Sandra Meythaler - Executive Director
Faculty and Staff
The faculty at Roanoke Ballet Theatre are highly trained professionals.
Our teachers have graduated with master's degrees in dance, have performed professionally around the world and have worked and taught with international dancers.
All are trained in anatomy and kinesiology and are able to determine which classes are appropriate for your children.
Sandra Meythaler - Executive Director Sandra was a principle ballerina with the National Ballet of Ecuador. She has performed ballet and contemporary dance around the world including Peru, Belgium, Germany, Italy, England, France, Spain, Brazil, Columbia and Japan. Sandra began dancing professionally at the age of fifteen with Compania Nacional de Dance in Ecuador and then joined the National Ballet of Ecuador in 1989. She also danced with Ballet Novo, Opera Ecuador and Koral y Esmeralda. In 2001 Sandra joined Roanoke Ballet Theatre. She is also an independent performing artist and teacher. Sandra performs and teaches master classes in Flamenco, Salsa, Rumba and Afro-Cuban styles. Her multi talents are augmented by her world class teaching style which incorporates international dance styles in traditional ballet syllabus. Her awards include: |
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Liza earned her MFA in dance from Arizona State University after attending Hope College where she received the Florence Cavanaugh Dance Award. She has performed professionally with Andrew’s Arts Dance Company, Aerial Dance Company, Opera Roanoke, Mill Mountain Theatre, danah bella DanceWorks and is currently dancing with the Roanoke Ballet Theatre. Since 1994 Mrs. Deck has directed the Fleming-Ruffner Magnet Center for the Arts dance department and is proud to be the founder of the F.R.E.E. Dance Company. She is the creator of Dance Hypothesis and her choreography has been featured at Virginia Tech and Washington and Lee University. |
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Amanda S. Willis received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Roanoke College and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies at Hollins University with an interdisciplinary concentration in dance and history. She grew up in Roanoke and has studied dance in the area for over twenty years. While at Roanoke College, she choreographed and performed in the theatre department's production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. As a student, she performed lead roles in several ballets including Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Anastasia, and Sleeping Beauty. Since beginning to teach five years ago, Amanda has contributed choreography for many different productions and has choreographed, directed, and produced a ballet based on the children's story Winnie the Pooh. She also spent a year in St. Andrews, Scotland, where she danced in a Scottish performance group called the Celtic Rose. |
 Amanda S. Willis
Amanda is also a talented photographer and has contributed many of the photographs featured here on our website. |
Lynn Clayton Lynn Clayton grew up in New York and began taking ballet classes at the age of 5. She exclusively studied classical ballet and regularly attended classes at the Joffrey Ballet School as well as the American Ballet Theatre School in Manhattan. Lynn soon became a sought after ballet instructor and taught and performed locally with various dance studios and theatre productions. She soon broadened her dance repertoire studying and performing Middle Eastern dance professionally with Serena Wilson. In addition, Lynn has studied Polynesian dance- including hula kahiko, hula auana, and Tahitian otea and aparima-with world renowned kumu hulas. She and was director of, and performed with, her professional Polynesian dance company, Halau Hula Na Wahine O Mokopuni Lo’Ihi. She presently continues her studies in dance as a student and teacher of Flamenco. When she is not teaching dance, choreographing, or performing, Lynn is involved in her other career as a fine artist, and trained faux finisher /muralist with her company, East Coast Decorative Painting. |
 Lynn Clayton |
Anita Smelser - Office Manager Anita has been a volunteer all her life. For five years, she ran a food pantry from her church, partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank to serve the needs of local residents; and, for the past four years she has chaired the children’s program at her church, Salem Church of Christ. Within the past 5 years, she and her writing partner have published several articles for a national weekly publication, The Lookout, which is sold nationwide to churches of her faith. In 2001, they compiled recipes and co-authored a cookbook, Celebrating Simplicity…comfort food for a simple life, which served as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. The book is a mixture of inspiration messages, uplifting quotes, and “home-tested recipes” that raised over $8,000 for Salem’s Relay for Life. Having successfully reared a daughter who teaches dance, she loves being involved with a non-profit dance organization that believes all children deserve an opportunity to dance if they so wish. Anita co-owns a precision machine shop with her husband. On the days she’s there, she does everything from running a CNC lathe to assembling/shipping replacement parts for vintage Camaro/Firebird cars to marketing their business. |
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