Faculty
BRITTANY BUSH
Brittany was born and raised in Jamestown, NY. She received her early dance training with Monika Alch at the Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet, as well as attending summer programs at the New York State Summer School of the Arts, BalletMet Columbus, Boston Ballet, and Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre. She went on to continue her training at the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance. While at Purchase, she danced in George Balanchineʼs Serenade, Jessica Langʼs Prayers, The Nutcracker, and an original solo work, Adrift, choreographed by Emery LeCrone. In 2013 she joined Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre as an apprentice, and was promoted to a full company member the following year. During her five seasons with the company she danced featured roles in Mateo’s original works including Covens, Over and Over, Affairs, and The Nutcracker. In addition to her performance career, Brittany has been an active teacher in and around the Boston area for the past 7 years. She teaches regularly at Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre and The Brookline Ballet School, and part time at Tufts University and Phillips Academy.
PATRICIA CHIANG
Patricia was born in Columbus, OH and raised in Concord, MA. She is a graduate of José Mateo Ballet Theatre’s Young Dancers Program, where she danced with their pre-professional performance group, YouthWorks. She has also trained with Boston Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, and the Nutmeg Conservatory.
Upon graduation from the Young Dancers Program, Patricia joined José Mateo Ballet Theatre’s Company as an Apprentice in 2010 and became a Company Member in 2011, where she performed until 2018. She joined the School’s Faculty in 2013, where she has taught regularly since and also served as the Children’s Nutcracker Cast Coordinator for several years. In addition to teaching in the School, Patricia currently serves on the Staff at JMBT as the Production and Marketing Associate. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard University Extension School.
ANGIE DEWOLF
Angie DeWolf is from Greenville, Pennsylvania and trained at Lake Erie Ballet. She is a graduate of
Michigan State University where she earned her Pre-Med degree. Angie has danced professionally with the Greater Lansing Ballet Company and participated in a cultural exchange program with the Vaganova Ballet of St. Petersburg. Angie joined José Mateo Ballet Theatre’s Company in 2004, where she originated and danced featured roles in many of Mateo’s works including Escape, Presage, Risk of Repetition, Affairs, Released, and she also danced as the Snow Queen and the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. Angie is a faculty member at JMBT in the Young Dancers Program Upper Division, where she directs YouthWorks, and in the Adult Dancers Program.
MAGDALENA GYFTOPOULOS
Magdalena Gyftopoulos received her dance training at the Boston Ballet School with Anne-Marie Holmes, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and José Mateo Ballet Theatre Young Dancer’s Program as a scholarship student.
Magdalena joined the company at José Mateo Ballet Theatre in 2006, and is a member of the teaching faculty.
In addition, Magdalena has worked with various other dance companies in the Boston area including Mariah Steele’s QuickSilver Dance, Tony Williams’ BalletRox, and Contrapose Dance where she has had the opportunity to work with choreographers David Parker, Sydney Skybetter, and Gianni Di Marco.
SIERRA HITCHCOCK
Sierra was born and raised in Hanover, NH. She began studying ballet at the age of eight, spending seven years studying at Lebanon Ballet School in Lebanon, New Hampshire. During those years she performed with City Center Ballet in such ballets as The Sleeping Beauty,
Cinderella, Coppélia, and The Nutcracker. She then spent three years continuing her ballet training under the private tutelage of Bryan Lewis. When she was teenager, Sierra moved to Watertown, MA to attend Koltun Ballet Boston where she spent another three years studying
under former Boston Ballet principal dancers Alexandra Koltun and Alex Lapshin. At KBB, Sierra had such opportunities as performing at Jacob’s Pillow and working with international guest artists. After her graduation from KBB, Sierra spent a year in Los Angeles, CA studying Theater Arts at Loyola Marymount University before returning to the Boston area to continue dancing and teaching. Sierra has had the opportunity to perform as a soloist with José Mateo Ballet Theatre in their annual production of The Nutcracker, be a principal dancer in Greta Gerwig’s cinematic adaption Little Women, and dance in a music video for musical artist Layto. She has also found great joy in teaching the next generation of dancers and has had the pleasure of being a ballet teacher at a number of dance studios in the area. As well as being a dancer and a teacher, Sierra is also currently a student at Northeastern University in Boston where she is studying history.
BETTINA INDACO
Bettina Indaco was raised in Holland and trained at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. She studied with teachers Linda Goss, Wim Vreeken, Sulamith Messerer, and Sonia Matcholli and was featured in a ballet documentary about the prestigious Conservatoire, Stap voor Stap.
