Bloomfielder Battles Cancer, Adds Improv and Stand-Up Comedy To Her "Bucket List"

Whenever I see Andrea Stivali Madonia, I always say, “I knew you when.”

Truth be told, I formally met “Miss Andrea,” life long Bloomfielder and 22-year owner of Nutley’s Dance Techniques and Academy of the Performing Arts (156 & 156A Franklin AvenueNutley, (973) 667-4618, www.dtapa.com), back in 1994, when my daughter Stefanie began taking tap and ballet lessons at her studio. However, she and I first crossed paths back in 1980, when I co-hosted a telethon from the Bloomfield Public Library’s Little Theater. Then just 10 years of age, Andrea performed for the live audience as a member of T&C Dance Studio.

The 1988 Bloomfield High School graduate still takes classes, but in heart heat she’s always been a teacher.“I’m a people person,” she says during a break at her studio. “I can’t make everybody happy, but I try to. This business is still family, really. If it’s not happy here, I try to make it a better situation.”

And Andrea Stivali Madonia, 41, lived those last eight words personally the past year. After a successful knee surgery, a prescribed medication made her ill and, when doctors checked to determine what was causing her illness, discovered on November 16, 2010 a tumor in her esophagus. “I faced it,” she says. “It was a bad cancer.” She ignored the statistics regarding odds and survival, headed to Pittsburgh with her husband, Kevin, and had it removed during an eight hour laparoscopic surgery. The cancer now in remission, she keeps a close watch on her health, and has vowed to still enjoy an active lifestyle. “The cancer has given me more reason to live more.”

Her story starts three weeks after her birth in Jersey City, New Jersey, when she was adopted via Christian Charities Adoption in Newark. Her parents, Constance and Thomas Stivali, never made her adoption a secret. “I was raised to know. My parents were very supportive about it; there were no surprises.”

She attended Bloomfield High School, splitting time between BHS and the High School of the Performing Arts in Montclair in both her junior and senior years.

Following graduation, it came time for employment. “I had an interview at the dancing school – right here!” she recalls excitedly. “During the interview, the owner hired me, and told me she was thinking about selling. Well, I went home and I told my Dad, ‘I got the job, and I’m buying the business!’ He told me to at least keep the job for two weeks, and then we’d see about buying the business.” She indeed kept the job and, a year later, purchased the business. “I couldn’t work for someone else. I have too many ideas, and I like to move forward.” Did she consider failing at such a young age? She turns serious. “Failure never crossed my mind.” She also fondly recalls her dad -- whose passing ten years ago from cancer ten years ago devastated her -- and the day they signed the papers to take over Dance Techniques. “I never consider failure. When we were buying the business, and my dad was signing the papers, I told him ‘l’ll never let you down.’ When I make a decision, I know now my Dad will still be involved. It keeps him alive.”

Beyond her career, Andrea Stivali Madonia has a lot of interests and loves. One is Corvettes. “It was my goal car in high school. I can’t drive anything else. I’m keeping this (pointing to her metallic red Corvette Z06) forever.” Another is boating. She bought her first boat ten years ago, and now owns her third. “It’s a 28’ Regal.” She then laughs. “I was told that I couldn’t have a boat. Well, soon I’ll be getting a captain’s license from the Coast Guard.”

On the top of her "love list"? Her husband, Kevin, and his daughter, 13-year-old Dana. “She’s amazing,” Andrea says with a smile. “I love it that I get to be a part-time mom.”

Due to her knee surgery and illness, Andréa Stivali Madonia has cut back on her dancing, which has left her time to pursue two new interests: Improv acting and stand-up comedy. “I make my stand-up debut in September,” she says with a laugh. “It makes me feel alive. I need to feel like I’m doing something.”

“I do all that’s on my bucket list,” she says, and lists a trip to Fiji as the one thing she regrets not yet doing. “I always tell my dancing students here, ‘Don’t let anyone tell you can’t try something.”