Avery Saulnier de Reyes has been teaching for 11 years. She became a teacher in the Boston Public Schools after formal ballet training at Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and Lexington School of Ballet. Avery is returning to classical ballet after a long absence , she is currently dancing at Integrarte and with Dance Currents.
Avery has three children ages 2 to 15!
Bio coming soon.
Ken Pierce trained in ballet and modern dance, studying on scholarship at both the American Ballet Theatre School and the Merce Cunningham studio. He has specialized in early dance—especially, late-Renaissance and Baroque dance—for the past three decades, as choreographer, reconstructor, performer, and teacher. Companies he has performed with include the Court Dance Company of New York, the New York Baroque Dance Company, Ris et Danceries (Paris), Danse Baroque Toronto, and the baroque dance trio Hémiole (Paris), of which he was a co-founder. He directs his own company, the Ken Pierce Baroque Dance Company, for which he has choreographed or reconstructed dances for performances with Tafelmusik, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen, The King’s Noyse, Handel & Haydn Society, and the Boston Early Music Festival. Choreographic credits include dances for Les Élémens, Les Festes d’Hébé, Tirsi e Clori, and les Festes de l’Amour et de Bacchus; King Arthur at the Boston Early Music Festival, and such twentieth-century premières as Le Carnavale Mascarade;Les Plaisirs de Versailles, with Ex Machina Baroque Opera Ensemble; the masque Oberon, at Case Western Reserve University; and le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos at the Amherst Early Music Festival. He was assistant choreographer for Quelques pas graves de Baptiste, Francine Lancelot’s baroque-style piece for the Paris Opera Ballet, whose cast included Rudolph Nureyev. Mr. Pierce has taught at summer dance and music workshops in the U.S. and abroad. He directs the early dance program at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.
Websites: https://www.creativeground.org/ and http://web.mit.edu/kpierce/www/
Leah Becker has been a practicing massage therapist for 24 years and a Self Massage instructor for 5 years. Leah trained at Muscular Therapy Institute and with Sue Hitzmann, author of The MELT Method.
Mauryn Kkira is a certified Fitness Instructor who has a passion for dance. Among the many teaching certifications she holds, Zumba and Vixen are her favorite. Having grown up in Uganda, dance was an integral part of her life. From a very early age, she was exposed to various cultural and African tribal dances while performing at school and she continued to grow throughout high school as a dancer and performer. She moved to The United States at the age of 19 and whenever she had the chance, she danced! Mauryn also has ballroom dance experience and competed in both Smooth and Latin rhythm dances. She considers herself a dance lover and can relate to anyone who loves dancing no matter how competent they feel as a dancer. Her choice to focus on dance fitness was a result of the realization that she could workout to the thing that she enjoyed doing the most. She loves that Dance Fitness meets her need to participate in her passion while giving her all the health benefits she needs to stay healthy - all the while enjoying this thing we so commonly call exercise. “If you don’t love it, you won’t do it. If you love it, you will be happy to do it and won’t have to talk yourself into it. That to me is a win-win!”
Mauryn has a wide range of experience in various fitness disciplines that include Kickboxing, Step, Pilates, HIIT as well as various Strength Training classes, which definitely contribute to the kind of dance fitness instructor she is.
Growing up without the means for dance classes, McKersin overcame his troubled environment, persevered and became the dancer that he is today; With Ethnic-Haitian dance already in his vocabulary, he started building a bigger arsenal with Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Tap. In college, he started trading work hours for classes and started studying ballet and modern intensively. Now, he is leading workshops throughout various parts of the country orientated towards social justice and, the roots of African American culture and movement. Out of his many projects and goals, his main and current project involves building up men in the inner city to become emotionally intelligent while being agents of social change within their community with the creation of a program called, Bridge 4 my Brothers
SHARI REPASZ has been teaching GYROTONIC® exercise since 2014 and the GYROKINESIS® method since 2018. With a background in Pilates, personal training, conditioning and dance, her movement-teaching experience spans more than 20 years. She has taught dance to people of all ages from 3 years to over 70, styles which include explorative, contemporary, ballet, musical theatre and jazz dance in the Boston area. As a choreographer, Shari worked in musical theater for many years and continues to create modern and contemporary pieces. Her current projects are predominantly collaborations with local artists; vocalists, dancers, sculptors and musicians. Shari can sometimes be seen performing in Night Song, a music meditation at the first church of Cambridge.
At Dancers Workshop of Sudbury, Shari headed the contemporary program for the duration of her career at the studio. She later became the dance instructor at The Rivers School of Weston for the dance program and all school musical theater department. Here she choreographed for large scaled productions such as Chicago, West Side Story and many others. Shari brought a creative approach to both locations as well as her classes for home schooled kids taught in Jamaica Plain. As an independent choreographer and dancer, she has formed a number of ensembles locally in Boston and produced many works for various venues, including her 2005 epic suite, ‘128 - An Inner State’ premiered at Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge and later released on DVD. She has also performed with a variety of local companies including Adrienne Hawkins and Jody Weber. Shari occasionally performs with composer/pianist Ben Schwendener and The Mobile Trio.
Tara McCrystal began as a high level gymnast and discovered dance when she was 8 years old. She received her early dance and theater education under the artistic direction of Lee Lund. She trained at The Boston Conservatory under the artistic direction of Yasuko Tokunaga, and holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Dance Performance with a Modern Emphasis. She feels privileged to have studied with Tina Kershaw (Horton), Jennifer Scanlon (Limon), Lee Lund, Emiko Tokunaga, Yasuko Tokunaga, Marcus Schulkind (Graham), Donna Silva, Leslie Woodies (Ballet) and Olivier Besson (Improvisation and Contact Improvisation). Tara performed reconstructions of Jose Limon and Martha Graham works, and has danced professionally with Bosoma Dance Company, Contrapose Dance Company, Collage Dance Ensemble and Lorraine Chapman The Company. She has worked with numerous choreographers and guest artists throughout her performance career.
In 2011, Tara became founding member and co-Artistic Director of SPUNKandCOmpany Dance - a professional contemporary dance company in the Boston area. The non-profit collaborative company creates original works that often magnify social issues and human relationships. Tara has been a choreographic artist in residence at Green Street Studios and the Boston Center for the Arts (with SPUNKandCOmpany).
Her passion for movement and experience with her own injuries led her to physical therapy. She holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) from the MGH Institute of Health Professions, currently practices at Boston Conservatory at Berklee/ Berklee College of Music and has an active research interest in performing arts related topics.
Tara has taught movement and dance to all levels of dancers and has worked as an expressive arts facilitator with individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities. She believes in the power of art and movement to connect and heal. Her work has been performed by professional and college aged dancers. Tara has been exploring improvisational techniques for years and is most recently focused on structured improvisation for performance.
A lifelong dancer, Victoria studied and performed at the University of New Hampshire, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in English. She has a long affiliation with Boston’s Jeannette Neill Dance Studio, where she taught in the adult and children’s programs and also served on the faculty of Boston Youth Moves, the studio’s nonprofit teen dance program. She has studied with master jazz teachers Jeannette Neill and Lynn Simonson, and incorporates principles of the Simonson Technique—an anatomically aware approach to movement—into her adult and teen classes. Victoria also works as a freelance writer and earned her master’s degree in English from Northeastern University.
