Winter/Spring 2022 Teacher Bios

K Adler is a movement and performance artist whose work ranges from highly theatrical to intimately pedestrian using the body as a vessel for poetry. They self-produce work and engage with a wide range of interdisciplinary arts with the support of Eggtooth Productions and SCD&T. With a BFA in Modern Dance, their practice is guided by a variety of techniques from classical ballet to butoh. Their work in the field of food and fermentation informs their use of duration and time with improvisation as the heart of their artistry; a constant conversation with presence.

Photo by Matthew Cavanaugh

Meredith Bove is a choreographer and writer based in Northampton, Massachusetts. She approaches movement as a practice for experiencing the body as unfixed, mutable, and process-oriented. Her work has been seen at various venues and festivals across the US and in Berlin, Germany. She has performed in the work of Jérôme Bel, Luis Lara Malvacías, Sharon Mansur, Stephanie Miracle, and Jillian Peña, among others, and collaborated with choreographers Andrea Jenni and Jessie Laurita Spanglet, conceptual artist Luke Munn, and sound artist Layne Garrett. In 2018, she was artist-in-residence at A.P.E Ltd Gallery with Lailye Weidman, researching dramaturgical practices and creative companionship. Meredith has taught at Hollins University, Montgomery College, Springfield College, The Dance Exchange, The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought, and the Collective (Baltimore). Her writing on performance has appeared on ThINKingDANCE and Culturebot, and most recently on and for The Making Room (2018), a collaboration between choreographers Bebe Miller and Susan Rethorst. She holds a BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and an MFA from Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. meredithbove.wordpress.com

Photo by Michelle Falcón, 2018.

Ellie Goudie-Averill is a dance artist and educator who works with dancers of all ages on technique and performance. Since graduating with her MFA in Dance Performance from the University of Iowa, she has served as a professor at Temple University, Bucknell University, the University of Kansas and Franklin & Marshall College. In the past, she has danced professionally for Susan Rethorst, Lucinda Childs, Bronwen MacArthur, and Group Motion Multimedia Dance Theater. Ellie is a regular collaborator and dancer with Tori Lawrence + Co. in dance films and site-specific works and has been with the company for nine years. She currently teaches Ballet at Connecticut College and at School for Contemporary Dance and Thought/Hawley Street Ballet in Northampton, MA. Ellie's dance reviews and other writings have appeared online at thINKingDANCE and BAC Stories. ​

K.J. Holmes, dance artist/performer/teacher has been exploring improvisation as process and performance since 1981, traveling nationally and internationally teaching, creating, directing.  K.J. is grateful for her teachers and her collaborations with many, including - Dancers: Ruth E. Grauert, Simone Forti, Steve Paxton, Lisa Nelson, Karen Nelson ; Poet: Julie Carr; Musicians : Roy Campbell, Jr., Baikida Carrol, Jeremy Carlstedt, Juan Ignacio Ferreras; Yogini : Sondra Loring; Acting: Terry Knickerbocker; Somatics : Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen; Ayurveda : Dr. Naina Marbelli, Frank Jude Boccio; Voice : Samita Sinha, Richard Armstrong.   K.J. currently teaches at NYU/Experimental Theater Wing, Movement Research, the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought, and her own private classes in Yoga, Somatics and Ayurveda on Zoom.  Recent projects include performing in the film Redoubt and the performance installation Catasterism in 3 Movements of artist Matthew Barney; choreographing and directing Somatopia on the Polish dance theater group Living Space Theater, and continuing to develop her solo + immersion 900 Bees are Humming.  www.kjholmes.info.

Karinne Keithley Syers is a writer and teacher whose work spans plays, songs, sound, dance, animation, video, bookmaking, essay, and points in between. She is a current resident playwright of New Dramatists. Her museum/chamber opera Montgomery Park, or Opulence won a 2011 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for Outstanding Production; other work has been seen or heard at The Chocolate Factory Theater, McSweeney’s Quarterly, WFMU, Incubator Arts Project, the Australian Broadcast Network's Soundproof, Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church, Dixon Place, Galapagos Art Space, and Surf Reality House of Urban Savages. She has collaborated with young artists at The Wooden Floor (Santa Ana, CA), Hartsbrook School, and now SCDT. As a performer, choreographer, video designer and librettist she has collaborated with Big Dance Theater, David Neumann, Sibyl Kempson, Young Jean Lee, Sara Smith, Chris Yon, Theater of a Two-Headed Calf, and many others. She teaches independently through the Pelagic School and has taught playwriting and performance at Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, the New School, NYU, Hollins University, Brooklyn College, among other institutions. She was the founding editor of 53rd State Press, cofounder of the dance palace Ur, and co-host of the Acoustic Theater Hour on WFMU. MFA in playwriting, Brooklyn College, PhD in English, CUNY Graduate Center.

