Education & Classes in Weehawken

A graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute, Naturally-Tasty's chef Gilda Mulero specializes in natural and organic foods. Her menus highlight seasonal dishes, which she sometimes tailors to fit diabetic and ayurvedic cooking practices. Rather than confine her talents to a restaurant, she travels to customers’ homes as a personal chef, crafting meals, teaching cooking lessons, and house-training new stoves. At each visit, her seasonal menus highlight international dishes as diverse as pecan-crusted chicken, potato-carrot pancakes, red snapper with corn-mango salsa, Argentine vegetable stew, and apricot-maple scones.

Gilda develops custom lesson plans, menus, and schedules based on a customer-submitted questionnaire, which details clients’ food likes, dislikes, and dietary needs. Her regular classes may focus on easy meals, basic kitchen skills, or cooking for children or newlyweds, and past classes have taught students how to make homemade organic baby food, reinvent their pantry contents, and perfect their knife techniques. All classes include copies of recipes from the lesson, and some involve educational tours to local markets that highlight which goods to choose and which food samplers are the easiest to bribe. When she isn’t cooking, Gilda also teaches private all-levels yoga lessons, in which she teaches the deep, fluid poses and stretches of the Vinyasa style in a calming, nurturing environment.

Professional dancer Francis Teri knows how to celebrate. He’s danced at Ziegfeld Theater for the party in honor of Dirty Dancing's 20th anniversary and at the 30th anniversary shindig for the iconic Saturday Night Fever. At Dance Fever Studios, he and a team of experienced dance instructors party down everyday, helping students hone specific footwork skills or nail the basics in beginner and intermediate classes. Attendees learn good timing and partner connection in beginner salsa, or how to pull off the waltz and foxtrot in ballroom dancing. During beginner and intermediate hustle classes, students learn how to do the basic dance step without disturbing the goldfish in their shoes.

Retired trader David Green brings more than 25 years of Wall Street floor experience to his teaching at Equity Trading Capital. David and his team of full-time trader instructors coincide in-class sessions with the ringing of the New York Stock Exchange bell as they expound upon everything from stock-market lingo to optimal trading times, enlightening first-time traders and keeping experienced stock slingers up to date. Onsite lessons may include live simulated trading platforms where students can make trades, while online materials include a live chatroom for gleaning on the spot tips and advice.

Drawing on big- and small-screen success, such as appearances in Tom Selleck's Her Alibi and on Late Show with David Letterman, as well as more than 25 national commercials, acting guru Mark Stolzenberg transforms amateurs into screen-savvy performers at The Acting School for Film and Television. Thespians hone their acting chops through monologues, improvisations, and cold readings in Mark's classes, preparing for time spent on the stage or the big screen. Essentials classes introduce neophyte film actors to the intricacies of playing to the camera, whereas advanced pupils refine their techniques by co-starring in a two-person short film directed by Stolzenberg, learning to handle more difficult scene work and larger crowds of crazed fans. For more targeted practice, Mark hosts one-on-one, on-camera coaching sessions to prep audition material or monologues for upcoming performances.

Mumbling. Speaking too fast. Nervousness. There are countless issues that can derail a public speaker. That's where Nattacia Satie and The Vocal Gym for Public Speaking come in. A musician, actress, yogi, and all-around renaissance woman, Ms. Satie uses her diverse expertise—which includes training at the University of Cambridge—to build rigorous workouts for the voice. During private sessions, she takes speakers through a four-step process that teaches proper breathing technique, incorporates core fitness exercises, and fine-tunes articulation. Ms. Satie's custom programs help her clients gain confidence and correct their specific issues by training their vocal cords to keep a steady pitch, slow down, or roll over.