After graduating and receiving her degree with high honors dancing the lead in Les Sylphides, she joined The Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam and performed in Europe and Asia. She has performed in traditional ballets such as The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Giselle, Cinderella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Nutcracker in which her leading roles included Snow Queen and Dewdrop. She performed in contemporary ballets by Balanchine, such as Concerto Barroco, Serenade, Diamonds, Symphony in C, and The Four Temperaments. She has also performed in many ballets of Rudi van Danzig, Hans van Maanen, and Jiri Kylian.
In 1990, Bettina Indaco joined Ballet Theatre of Boston as a soloist and danced in Boston and throughout Massachusetts in ballets by Jose Mateo. Indaco has taught at Ballet Theatre of Boston since 1996.
In addition to teaching, Indaco holds master’s degrees in Dutch, English and Spanish.
NORA LE GUEN
Nora Le Guen is a certified contemporary dancer, jazz dance teacher and a dance therapist. She has been teaching young children and teenagers for more than 10 years. As a therapist, she uses movement and the power of the creative process as a way to connect with disabled and mentally ill people. Fascinated by partnering (she used to live in Argentina and fell in love with tango) and the unlimited possibilities to connect oneself to oneself and others through the body, she has built a pedagogy based on proprioception and the senses. On stage, Nora explores contemporary dance, both as an interpreter and as a choreographer, and the importance of offering dance in public space, opening the dance field to performances and new kinds of collaborative pieces.
Currently, Nora is studying yoga. She has completed 200 hours of training as a yoga teacher and is pursuing the 300 hours yoga teacher certification, as well as training to be an Ayurvedic Health Counselor.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused her to ask many questions about our relationship with the body and incarnation in our societies, how we relate to it and how we could reinvest in it in order to resume the full dimensions of our human and social being.
JOSÉ MATEO
Cuban-born José Mateo is the Founder and Artistic Director of José Mateo Ballet Theatre. For over 30 years, he has lead the José Mateo Ballet Theatre’s Young Dancers Program, a ballet school that offers an innovative model for a high-quality academy with a humanistic approach to ballet training that fosters diversity and inclusion.
In 2017, Mr. Mateo was the recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s 2017/18 Commonwealth Award for Achievement – the state’s highest honor in the arts, sciences and humanities.
Mr. Mateo continues to teach in the Young Dancers Program, working with our most advanced students and the YouthWorks preprofessional dancers.
YENTHL SPINOLA
After first dancing in José Mateo Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker, Yenthl joined the JMBT’s Young Dancers Program to continue her ballet training and later performed with the school’s pre-professional group Youthworks until graduating from high school.
In addition to ballet, Yenthl has had the opportunity to perform other types of dance across New England, including Bhangra, classical West African Dance and Haitian Folkloric Dance.
Yenthl studied at the University of New Hampshire where she earned her B.S. in Biology and was an active member of the community.
MARY THOMPSON
Upon the receipt of a Ford Foundation Scholarship she continued her studies at the School of American Ballet in New York City where she trained with Stanley Williams, Suki Schorer, and Alexandra Danilova among others. While at SAB, Ms. Thompson danced soloist roles in the Annual Workshop performances and was invited to audition for, and subsequently joined, Makarova and Company under the direction of Natalia Makarova.
Ms. Thompson received additional training from Marie Paquet and Fhinis Jhung, before joining the Berkshire Ballet as a soloist where she progressed to Principal status and danced lead roles in Coppelia, Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Antony Tudor’s Little Improvisations and several works by Francis Patrelle. After three years at the Berkshire Ballet Ms. Thompson joined Ballet Michigan where she danced lead roles in Loyce Houlton’s Beauty and the Beast, and Le Corsaire Pas de Deux, as well as other original works by Jill Bahr and Kevin Milam.
In 1988, Ms. Thompson returned to the Boston area and began working full time for JMBT as both a dancer with the Company and a teacher in the school. Over the next several years, Ms. Thompson took on a more prominent teaching role in the organization not only as a faculty member in both the Adult and Young Dancers Programs, but also as a rehearsal assistant with the Company. Ms. Thompson has served as Principal of the Young Dancers Program, Director of the Summer Intensive Program, YouthWorks director and Ballet Mistress for the Company.
In addition to her work with JMBT, Ms. Thompson has taught at several area studios as well as serving as a guest teacher for Companies and schools in the New England area.