Faculty

Heidi Sperounis, Department Instructional Leader, Ballet

Heidi Sperounis, (Department Head) originally from Massachusetts, began dancing at her mother’s dance studio and trained with The Boston Ballet and The North Shore Civic Ballet Company.  Ms, Sperounis is a cum laude graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a BFA degree in dance.  After touring with the University Dancers while in college, she trained with Marcus Schulkind and danced professionally with BAF Dance Company in Boston.  She then moved to New York City and danced in numerous workshops and regional modern companies.  Ms. Sperounis moved to South Florida in 1991 and danced with Dance Wave–The Art of Human Movement in Miami, directed by Gary Lund.  Heidi has been teaching ballet and modern dance in the Palm Beach County community for over 25 years.  She completed the Classical Ballet Teacher training course with Ruth Petrinovic in 2008, is a certified Zena Rommett Floor Barre© teacher, and PBT certified.  Ms. Sperounis places emphasis on creative self expression by encouraging a young dancer to “discover” ideas in movement for promoting self-initiative and personal responsibility.    

Haley Baldwin, Modern, Jazz

Haley Baldwin began her dance training in Massachusetts before moving to Florida in 2007.  She attended the Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts as a dance major where she studied under the direction of Jan Hanniford-Goetz.  There, Ms. Baldwin had the opportunity to perform works by various artists, including Stephanie Batten-Bland and Solomon Dumas.  During this time, she also attended the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Joffrey Ballet summer intensives.  Upon graduation, Ms. Baldwin attended Point Park University where she received her BFA in Dance Performance with a concentration in Modern Dance.  There, she had the privilege of training under Judith Leifer-Bentz and Garfield Lemonius.  Out of all her performances at Point Park, being selected to perform Martha Graham’s Steps in the Street at the Byham Theater is her most cherished memory.  After college, she returned to Florida, where she performed and taught locally.  Ms. Baldwin began teaching at Bak Middle School of the Arts in 2018.  In addition to her dance teaching, Ms. Baldwin is also a certified Pure Barre Instructor.   

Libby Faber Deen, Artist in Residence

Libby Faber Deen is a Palm Beach Gardens, Florida native.  Libby grew up dancing with Ballet Palm Beach Academy from the age of 5.  She attended Bak Middle School of the Arts as a dance major.  Libby received her BFA in Dance from the Juilliard School under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes and Alicia Graf Mack.  She was one of six recipients of the Career Advancement Fellowship upon graduation.  During her time at Juilliard, she was able to explore her passions for choreography and collaboration.  Upon graduating, she has created several commissioned dance pieces and worked on various projects with Ballet Florida and other local companies.  She was a company dancer with Ballet Palm Beach from 2020-2024.  She teaches Modern Dance at The Harid Conservatory.  Ms. Deen currently works as a freelance dance artist and teacher in Palm Beach County, and is so excited to return to Bak MSOA as an Artist in Residence.   

Tina Martin, Ballet

Tina Martin began her professional career as an apprentice with the Richmond Ballet.  She quickly advanced, dancing soloist and principal roles with the company.  Ms. Martin was then hired by Ballet Florida as a principal dancer.  Ms. Martin was invited to perform at the Virginia School of the Arts Gala for five years.  In 2008, she was asked to perform in Caracas, Venezuela for the Viva Nebrada Gala.  The pinnacle of her career was her selection by Mauricio Wainrot to perform “The Sacrifice" from the Rite of Spring in Moscow at the prestigious Bolshoi Theatre for the Benois de la dance International competition.  Her teaching career began while at Ballet Florida when the school was under the direction of Ruth Petrinovic.   After years of teaching under Petrinovic and other prominent teachers, Ms. Martin was invited to teach in the Trainee Program with the company helping prepare young dancers for a career in the field prior to coming to Bak MSOA she spent six years at U.B. Kinsey Elementary School of the Arts redeveloping the dance program to incorporate a strong base of classical ballet, modern and jazz dance.  Ms. Martin is also a co-sponsor for The National Junior Honor Society for Dance Arts. 

Hollond Schiller, Modern, Jazz, Tap

Hollond Schiller is a native of Palm Beach Gardens and a BFA graduate of The New World School of the Arts in Miami.  She danced professionally with American Dance Theater of Miami and The Freddick Bratcher Contemporary Dance Theatre.  In New York, she continued to train at Dance Space Steps, and Broadway Dance Center while performing at various theaters with local modern dance choreographers.  She has taught tap, jazz, and modern at the Palm Beach Ballet Center, The Weiss School, Interact Theater Camp, and Ballet Florida.  She currently teaches tap at CharMar School of Dance.  Ms. Schiller is thrilled to be teaching modern, jazz, and tap at Bak MSOA.  Her classes incorporate technique, self-expression, improvisation, body alignment, anatomy, and self-care.  Ms. Schiller believes that while strong technique is vital, self-expression is the key to unlocking a dancer’s heart, which then enables a performer to communicate his or her ideas and emotions with an audience.  She shares her passion and love for dance with her students and hopes they always remember dance is fun!  She is the sponsor of Bak’s chapter of the National Honor Society for the Arts.