Board of Directors

After having their first daughter, Amy and Kenton moved back to NC to be closer to family. Amy recently completed homeschooling her two daughters for their middle school years. She has also been an active volunteer in multiple capacities at church, Cary Ballet, and Young Life. Amy is proud of being a wife to Kenton and a mom to her two daughters, Hailey and Kaitlyn.

In her free time, Kelsey enjoys outside activities, being active, and traveling with her best friend and husband, Dave. She thinks any reason is a good reason to be in the mountains – hiking, camping, or running are all better with a mountain scene and a couple of inches of snow on the ground!

Kelsey is honored to serve as Treasurer on the Board for Cary Ballet Company, to learn about the company and experience their active involvement in the Arts community.

A native of Buffalo, NY (Go Bills!), Dona is a graduate of the University at Buffalo where she majored in Communication Science and Media Arts.  She has a love of the arts, animals, travel, water, the color orange, and empowering friendships.  She has recently found herself in the technology community, specifically working on Salesforce trails and certifications.  She is an advocate for mental health and veteran support programs.

She credits her success to the strong circle of supportive colleagues and friends that she has been lucky to have crossed paths with. She spends her downtime visiting and traveling with her amazing husband, Doug, and her pretty exceptional adult daughter, Lex.  

He has been married to his wife Tina since 1994. Together they have four children, two grandchildren, and a menagerie of animals on a hobby farm in New Hill, NC. He has served on the Board for many years. His commitment to CBC spans over a decade as a parent, volunteer, donor, patron, and Board member.

He served as Battalion Commander of the NU ROTC detachment and, upon graduation, was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army in 1989.

Dr. Bruce deferred military service to attend medical school at Buffalo State University of New York. He received his MD in 1993 and stayed at the University of Buffalo to complete an internship and residency in general surgery, which he completed in 1998.

Dr. Bruce entered active duty later that year, being assigned to the 212th MASH in Wiesbaden, Germany while acting as a staff surgeon at Heidelberg Hospital. He fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming his childhood idol, Hawkeye Pierce. He is a veteran and served two tours in the Balkan/Kosovo conflict. He finished his military service at Fort Hood, Texas, and received an Honorable Discharge in 2002.

After spending four years in private practice in Georgia, he and his wife Tina relocated their family to Cary in 2006. WakeMed currently employs him as the Director of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

Dr. Bruce has served on the board of several private retail and real estate companies. He has held multiple leadership positions in the medical and non-medical arenas.

He has been married for over 25 years to the love of his life, Tina, and has four wonderful children and one lovely grandchild. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, football, and watching ballet when he is not working.

Suzanne began in the administrative capacity with the Ballet Company in 2003 – present and has served on the Board of Directors as Secretary, and President and is currently a Member at Large.  She is proud to be a part of the growth and professional integrity of the Ballet Company under the direction of Mariaelena Ruiz and Heather Iler. This growth follows its mission of being a youth-based, pre-professional performing company that has served the Triangle for over 20 years and its community outreach through the Plie All Day program.

When not working for Cary Ballet, Suzanne enjoys time with her husband and children, Kyle and Jasmine, teaching yoga, participating as a member of the National Charity League, and gardening.

Suzanne worked in administrative roles for Glaxo/SmithKline and Biogen and continued her pursuit of dance in the area. In 1997, she began teaching for Cary Ballet Conservatory and choreographed/staged pieces for both the Conservatory and Cary Ballet Company.  She continued teaching and ended her business career in 2000 to stay home with her son, Kyle, and then joined by her daughter, Jasmine, in 2005. Suzanne began in the Administrative capacity with the Company in 2003 and has served as Secretary & President.  She once again is serving as Secretary and is proud to be a part of the growth and professional integrity of the Company under the direction of Mariaelena Ruiz and Heather Iler. This advancement follows its mission of being a pre-professional ballet company and serving the Triangle community through theater/school performances and community outreach through the Plie All Day! program.

A portion of Dinah’s professional career path led her to serve in administrative roles as lead fundraiser for two professional ballet companies; Tulsa Ballet in Tulsa, Oklahoma led by Artistic Director Marcello Angelini and The Charleston Ballet Theatre in Charleston, SC led by Resident Choreographer Jill Eathorne-Bahr and Artistic Directors
Don and Patricia Cantwell.

Dinah’s experience includes private philanthropic giving and corporate/industry engagement as well as campaign development, and management oversight.  She last served as Director of Development at Louisiana State University in the School of Veterinary Medicine and as Senior Director of Development for the LSU AgCenter and
College of Agriculture. Her experience working with other Land Grant institutions include Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Additionally, Dinah is a two-time Oklahoma State University graduate, with a B.A. in English and an M.S. in International Studies. Dinah and her husband, Michael Stevenson enjoy spending time at the many dog parks in Raleigh with their tripod LabraDane dog, Alexander “Zander” Archibald, as well as exploring NC and travel. Supporting the arts and live performances remains at the top of their interests.

