ADULT CLASS TEACHING ARTISTS
WINTER/SPRING 2026

Francesca Baron
Open Modern & Int/Adv Contemporary
Francesca Baron (MFA. RYT) is an educator, somatic practitioner, choreographer, performer, and overall movement junkie. She uses dance as a catalyst to imbue the everyday with sensitivity, body intelligence, creative-action, dialogue, and community. Enchanted about dance as a sustainable physical practice, she finds joy being in conversation with collaborators and teaching in communities. Francesca’s been commissioned by Kenyon College, Keene State College, Lindenwood University, College of Dupage, New Dances 2019 hosted by Danceworks Chicago + Thodos Dance Chicago, Esoteric Dance Project and presents choreography independently across the Midwest and New England in a variety of settings including dance festivals, self-produced shows, film festivals, art galleries, theater productions, weddings, dance companies, studios, and competition stages. As an educator she’s lectured at Mt. Holyoke College, Smith College, and Keene State College. Learn more at: francescabaron.com
Ashirah Devi Dalomba
Afro Fusion

​
Michael Figueroa
Int/Adv Contemporary
Michael Figueroa (he/him) is a performer, director of Ruckus Dance, and dance educator. His dances navigate rule-breaking, body memory, personal anecdotes, audience participation, and improvised situations. His work has been commissioned by SPACE Gallery (ME), Dance Now Boston, Outside the Box Festival, Mobius Artists Group (MA), and The Dance Complex. He has collaborated with Jimena Bermejo, Sonia Santvoord, Alexander Davis, and Sarah Mae Gibbons, and performed in works by Mark Dendy, Prometheus Dance, Margot Gelber & Dancers, Alternative Dance Nation, Public Displays of Motion, and Laila Franklin. Most recently, Michael performed ways of rendering a man blind at the 2024 Asheville Fringe Festival. As an inaugural teacher with Midday Movement Series in 2015, Michael received focused support and mentorship from Marissa Molinar, which continues to shape his teaching practice today. He has taught at Gibney Studios, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, NACHmo Boston, Moving Target (Boston & Portland), and Boston Arts Academy. Originally from Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Michael trained at Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts under Jan Goetz, performing works by Neta Pulvermacher, Troy Powell, and Margo Sappington. He attended summer intensives at Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary, American Dance Festival, and Bates Dance Festival. Michael earned his BFA in Dance from The Boston Conservatory.
Olana Flynn
Open Modern 
Olana Flynn is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, curator and producer based in Holyoke, MA. She holds an MFA in Experimental Choreography from University of California, Riverside and a BA from Hampshire College. She is a founding member and co-director of LOCULUS a dance and performance collective that creates performance in non-traditional spaces, publishes The Loculus Journal, and directs The Loculus Studio in Holyoke. She has had the privilege of studying and performing with artists such as Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Luis Lara Malvacias, Paul Matteson, Jennifer Nugent, taisha paggett, Joel Smith, and Ni’Ja Whitson. Her choreography has been performed in New York, Philadelphia, Southern California, and throughout New England. Her photography has been featured in a number of zines and journals and has been exhibited at VSOP Projects in Greenport, NY. Olana has held faculty positions in the Dance Programs at Sarah Lawrence College and Springfield College, was a graduate teaching assistant at the University of California Riverside, and has been a guest artist at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts High School. She serves as Communicatiosn Coordinator for MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists program, works as a freelance light designer and producer throughout Western Mass, and collaborates with Deborah Goffe as the Creative Producer for Liturgy|Order|Bridge. She currently teaches at Loculus Studios, The School for Contemporary Dance & Thought, and is a lecturer in the dance program at Keene State College.
​Ellie Goudie-Averill
Hawley St Ballet
​Originally from the Midwest, Ellie Goudie-Averill is a dance artist and educator who works with dancers of all ages on technique and performance. She currently teaches ballet and contemporary at Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Amherst Colleges and at School for Contemporary Dance and Thought in Northampton, MA.  Since graduating with her MFA in Dance Performance from the University of Iowa, she has also served as a professor at Temple University, Bucknell University, the University of Kansas, Franklin & Marshall College, Keene State College, and Connecticut College. In the past, she has danced professionally for Susan Rethorst, Lucinda Childs, Bronwen MacArthur, Group Motion, and Sara Shelton Mann. Ellie is currently working on projects with Beau Hancock and Barbie Diewald and is a regular collaborator and dancer with Tori Lawrence + Co. in dance films and site-specific works.
Dimitri Kalaitzidis
​Int/Adv Contemporary
​Dimitri Kalaitzidis is a movement artist from Massachusetts. He holds an MFA in choreography and performance from Smith College and a BFA in contemporary dance from New York University. Dimitri was a member of The Bodhi Project company at SEAD Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance where he worked with Sita Ostheimer, Mala Kline, Rosalba Torres, Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich, and Emanuel Gat. In 2017, Dimitri co-founded the project Los Little Guys with Mexican artist Erik Elizondo. Through this project he has created original work, collaborated with international movement and sound artists, and developed a deep interest in improvisation as a means of creation, performance, and pedagogy. He has performed, taught, and created throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia.
Hannah Littman
​Int/Adv Contemporary
