Michele Xiques Arnold has been teaching dance for over 30 years. Since the age of 16, she has trained with the Joffrey Ballet, NYC, North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Atlanta Ballet. While in high school she started the show choir at Caesar Rodney which became a class students could take during school.  She is a retired professional ballerina with Empire State Ballet, NY, and the Atlanta Ballet, GA, and an Actor's Equity performer with the Civic Light Opera, Pittsburgh, PA, and Lakeview Theatre, Morgantown, WV.  Michele was hired by the Indian River School District to start a dance program at Sussex Central High School which she did for 9 years.  Ms. Arnold has received two grant awards and recognition through the Delaware Division of Arts for her choreography promoting her as an Individual Established Artist.  She currently owns First State Dance Academy located in Milford, DE, and is the Artistic Director of DanceCompany-X.  Many of her students have become professional dancers, received dance scholarships, and once was invited to train at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia. 

Sarah Maida took her first ballet class at the age of 3 at her local YMCA. At 9, she moved to the Academy of the Dance (Wilmington Ballet) to pursue more serious training. There she studied with Victor Wesley, Arthur Hutchinson, and Susan Lawrence. At the Academy, Sarah had the opportunity to perform annually at the Hotel DuPont’s Playhouse Theater, where she danced nearly every role in the Nutcracker, from soldier to Clara to Dew Drop to Snow Queen, and Gamzatti in the shades scene of La Bayadere. As a high schooler, Sarah began student teaching under the mentorship of Victor Wesley and upon graduation had solo taught at every level including pointe, partnering, character, adult, variations, and jazz classes.

In middle and high school, Sarah attended summer programs at the Washington School of Ballet, where she trained with Victoria Leigh and Rudolf Kharatian and performed roles in Balanchine’s Serenade and Paquita. She also attended several years of Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet’s August program, and one year of their 5 week intensive. At CPYB Sarah trained with Marcia Dale Weary, Melinda Howe, Darla Hoover, Alan Hineline, Jonathan Stafford, and others.

After graduating high school, Sarah joined Ballet Theatre of Maryland, where she danced for 4 years. While with the company Sarah performed roles in Coppelia, the Firebird, Excalibur, Sleepy Hollow, The Nutcracker, multiple original works by Dianna Cuatto and Meagan Helman, and (her favorites!) Little Swans in Swan Lake, stepsister in Cinderella, and Juliet’s friend in Romeo and Juliet. While dancing with BTM, Sarah joined the staff of the school, under the direction of Nicole Kelsch, where she taught all levels.

When Sarah retired from ballet, she continued to occasionally substitute teach after getting married and having 5 children. She joins the full time staff at Delaware Dance Company this summer, where 3 of her children are students.

Angela Zielen, a Delaware native, began studying ballet at the age of nine at First State Academy of Dance. She augmented her training by attending summer intensives at First State Ballet Theatre and The American Academy of Ballet, under Angela DeMello, in Urbania, Italy. Angela was awarded the Delaware Dance Festival Artistry Award in 2012. This is Angela’s eighth season with the company, where she has performed a variety of featured roles such as Amour in Don Quixote, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Marie in The Nutcracker and Mina in Viktor Plotnikov’s Dracula. Angela is a graduate of the University of Delaware with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Cognitive Science and she has served as the Assistant Director of the National Ballet Competition since 2019. Angela is the founder of the nonprofit The Art Society at Loblolly Acres, created to promote the arts in Central Delaware.