Faculty and Staff

Arnora Hummel was born April 21st, 1940 in Topeka, Kansas. She moved to Albuquerque New Mexico where she began taking ballet from Dr. Charles Fishback at the age of 8. After studying dance for nine years, Arnora’s family moved to Phoenix where she began teaching at Jack Cione studios. Two years later Jack Cione moved to Hawaii and gave the Phoenix studio to Arnora. In addition to owning her studio, she also performed in Scottsdale theatre productions of Take Me Along and The Merry Widow, among others.

Arnora changed the name of the studio to Arnora’s Studio of Dance and built it from one hundred students to six hundred students taking Ballet, Tap, and Jazz over the next six years. At the same time, she produced several productions at the Arizona State Fair as well as the Miss Phoenix Pageant for the Miss America Pageant. In 1964 Arnora married David Hummel, a local television executive and two years later moved to Cincinnati where her husband joined Procter & Gamble. She taught dance briefly in Cincinnati and produced the Miss Cincinnati pageant and performed in and choreographed several musicals including Kismet, Fiorello, Carousel and Where’s Charlie.

In 1981, the family moved to Virginia Beach where Arnora focused her attention on raising her family. She began her second career in the dance business in 1989 by opening our school, Academie de Ballet, in Chesapeake, Virginia.

In 1991, Arnora founded Masterworks, a performing arts company with several national and international television productions to her credit. Masterworks performing arts company has staged seven original story ballets to date, three of which have been telecast nationally in the US, Israel, and India.

Arnora’s vision continues past her life on Earth. The Hummel family still owns the studio today, and through it’s knowledgable and committed employees, it continues to carry her spirit and mission.

Melissa Moore began dance lessons in 1971 and never looked back. Melissa was a Carolina Dance Masters protégé. Teaching for the past 39 years, Melissa became certified to teach through Dance Masters of America. She has studied extensively on the convention circuit, and in NYC for decades. She also had the honor and privilege to study tap dancing privately from master teacher and performer Henry LeTang in his Las Vegas studio. A career teacher, Melissa Moore has been afforded the pleasure of teaching students in both private and public schools in North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington State, including the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, and as an adjunct professor at Salem High School PAC in Virginia Beach. She has also taught convention classes and adjudicated for Dance Masters chapter 27 in Oklahoma, and has taught Commercial Jazz at the Art thru Muvmnt Convention. Melissa teaches Ballet, Tap, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, acrobatics, hip hop, and musical theater dance to all levels. Melissa is the Executive Director at Academie de Ballet, a multi-genre dance school in Virginia, where she has taught for the past twenty five years.  Melissa also serves as a lead choreographer for Masterworks Performing Arts, a pre-professional ballet company. A competition circuit judge for many years, Melissa is the Competition dance team Director for the ADB AllStars. She has been a private movement coach and commercial choreographer for singers and backup dancers, such as Amanda Kay ( Ava Max), Frankie Beverly and Maze, and many Disney 757 artists. Melissa has choreographed talent routines for many competitors in the Miss America Scholarship Pageant, including Miss Virginia 2016, Michaela Sigmon Conner. After an accident, Melissa retired from full-time teaching in 2014. She continues to mentor teachers, choreograph competition pieces, and subs classes of all  levels and genres. Melissa has many students that have gone on to dance professionally- some in commercial dance (music video work, tap companies, and cruise line work)and some with companies such as: Nashville Ballet, Israeli Ballet, Ballet West, Ballet Memphis, Pittsburgh Ballet, Todd Rosenlieb Dance, Faye Driscoll NYC, and Carolina Ballet.  Her students have also been selected for programs and college studies at The Juilliard, Joffrey Ballet, UNCSA, Joffrey Contemporary, American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey Dance, Point Park University, Dance Theater of Harlem, Broadway Dance Center’s Professional Semester, OKC Ann Lacy School of Dance, University of Arts, and the Harid Conservatory, among others. She has trained and choreographed for contemporary finalists at Youth America Grand Prix, and was a 2 time choreographer /performer for the Seattle Tap Festival. Melissa is proud of her many students who have also chosen to be dance educators- as they are the roots that keep the dance tree strong and growing! Melissa lives in Norfolk with her husband Ron, and has two wonderful adult daughters, who also dance and choreograph. 

