Arlene Halley Newhouse

 

Founder & Co-Director NIA,

Ballet, Modern, Yoga, Stretch

 

 

Arlene had  been at the helm of Motiance since 2008 following the Founding Director Cees van Dolderen when she decided to join forces with Ms. Clara Reyes and co-founded the National  Institute of Arts Foundation better known as NIA in 2013. 

 

Having her roots in St. Maarten she joined her family on the island in 1986 and established her school in 1987 the “Regina Ballet” then housed at the Sr. Regina Primary School in Simpson Bay. Arlene started her dance education in Aruba with Lucy Jurgens, Astrid Salazar and Diana Antoinette. 

 

While pursuing her University degree in Venezuela she owned her own dance school at the young age of 20 years. Her dream to register the school as an accredited dance school motivated her to obtain her Dance Teacher Credential at the San Francisco Conservatory of Ballet and Theatre Arts in California, U.S.A. Arlene has toured Holland, Venezuela, Aruba, Australia and Northern California as a dancer, choreographer and has been a Caribbean Ambassador of Dance in San Francisco by organizing extensive dance tours to the Caribbean and has produced several Festivals in the city of San Francisco, California and a professional Nutcracker since 1992 in Northern California.

 

She obtained her B.A. in Public Administration to support her with her director duties in managing the non-profit organization Pacific Dance Theatre, Inc. in San Francisco. She also ventured into her own dance studio outside of San Francisco, Academy of Arts and Ballet, in Antioch before her return to St. Maarten in 2005. She left a legacy of director, teacher, tour director and choreographer in the Bay Area.  Before she left San Francisco she got her Bikram Yoga Teacher Certificate and Reiki Master

 

Certification.Since her arrival back in St. Maarten in 2005 she has held the position of the Dance Department of the Performing Arts Program at the St. Dominic High School.  In 2012 Arlene established a dance, gymnastics, musical theatre and yoga in-school program for the Catholic primary schools on the island and several after school dance programs. Inter island dance exchange education has been high on her list, reaching out to Saba, St. Eustatius, Anguilla and Curacao.

 

Arlene continues to form bridges between the different continents and artists by traveling and hosting artists on the island. Most recently, since 2012 she is on the staff of the Charlotte Brookson Academy of the Performance Arts.  The summer of 2013 took her to Seattle, Washington in the USA to obtain her certification in Brain compatible dance methods.

 

In 2014 she received the Royal decoration of Member in the Order of Orange Nassau.