Our Staff
Melissa Markowich
Director
Melissa Markowich is a graduate of Studio Allegro. Since graduation, she has received a BFA in Dance from
Montclair State University. She has performed works by Martha Graham, Maxine Steinman and Peter Kyle, among
others. Melissa was the Assistant Director of the Watchung Hills Dance Ensemble until 2017, where her choreography was recognized at the county and state Teen Arts Festivals. She has also choreographed for the Jerry Gibson Summer Theatre. Melissa has been teaching Ballet and Modern Dance for over 16 years.
Leslie Drucks
Founder, Instructor
Leslie Drucks founded Studio Allegro in 1998 with Susan Catlett. Leslie received her ballet training as a Ford Foundation scholarship student at the school of the Garden State Ballet. She later joined the Garden State Ballet Company performing various roles in "The Nutcracker," "Symphony in C," "Concerto Borocco," "Valse Fantesie," and others.
Catherine Brough
Instructor
Catherine trained at Studio Allegro for eleven years before going on to study at SUNY Purchase College Conservatory of Dance, where she received her BFA in Dance Performance. She performed works by George Balanchine, Bettijane Sills, Rosalind Newman, and Norbert de la Cruz, among others, as well as having the opportunity to showcase her own choreography. Catherine is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 3 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.
Micayla Rose Frank
Instructor
Jennifer Innis
Instructor
Tammy Klinck
Instructor
Tammy Klinck received early training at the School of Garden State Ballet under Fred Daneli, Dieter Riesle, and Leslie Drucks. Tammy continued her dance studies in college, receiving her BFA in Dance from Montclair State University. She danced professionally for four seasons with Free Space Dance. Tammy taught Ballet and Modern Dance at County College of Morris for 15 years before becoming a guest artist at the Academy for Visual and Performing Arts of Morris County where she currently still teaches. Tammy recently earned her 200hr yoga instructor certification in 2021.
Mrs. Innis holds a BFA degree from Syracuse University, and has trained extensively in New York City at both Steps and Broadway Dance Center, and in New Jersey with New Jersey Ballet. Her professional credits include: soloist with the Syracuse Opera Ballet; member and later director of the Dance Works Company of Upstate New York; performer and dance captain of Theatre 90 Musical Theatre Company; and principal dancer with the State Theatre of Pennsylvania. Her favorite performances include; “Sleeping Beauty”, “Nutcracker”, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”, “Oliver”, “42 Street”, “Guys & Dolls”, “Oklahoma”, “Carousel”, and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat”. In her nearly three decades of teaching, Mrs. Innis has proudly taught dance at many centers including the Metropolitan School for the Arts, The Academy of Ballet, State Academy of Ballet, Worth-Tyrrell Studios, Center for Dance Education, and Studio Allegro.
Micayla Frank began her training at New Jersey School of Ballet in Somerville, NJ. At age twelve, she trained with Nadege Hottier at Premier Division and French Academie of Ballet in New York City. Micayla has attended ballet summer intensives at Kirov Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, The Rock School, Premier Division, French Academie of Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Manhattan Youth Ballet, Kaatsbaan Extreme Ballet and Orlando Ballet where she received a partial scholarship. Micayla was also a dancer for the NBA G League Erie Bayhawks for their 2018 and 2019 seasons. Micayla graduated from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania in May 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance, performing in full staged Ballets and Lake Erie Ballet Nutcracker performances. Upon graduation, Micayla joined Savannah Ballet Theatre in Savannah, Georgia as a lead company dancer where she performed in Peter and the Wolf, The Nutcracker, The Wizard of Oz, Jack the Ripper, and Midsummer Nights Dream. Micayla danced in lead roles as Dorothy and the Sugar Plum Fairy in these performances. Micayla recently performed as a guest artist for Atlantic City Ballet's full length performance of Swan Lake in April 2024. She is also a certified Club Pilates instructor, having completed 500 hours of certification.
Susan Peterson
Instructor
Mrs. Peterson began serious dance training at Skidmore College and at S.U.N.Y/ Purchase Conservatory of Dance, where she earned a B.F.A. degree in Dance. At Purchase, she was first introduced to the Pilates Method through the now late Romana Krzanowska, an original disciple of Joseph Pilates. While a dance student, she spent her spare time designing and constructing costumes for fellow student choreographers.
Between college years, Susan spent two summers on scholarship at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. After graduation from Purchase, she performed with a few small modern dance groups, taught Pilates at Romana’s studio, and freelanced as a costume designer and wardrobe mistress in New York City. She later stopped dancing and pursued clothing design.
