Faculty
Ingrid Alvarez
Ingrid M. Alvarez is a teaching artist and multimedia marketing consultant based in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Ingrid comes from a creative, multi-cultural family and grew up on the West Coast. She has been a children's reading tutor and artistic babysitter since she her teen days, and currently visits Brooklyn hospitals as a teaching artist and art therapist. Ingrid expresses herself through visual art, dancing and social media. Her art work has been shown in galleries in New York and Seattle and is collected nationwide. ingridalvarez.com
Diana Bayne
Diana recently graduated from Brooklyn College with her MFA in design and technical theatre. She's been involved with the performing arts since elementary school. Her most recent credits include serving as the lighting designer on For Our Daughters, a musical aimed at bringing breast cancer awareness to Staten Island residents; and as the lighting designer for the Mark Lamb Dance Company.
Claire Burson
A fiddler and classically trained violinist, Clare Burson began playing guitar and writing songs while studying history at Brown University. After college and a year in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar, Burson moved to Boston, and eventually back to Tennessee, where she spent four years in Nashville as a singer-songwriter. She currently resides in Brooklyn, where for two years she was a lower school teacher at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights. Last fall and winter, Clare toured the country promoting her Rounder Records release, SILVER AND ASH, and is now excited to be offering beginning group guitar classes at Spoke The Hub.
Kwok Kay Choey
Kwok Kay Choey has been practicing Tai Chi for more than forty years. His teachers include Master Chang Siu Sian and The Venerated Yuen Quing, a Buddhist monk. He teaches the Yang style, and he includes basic Qi Gong and Acupressure exercises in his classes. He has given Tai Chi lecture demonstrations at AARP centers, and at various hospitals organized by the Board of Health.
Gabriella Dennery
“African drumming reaches my soul and helps to alleviate the stress of life. Gabriella Dennery teaches with kindness and a wonderful spirit!" — P. Cooper, Educator, NYC
Percussionist Gabriella Dennery believes in the healing joy of rhythm. Initially trained in classical violin, Gabriella grew up with the grooves of Haitian Kompas, Cuban son, West and South African dance music, and 70’s disco. Gabriella’s love for rhythm led to her to study djembe and djundjun drumming with percussionists Michael Wimberly, Vado Diamande, Michael Markus, and M’Bemba Bangoura. She has traveled to West Africa for intensive study with masters of Guinean national ballet companies. She has also studied shakere with Master Yayodele Nelson, and she is studying conga and Haitian traditional drumming with Master percussionist John Amira.
Gabriella co-founded and directed BaTuBa Percussions, an all women drum ensemble inspired by the rhythms of West Africa. Currently, she directs her new group, Grace Drums. This quartet performs original works using vocals, percussion, and story telling. Gabriella’s arrangements of traditional African and Haitian folkloric songs were recently presented at a fundraiser for the Haiti relief effort produced by Mary Bowen, with the support of Grace Church, Brooklyn.
In addition, Gabriella gladly shares her knowledge. She created and taught Women and Drums (an eight week intensive workshop). She also facilitates Inward Motion- Drumming in Spirit- using drumming as a tool for self-awareness and personal growth; African Drumming workshops for adults at any level of play; many family workshops for fundraisers and special events. She continues to teach a weekly African Percussion class for adults and teens at Spoke the Hub in Brooklyn, NY.
Mona Estime Amira
Gail Flanery
Gail Flanery has worked as an artist/instructor for the respected Studio In A School program for 19 years. She has taught Early Childhood through High School all over NYC. She has also provided Staff Development for classroom teachers and fellow instructors. Over the years, she has participated in many partnership grants and educational research projects. She loves teaching and collaborating with young artists. Gail has a BFA from The Cooper Union.
In her other life, Gail is a print maker who has had the great fortune to work with some of the most talented master printers in the city. She is a working artist who is a member of the 440 Gallery in Brooklyn. She shows around.
Gail has known and collaborated with Spoke the Hub for about 20, or more, years. Considering that, she still looks pretty good.
