Our Faculty
Miss Christina as the Sugar Plum Fairy
Christina Addabbo Prete, FCCA
Owner & Artistic Director
Miss Christina has taught ballet, jazz, and tap dance in the Washington, D.C. area for over 20 years, beginning during her junior year of high school at age 15. Specializing in the Cecchetti Method of ballet, in which Miss Christina is a Professional Advanced Certified Fellow, she has worked with children, teens and adults during the course of her teaching career. Miss Christina was a principal dancer with Metropolitan Ballet Theatre in Rockville, Maryland for nine years, playing lead roles in ballets such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and The Firebird. In addition, Miss Christina also danced with the Virginia Civic Ballet, performing the title role in Cinderella.
Miss Christina received her primary dance training at the Corinne Phelps Robertson School of Dance and began as an assistant teacher there in 1990. For her Cecchetti work, Miss Christina coached with Kathleen Dineen Brown (Intermediate Professional Exam) and Pamela Moore (Advanced Professional Exam). Miss Christina also trained with Suzanne Erlon in the Balanchine method. In jazz, Miss Christina has studied with Luigi, Helen Hayes, Douglas Yeuell, Parker Esse, Jeff Shade, Frank Hatchett and Bob Rizzo.
Miss Christina acted as the Executive Director of the Corinne Phelps Robertson School of Dance for the last fifteen of its sixty years of operation, until the school’s closing in 2011. Miss Christina balanced her directorial duties with teaching creative movement, ballet, jazz and tap classes; coaching teachers and students for Cecchetti ballet exams; and choreographing, coordinating and staging the school’s annual dance concert. In 2003, Miss Christina also started her own Summer Dance Camp program at the CPR School of Dance, creating a captivating environment of creativity, imagination and artistry for 5- to 7-year-olds. Teenage students enjoyed Miss Christina’s first mini-intensive in the summer of 2011 with classes in ballet and pointe technique, yoga, contemporary ballet and jazz.
Miss Christina graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Finance from the University of Maryland. While at Maryland, she competed in collegiate ballroom dancing, traveling around the U.S. and to the U.K. She also directed and choreographed for the Ballroom Formation Team at Maryland during her senior year. While in college, Miss Christina also started her own ballet birthday party business. She has celebrated over 60 birthdays with aspiring ballerinas, enchanting them with magical journeys of dance and imagination.
Currently, Miss Christina dances as a featured guest artist with Jazzdanz/dc and Jazzemotion, resident dance companies of Joy of Motion Dance Center in Washington, D.C. In June 2010, Miss Christina performed on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center with Douglas Yeuell, Executive and Artistic Director of Joy of Motion and Artistic Director of Jazzdanz/dc. To see archived video of the Kennedy Center performance, follow this link! Recently returning to one of her original loves—musical theatre—Miss Christina appeared as a Merry Murderess in Chicago with Kensington Arts Theatre (while also serving as Assistant Choreographer and Dance Captain) and as a featured dancer in West Side Story with Rockville Musical Theatre.
Miss Christina served on the faculty of the Black Rock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland, for nine years, teaching creative movement, ballet and tap. She also taught for two years at Ballet Petite, gaining additional experience in working with 3- to 5-year-old children. During her tenure with Metropolitan Ballet Theatre, Miss Christina participated in a number of Outreach Programs such as Athletics and the Dancer, a lecture/demonstration program for elementary school students. In addition, she taught creative movement at the Child Care Center at Montgomery College along with jazz and ballet to at-risk high school students as part of Educacion 2000 program at Richard Montgomery High School.
Miss Christina is a Fellow Member of the Cecchetti Council of America (CCA) and served for ten years as the Treasurer on the Board of the East Coast Committee of the CCA. She also served as Secretary of the Board of Directors of Metropolitan Ballet Theatre for four years. In June of 2002, she was proudly featured in a biographical documentary on Montgomery Community Cable and has been interviewed by the Montgomery Gazette, Potomac Almanac and Dance Studio Life magazine.
As the oldest of four children, Miss Christina has always loved working with and being around children. Her mission to instill a sense of grace, poise and confidence in her students, nurturing them to do their best and grow, not only as dancers, but as unique individuals as well, continues to inspire her everyday.
Sharon Addabbo
Tap Department Director & Instructor
Miss Sharon has been a professional dancer and teacher for over 40 years. With her vast experience in tap, she brings both an “old school” and a refreshing new take on the unique art of tap. Specializing in Broadway tap, she likes to put the “kapow” in all of her dances, inspiring her students to put that wow on the stage in front of an audience.
In addition to tap, Miss Sharon taught Broadway jazz for over 30 years, and she holds a Level III Teacher’s Certificate from the Cecchetti Council of America. She still enjoys performing and was seen most recently as Grandmother in The Nutcracker. Currently, Miss Sharon enjoys working as backstage manager for local community theater productions. Sharon’s favorite role, however, is being Mom to Miss Christina, Miss Stephanie, and her sons Michael and Patrick.
