Support the Arts

We are excited to be entering our 16th year of Business. We wanted to take some time to introduce ourselves and share our story to anyone who is new to our community.

We opened our doors in September of 2008 by our beloved Founding Director, Susan Olson Santoro. Miss Susan chose Poughkeepsie for NYAB in hopes to bring back the arts to the city of Poughkeepsie where arts & dance once thrived (she had Poughkeepsie Ballet Theatre in mind as she created NYAB). Part of our founding mission was to create a conservatory level dance school where quality dance education could be met with a nurturing approach that allows young artists to grow emotionally and artistically without judgement. Miss Susan also opened NYAB as a place where her daughter (we know her as Miss Alessia) could utilize her degree upon graduation.

In 2017 Miss Alessia took over as Artistic Director following Miss Susan's cancer diagnosis. While Miss Susan continued to guide Miss Alessia behind the scenes during the first year of her diagnosis, Miss Alessia began to take the reins of NYAB and continue to push forward with NYAB's mission of preserving classical dance in a nurturing environment. In June of 2019 we premiered our original ballet "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", little did we know this would be our last performance for two years before the world changed, it would also be Miss Susan's last ballet she ever created. Fast forward to 2020, life as we knew it had changed due to COVID. While COVID had taken a tole on many businesses and was difficult emotionally and mentally for everyone we also had to face the loss of our beloved Miss Susan after her three-year battle with Leukemia. Not being together during this time was extremely difficult but we are blessed to have such a supportive community and were met with nothing but love, support, and encouragement. With this new loss Miss Alessia began to shift her dreams for NYAB, she wanted to continue her mother's legacy and mission but wanted to expand upon these original dreams to truly make NYAB a place of support, growth, and inclusivity. As we began to move forward from this devastating loss we then were met with having to move locations as we were losing our first dance home. This was a difficult move as our original space held many special memories with our beloved Miss Susan but it was bittersweet as it meant we could grow and have a better space to allow us to continue to expand. Part of our move was creating a 1300 sq. ft. studio with Harlequin wood-spring floors, Harlequin Barres, & full-length mirrors. We are proud to have a professional dance space that allows students to work safely on their craft.

As we enter our 16th year Miss Alessia has begun to work on expanding our community with monthly workshops, community events, and arts in education outreach. Dance has always been a place of refuge for Miss Alessia where she could let go and she wants more young dancers to be able to have the same space she grew up with. We are excited to work more with the community and reach more young artists this year as the arts truly are about sharing our passions and stories with each other. Let's get ready for another wonderful year of dance!

Donate to help support the arts and help us work towards our mission of making the arts more accessible to more young artists. Suggested Donation levels;

$25 - (helps pay for registration fee for one student or goes towards administrative costs)

$50 - (helps pay for administrative and/or staff costs)

$75 - (helps pay for a dancers costume)

$100 - (helps sponsor a dancer)

$250 - (helps sponsor a dancer)

$500 - (helps sponsor a dancer or year-end production cost)

$1,000 - (helps sponsor a dancer and/or year-end production cost)

$2,500 - (helps sponsor a dancer(s) and/or year-end production costs)

$5,000 - (helps sponsor a dancer(s), pay for year-end production costs, and/or pay monthly business expenses)