​Kate Martel is a dance artist and Alexander Technique teacher based in Western Massachusetts. She enjoyed fifteen years dancing in NYC with choreographers Laura Peterson, Nora Stephens, Rebecca Brooks, Luis Lara Malvacias and Sarah White Ayon, among others. During this time she trained in the Alexander Technique with master teacher Ann Rodiger, graduating from the Balance Arts Center in 2017. Her choreography has been presented by SCDT (WIP), Women in Motion, Movement Research at Judson Church, Center for Performance Research and Purdue University. She has been on faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Adelphi University and Western Connecticut State University. In addition, she has earned a BA from Goucher College in Dance and Education (2002) and an MFA in Performing Arts from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (2014). Kate has been a collaborator with Barbie Diewald Choreography since 2017 and is currently on faculty at Westfield State University. ​

Jennifer Polins is a curator, mobilizer, movement practitioner and performance maker, bridging somatics -performance practices- and contemporary dance techniques for over 25 years. Jen is the founding director of The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought,and the director of Hatchery at SCDT. She holds an MFA in dance from Hollins University/The American Dance Festival and is a 2014 MCC choreographic fellow. Jen is also an assistant programmer for A.P.E.@Hawley. 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.

Angelica Polk is a performer, choreographer, and dance educator from Western Massachusetts. Angelica holds a B.A. in Dance and Arts in the Community from Springfield College. Angelica was honored to have been both a featured dancer and on the cover of the 2016 New England Regional (ACDA) Dance Conference hosted at Springfield College. She has also  had the opportunity to study abroad part of her last year in college and travelled to Italy for dance and visited Rome and Venice. She also has been developing her craft for the past 24 years and is skilled in many dance forms and techniques including Contemporary, Hip-hop, Jazz and others. She has artistically challenged and enriched the lives of the many young people and taught many classes in various educational settings and communities. Angelica was grateful to have been the Hip-Hop teacher and Hip-Hop team director at On Your Toes Dance Theatre and Company in Acton, Mass. She is so proud to call The Dance Studio in Wilbraham, Massachusetts her studio home and dance family where she has been the Hip-hop director and one of the team teachers and choreographers for 5 years now. Angelica has also choreographed works for Real Live Theatre's two year production of 'She Kills Monsters' and performed work for Tzmot Azstro's production 'Universal  Womb.' Angelica is humbly elated to have experienced being a Dance Educator for 3 years at a social justice charter school. She is the founder and director of Ambassadors of Spirit and Performance Team where social justice, diversity, expression, and gaining access to opportunities is essential to who we are and in our creative process. Angelica is currently seeking a masters degree and licensure in the mental health counseling field!

 JULES SKLOOT ​ is a dancer, choreographer, and educator raised in Wisconsin and now working and living in Cummington, MA/Nipmuc, Pocumtuc, and Abenaki homeland. Jules has performed and collaborated with Circus Amok, Tatyana Tenenbaum, devynn emory, Hadar Ahuvia, Emily Popp, and The Ballez. Jules has also performed with Emily Johnson/Catalyst, 600 Highwaymen, Kim Brandt, navild Acosta, Sara Rudner, Peggy Gould, Margot Bassett Silver, and Laurie Berg and Bessie McDonough-Thayer. Jules’ own performance works are embodied research into dreamspaces, human relationships, and projection and have been presented in NY at Dixon Place, BAX, the University Settlement, BkSD, through AUNTS chain curations. Jules teaches dance classes and workshops to people of all ages, health classes to 4th and 5th graders, and is committed to joy and collective liberation in all these endeavors.