Meet our Faculty and Staff!
Melinda Rebman, Director
Ms. Rebman began her early dance training in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma with teachers from Ballet Oklahoma, Boston Ballet, and The National Ballet of China. She graduated with honors from Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas where she earned a BFA in Dance Performance as well as a BA in Psychology. Upon graduation, Ms. Rebman relocated to New York City. She is a founding member as well as the rehearsal director for RedWall Dance Theatre and has also performed with Bardos Ballet Theatre and other independent choreographers. Her choreography has appeared in many student showcases throughout the city as well in professional stage productions. Her original choreography set on the full length musical, The Dudleys! A Family Game, won her a B. Iden Payne Award for Outstanding Dance Choreography in 2011.
As a dance educator, Ms. Rebman has brought her extensive knowledge of both classical ballet and modern dance techniques to NYC youth and adults for the past 20 years. Primarily, she has been on the faculty of The Ballet Tech School, Spoke the Hub Dancing, and Chrystie Street Ballet Academy. In addition, she has been a resident teaching artist and choreographer for many Arts in Education programs including Marquis Studios, ArtsConnection, Brooklyn Arts Council, and Brooklyn Ballet. Miss Mindy, as she is familiarly known to her students, began teaching at CSBA in 2007 and has happily directed the program since 2010.
Callie Hatchett, Ballet Instructor
Callie Hatchett grew up in Alabama studying Vaganova based ballet under the direction of Meryane Martin Murphy. From her first pirouette, she was hooked. Callie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from The University of Alabama and an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has had the pleasure of performing for Southern Danceworks, Andalusia Ballet, Deborah Jowitt, Cherylyn Lavagnino, Sydney Skybetter, Wes Veldink, Thaddeus Davis, and the Charles Weidman Foundation. She has taught for Hunter College, Brooklyn College Preparatory Center for the Performing Arts, Montgomery Ballet, Lurleen B. Wallace Community College, Alabama State University, The Harlem Dance Leadership Program, Future Dancers and Dancemakers, The Legacy School, Success Academy Charter Schools, and Dancewave. She has presented her choreography at Dancenow’s RAW Festival, Dixon Place, Music and Motion, Composer’s Voice, Jennifer Muller/The Works Hatch Series, Fertile Ground, Amalgamate Artist Series, Westfest, the Bessie Schonberg Choreography Intensive, and for Andalusia Ballet. Callie is a certified Pilates instructor and a teaching artist for New York City Ballet. She joined the faculty at Chrystie Street Ballet Academy in 2016.
Margot Hartley, Ballet Instructor
Margot Hartley is a professional ballet and contemporary dancer based in New York City. They began their training in Saratoga Springs, New York, and completed their dance education on merit scholarship as a trainee at the Joffrey Ballet School. Margot has also spent a great deal of time studying Cunningham Technique® and repertory; through the Merce Cunningham Trust, and as had the opportunity to learn and perform roles in Cross Currents, Changing Steps, and Torse, as well as study and utilize the chance operations process. Most recently, Margot originated roles in Vladimir Varnava’s ISADORA, a new ballet featuring Natalia Osipova as Isadora Duncan. This past season, Margot had the opportunity to travel with the show both for its world premiere (at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, in California) and its Russian premiere (at the Stanislavsky Theatre, in Moscow). Margot joined the faculty at Chrystie Street Ballet Academy in 2018.
Patricia Seto-Weiss, Ballet Instructor
Originally from Germany, Patricia Seto-Weiss received her Artist Diploma from the Iwanson School of Contemporary Dance in Munich. Upon graduation she continued her studies at The Ailey School in New York. From 2008 to 2010 she was the artistic director of VQ Dance Productions, Inc. She has choreographed productions at Columbia University and The Juilliard School, and has collaborated with visual artists Annegret Hoch and Susanne Thiemann in New York and Germany. Patricia began her teaching career at Ballet Tech under the artistic direction of Eliot Feld. She created and taught the Teen Ballet Series at the Ailey Extension, the open dance program of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, from its inception in 2007 until 2011. Patricia currently holds the position of Visiting Lecturer in the Theater Arts and Performance Studies Department at Brown University. She is on faculty at New Haven Ballet and has been teaching at Chrystie Street Ballet Academy since 2010. www.patriciasetoweiss.com
Sara Barney, Ballet Instructor
Sara Barney was born in Providence, Rhode Island and studied at Providence Ballet. She has had the pleasure of working with Providence Ballet Theatre, Island Moving Company, Spindle City Ballet and various freelance choreographers over the years. In 2011 she graduated with a B.F.A. in Contemporary Dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. While at UNCSA, she performed works by Alonzo King, Merce Cunningham, Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp, Doug Elkins et al. Following graduation, Sara was awarded the Kenan Fellowship with Lincoln Center Institute, which enabled experience in the field of arts and education alongside LCE teaching artists in New York City. In 2015 she graduated with a M.A. from the London Contemporary Dance School where she had the honor of performing on tour with the University’s collegiate company, EDge. She has a strong background in teaching Ballet and Modern to all ages. Sara joined the faculty at Chrystie Street Ballet Academy in 2014. www.sarabarney.com
Lucy Tozzi, Ballet Instructor
Lucia Tozzi grew up in lower Manhattan and began her ballet training with Melinda Rebman at Chrystie Street Ballet Academy. She continued dancing and eventually assisting with the school from 2009 until 2016. Through her early years she trained with the National Dance Institute under the tutelage of Jacques D’Amboise. She later went on to attend the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts and The Ailey School’s Junior Division as a scholarship student. Lucia graduated from SUNY Purchase cum laude with a BFA in Dance Performance in 2020. She has performed works by Pina Bausch, Ohad Naharin, Joseph Hernandez, and Manuel Vignouelle, among many more. She has trained and performed internationally in Berlin, Wuppertal, Beijing, Lanzhou, New Zealand and Italy. She is currently freelancing and teaching throughout New York City. She is ecstatic to return as an alumni and teacher to Chrystie Street Ballet and see the wonderful growth of CSBA students continue.