Director / Owner

Elisa Gerasin

The Director & Founder of GBAD is Elisa Gerasin. Elisa was born in Mexico City, Mexico and received her early non-competition based classical ballet training at Victoria Ballet in Guadalajara, Jalisco. From 1993-2001, her training continued at various Ballet Companies including Cubalet, Boston Ballet, 12th and 13th International Ballet Seminar Lake Michigan, Pittsburgh Vaganova Seminar, Point Park College, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School, Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre and Colorado Ballet.

Elisa's professional performing career spans from 1993-present. She has performed with Colorado Ballet, Victoria Ballet, Jose Mateo Ballet Theater Company, Ballet Theatre Workshop, Portland Ballet Company, Arts Rochester, and Ballet New England. She has danced in numerous productions including: Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Bayardere, Paquita, Giselle, Pas de Quatre, Don Quixote, Le Fille Mal Garde, Romeo and Juliet, Diana and Action, Night Before Christmas, The Wizard of Oz, and Raymonda.

Ms. Gerasin started teaching beginner students in 1993 and has continued to bring her broad ballet training and knowledge to students of all abilities. Since 2001, she has taught in various Seacoast studios including Ballet Theatre Workshop, Arts Rochester, Ballet New England, Fusion Dance Academy, Brixham Dance, and New Hampshire Academy of Performing Arts.    

General Manager

Ashleigh Tucker

Ashleigh Tucker was born in New Haven, CT and raised in coastal New Hampshire while training at Ballet New England and the Center for Dance Education. She attended workshops and intensives with American Ballet Theater, Boston Ballet, Bossov Ballet, and Alonzo King's LINES Ballet. Ashleigh graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Purchase in 2006 with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and a minor in Lighting Design. She was also the recipient of the Dean's Award for the Conservatory of Dance. Upon graduation, Ashleigh joined Patrick Corbin's "Corbindances" Dance Company in New York City and performed professionally in both New York and other national venues. Working with Patrick, Ashleigh was also able to teach outreach lessons through movement to children with autism. Ashleigh has been with GBAD since 2010 as our General Manager.

Elisa Gerasin

Ballet, Pointe, Variations, Contemporary

The Director of Faculty and founder of GBAD is Elisa Gerasin. Born in Mexico City, Ms. Gerasin received her early ballet training at Victoria Ballet in Guadalajara, Jalisco. From 1993-1997, her training continued at various Ballet Companies including Cubalet, Boston Ballet, 12th and 13th International Ballet Seminar Lake Michigan, Pittsburgh Vaganova Seminar, Point Park College, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School, and Colorado Ballet.

Elisa's professional performing career spans from 1993-present. She has performed with Colorado Ballet, Victoria Ballet, Jose Mateo Ballet Theater Company, Ballet Theatre Workshop, Portland Ballet Company, Arts Rochester, and Ballet New England. She has danced in several productions such as: Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Bayardere, Paquita, Giselle, Pas de Quatre, Don Quixote, Le Fille Mal Garde, Romeo and Juliet, Diana and Action, Night Before Christmas, The Wizard of Oz, and Raymonda.

Ms. Gerasin started teaching beginner students in 1993 and has continued to bring her broad ballet training and knowledge to students of all abilities. Since 2001, she has taught in various Seacoast studios including Ballet Theatre Workshop, Arts Rochester, Ballet New England, Fusion Dance Academy, Brixham Dance, and New Hampshire Academy of Performing Arts.

Elisa recently left the competition dance setting to start GBAD because of her concern for a quality dance education, in a non-competitive setting, in the Seacoast area.    

Nicolette Fields

Hip Hop

Nicolette "Nikki"  Fields is graduate from Texas Woman's University with her Bachelor's Degree in Business and Dance. Ms. Fields has extensive experience in the use of movement, gesture and body language to portray a character, situation and abstract concept to an audience, usually to the accompaniment of music; interpreting the work of choreographers, sometimes requiring improvisation. She has a complete background in a variety of genres: Jazz, Modern, Ballet, Hip Hop, Contemporary, and African.    

Angela Grassie

Jazz/Ballet Combo

 Angie grew up in New Hampshire where she started dancing at Corinne's School of Dance at the age of two. Angela has traveled all over the USA and Canada attending dance competitions and winning the Overall Awards for her solo and group routines. After graduating from Coe Brown Northwood Academy, Angela moved to New York City to pursue her dance training at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway. Angela was then invited to be a Rockette Teacher Assistant for the Rockette Experiences and the Rockette Summer Intensive in New York City. Angela is featured in Dancers Inc. promotional Hip Hop music video, choreographed by Shaun "Dante" Royer. In 2007, Angela joined Ballet New England as a company member and performed in The Nutcracker as a soloist Spanish dancer, Flower corps and Snow Queen. That following spring, Angela was invited to perform with Funky Divas of Gospel in collaboration with Ballet New England. Recently, she choreographed for Sophisticated Productions performing Dance Team in Wildwood, New Jersey.   

