Meet our teachers

Lily adams

owner, artistic director

Lily Adams, of Bellevue, Ohio, is an accomplished graduate of the Fremont Ballet School, who returned to take over the school from her beloved dance instructor Ernst Hillenbrand in 2019. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance with Business at the University of Akron. At UA, she studied under many exceptional instructors such as Christina Foisie, Kara Stewart, Alec Lytton, and Robin Prichard. She had the opportunity to work closely with professionals of dance companies such as the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, Les Ballet Jazz De Montreal, Abraham in Motion, Ohio Contemporary Ballet, and Groundworks Dance Theatre. During her time at UA, she performed as a member of the University of Akron Dance Company, among other dance concerts. She was also involved at UA as a choreographer for multiple dance showcases.

Miss Lily, as the students call her, has years of teaching experience at the Fremont Ballet School where she founded and directed a new summer program beginning in 2016. She also has experience teaching dance in K-12 education through her studies at UA, and taught at many different schools of dance around Cleveland, Akron, and Canton, Ohio. Lily also has experience choreographing musicals; she has choreographed Old Fort High School’s musicals since 2020.

At the Fremont Ballet School, Miss Lily teaches Ballet (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Adult), Jazz, Tap, and Contemporary. As the Artistic Director of the school, Lily “writes”, choreographs, costumes, and brings to life each performance at FBS with the help of Assistant Director Madame Pietrykowski. Lily is also currently the Adjunct Instructor of Dance at Heidelberg University.

When she’s not teaching dance or managing the ballet school, Lily enjoys reading, cooking, baking, and spending time with her husband Nick and 3 pets, Lenny, Tuxedo, and Kirby.

Lily feels so blessed to be able to continue fostering the love of dance to students in the same place she first fell in love with dance when she was 3 years old.

ELizabeth pietrykowski

assistant director

Elizabeth, or “Madame”, as her students lovingly refer to her, has taught classical ballet at the Fremont Ballet School since 1996. She studied ballet under the direction of Marie Vogt with the Toledo Ballet. Madame is a Registered Nurse and is a retired high school teacher. She has 4 wonderful children and 2 grandsons.

Madame Pietrykowski teaches pre-ballet and beginner ballet students. She also plays a large role in creating our spring production each year. Madame’s creative ideas and passion for dance plays a very important role in the life and energy of the Fremont Ballet School! We are so lucky to have had her expert instruction and creative abilities at the ballet school for almost 30 years.

Deb Lohr

Acrobatics Instructor

Deb Lohr is a Fremont, Ohio native. She has been married for 30 years, a mother of eight children, and grandmother of two. She is a homeschool mom and spends much of her time helping in her family business. She loves the great outdoors, and some of her hobbies include hiking, biking, running, and kayaking.

She has been teaching acrobatics at the Fremont Ballet School since 2020. She absolutely loves working with each one of her dancers, and is so happy that we have expanded our classes at the ballet school to fit 3 different levels of acro dancers to help accommodate all ages and abilities. “It is an honor to teach at the Fremont Ballet School”, Deb says, and we are honored to have her as a teacher!