At age 14, Mariaelena became the youngest member of the Ballet Nacional de Caracas, under the direction of Vicente Nebrada.  Soon after, she won 3rd place Junior Division at the Jackson USA International Ballet Competition and received a full scholarship to continue her studies at the School of American Ballet in New York. She won the Best Couple award and 3rd Place Senior Division at the Varna International Ballet Competition and also won at the Prix Volinine in Paris.

Over the next seven years, Mariaelena performed principal roles at Bay Ballet Theater, Cleveland San Jose Ballet, and Ballet Hispanico; and as a guest artist for many companies in the US and Europe.  Between 2000 to 2006 Mariaelena danced an all Balanchine repertoire in the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

In 2000 she began teaching part-time at The Rock School for Dance Education and became full-time Ballet Master at The Rock School in 2006, there she trained some of today’s brightest ballet stars.

In 2015 Mariaelena and her husband became part owners of Cary Ballet Conservatory where she created the Professional Training Program, that same year she also became the Artistic Director of Cary Ballet Company. During her time as PTP director, the Conservatory has been awarded the Outstanding School Award at YAGP, ADC, and has also been featured in Dance Magazine and Pointe Magazine. Mariaelena was the cover of Dance Teacher Magazine with the featured story titled: “Mariaelena Ruiz works her magic at Cary Ballet Conservatory.” and In 2016 Mariaelena was named the “Outstanding Teacher” at the ADC International Ballet Competition

Mariaelena has been a judge and guest teacher for YAGP and has also worked with the New York International Ballet Competition.  She was featured in the award-winning documentary First Position and in the WHYY Philadelphia documentary made about the first Curtis Institute of Music and Rock School Collaboration in 2009.  In 2016 Mariaelena was named outstanding teacher at the ADC International Ballet Competition

She has coached medalists for major competitions including Moscow IBC, Jackson USA IBC, Boston IBC, Prix de Lausanne, Youth America Grand Prix, and American Dance Competition.  Her former students are dancing professionally all over the world in companies such as National Ballet of Canada, American Ballet Theater, Het National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Washington Ballet, New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet, Ballet West, and on Broadway.

As Artistic Director of Cary Ballet Company, one of the first things she brought to fruition was a full-length Nutcracker which has been sold out and enjoyed by many since 2016. She also created the Nutcracker mini-shows as a one- hour lecture demonstrations with a narrator and details of how the performance of the Nutcracker comes to life.
Aside from working with Cary Ballet Company’s very talented choreographers, Mariaelena has been responsible for bringing to the company’s “Spring Works” some very sought after choreographers to work with the dancers to create original works.
She has choreographed and adapted excerpts of the most famous classical ballets for the company, including Le Corsaire, Bayadere, and has been working on her new “Don Quixote” which will be performed by the company very soon.

After MCB, she completed her B.S. and Master’s degrees in biology from The University of Toledo. She then returned to teaching and has been on faculty with the Miami City Ballet, The Reston Conservatory Ballet in Virginia, The Toledo Ballet, Ballet Theater of Toledo, and St. Louis Ballet School. She served as ballet mistress for St. Louis Ballet, where she was responsible for rehearsing company repertoire including ballets by Petipa, Balanchine, Gen Horiuchi, Michael Uthoff, and Christopher d’Amboise.

Heather Iler joined the faculty of Cary Ballet Conservatory in 2011. In 2014, she assumed the role of CBC’s Director of Summer Intensive. She has continued to revise and update the schedule, increase class offerings, and create the Aspiring Dancer Program. In 2015, she was named CBC’s Director of the Ballet School. Through her tenure, she has established and implemented her curriculum, built the teacher assistant program, and continued to develop and create evening schedules. She developed the highly successful studio program, a comprehensive bridge between the Professional Training Program (PTP) and evening programs and was instrumental in the establishment of the PTP. Ms. Iler is lead faculty with CBC’s PTP, directed by Mariaelena Ruiz. Since the establishment of PTP and the Studio Program, CBC has been named by Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) as Best School (2019, 2018, 2017) and Best Faculty (2020) and by American Dance Competition-International Ballet Competition (ADC-IBC) as Best School (2018 and 2017).

In 2011, Ms. Iler became involved in Cary Ballet Company as a choreographer and ballet master. During her first year, she was pivotal in creating a full-length production of “The Nutcracker.”  In 2014, she was appointed as Associate Artistic Director of the company. Under her leadership, she has helped to build repertoire, create original choreography, and expand opportunities for dancers through programs such as Plié All Day. Through her tenure, she has brought such renowned ballets as Coppélia, La Bayadère, Paquita, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and other classical repertoires to the company, all while teaching, overseeing casting, and maintaining production quality.

Upholding the company’s mission statement, Heather Iler firmly believes every person should have access to ballet and live theatre, regardless of age, skill, or background. Her philosophy imparts to all her passion and joy of dance, whether they are destined for a professional life or simply one enriched with the love of movement.