Rebecca Waitt

Tap, Contemporary

Rebecca is from Londonderry, NH and currently lives in Portsmouth, NH. Growing up, Rebecca's passion has always been dance. For twelve years she competitively danced at Melissa Hoffman Dance Center in Hudson, NH being a part of several individual and group competitive awards. During summer of 2005, just prior to attending Dean College, Rebecca had the unique and life-changing opportunity to dance with the MHDC Company in Namibia, Africa. This humanitarian/dance mission and the mentoring opportunities at MHDC had a profound impact on her future direction and passion for teaching dance. She continued her studies at Dean College School of Dance receiving an Associate's Degree in 2007. At Dean, she danced on the College Dance Team and auditioned and placed a position on the Dean College Dance Tap Company. While attending MHDC and Dean College, she has studied with various artists such as, Sandi Duncan, Nailah Bellinger, Jill Silverman, Kelly Peters, and Joan Palladino.

Rebecca auditioned and was also selected to perform with The Lady Wolf Pack Dance Team representing the Manchester Wolves Arena Football Team. She danced professionally in front of hundreds at their home field, the Verizon Wireless Arena. Rebecca has also worked in the entertainment industry at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. While at Disney, she was involved in public relations as a Character Assistant and mastered invaluable people skills. Upon returning from Florida, Rebecca settled on the Seacoast and enrolled in Hospitality and Business classes at University of New Hampshire and while there she was also selected to dance on the UNH Dance Team. The opportunity to be a part of the Great Bay Dance Academy staff and fulfill her passion to teach others the love of dance has come at a perfect time on this journey.

Ashleigh Tucker

Modern, Ballet

Ashleigh Tucker was born in New Haven, CT and raised in coastal New Hampshire while training at Ballet New England and the Center for Dance Education. She attended workshops and intensives with American Ballet Theater, Boston Ballet, Bossov Ballet, and Alonzo King's LINES Ballet. Ashleigh graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Purchase in 2006 with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and a minor in Lighting Design. She was also the recipient of the Dean's Award for the Conservatory of Dance. Upon graduation, Ashleigh joined Patrick Corbin's "Corbindances" Dance Company in New York City and performed professionally in both New York and other national venues. Working with Patrick, Ashleigh was also able to teach outreach lessons through movement to children with autism.

Ashleigh has been GBAD's General Manager since 2010.

Elyssa Bigos

Ballet, Rehearsal Mistress, Tap/Ballet Combo

Elyssa Bigos started her training at the age of six at The Robertson's School of Classical Ballet with Larry and Colleen Robertson. She continued her training at various schools in the Seacoast area with teachers such as Susan Duffy, Christine Simes, Elisa Gerasin, Edra Toth, and John Ling. She was a company member with Northeastern Ballet Theatre for two years and toured with Boston Dance Company for their production of "The Nutcracker". She has attended summer intensive programs at Festival Ballet Providence and Burklyn Ballet Theatre where she was one of few chosen to perform in "Aladdin" at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. She has also spent a summer at Caroline Ballet Theatre under the direction of Hernan Justo where she became a company trainee. During her time with Carolina Ballet, Elyssa performed in many roles such in "Diana & Acteon", "Giselle", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "The Nutcracker" and many other original works including a week-long workshop with LINES Ballet Company Artistic Director Alonzo King. Since returning to the Seacoast, Elyssa has performed with Great Bay Academy of Dance in roles such as "The Lilca Fairy" from "Sleeping Beauty", "Snow Queen", "Dew Drop Fairy" and "Sugarplum Fairy" from GBAD's "An 1836 Portsmouth Nutcracker".

Alden Caple

Jazz, Musical Theatre, Choreography

Alden Caple graduated in '06 from The Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Boston, MA and continued on to graduate in '10 with a B.F.A. in Music Theatre from the Hartt School. Alden has worked as choreographer for Maui On Stage, Seacoast Rep, Prescott Park Arts Festival, Oyster River High School, Marshwood High School, and The Hartt School, among others; as well as teaching private dance and leading workshops in African Dance, Jazz, and Music Theatre Styles. In '09 Alden participated as a choreographer/instructor for the annual New England Theatre Conference. Alden is thrilled to join the GBAD staff and is ready to have some fun!

