Celeste, Renee

Miss Renee comes from a very diverse background that includes being a director, choreographer, teacher, performer, writer, and mom! Renee has been teaching for over 18 years and has been the Artistic Director and owner of Front & Center for Performing Arts in Springfield, NJ for the past 16 years.  Her studio as well as her family were featured twice in DanceLife Magazine. She teaches many disciplines of dance, acting, and voice as well as directs and choreographs F&C’s many productions. Renee’s students have been seen on Broadway, in National Tours, at Paper Mill Playhouse. As a director and choreographer, her credits include productions of Into the Woods, The Wiz, Children of Eden, Shrek, 13, Thoroughly Modern Millie, RENT, Beauty and the Beast, Working, Once on This Island, Godspell, CATS, Seussical, The Pajama Game, and Annie. 

Renee began her ballet training at the Rochester City Ballet in Rochester, NY. She began training in voice and acting at age 10. After graduating from the Rochester School of the Arts, she attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU she earned a BFA in drama with a minor in Dance Education. She is a long-time member of the Actor’s Equity Association. She has presented at many teacher-training programs including Leap ’N Learn, The DanceLife Retreat Center, and Rhee Gold’s DanceLife Convention since 2015.  A specialist in teaching Musical Theatre for young children, Renee is the author of Leap ‘N Learn for Musical Theatre a young children’s curriculum which is taught at studios and colleges worldwide.

In her earlier life, she was seen on Broadway in The Wizard of Oz, as Rumpleteazer in the National Tour of CATS and at numerous regional theatres including Paper Mill Playhouse, Walnut Street Theatre, and numerous others professional theatres across the country. Renee has a true passion for sharing her love of musical theatre with children of all ages.  She lives in a house full of triple threats including her daughter Celeste, sons Lucas and Thomas, and her talented wife, Julie Lira!