Stephanie Franck
Stephanie Franck is a graduate of Roger Williams University with a degree in Dance and Performance Studies. Upon graduating, Stephanie taught Ballet, Pointe, Modern, and Jazz in Newport, Rhode Island and danced for The Turning House Dance Company in Providence. Stephanie currently lives in Brooklyn and is a member of Rocha Dance Theater. She is thrilled to be a part of the staff at Spoke the Hub.
Erin Gottwald
Erin Gottwald has taught ballet and modern dance at Spoke the Hub since 2005. She holds a BA from Bates College and spent two terms at the London Contemporary Dance School in London, England. Her early training was at the Boston Ballet (for 11 years) and with modern dance choreographer, Holly Fairbank (for five years). Erin has taught children for 15 years - in conjunction with the Bates Dance Festival, Boston Ballet, Berkeley Ballet Theatre, the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts and Old First Nursery School in Park Slope. She performs professionally in NYC with Digby Dance, The Bang Group and Sokolow Theater Dance. Erin is the Co-Director of the Spoke the Hub Young Artists Program.
Eric Hoffman
Eric Hoffman is a teaching artist who was born and raised in Park Slope. He received a BA in English from the University of Rochester and a Professional Training Certificate from Dell Arte International's year long conservatory in physical theater, acrobatics, clown, melo-drama and mask performance. Currently, he is pursuing a Masters and Teaching Certificate in Educational Theater from the City College of New York. Eric has taught in schools and community centers for nearly a decade and developed ideas on how to teach the arts and integrate them with mainstream curriculum while touring with Missoula Children's Theater and while teaching with San Francisco's Performing Arts Workshop. Today, along with teaching, he continues to perform as a clown and actor and devises original works as a performer creator.
Lori Jorgensen
Lori Jorgensen holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Dance and Choreography from SUNY Brockport. She has toured North America, Europe, Africa and Asia with Maude Baum and Company, Kaleidoscope, and All Nations Dance Company. She has over 30 years experience teaching dance and fitness to children and adults, is the proud mother of 2 teenage boys and has been a Park Slope resident for 16 years.
Sheila Klein
Sheila Klein is a Brooklyn-based dancer, choreographer and teacher. Asumma cum-laude graduate of the University of Michigan, with aBachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance,Sheila has performed with White Void Productions, Ann Arbor DanceWorks, Janet Werther, AlexanDANCE, Artichoke Dance Company and AmyChavasse. Sheila is an emerging artist, and has shown work atWAXworks, Fertile Ground (Greenspace), Dance New Amsterdam,Triskelion Arts and through Movement Research. She is looking forwardto showing her first evening-length work at Greenspace in the TakeRoot Series in December 2011. Sheila is a registered yoga teacher(through Laughing Lotus College of Yoga) and enjoys teaching adultsand children throughout Brooklyn and NYC. She is thrilled to join thefaculty at Spoke the Hub!
Mark Lamb
Mark Lamb has been teaching students of all ages and abilities for over the last 2 decades. Mark operates under the philosophy that everyone is born a dancer and he feels it is has job as a teacher to reveal and foster what is already there. His methods combine strong technique, creative dance, and improvisation as a means to develop a well rounded dancer.
Mark has been teaching at Spoke the Hub for the past 4 years and also teaches throughout New York City, the Southeast USA, and he has also taught workshops in Japan and France. Mark is the Artististic Director of Mark Lamb Dance where his work has been lauded by the New York Times as "gently charming", "quietly celebratory" and "an expression of communal joy."
marklambdance.org
Jeremy Lintz
Elise Long
Elise Long is the Founder/Director of Spoke the Hub Dancing and Gowanus Arts. Born in Coalinga, CA and raised in SF Bay Area, Long attended Middlebury College in Vermont on scholarship where she graduated Phi Beta Cappa, Magna Cum Laude, with Highest Honors in Dance and Studio Art. She is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst and has done graduate work in Dance, Physiology, Anatomy and Kinesiology at Columbia Teachers College, NYU, LIU and Queens College. She has created over 100 original dance/theater works performed in the States, Canada and abroad indoors and out-of-doors since 1979, and has been teaching dance and related art forms to both children and adults for over 40 years.
