Laura Coe (Chickasaw) is a dancer and choreographer based in Chatham, New York repping Harvard Breakers Crew and Double Yolk Collective. She has performed work by Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones, Jill Johnson, Sidra Bell, LROD, Isadora Wolfe, and Corpi di donne, and received commissions from New England Conservatory, Analog By Choice, and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts. She was recently an Art OMI 2024 Resident, and began collaboration for a project with Alli Ross and John Bechtold at Mass MoCA. She currently teaches dance for the Opheum Dance Program, the Funk Box Studio, and Berkshire Pulse.
Team Group: Teaching Artists
Benjamin Court
Benjamin Court is dancer, musician, writer, and educator in Western Massachusetts.
I grew up in Western New York, where I played in several punk and experimental music groups. From 2010-2020, I lived in Los Angeles, where I studied Musicology and received my Ph.D. (UCLA, 2017). My graduate research explored the politics of musical “amateurism” – music by individuals who claimed not to know how to play music, but nevertheless became musicians. Among other topics, I have published articles about the semiotics of punk in the UK, racial formation in rap and punk in New York City during the 1970s, and the Scratch Orchestra’s politics of music education. I have also taught several courses in music, critical theory, and broadcast media for UCLA and Woodbury University. While In Los Angeles, I recorded music with the Unthem collective and began learning to dance Chicago Footwork. In 2021, I joined the Chicago Footwork crew Creation Global and began releasing self-produced Footwork music. My current projects focus on bringing together Chicago Footwork dancers and producers around the globe, as well as creating new educational opportunities for artists from Chicago to share their craft. In 2021, I joined the staff at Berkshire Pulse, where I love to take classes in music, hip hop, modern, and contemporary!
Kathy and David Crowe
Tai Chi
Berkshire Tai Chi is a traditional, lineage school. Sifu David Crowe and Sifu Kathy Crowe, with 18 years experience, are certified lineage tai chi and qi gong instructors under the Kuoshu Federation of the Republic of China. They trained under Master Eric Sbarge, a member of the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame, at The Hall of the Peaceful Dragon In Charlotte, NC. Outside of teaching tai chi, Sifus David and Kathy lead busy and creative lives. Sifu David is a composer and teaching artist, whose works have been performed across the country. Read more and hear samples of his music at www.DavidCroweMusic.com. Sifu Kathy is a web and graphic designer, including the design of websites, logos, brochures, etc. You can see samples of her work at www.KathyCrowe.com.
Matthew Cumbie
Matthew Cumbie (he/him/his) is a collaborative dancemaker, writer, and artist educator. His artistic research cultivates processes and experiences that are participatory and intergenerational, moving through known and unknown, and bring a poetic lens to a specifically queer experience. His choreography and dancemaking- considered “a blend of risk-taking with reliability, [and] a combination of uncertainty and wisdom,”- weaves together a physical vocabulary of momentum and clarity, revelatory moments, and a belief in a body’s capacity to meet each moment.
He has danced in the companies of Christian von Howard, Keith Thompson, Jill Sigman, Paloma McGregor, and Dance Exchange- an intergenerational dance organization founded by Liz Lerman- where he became an Associate Artistic Director and the Director of Programs and Communications. With Dance Exchange, he collaborated on and performed in works ranging in topic from the human genome to prayer and protest, on the highest point of the Great Smoky Mountains during a total solar eclipse, and with community organizers and activists after years of research and work in response to structures of racism and erasure in Dallas, Texas. In partnership with Dance Exchange, Matthew advanced his body of work Growing Our Own Gardens- an iterative intergenerational performance project rooted in queer world-making that partners with local LGBTQ+ and arts organizations, like the Rainbow History Project, the DC Center, and Dance Place, to catalyze intergenerational LGBTQ+ convenings and reflection.
As an artist educator, Matthew helped develop and brand Cassie Meador’s Moving Field Guide: a program created in partnership with the US Forest Service that connects artists with scientists, naturalists, and environmental educators to help people learn about environmental issues. He has been an artist-educator with Jacob’s Pillow, including their Curriculum in Motion program, and continues integrating artistic approaches and facilitation strategies in classrooms and with teachers in PG County (Maryland) and Waterville, ME. He has been on faculty at Texas Woman’s University, Queensborough Community College, American University, and the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, and has been an invited speaker at the New York City Roundtable Arts in Education conference, the Advancing the Human Condition Symposium at Virginia Tech, and the LGBT Health and Art Making conference, in partnership with the Human Rights Commission and the GWU Health and Well-being graduate program. He was also selected to be a part of the inaugural APAP Artist Leadership Fellowship cohort.
Currently, he is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Colby College. He continues creating work independently and in collaboration with Betsy Miller, Tom Truss, and Annie Kloppenberg, and as a company member with Christopher K. Morgan & Artists. He supports the development of artists’ work as a professional fundraiser, specializing in online fundraising campaigns and grant writing, and is a certified practitioner of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. His work has been commissioned and supported by places like Dance Place, the Kennedy Center, Herman Melville’s Arrowhead, and Harvard University, and by the National Endowment for the Arts, the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities, HumanitiesDC, the Arcus Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Somerville Arts Council. Originally from Houston, Matthew holds undergraduate degrees from Texas Lutheran University and Texas State University and an MFA in dance from Texas Woman’s University.
