalo Bandettes Dance team. Along with bandettes, Mandy is the assistant director and company dancer for ConvergeDance Buffalo, Buffalo’s contemporary jazz company. She is a certified Pilates Instructor through Balanced Body and teaches at Stretch Pilates in Williamsville. Mandy also teaches at Barre Centric; barre classes and barre cardio classes. She is ecstatic to be on faculty at the Royal Academy of Ballet once again for the 2015-2016 season. She loves to bring out the girls SASS and personalities by executing jazz technique.
Tap
Adrienne Cummings is thrilled to be joining the faculty at RAB dance! Her passion for dance began at age 3. She trained in tap, jazz, ballet, modern, and lyrical for over 17 years at Darlene Ceglia’s Dance Project. Adrienne has since gained over 10 years of experience as a dance instructor and choreographer in the areas of tap and jazz/musical theater. She also has been the choreographer for the musicals at Lewiston-Porter High School for the past 6 years. Her favorite shows to choreograph have been THE DROWSY CHAPERONE and MAMMA MIA! In her spare time, Adrienne also enjoys performing in local theatre. Her favorite roles include: THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (Rosa Bud) and ANYTHING GOES (Chastity), both at NRTG, as well as ELF: THE MUSICAL (ensemble) with MusicalFare. When not on stage or teaching dance, Adrienne works as a speech-language pathologist for Erie 1 BOCES.