Nancy Lunsford
Nancy Lunsford is a long time Park Slope resident and has coached artists with a wide range of skills and taught figure drawing workshops in her studio for 10 years. She has hosted a weekly sketch group with models off and on for 30 years. She has studied painting at the Art Student's League, anatomy at the New York Academy of Art, and sculpture with Paul Lucchesi at the Educational Alliance and in Lucca, Italy. She has an art history degree from NYU. Other fields of expertise include animation, portraiture, and Indonesian batik and puppetry. Ms. Lunsford has exhibited her work for many years and is in international collections. She is a member and co-founder of the 440 Gallery on Sixth Ave. in Park Slope.
Karen Munson
KAREN MUNSON currently teaches at Spoke the Hub and at private gyms throughout Manhattan. She has designed and taught fitness classes for over 20 years at Equinox and Eastern Athletic Clubs, as well as trained clients privately. She holds a BFA in Theatre from the University of Washington and multiple certifications through ACE, AFFA and REEBOK. While training and working in regional repertory theatre, she also trained in ballet with Ruthanna Boris, jazz with Phil Black, floor/barre at Alvin Ailey and gymnastics at Sutton Place Gym.
Dolores Natividad
Dolores Natividad is an Exercise Physiologist certified by Marymount College and ACSM. She was Chairperson and Vice President of The New York Personal Fitness trainer’s organization giving presentations to ACE certified trainers in the 1980’s. She has worked with James Taylor, training, touring and de-stressing.She has practiced Yoga since the mid 1980’s and is a certified Integral Hatha Yoga practitioner for Basic Hatha 1, Hatha 11, Extra Gentle, Chair Yoga Prenatal and PostPartum. As a member of the New York Teacher’s Yoga Association, she has given Yoga workshops at the Department of Labor, The Board of Education, Park Slope Food Co-op, and Senior Centers.
Dolores also studied extensively at the Original White Cloud Yoga studio in NYC where Julio Horvath originated his Gyrotonic System
Jessica Nicoll
Jessica Nicoll, a Sarah Lawrence College graduate, performs, choreographs, teaches,and writes and has worked since 1981 as an artist in public school residencies throughArtsConnection and other arts-in-education organizations. She has been associated withElise Long and Spoke the Hub Dancing since the early 1980s. Nicoll has performed withKei Takei, Phyllis Lamhut, Claire Porter, Spoke the Hub, and others. Her choreography,integrating text, motion, music, and visual art, has been produced by the DanspaceProject at St. Mark’s, the 92nd St. Y, The Kitchen, Performance Space 122, and ThePerformance Project@University Settlement and has been featured in theater productionsat the Metropolitan Playhouse and with the Chekhov Theatre Ensemble. A teacher ofmodern dance, improvisation, and choreography, Nicoll has guest lectured at SarahLawrence, Yale, Hunter, and other colleges, been on faculty at the 92nd St. Y HarknessDance Center since 1985, and leads professional development workshops and presentsat conferences nationally and internationally. Awards: 1999 OOBR (Off-Off-BroadwayReview) Award (Chekhov Theatre Ensemble’s King Lear); 2007 and 2008 BoulderFringe Festival Encore Awards (Nicoll+Oreck’s Hic+Nunc and They Might Be Napping);2004 Linda LeRoy Janklow Award and 2007 BAXten Award for teaching artistry.
Catey Ott
Catey Ott Thompson is an AFPA certified Pre/Post Natal Exercise Specialist, certified Kane School Pilates instructor, professional dancer with a MFA and BFA in modern dance from UWM, AFAA certified personal trainer, and a long time yoga practicioner. She has been teaching movement to students of all ages and levels for 23 years. Catey is the artistic director of Catey Ott Dance Collective www.cateyott.com
Sarah Pope
Sarah Pope, dancer, improviser and teacher, is originally from Southern California and holds a BFA in Ballet and Modern Dance from Texas Christian University. She is proud to have been singing, dancing and making believe at Spoke the Hub for the past 6 years, and looks forward to continuing with Park Slope's tiniest dancers into the next decade! As a performer, Sarah has been a member of Mark Lamb Dance since 2005, currently appearing in the company's monthly 'S7' Salon Series at Metro Baptist Church, and has worked with Sarah Council Dance Project since 2006. She also currently works with choreographer Daniela Hoff, as well as Catey Ott Dance Collective. In addition to her work at Spoke, Sarah teaches ballet to all ages and adult fitness at the Prospect Park YMCA and creative dance at Young Minds After School Program in Fort Greene.