Dashawn Davis
Dashawn is a professional dancer from Hartford, CT. As a professional dancer, Dashawn has performed as a member of the Connecticut Sun “Solar Power” dance team and is the coach for the 860 Boys Dance Team as well as the Hartford Yard Goats youth dance team. Dashawn has also been involved in various dance projects including MTV’s Next Big Dance Move and a dancer for the Emmy award winning film “While You Were Gone” featured in Online Dance Magazine.
Insta: dash13davis
Facebook: Dashawn ” NAZTYDASH” Davis
Sarah Daunt
Sarah Daunt is a local dancer, choreographer, dance educator, and early childhood care teacher. She began teaching dance in 2006, creating classes for toddlers, teens, and adults. In her many years of teaching, Sarah coordinated the establishment of several youth dance programs and continues to deepen her knowledge of early childhood education.
Sarah holds a 300-hour yoga certification and a Cecchetti (ballet) Council of America Certification. | www.sarahdaunt.com
Joanne DelCarpine
Joanne is a graduate of the University of Colorado – Boulder, College of Music. She holds a Bachelor’s of Music with high honors, with concentration in Voice Performance and Theater Arts. She has participated in numerous camps, workshops, and classes with master teachers from Zimbabwe, Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Cuba, and Haiti studying song, drumming, and dance. In addition, Joanne attended the Blue Tribe School of Music and Dance in Albuquerque, NM from 2001-04. There she studied West African and Zimbabwean dance, drumming, and song. Ultimately she became the lead singer for the Blue Tribe, and a drummer for the dance classes and performances, while also working as a percussion accompanist for African and Modern dance classes at the University of New Mexico. Her performance experience is extensive. Joanne has crisscrossed the United States as a percussionist and a singer/songwriter playing venues ranging from 20 seat coffee shops to folk festivals attended by thousands. She was the lead accompanist for Kim Waterman as well as a drum teacher at The Berkshire Pulse from 2006 – 2015, and she’s thrilled to be back for this series of classes.
Tricia DeSario
Tricia DeSario is a dancer and an early childhood educator. She received her undergraduate degree in communication disorders and sciences from SUNY Geneseo. She worked as an early intervention therapist as well as in public schools as a speech therapist while living in NYC. Tricia then left that profession to pursue her dance career, performing in the musical theatre industry in regional theatre productions such as Holiday Inn at the Paper Mill Playhouse, in the national touring production of 42nd Street, and in television on the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The pandemic brought a change in perspective with the birth of her daughter and a change in location. She is now merging her two passions of early childhood development and dance, to bring the community of toddlers and their grownups together with movement and music classes. She also teaches tap at Berkshire Pulse.
Madeline Despres-Chen
Madeline is an RSMT/E (Registered Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator), certified in SomaSoul®: Somatic Therapy and Shake Your Soul®, a somatic movement-dance practice by LIFE Movement: Leven Institute for Expressive Movement.
She is registered through ISMETA, the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association, and is working towards becoming an MSMT/E (Master Somatic Movement Therapist/Educator).
Currently, Madeline is a full-time graduate student at Antioch University New England, pursuing an M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in trauma. She has a passion for trauma studies, Polyvagal Theory, the mind-body connection, somatic movement, dance, expressive arts, and social justice.
Her journey between undergrad and grad school led Madeline to move to Shanghai, China, where she taught children English, dance, and drama performance for four years. During this time, she also taught Shake Your Soul® at local studios.
As a Somatic Movement Therapist and Educator, she helps others discover greater awareness and understanding of their lives through a mind-body healing modality that combines elements of Body-Centered Gestalt Psychotherapy and Polyvagal Theory with expressive arts and mindfulness.
In her practice, she uses tools like body scanning, journaling, sensory drawing, visualizations, movement, and nervous system education to help clients strengthen their mind-body connection and integrate their body’s story, creating new neural pathways of healing.
Madeline teaches Shake Your Soul® on Thursdays and works with clients virtually in her private somatic therapy practice. Additionally, she is assisting the LIFE Movement SomaSoul® Somatic Therapy Clinical Training and assisted the Level 1 Shake Your Soul® Teacher Training last summer at Won Dharma Center.
Luana Dias David
LUANA DIAS DAVID – PROFESSIONAL DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER
“It is immensely rewarding to help others achieve a happy and healthy lifestyle.”
Luana began her professional career at the age of 14 in Brazil. She has done dance performances/choreographer throughout Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, U.S.A., Mexico, Israel, Russia, Turkey, South Korea, China, Kazakhstan, Romanian, Armenia, Georgia. Recently back from her first South America tour with Zumba events including Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil!
A native of Sao Paulo-Brazil, Luana was exposed to a mixed culture of Break dance, Samba, Capoeira and classic Ballet which have inspired her dance philosophy and style.