Elizabeth DiStasio-Waddell has been the owner and resident choreographer of the Royal Academy of Ballet and Dance since 1997, continuing the tradition of teaching dance excellence in Western New York since 1947. Many of RAB and Dance’s dancers have gone on to perform nationally and internationally with leading ballet and dance companies, as well as national Broadway musicals. RAB and Dance has had the great pleasure of working with the BPO since 1998. Since then, Elizabeth DiStasio-Waddell has created and set original and classical pieces for the BPO such as Danse Macabre, Hobgoblin, Skaters’ Waltz, the Hansel and Gretel Dream Scene, Autumn, Troika, La Boutique Fantastique, and Nutcracker Variations. They performed in the movie, A Royal Christmas Ballet, on the Great American Family channel, and they are delighted to return to Kleinhans to ring in the holidays with the BPO.

Dancers: Juliet Chambers, Allyson Kaeselau (soloist), Nora Kaeselau, Joslyn Likos, Stella McGill, Lucy Sciandra, Ella Shaab, Lucia Trometer