Kaina Quenga
Kaina Quenga, a native of Hilo, Hawaiʻi has been dancing hula professionally for over 20 years in Hawaiʻi, Florida, New York and throughout the east coast. She performs widely as a freelance Polynesian dancer in the tri-state area at themed parties, community events, schools, and senior centers. Kaina trained under Hiloʻs famed kumu hula (hula teacher) Johnny Lum Ho of Halau O Ka Ua Kani Lehua and she also danced with Tihati Productions on her native Big Island.
In the community, Kaina has worked with the students at Concourse House Day Care in the Bronx since 2003, teaching Native Hawaiian mele (songs) and hula (dance) to the children there. She is a Polynesian dance instructor at Spoke The Hub Dancing in Park Slope, Brooklyn and also has free Hula and Ori Tahiti dance classes throughout NYC Parks during the Spring and Summer. Kaina is among the dance Teaching Artists with Brooklyn Arts Council's Folk Feet Folk Arts and Arts In Education programming. She is skilled in Native Hawaiian language as well as in the art of traditional Hawaiian lei making. Kaina is also the Director of Nā ʻOiwi NYC, a New York-based education and advocacy group that perpetuates Native Hawaiian culture, history, and voice in New York City. Kaina performed at the Aloha Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. with Brother Ah and the Aloha World Music Ensemble honoring President Barack Obama. She is devoted to sharing and perpetuating the traditional dances and culture of Polynesia. Kaina Quenga is a true ambassador of Aloha.
Molly Rabinowitz
Molly Rabinowitz has been dancing and choreographing in New York for over twenty years. Her company, LiquidGrip, has performed at numerous venues in New York and internationally.
Molly is a certified Alexander Technique, Yoga, and Pilates instructor, and also has an MFA in dance. In addition to maintaining a private practice in the Alexander Technique, she has taught the technique at Movement Research and the Balance Arts Center, and the Center for Integrative Medicine at Memorial Sloane Kettering in New York, the Greenwich Dance Agency and the Holborn Center in London, and the Danish School of Contemporary Dance in Copenhagen, among other schools. From 1990 to 2005 she taught dance and choreography to all ages at St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn. She has also taught Dance History at Long Island University.
Mindy Rebman
Mindy Rebman began her early dance training in her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma with teachers from Ballet Oklahoma, Boston Ballet, and The National Ballet of China. In addition to her rigorous ballet training, she also began to hone her skills in jazz and tap in these formative years. She graduated with honors from Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas where she earned a BFA in Dance Performance as well as a BA in Psychology. She is a founding member as well as the rehearsal director for RedWall Dance Theatre (www.redwalldancetheatre.com) and has also performed with Bardos Ballet Theatre and other independent choreographers. Mindy's teaching credits include The Ballet Tech School, Marquis Studios, ArtsConnection, Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn Ballet, and of course Spoke the Hub! Ms. Rebman has set original choreography on students from The Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Spoke the Hub, and has been a guest speaker and rehearsal consultant for the dance department at Long Island University. In the Spring of 2010, Mindy became the Artistic Director of Chrystie Street Ballet Academy. (Tap I-III and Teen Hip Hop)
Tamara Saari
Tamara Saari began dancing over twenty years ago in the Detroit Metropolitan Area, andsince then she has performed throughout the United States and Mexico. She received herBachelor of Arts degree in dance at San Diego State University where she was awardedOutstanding Graduate of the Year in 2004. Ms. Saari was honored again by the universitywhen she received Alumna of the Year in dance in 2011. Ms. Saari has worked withvarious artists on both east and west coasts including Allyson Green Dance, Inclusion,Patricia Sandback and Dancers, San Diego Alumni Dance Group, Beth Soll and Dancers,Kathryn Wilkening and WNZ Showtime. Ms. Saari has shown work at the Silk City ArtsFestival, Celebrate Dance Festival, Merce Cunningham Studios, the Flea Theater, theHudson Guild Theater and various Peridance-Capezio Center events. She serves asProduction Director and Rehearsal Assistant to The Nutcracker, A Contemporary Ballet(choreographed by Giada Ferrone) this year held at the renowned Ailey Citigroup Theater. Ms. Saari is proud to offer this performance opportunity to her students at Spoke the Hub.
