APDA Faculty
Jenny Jue Chen
Director
A dancer and choreographer received her professional dance training from the Beijing Dance Academy since 1973. She graduated with top honors from BDA prior to performing as a soloist dancer with the National Ballet China. In 1991, she joined Atlanta Ballet. Her specialties include choreography, teaching classical ballet and Chinese folk dance. She is the founder and director for the Atlanta Professional Dance School.
Wei Dongsheng
Artistic Director
Mr. Wei started his ballet career in 1979 with the Beijing Dance Academy and became a leading principal dancer with the National Ballet of China where he received many awards. After being a principal dancer with the Atlanta Ballet for fourteen years, he is now doing freelance work throughout the U.S. He is in the China and USA National Register “Who is who” and Board of Director for the Ballet International and the founder and director for the Atlanta Professional Dance School.
Mi Li
Ballet
Has devoted her entire life to performing and teaching ballet. With top honor, she graduated from the Beijing Dance Academy since 1979, in addition, she is certified in the British RDA. Her specialties include choreography, classical ballet character dance and Chinese folk dance. For twenty years, she worked as a soloist dancer for the Central Ballet of China. She performed in four countries, including 32 cities in the United States. In 1999, she was invited by the Okada Ballet School in Japan to be its artistic director, and she served in that capacity for two years. She returned to China to teach ballet, and in 2004 her students won first prize in the Beijing Dance Competition. Mili Olander’s love for, and devotion to, teaching ballet to young children, adults and professional dancers continue in her current position as ballet mistress for the Atlanta Professional Dance Academy.
Sara Wang
Chinese Traditonal Dance
Was an principle Traditional Chinese dancer with the Qian feng and Zhejiang dance company. She is a member of Chinese Dance Artist Association. She danced in Many countries includes 1988 represented China to perform at the United Nations. In the year of 1999, she as a dancing instructor worked for the Canadian Royal Academy of ballet. She is the dance director for the Chinese and American performance Group.
Cherry Song
Hip Hop
Began her dance training in 1998 and continuing her training with the Atlanta Professional Dance Academy until 2011. Now she is a teacher and choreographer with the APDA and free lance dancer, model and actress. With her passion in dance especially in Hip Hop, her work has been received very high acclimations in many perform repertoires with the Atlanta Professional Dance Academy and other community event. With her talent, she has won the Platinum Champion titles in the International Dance Challenge Competitions and has been featured in movies.
Momchil Mladenov
Ballet
Was a former principal dancer with the National Ballet of Bulgaria and The Suzanne Farrell Ballet. A native of Bulgaria, Mr. Mladenov trained in the Vaganova Method at the National School of Ballet in Sofia, Bulgaria. His honors and awards include Laureate of Arabesque Competition and the prize for best performance in P.I. Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty, Perm, Russia (1998), Laureate of Masako Ohya World Ballet Competition, Osaka, Japan (1995), prize for Best Partner in "seniors" category at the National Ballet Competition, Dobritsch, Bulgaria, and a nomination for the prestigious award, “Crystal Lire,” in the field of performing arts.
Susan Thomas McGraw
Ballet
Has performed leads in many of the major classical ballets and has had numerous contemporary ballets set on her as a principal dancer. She has trained under instructors from The Gainesville Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Boston Ballet, German State Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet and the Cathy Sharp International Professional Ensemble where she danced and taught while living in Basel, Switzerland.She has enjoyed creating many original Classical and Contemporary concert pieces that have been honored by both local and regional Festival Associations.
Regine Metayer
Contemporary
Began her dance training in Port-au-Prince (PAP), Haiti at the Haitian-American Academy of Ballet & Arts. She was a performing member of the Haitian-American Contemporary Dance Theater, under the direction of Eileen Herzog-Bazin. Regine was a featured performer dancing in choreographies created by Sharon Newton and Juan Fidel Mieses Gautraux. She began teaching and was a faculty member at HAMABA from 1993 through 1997. She is currently a Licentiate Member of the Cecchetti Council of America, holding three Teacher Examination Certificates.
Dana Crigler
Ballet
Is a professional dancer and has danced the roles of Sugarplum Fairy, Spanish, Snow, Puss N’ Boots, Blue Bird, Pas de Deux and Pas de Trois in Le Sylphide, and numerous original works by various choreographers. She received her early dance training in Matteson, IL and continued her professional training with Boitsov Classical Ballet School, under the direction of Madame Elizabeth Boistov, a graduate and professional dancer with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Dana honed her ballet technique with retraining in Vaganova, completed training and launched her professional ballet career. She performs all styles of dance (Chachetti), ballet, modern (Duncan), tap, and jazz with ballet being her strength and passion.