School of Performing Arts at the Madison Area YMCA

We offer performing arts programs for Parent/Child, Preschool, School Age, Teens and Adults in:

• Ballet
• Tap
• Jazz
• Lyrical
• Modern
• Hip Hop
• Musical Theatre
• Creative Movement
• Acro Dance
• Move with Me
• Acting
• Singing
• Leaps & Turns
• DanceAbilities

Find what moves you! Please contact SOPA Director Gus Ibranyi for more information.

Cheryl Downey holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in dance from Montclair State College. As a member of their dance repertory company, she has performed all over the country including the Gala Concert of the American Dance Festival in North Carolina. She has studied all forms of dance with such esteemed talents as Vincent Wineglass, Jaclyn Villamil, Nancy Lushington, Sara Pearson, Danial Shapiro & Joanie Smith, Joe Tremaine, Frank Hatchett, Debbie Dee, Greg Russell, Doug Caldwell and tap legend LaVaughn Robinson.

Cheryl has been teaching tap, ballet and jazz for over 30 years at several schools throughout New Jersey. She has developed her own style and curriculum, bringing an atmosphere of positivity and encouragement to each class, which has made her very popular with her students of all ages. Cheryl continues to attend workshops and seminars to enhance her dance knowledge and maintain the highest standards of teaching. She recently became certified by the state of New Jersey to teach dance in public schools and is newly certified in summer of 2019 with Rhythm Works Integrative Dance, which is a training program focusing on students with special needs and learning differences.

Her choreography has been recognized at many competitions and her students have won many awards including High Score, The Entertainer Award, Outstanding Choreography and National Grand Champions. Some of Cheryl’s students have gone on to dance professionally for the NFL, NBA, and the Rockettes, and many have become sought after dance teachers themselves. Cheryl is very happy to bring her experience and love of dance to the YMCA for the past 4 years, and she is excited to be a part of our new program for students with learning differences and other special challenges.

Heather Downey is a dancer, choreographer, and high school mathematics teacher from New Jersey. In May 2020, she graduated from Muhlenberg College with a B.A./B.S. Dual Degree in Dance and Mathematics with a grades 7-12 math education certification. She has been dancing since age three and grew up in the competition dance world studying ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical, and acrobatics.

In college, she performed in multiple Muhlenberg College concerts and was the captain of both the Perkulators Jazz Dance Team and the Copacetic Rhythms Tap Dance Team. She focuses a lot of her time in dance on her modern & tap choreography, which has been showcased at Muhlenberg in four main stage concerts and two informal concerts in addition to the Lehigh Valley Dance Exchange’s Dance EXposure Showcase.

During the summer of 2018, she was an assistant dance teacher for a mini clinic at the Madison Area YMCA. Within the past few years, she has worked for Muhlenberg’s Department of Theatre & Dance as the Dance Videographer and has been the Workshop Tutor for many math courses. She currently teaches math at Hasbrouck Heights High School, is the Dance Team Coach for West Essex High School, and now teaches for the School of Performing Arts at the Madison Area YMCA. 

Jennifer Gregory holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Modern Dance and Choreography from Sarah Lawrence College. She grew up dancing. When she discovered modern dance in college, she knew she wanted to pursue it as a career.

She honed her craft at festivals and intensives, including the American College Southeast Regional Dance Festival, the Doug Varone and Dancers Summer Workshop, and the Summer Dance Residency at The NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She went on to study modern dance under Viola Farber, a founding member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, at Sarah Lawrence College where she received her M.F.A.

Jen performed and taught in and around New York City, and although her professional path eventually took her in unexpected directions, dance always held a special place in her heart. After taking time off to be home with her children, she’s grateful she found her way back into the dance studio. She is a newly certified instructor for Rhythm Works Integrative Dance, a movement curriculum for children with learning differences and other special needs, and she has been a member of the School of Performing Arts team at the Madison Area YMCA since 2017.

Gus received a BFA in Theater with a concentration in Acting from Montclair State University. He has twenty years of experience in the theater both onstage in plays and musical theater as well as working behind the scenes as a director, producer and casting director. Gus is currently the casting chair for the Chatham Community Players and is part of the team that created their successful Sundays @ 7 play reading series. Performing arts has always been a major passion for Gus and he is happy to bring his talent and experience to the School of Performing Arts at the Madison Area YMCA.

Laura LaMontagne is a life-long dancer with training in tap, ballet and jazz. She has been teaching dance at the Madison Area YMCA since June of 2018. While at university, she performed and choreographed for the Villanova Dance Ensemble, traveling throughout the Mid-Atlantic while participating in art festivals and competitions.

Laura continues to take adult classes in ballet at the Madison Area YMCA School of Performing Arts and she performs tap and jazz with Anne Fattal’s Footnotes. Laura is a proud mom of two teenage daughters who began their dance education at the Madison Area YMCA. Laura loves teaching dance to the children of the YMCA and is always so impressed by their talent and enthusiasm!

Grace McCombs has been dancing her whole life training in ballet, modern, contemporary, jazz, and hip-hop styles. She participated in competition dance throughout her middle and high school years and was the president of school's dance club. She has trained at Broadway Dance Center and Peri dance Capezio Center in NYC in addition to attending multiple summer studies working with notable choreographers and industry professionals.

She has extensive experience performing with notable venues being Carnegie Hall, Bickford Theater, and Shakespeare Theater. Grace has choreographed both solo and group works at her home studio and through school. She created and planned a creative movement program at a summer camp for kids with special needs and is very passionate about dance accessibility.

Grace is currently studying at Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts to obtain her BFA in Dance focusing on performance and choreography. Within that program, she is on track to receive her teaching certification. In addition to dance, Grace loves to do pilates, yoga, and barre and is planning on receiving certifications in those disciplines during her time at school. She has been working at the Madison YMCA for 3 years and is looking forward to being a part of the SOPA team!

Tess Needham grew up in Maryland training in ballet, pointe, jazz, modern, lyrical, hip hop, musical theater, and acrobatics. She found her passion for teaching in high school and has loved watching her students, from 2 years old to adults, fall in love with movement. She has since taught at studios, schools, and camps across the east coast, including NY, NJ, MD, DC, and VA.

Since moving to Madison, New Jersey for college, Tess has immersed herself in dance throughout the community. She has a minor in dance from Drew University where she performed and choreographed for multiple college concerts while earning university wide awards and scholarships in choreography and dance. She also spent her final two years of college leading the University’s dance team.  

Tess puts her environmental science degree to good use working as an environmental scientist in Morristown, NJ. She is excited to continue to build relationships within a community that has provided so much for her while continuing to share her passion and love for teaching dance.

Madeline Smith grew up in Louisiana where she trained and performed with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre. She pursued dance at college, and earned a BFA in Ballet and Modern Dance at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

After moving to New York City, Madeline danced professionally with BODYART Dance Company. She has taught classes all over and has a passion for bringing dance to everyone, including outreach teaching in Baton Rouge and at the Dance Institute of Washington DC. She started two dance programs in NYC for groups working with children with special needs.

In addition to teaching Ballet, Madeline enjoys both teaching and practicing Pilates, Barre, and Yoga. She and her family love being a part of the YMCA community!