Hannah Littman (they/them) is a movement artist originally from Los Angeles, currently working in Western Massachusetts and New York City. They have performed choreography by Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones, Angie Hauser, Andrew Schneider, Adam Weinert, Gabby Carmichael, and Michael Figueroa. Hannah’s choreographic work has been featured at Movement Research, Green Space, and BAAD!. Additionally, they have presented their scholarly research on alternative approaches to historical dance restagings at conferences held by the Dance Studies Association and the American College Dance Association. Beyond their independent work, Hannah is a co-founder and the lead producer of the 46 Minutes Collective—a performance collective focused on developing time-based experimental new work and offering programming to emerging artists—through which they have developed work in-residence at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park and presented at IndyFringe Theater Festival, The Tank, and Brick Aux. Hannah holds a BA in Film and English from Vassar College and an MFA in Choreography & Performance from Smith College, where they are currently a Lecturer in Dance
Michelle Marroquin
Hawley St Ballet & Open Modern
Michelle Marroquin is a dancer, choreographer and educator who collaborates with other artists to bring performance art to unusual spaces and new audiences. She is also a Gyrotonic/Gyrokinesis instructor, a Thai Yoga Bodyworker, and a Physical Therapist Assistant at Synergy Northampton. She is currently teaching Contemporary Ballet through SCDT/Hawley Street Ballet. More at www.MichelleMarroquin.com
Kate Martel 
Int/Adv Contemporary & Hawley St Ballet
Kate is a dance artist, educator, and Alexander Technique teacher based in Western Massachusetts. She enjoys teaching people of all ages, and currently works as the Youth Program Coordinator at School for Contemporary Dance and Thought (MA). Kate was a collaborating artist with Laura Peterson Choreography for ten years, and has also performed in work by Barbie Diewald, Nora Stephens, Luis Lara Malvacias, Rebecca Brooks, Juliette Mapp, and others. Her choreography has been presented by Loculus, Junction Dance Festival (VT/NH), the Williston Northampton School, SCDT (WIP), Women in Motion, Movement Research at Judson Church, Center for Performance Research and Purdue University. She was Program Coordinator of Young Artists at Dance Italia 2022-2023. She has been on faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts/Rutgers University, Adelphi University and Westfield State University. Kate received a BA from Goucher College in Dance and Education (2002) and an MFA in Performing Arts from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (2014), and is an AmSAT Board Certified Alexander Technique Teacher (Balance Arts Center, 2017).  She teaches the Alexander Technique privately in both group and private settings. She is currently adjunct faculty at Amherst, Smith, and Keene Colleges.  www.katemartel.com
Madison Palffy
Int/Adv Contemporary 
Madison Palffy is a performing artist, dance-maker, and movement educator based in western Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Dance and Choreography with an emphasis in Somatics and Improvisation from University of Colorado, Boulder. Her work is driven by a sense of experimentation and artistic cross-pollination and has taken the form of films, installations, and evening length performances. Her work has been shown at Studio 303(Montreal), The Iron Factory (Philadelphia), Ponderosa (Germany), The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought (Northampton, MA), GreenSpace (NYC), AS220 (Providence, RI), The Dairy Arts Center (Boulder, CO), and throughout New England.
As a collaborating artist, she has had the pleasure of performing in work by Anya Cloud, Wendy Woodson, Lailye Weidman, Katie Martin, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Kathleen Hermesdorf, and Paul Matteson (among others). Other collaborations include movement direction for Sleater Kinney’s music video “High in the Grass” and Petite Garcon’s east and west coast touring stage show.
She currently teaches dance and Pilates at The School for Contemporary Dance & Thought, Berkshire Pulse, Loculus Studios, Ascendance, and Smith College.
​Chelsea Perry
Hawley St Ballet
Chelsea lives in Western Massachusetts and holds committed practices in poetry and dance. They are a graduate of Hampshire College. She received professional ballet training from Boston Ballet. Chelsea’s current dance practices are grounded in somatic experience, which meet their extensive ballet training in tensions that inspire their current research . Chelsea works at a Montessori school, where they will be taking on a new role this upcoming school year: guiding poetry and creative movement for elementary-aged students, as well as facilitating an after school environment. Chelsea has a loving affinity for plants, and is grateful to be an animal.
Jen Polins
Hawley St Ballet & Open Modern & Pilates
Jen Polins specializes in combining dance techniques and composition with rigorous improvisational practices, has been bridging somatics, performance practices, and contemporary dance techniques for over 25 years. Jen is certified in Pilates, Gyrotonic, Gyrokinesis, Yoga, and Massage and studied Body Mind Centering for over 10 years. Jen's ongoing somatic studies deeply affect her curation, teaching and making. She has danced professionally in America and Europe, starting with the Joffrey Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet and then the Zurich Operahouse Ballet companies before migrating to a professional career in contemporary performance art. She has been deeply influenced by many mentors, most notably- Thomas DeFrantz, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Nancy Stark Smith, Steve Paxton, and Lisa Nelson. She has collaborated most recently with late and great Kathleen Hermesdorf and Nancy Stark Smith, Lisa Nelson, Jen Nugent, Wendy Woodson, Maurice Fraga, Joy Davis, Stephanie Maher, Peter Schmitz, Sarah Shelton Mann, Paul Matteson and James Morrow. ​
Molly Rose-Williams
Open Modern
Molly Rose-Williams is a performer, writer, audio producer, and educator. Their work melds dance, physical theater, and circus, and draws heavily on a childhood spent playing sports and practicing Chinese acrobatics. They have presented on stages across the US, and in Canada, Belgium, and Mexico. When they’re not dancing, they work as a creative producer for The Nocturnists podcast, teach cooking and science, and write about dance.

​