Viktoriya “Vicka” Kortze is Ballet Mistress for Academie de Ballet. She is a professional ballet dancer from Belarus, where she graduated from the National Ballet College and earned her diploma. Vicka was accepted to Bolshoi Belarusian Theater immediately upon graduation. In her performing career, she had many opportunities to work with talented choreographers from all over the world and traveled to many countries. Vicka joined Renaissance Ballet in the US, and then became a teacher at AdB in the year 2000. She performed extensively with Masterworks in many solo roles. As Ballet Mistress, she is able to teach all levels of ballet to both male and female students and is truly passionate to share her knowledge and love of ballet with everyone she trains. She trains our most elite students to compete solo pointe variations at the Youth America Grand Prix competition. She has a huge teacher’s heart, and is loved by all that have trained under her. Vicka resides in Virginia Beach with her husband Jim, and two beautiful daughters.

Felecia Baker grew up in Chesapeake, VA, and began her dance training at Academie de Ballet. She continued her training throughout high school with the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, Va. She spent her summers training with American Ballet Theater, Point Park University, and Richmond Ballet. Felecia began her professional career with the Charlottesville Ballet, where she spent three seasons. In 2017, she joined Ballet Memphis where she danced in principal roles such as Clara in the Nutcracker and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Recently, she performed with Virginia Ballet Theatre as a guest artist. Felecia now teaches ballet at the schools she attended and has become a certified GYROTONIC ® trainer. 

Drawing from over twenty-six years of dance training, Jessica enjoys teaching a range of styles from Contemporary and Ballet, to Jazz and Musical Theater. Her experience includes twenty-three years of Vaganova style Ballet training under the instruction of Andrei Yamelianov, Arnora Hummel, and others at Academie de Ballet in Chesapeake, VA. Jessica has continued to teach and choreograph for over twelve years and previously held a leadership role as the Creative Director in the Contemporary dance company, Masterworks Touring Company.  She debuted one of her original productions with the company in Amsterdam in April 2017 and many of her works have also been performed in Israel, Russia, and China, as well as numerous locations nationally in the U.S. Jessica started Shaping Space Choreography last year through which she provides choreographic services to enhance events, music videos, weddings and more. There is nothing like coming home and that is what Academie de Ballet is to Jessica. She is looking forward to being a part of students’ growth this year and helping to create a safe place for them to develop and progress into who God created them to be!

Michaela is a graduate of Old Dominion University where she obtained her B.A. in Communications with a minor in Dance and Performing Arts. Michaela began dancing at the age of 4 at Academie De Ballet where she was trained in several dance forms allowing her to achieve several local, state, and national dance awards. At the age of 16, she was invited to join ADB’s very own professional dance group where they performed in several venues including Israel and The Netherlands. In addition to dance Michaela has also appeared in Supermodel and Pageantry magazines, and has had guest appearances on The 700 Club, FBI Criminal Pursuit, and Alaska: Cold Blooded Killers.

She knew her life had changed forever and an immense responsibility placed upon her shoulders when she heard her name called as Miss Virginia 2016. Being afforded the opportunity to compete at Miss America and travel across the state of Virginia, she knew the door had opened for her to promote on a grander scale her platform Making it Matter. With the belief that her platform contains preventative medicine for much of the tragedy we see daily she has committed herself to showing each person she meets that they DO matter, and their life IS indispensable. Living by her life’s motto “The greatest blessing is to be a blessing” she tries daily to spread the message of self-worth and the importance of valuing others. She was recently married to the love of her life, Nick Conner, who is a former professional baseball player with the Washington Nationals Organization. Nick now runs his own business, Train Like Pros, where he takes his love and knowledge of baseball and passes it on to others.