Janelle Abbott

Lyrical, Modern, Contemporary, Pilates

Dancing professionally since the age of 15, Janelle Abbott has performed on stages throughout the U.S. and abroad, in film and on television. She is currently a member of Andrew Palermo and Taye Diggs' New York City-based contemporary dance company dre.dance. Film credits with director David LaChapelle include Elton John's Las Vegas concert The Red Piano (soloist onscreen in "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me"), and videos for Norah Jones ("Those Sweet Words") and Elton John ("Answer In the Sky" starring Desmond Richardson). Janelle's recent theatre credits include Twelfth Night at the McCarter Theatre choreographed by Seán Curran (Dance Captain), Peter Pan (Tiger Lily/Dance Captain), Broadway's Easter Bonnet choreographed by Shea Sullivan, Broadway Bares, the Gypsy of the Year award-winner with the Broadway cast of Aida and Utah!. Janelle has assisted and performed with choreographers Salim Gauwloos (Slam), Shea Sullivan, former Taylor dancer John Byrne, and Adam Cates, and has been a company member of Terra Firma Dance Theatre, LightCurve Dance, Ballet for Young Audiences NYC, Ollom Dance Theatre, and the Grand Rapids Ballet. Additional credits include Jazz at the Alamarine House in Barbados with the Tom Finlay Trio, the Fez Festival of World Music at Carnegie Hall, Shari Berman's My Life as Abraham Lincoln, DanceBreak, Ballet Builders, and print work for Dance Teacher and Dance Spirit magazines. Janelle has choreographed industry fashion shows in New York, Las Vegas and Orlando. She co-produced the performance-based awards presentations for the 2006 and 2007 Dance Magazine Awards in New York City, honoring, among other greats, Gelsey Kirkland, David Howard, Bebe Neuwirth, and Carmen de Lavallade. Janelle received her early training from current Joffrey Ballet Mistress Charthel Arthur and Robert Estner in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and spent summers studying at the Boston Ballet Conservatory and the Joffrey Ballet. She went on to earn a BFA from the University of Utah's Ballet Department, where she studied on scholarship with Conrad Ludlow and Bene Arnold and was awarded the Olga V. Alexandria Merit Scholarship for Dance. Janelle has taught at Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, and PMT Studios in NYC, and teaches regular workshops for Dancers Inc., N-House Productions, and Broadway Experience. She is also Pilates mat certified.

Lissa Silk

Ballet, Durham Outreach Program

At age six Lissa began her ballet training with The Seacoast Ballet Company under Larry and Colleen Robertson where she performed in Carmina Burana, Paquita, and many times in The Nutcracker. Her training continued with Mihailo Djuric, John Prinz, Christine Simes and David Drummond with key roles in Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Stars and Stripes. She has spent her summers with Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Burklyn Ballet Theatre and three summers at Boston Ballet with pre-acceptance status. Lissa was hired for four years with the Boston Dance Company touring The Nutcracker all over NH, MA, and CT performing soloist roles. From there she began performing with Northeastern Ballet Theatre under former Boston Ballet prima, Edra Toth, where she made her debut as the Lucy in Toth's original production of Dracula…A story of Love and Blood. There she also partnered and took principal roles with renowned ABT and Boston Ballet dancer, Eric Lindemer, in the full length, original production of The Pirate and the Gypsy, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and as the Sugarplum fairy for 'The All New Hampshire' Nutcracker.

Lissa is also the youngest comprehensively certified classical Peak Pilates instructor in the world to date, and is in the running for Miss New Hampshire in the Spring 2011 as 'Miss Winnipesaukee' having earned over $14,000 in scholarship. Lissa is currently studying at The University of New Hampshire pursuing a double major in Exercise Science and Theatre and Dance.

Nicole Endkye

Hip Hop

Nicole "Nicky" Endyke was Born in Methuen, MA and started her training at a local dance studio at the age of three. Nicky and her family moved to Berwick ME in the summer of 01', and in the fall of 03' she started training at Brixham Danceworks in South Berwick ME. There, Nicky soon found her love and passion in life for Hip Hop. Nicky quickly climbed up the totem-pole at Brixham and at the age of 13 she was the youngest student ever in the highest level of Hip Hop offered. She has traveled all through New England to participate in workshops and conventions such as Dance Olympus, Dance Educators of America (DEA), Monsters of Hip Hop, and many other local master classes. She has taken classes from celebrity choreographers such as Jamal Sims (Step Up, Step Up 2, Step Up 3D), Kevin Maher (Britney Spears, Jason Derulo), Rhapsody James (Janet Jackson), Marty Kedulka (SYTYCD, Justin Timberlake), Jaquel Knight (Beyonce), Luam (Kelly Rowland) and more. Nicky has also trained under members of ABDC crews: Request and Static Noyze. Nicky has also had advanced training in Rhythm Tap as well as Hip Hop which she continues to gain at Brixham Danceworks under Cheryl Arnold, Shannon Fountain Paone and Leah Leplante Richardson.

Nicky believes that Hip Hop is more than just a style of dance; it is a lifestyle. To Nicky, Hip Hop is a form of expression like no other, and is brought to full execution through pure emotion and feeling from a dancer's own individual heart and soul. Nicky is honored and blessed to be on the GBAD staff, and looks forward to sharing her passion for Hip Hop with her GBAD students.