Frannie Gold
Instructor
Miss Frannie began her dance training at the CPR School of dance when she was 5 years old. She has assisted Miss Christina, Miss Diana, and Miss Chrissy for many years and will begin her fifth year of teaching this fall. Coached by Miss Christina, Miss Frannie holds her Level I Teacher’s Certificate with the Cecchetti Council of America, and will be teaching Cecchetti Grade I along with Pre-K and Pre-Ballet this year. She will also continue her college career at Montgomery College, studying Early Childhood Education.
Diana Samata
Assistant Administrator & Instructor
Miss Diana studied ballet and tap at the CPR School of Dance for 10 years before graduating a year early from Walter Johnson High school and beginning her college career at the University of Maryland, College Park. In May of 2009, Miss Diana graduated from UMCP with a double major in Communication and Criminology/Criminal Justice. Miss Diana assisted Miss Christina for many years while begin coached for her Level I and II Teacher’s Certificates with the Cecchetti Council of America. She’ll enter her seventh year of teaching this fall, continuing her work with Pre-Ballet, Cecchetti Ballet and tap students of all levels.
Marie Tu
Instructor
Miss Marie began studying ballet when she was five years old at Maryland Youth Ballet. She continued her training with Miss Christina at the CPR School of Dance and later at Penn State University. She graduated from Penn State in 2005 with a degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education, and is a Kindergarten teacher at Stone Mill Elementary School in North Potomac. She is currently working towards her Masters in Counseling at Johns Hopkins University. Miss Marie has worked with Miss Christina over the years in our Summer Dance Classes and Camps, and will continue teaching Pre-Ballet and Tap on Saturday mornings this fall. She is very excited to be a part of Rock Creek Dance Academy!
Guest Faculty
Sarah Jayne Crookston
Sarah Jayne Crookston Henriod was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. She began her dance training at the age of seven, studying intensively in ballet and jazz at Salt Lake Dance Center in Salt Lake City, which she continued to do until her graduation from high school. While in junior high Sarah danced with Ballet West, Utah’s Premier Dance Company, performing in The Nutcracker. In high school Sarah discovered another aspect of her dancing when she began to choreograph for her high school dance company. Following her passion for the art of dance she was accepted into the University of Utah’s nationally ranked Modern Dance Department. Sarah continued her dance training and artistic exploration by taking various dance classes around Salt Lake City.
A few years after college Sarah moved to Rochester, Minnesota where she taught dance at Janet Lang Dance Studio and Tippi Toes. Sarah focused her teaching on lyrical and ballet, while working with children of all ages. Dance is a part of Sarah and she loves every aspect of dance. Sarah truly believes that through dance you have the opportunity and possibility to express all emotions. Dance is one of Sarah’s greatest joys. She loves to teach others how to dance.
Melissa Lineburg
After 10 years of receiving dance training from Anne Walp and Amanda Cipriano at the Old Opera House Dance Studio in Charles Town, West Virginia, Melissa transferred to the Frederick School of Classical Ballet and continued her training under the watchful eyes of Joyce Morrison. While there, she danced many roles including Corps de Ballet in annual productions of The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty as well as the Evil-Step-Mother in The Cinderella. Upon beginning college at Winthrop University as an Animation/Graphic Design major, Melissa received valuable knowledge and learned intricate techniques that she enjoys incorporating into side jobs as a Designer. Not to anyone’s surprise, she re-routed her Graduation track to that of a Dance major after one semester. Melissa remained on the Dean’s List for her remaining year and a half at Winthrop before transferring to Radford University in Virginia. Overall hours spent at the studio and performances increased dramatically, and she found herself immediately involved in Fall Dance Fest, the Evening of Ballet as well as the designer of T-shirts for these main stage productions. Utilizing her creative tendencies continued into her senior year at Radford where she designed the posters and programs for many shows including Paradigm Shift, Radford’s First Annual Dance Alumni Weekend Performance, Dancing on the Edge, d a n a h b e l l a DanceWorks show SKETCHES: A Dance Gathering, and the Student Choreography Showcase. As a senior, Melissa was able to perform in all main stage productions: Fall Dance Fest, The Nutcracker, and Dancing on the Edge as well as student-choreographed shows held in the studio theatre. The most exciting and fulfilling performing experience was working with the Dance Theatre of Lynchburg’s Artistic Director Keith Lee in his original choreography, The Motion Chamber. Melissa received the honor of dancing the solo for the fourth section of his piece, “Motion Sickness.” As a creator of dance, Melissa’s original choreography has been showcased in Paradigm Shift, a studio theatre performance, as well as the Student Choreography Showcase Spring 2011. This piece was created upon theoretical research surrounding the psychological development, various types and meanings of love. Melissa graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art’s Degree in Dance with a concentration in Ballet Technique, and a minor in Business Administration. She auditioned and was asked to begin dancing with Misako Ballet Company in Columbia, Md, where she is currently an apprentice company member. Melissa is, also, the Membership and Marketing Intern with Americans for the Arts in Washington, D.C.