After a long career in design, she retired from the fashion industry when her division closed. She found her way back to ballet at Studio Allegro, retrained in Pilates, and became a STOTT PILATES® Certified Instructor in 2011. Mrs. Peterson enjoys teaching Pilates to dancers and people of all ages and backgrounds.
Molly Phillips
Instructor
Molly Phillips began her professional ballet career with the Kansas City Ballet, where she performed pieces by George Balanchine, Alvin Ailey, and Anthony Tudor. Some of her favorite roles include Merliton and Doll in The Nutcracker, Melancholic in The Four Temperments and Les Cygnettes in Swan Lake. Molly trained at the School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and received a scholarship at the Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet. After retiring from dancing, Molly moved to New York to attend Columbia University where she graduated cum laude and received a B.A. in History. Molly began the advanced studies program at Columbia’s Teachers College in New York and completed her studies at the University of Colorado at Denver, where she earned her M.A. in Educational Psychology. Molly has a K-6 teaching certificate and has experience teaching in the upper elementary grades. When living in Denver, Molly taught at several local studios as well as for Colorado Ballet’s Academy and outreach programs.
Alex Sanchez
Instructor
Alex Sanchez is a New York City based director/choreographer of Puerto Rican heritage. He spent his childhood in both his native Chicago and Puerto Rico. He began his dance training on scholarship at Lou Conte Dance Studio and furthered his training at The Ruth Page Foundation of Chicago. Alex later joined Ballet Chicago and danced four seasons with the company. During his time with Ballet Chicago, he would moonlight performing in musicals at various venues in the Chicago theater district. This experience lead to his first Broadway Show, The Red Shoes. Though Alex started out as a dancer, his performing resume also includes various acting and singing principle roles. Always interested in acting iand Shakespeare, Alex joined the Chicago Shakespeare Theatres acting training program. He studied acting and the first folio technique. In New York he continued his acting training with Shakespeare and Company as well as The Manhattan Edge School for acting. His training got him cast in the Tony award winning Broadway Play, Love! Valor! Compassion! He was the standby and performed the role of Ramon Fornos. Later he played opposite Kristen Chenowith in The Godspeed Opera's production of Strike Up the Band, Penguin Reps production of John Leguizamo's one man play, Mambo Mouth, Dallas Shakespeare Festival's production of The Tempest, playing the role of Ariel, and City Center Encores production of New Moon, in the role of Jaques the Pirate.
Alex has taught Ballet, Jazz, Latin Dance, Musical Theatre Dance and Choreography for over fifteen years at The School at Jacobs Pillow, Dance Theatre Arts, Oakland School for the Arts, New Jersey Ballet School, The American Dance Machine, Peridance Center, Broadway DAnce Center, Steps on Broadway, Southern Methodist university, NYU Tisch New Studio on Broadway, Pace University, Manhattan School of Music, Houston State University, The Fosse/Verdon Legasy, and Molloy University. He has received numerous awards and recognitions including the 2022 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Choreography, West Side Story at the Marriot Theater.
Dieter Riesle
Instructor
Dieter Riesle was born in Wiesbaden, Germany. He graduated from the John Cranko Ballet Academy in Stuttgart, Germany. The curriculum of the academy includes, Jazz Dance, Modern Dance, Character Dance, Spanish Dance, etc. besides daily ballet training. During his performing career, Mr. Riesle danced principal roles in Nutcracker, Cinderella, Swan Lake, A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as other ballets. Mr. Riesle performed with the Frankfurt Ballet, Hamburg Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Garden State Ballet, NJ, and as a guest dancer in Japan.
For the last twenty years, he has been teaching children, pre-professional teens and adults at Tri-State Area schools, such as Studio Allegro in Madison, NJ, the Ballet School of Stamford, the JCC in Scarsdale, The Pulse, Bedford Hills, NY and, formerly, at the Stamford City Ballet. Allegra Kent originally invited Mr. Riesle to teach for the Stamford City Ballet and he continued teaching for SCB under the direction of ABT's David Richardson. He has also guest taught at numerous schools in Japan, Germany, and Denmark. In addition, he has substituted for Evee Lynn at Broadway Dance Center, Igal Peri at Peridance and Lowell Smith at Ballet Arts in NYC.
Interested in joining our staff?
We are always looking for excellent teachers to join our staff. Please email your resume to melissa@studioallegro.net!