About Our Studio
Our School
Keystone Ballet Academy was established in 2017 by Emily Finer and is located in Northeast Pennsylvania, conveniently accessible off I-81 in the Greater Hazleton Area. It provides premier classical ballet lessons for students of all ages and skill levels. Students ages 4 - adult, beginner to advanced. We teach recreational, competition or pre-professional students ballet in a focused, positive, and nurturing environment. Individual correction enhance the learning experience.
Students can also take pointe, tap, jazz, or Progressing Ballet Technique classes.
Meet the Teachers
Owner & Artistic Director
Emily Finer, Ballet Teacher
Beginner Levels - Advanced, and Pointe
Emily Finer became passionate about dance at the age of seven, attending a small dance studio in Brooklyn, New York. At age ten, she started serious ballet training in Russian Vaganova technique with Carol Purcell and later on became a student of Vera Nemchinova. She attended American Ballet Theatre school from 1974 – 1980, studying at first in the children’s division with Nanci Clements and continuing into advanced classes with Valentina Pereyaslavec, Michael Maule, Patricia Wilde, and Jurgen Schneider. Classes included daily technique, pointe, partnering, variations, and character dance. She graduated in 1980 as a dance major from the New York City High School for Performing Arts which is the school the movie Fame was based on.
As a native of New York City, she was afforded the opportunity to study at many private studios with world famous teachers, such as Finis Jhung, David Howard, and Melissa Hayden. Her most inspiring teacher was Wilhelm Burmann, whose analytical and detailed way of teaching influenced her desire to teach.
Studying Labanotation (a system for recording and analyzing human movement) at the Dance Notation Bureau as well as Anatomy and Physiology allows her to have a great understanding of body mechanics. Proper alignment is a priority in her teaching both to prevent injuries and to develop good technique.
Musicality and the artistry of ballet are important qualities emphasized in all her classes to help each individual student develop their own special way of expressing themselves through dance.
An interest in biology led her to obtain a B.S in Medical Laboratory Science obtained from Hunter College in 1992. She specialized in Microbiology and worked as a hospital laboratory microbiologist New York before moving to Hazleton in 2001.
She has been teaching Vaganova-based classical ballet technique in the Greater Hazleton Area utilizing a well-developed syllabus which was inspired by a 2015 summer teacher training session she attended at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet school in Carlisle, PA.
Proud to bring an authentic ballet training experience to the Greater Hazleton Area, she strives to inspire a lifelong love and appreciation for the art of ballet to her students.
Brittany Lopo
Kinder-Barre, Pre-Ballet
Jazz Tap, and Theater Jazz
Progressing Ballet Technique Instructor
Brittany Lopo is a native of Hazleton. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and works as a sales support coordinator. Her love of dance started at age 5 at Joan Sacco Dance Studio studying all forms of dance with Richard Todd and Debbie Calucci. She has been teaching at KBA since it opened in 2017.
Following the established syllabus in early ballet education under Emily Finer she has been teaching and reinforcing the foundations and basics of ballet to children ages 3 - 8 preparing them for beginning Level A1 ballet.
Young students are taught to follow directions, focus, and develop a love for dance with her kind and nurturing character. She creates an atmosphere that is fun but has expectations.
With her great love and passion for tap dancing and jazz, we offer students other dance genres along with their ballet classes.
In 2021 she became certified to teach Progressing Ballet Technique, a body conditioning class designed for dancers to strengthen and prevent injuries. This became a required class for pointe students adding a professional level of training in ballet and pointe technique.
Teaching has made her happy to share her lifelong love of dance.