"It is the mission of BalletHaven that all of our dancers will graduate from Fair Haven K-8 school with the necessary discipline and dedication to pursue any artistic or academic endeavor in high school, college, or beyond." 

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Mnikesa Whitaker-Haaheim

BalletHaven was founded in December of 2011 by classically trained dancer, Mnikesa Whitaker shortly after her second year of chemotherapy. A gifted teacher and a passionate dancer, she believes that quality [arts] education is essential, life-saving work. Find out more about her here.
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Monica Bunton

Monica Bunton, a bilingual educator, has served as BalletHaven's Assistant Director since its second year.  An community organizer in her own right, she is a crucial part in maintaining the ideals of solidarity and empowerment that are essential to the BalletHaven DNA. Find out more about her here.
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Jousebeth Lopez (High School Senior, Teacher in Training)

Jousebeth is a graduate of Fair Haven Middle school and is currently a senior dance major at ECA (the audition-only arts high magnet high school) as well as an honor student at Wilbur Cross High School.  She was also a founding member of the BalletHaven dance program.  At the end of this year, she will be the FIRST member of BalletHaven to complete all 4 years at ECA.

Jousebeth returns this year to pilot a program that she proposed, penned and worked to get approved; she did all of this LAST year in preparation for this school year, including writing her resume and her own dance specific website, which should give you an indication of the caliber of focus and determination of this young lady.  

Twice a week, she trains our returning 2016 BalletHaven dancers during their school day providing even further focused enrichment for our young dancers beyond BalletHaven’s after school classes and rehearsals; she does this work in ADDITION to her own academic classes and strenuous dance schedule.    In our close relationship with Jousebeth you can see that BalletHaven mentorship doesn’t stop at 8th grade graduation.  This budding teacher-leader, performer and choreographer has also set several pieces on our dancers which you can view in the Gallery of this website!