Efeya Sampson
Efeya Sampson, hailing from Brooklyn ,New York began dancing at a young age, training in various African and Caribbean based forms. She began dancing with the Moving with the Spirit Children's Dance Company at the age of 8. She began her formal training at the Charles Moore Dance Theatre of Brooklyn, on full scholarship, under the direction of Ella Thompson - Moore. Ms. Sampson received her BFA in Dance and Choreography from Temple University,in Philadelphia,PA and her MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College ,in New York. She has appeared professionally with the Charles Moore Dance Theatre, Movement for the Urban Village (MUV) and Roots in Revolution Dance Company. Her work has been most recently shown at Harlemstage's E-Moves Dance series and at the Bessie Schonberg Theatre at Sarah Lawrence College. She is currently an apprentice with Ronald K.Brown/Evidence, A Dance Company.
Robin Schiff
Robin Schiff has been teaching the Alexander Technique for more than 20 years and began incorporating Pilates in to her work in 2004. She developed the Alexander Technique and Pilates programs at Brooklyn College for their Physical Education and Exercise Science Department where she has been teaching faculty and students since 2003. Robin is the Alexander Technique specialist for the Division of Complementary Medicine at New York Methodist Hospital. Other local institutions where she has taught include Mannes College of Music (regular and extension divisions) and Kingsborough Community College. She maintains a private studio in Park Slope and enjoys working with a diverse range of students. Robin holds a BA in Music Therapy and certifications in the Alexander Technique (M.AmSAT, ACAT) and Pilates (previously Physical Mind Institute at Movements Afoot and currently through Balanced Body).
Laurie Shayler
Laurie Shayler has studied and pursued a career in dance her entire life. She received a B.S. in Dance from S.U.N.Y Brockport and an M.A. in TESOL from Hunter College. Her professional training and background includes Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Latin, Swing and Ballroom styles. She has performed and taught with several modern dance companies and choreographers throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.
She was first introduced to Swing and Salsa in the clubs and immediately fell in love with this electrifying music and dance scene. Her interest quickly extended to other Social Dances. She has studied with many well-known New York City and world-class instructors. She began teaching Ballroom, Latin & Swing at New York Health & Racquet Clubs throughout Manhattan and at The Picnic House in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Eventually the popularity of her personalized instruction grew and she formed her company Dance Connection. Her program offers a variety of group and private classes in Brooklyn and she also specializes in wedding preparation and choreography.
Laurie’s passion and enthusiasm for studying and teaching dance is quite contagious and she invites you to join her on the dance floor!
Cara Surico
Cara Surico originally from Dayton, OH, is a choreographer, performer, teacher and certified MBD yoga instructor, based in Brooklyn. With a BFA from the Alvin Ailey/Fordham program received in 2003, Cara’s work has and continues to be shown both inside and out of venues in NYC. She has been specifically recognized through Regional Dance America-twice granted the Monticello Award for Best Female Emerging Choreographer as well as the 2006 recipient of the National Choreography Connections Award. Her work supports her growing interest to create an emotionally charged, highly physical world that invites the viewer to intimately engage. Currently Cara teaches a variety of children’s classes and yoga at the Parkslope Armory, as well as movement for Grace’s Church School in Brooklyn Heights. She spends her summers at the Putney School in Vermont, teaching modern dance and yoga to teenagers and adults. This is Cara’s first year teaching at Spoke the Hub!