Alumni

Danny Buraczeski began his dancing career at The Moyer Institute of Dance. “A woman named Joan Moyer came to Lewisburg one day a week and gave classes in a hall above a hardware store downtown. I went. My life changed in an instant. Joan was charismatic and inspiring. She had the most beautiful legs and feet I had ever seen and a gap in the center of the top row of teeth! She put on a scratchy ballet class record and I knew that afternoon I wanted to dance professionally and forever. I would be a prince. Her school was in Sunbury about twelve miles away. I started to hitch-hike after class. I had to make up for lost time…. (at the Moyer Institute of Dance) I got inspiration, excitement and a chance to perform long before I was ready. Joan was very involved in the community and while not doing the traditional recital, gave performances in many of the schools in the area. I performed in many of them, ballet character and jazz. I actually choreographed “Aquarius”. One highlight was playing Jesus in an Easter pageant at Susquehanna University – Divine!” Danny went on to a career on Broadway appearing in such musicals as Mame with Angela Lansbury and The Act with Liza Minnelli. Danny founded the original New York City based JAZZDANCE. The company performed at leading concert halls and festivals in more than 35 states, in Europe, Russia and the Caribbean.

Peter DiBonaventura began dancing as a young child at the Moyer Institute of Dance under Joan Moyer, dancing alongside Kitty. After graduating, Peter spent several years as principal dancer with Cleveland Ballet where he danced principal roles in numerous ballets including Swan Lake, Romeo & Juliet,  Coppelia, Balanchine’s Apollo, Midsummer Night’s Dream and the standard classical pas de deux. He also guested numerous times in   Caracas with ballerina Zhanda Rodriguez. Choreographer Fleming Flindt invited him to Denmark to film his Lucifer’s Daughter, a ballet to celebrate the Queen of Denmark’s 25th Anniversary. He was a principal dancer with New Jersey Ballet and with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Peter is now on the artistic & teaching staff on the NJ Ballet.

Elizabeth Carpenter began dancing at the Moyer Institute of Dance as a student of both Joan and Kitty. She went on to become an original member of The Joe Goode Performance Group based out of San Francisco, and was a dancer with the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 1989 to 1995. Upon Joan’s passing, Elizabeth wrote the following tribute in a letter to the editor: “We mourn the passing of one of the central figures of my life, a giant on whose shoulders I have always stood, Joan Moyer Clark. She taught ballet and dance and brought culture and imagination to thousands in an area where little existed in the 60s and 70s, when I was growing up. She lit the light inside many a child's heart, teaching them to believe in themselves, to master their bodies through a difficult art form, to discipline their minds to achieve that task, to be musical, to work hard, to be unafraid of shining, to communicate from an intelligence more authentic and more compelling than the intellect. She plucked talented children from unsuspecting parents and took us to New York to study. She found scholarships for us. She created special classes for us at her Sunbury studio, The Moyer Institute of Dance. She created and produced a traveling ensemble, "The Sights & Sounds of the Seventies," in collaboration with local orchestras, giving us the opportunity to perform on university and other stages, on public television. She opened her home to us and was the aunt or second mother we needed, to become the people we were capable of becoming. She packed us up on Friday mornings, skipping school, to do lecture demonstrations in the middle and high schools of central Pennsylvania, educating and exposing the masses to art, to beauty, to the miracle of human achievement that is ballet. She made us part of her mission to install dance programs in universities like Bucknell and Susquehanna, giving us leadership opportunities as we modeled technique and led the college kids in her choreographies, though we were all of 10, 12, 15 at best. Many of us went on to dance with the world's great dance companies, performing on the celebrated stages and opera houses of the United States and Europe, on every continent (save Antarctica), on Broadway. So many, many thousands of Susquehanna Valley residents are richer in body (how they walk, stand, play sports, catch a beat) and in spirit (how they hear, see, conjure presence, enjoy, and connect deep within to that which is greater) because they were lucky enough to be taught by Joan. Joan, you cannot know the measure of what you have given the world. Your legacy is varied and consequential. From the kid who learned to love dance, and passed her musicality on to her children, to the parent who learned to appreciate their child little more, the community is better for your participation in it. Your artistic impact has been exponential as your students went on to influence the choreographers, companies and repertories they served in, and the audiences they played to, the world over. Those dancers that then retired to become teachers themselves, paid it forward, passing your legacy and love of dance, on yet again. You helped set in motion the passion, courage and stamina these dancers would need to pursue and succeed in their dream. And so you have touched and changed the landscape of dance along with the hearts, minds and souls of your personal students. Always the servant, never the braggart, shining your bright light to blaze the trail, to give refuge, to inspire. Who would so very many of us be, had you not been there to find us and "see" us, encourage us and teach us? Our gratitude will never cover it. Thank you.”

Jack Hertzog began his dance training at The Moyer Institute of Dance when he was 12 years old, and at age 18 he went on to study with the School of American Ballet. Jack became a principal dancer at the Metropolitan Opera Company from 1967-1988, where he worked with Dame Alicia Markova, Alvin Ailey, George Balanchine, and Anthony Tudor, dancing the leading roles in such opera ballets as Aida, Adriana Lecouvreur, Faust, La Gioconda, Samson et Dalila, and La Traviata. Jack now is on the faculty of Broadway Dance Center in New York City, where he teaches ballet.

Jack Hertzog & Joan

Other notable alumni include (but certainly are not limited to)

Marina Gobins Walchli, Susan Mitchell, Rebecca Malcolm-Naib, Ellen Gerdes, Diane Liggett Scott, Connie Arter, Ralph Sayers, and Ralph Anton Hoffman