Team Group: Teaching Artists

Melissa Elstein founded Good Energy Movement & Wellness to bring the joy of movement to students of all ages and levels in her dance and yoga classes.  As a young dancer, she trained at Balanchine’s School of American Ballet and performed with NYCB, Berlin Opera Ballet, and Royal Danish Ballet. Her teachers at SAB included Stanley Williams, Madame Danilova, and Suki Schurer.  During Summer breaks, Melissa studied at Ballet West, and in NYC with Melissa Hayden, Willie Burmann, Madame Darvash, and David Howard (where she became a scholarship student).  She was accepted into the Pennsylvania Ballet Company her last year of high school. Melissa performed with that company for several years until an injury sidelined her professional ballet career. 

Shifting to academics, Melissa graduated from Barnard College and Columbia Law School. She completed Federal clerkships, before joining NYPD’s legal bureau. Her life took another turn when she trained in yoga, qigong, Pilates, Reiki, and other healing modalities. Returning to her first passion (ballet), Melissa graduated from Finis Jhung’s teacher training, performed in three of his instructional DVDs, and taught adult ballet for him at Alvin Ailey’s Extension Program. She completed children’s teacher trainings with Yogi Beans and American Ballet Theater and has taught children’s and teen ballet at the School at Steps on Broadway and as a guest teacher in the Berkshires. 

Her website:  www.Melissa-Mati.com.

Jody Green (they/them) has been a hip-hop fan since first hearing the song “What?” by A Tribe Called Quest playing out of their oldest brother’s maroon Nissan Maxima in 1991. They are a dancer and actor based in Great Barrington. Jody grew up dancing with their family and with CityKids- a youth performing arts group in New York City. They were part of Fusion Dance Company at Brown University where they studied West African dance with Seydou and Michelle Coulibaly. In New York City, they were part of the modern/African/hip-hop based Jamal Jackson Dance Company which performed at PS 21 in Chatham, NY and The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard. Jody has studied hip-hop dance with legends Brian “Footwork” Green, Jazzy J, Popmaster Fable, and Galen Hooks. They have taught hip-hop dance locally at Renaissance Arts Center, Lifeworks Studio, and Berkshire Arts Center. Jody also teaches private hip-hop and wedding dance lessons. They are very excited to be part of the Pulse community! 

Ashley Hartka received her dance degrees from SUNY Purchase (BALA, 1995) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (MFA, 2005). Ashley found her passion for teaching early on with Flowering Child long before it became Berkshire Pulse. She has since taught dance in multiple ways to a wide variety of populations, from teaching college students at the University of Colorado and at SUNY Albany; lower school students in NYC public schools; technique classes to many age groups in various local programs and studios; and movement exploration classes to teens and adults in community settings, both indoors and out.

Ashley greatly enjoys the choreographic process, movement exploration, improvisation, and the art of movement in the everyday. She has been choreographing and performing in her own work and has had the privilege to perform in works by great artists such as Trisha Brown, Martha Graham, Kevin Wynn, Michelle Ellsworth and Gabe Masson, Sondra Loring, Sarah Stackhouse, among many others. She has been a member of a dance collective that performed many site-specific and cross collaborative works. Additionally, she has been involved in a movement lab, a Contemplative Dance Practice and an improvisational group with wonderful movement artists. Ashley is thrilled to be sharing her love of dance to her young students again this year.

Molly Hess is a Berkshires, MA based choreographer, dancer, educator, and art’s administrator who creates playful and tender work meant to be enjoyed by audiences of all ages. She is dedicated to teaching dance with a focus on creativity and process. Molly currently teaches at Studio North Dance Arts. She previously taught with Together in Dance, WR Arts, Cambridge Performance Project, Dance in the Schools, and Dance Place. Molly has a B.A. in dance from St. Olaf College, a certificate in Brain-Compatible Dance education from Creative Dance Center, and is currently part of the 21-22 Jacobs Pillow Curriculum in motion cohort. 

Molly has had her choreography presented all around the US including: Plant Connector (MA), Movement Research (NY), Links Hall (IL), AS220 (RI), The Dance Complex (MA), Mascher Space Coop (PA), and Denmark arts Center (ME). Molly is half of The Picnic Sisters, an ongoing collaboration with Eliza Malecki and is a member of the North Adams artist collective Commonfolk. She is passionate about intergenerational dance connection and was a member of two Boston based intergenerational companies, Back Pocket Dancers and PB&J Dance Company. She is also the associate director of an arts and nature based non-profit, Bearnstow on Parker Pond.

Holly Jones (she/her) is delighted to be joining the faculty at Pulse! Jones is a NYC and Berkshire based dancer, educator, and arts advocate. She is the Producing Director at Jacob’s Pillow, performs with The Bang Group, and serves on the boards of The Clive & Valerie Barnes Foundation, New England Presenters, The Croft Residency, and MMC’s Dance Advisory Board. Originally from Colorado, Holly holds a BFA in Dance from Marymount Manhattan College and a MS in Nonprofit Leadership from Penn.

Leighann Kowalsky (she/her) is a Hudson-Valley based dance artist, educator & choreographer, travelling globally. An active performer with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company under the direction of Katherine Duke, and AuraCuriatlas Physical Theater Company under the direction of Joan Gavaler, Kowalsky also performs as a dancer & acrobat for a number of other independent and seasonal companies. With a BA in Communications and Psychology and an MFA in Choreography, Kowalsky serves as Research Advisor and Adjunct Professor for Reinhardt University’s MFA in Choreography program. Kowalsky additionally serves as Global Coordinator at the Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication, and on the Development Committee at the National Dance Educators Organization. Having just returned from a 3-month residency in Sydney, Australia with Nita Little, Critical Path, and the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development, she looks forward to returning to Berkshire Pulse this spring and summer.

Ryoko Kudo MFA, has worked with the Limón Dance Company since 2001 and has had the privilege to dance works by world-renowned choreographers such as Graham, Taylor, Lubovich, Kylian, Linke, Koner, McKayle, multiple works by Limón and Humphrey. Kudo is also an aerialist with Airealistic and has performed at the Beijing Olympics, Hangzhou, China, Bregenz Opera, and in the show Breaking Surface in NYC. She teaches and restages Limón works and has taught at various institutions such as Marymount Manhattan College, Canadian Children’s Dance Theater (Canada), Congresso Brasileiro de Dance Moderna (Brazil), Arte Centro (Guatemala), Bratislava Academy of Dance (Slovakia), ArtEz (Holland), Puglia Talenti (Italy), Casa de la Cultura (Mexico), and schools in the U.S. such as SUNY Purchase, Point Park College, Bryn Mawr, Mont Clair, University of the Arts, Drexel University. Kudo is also a certified Pilates instructor (read more…) since 2008. Kudo received her training from Emerson College, The Boston Conservatory, Ailey School, Graham School, Limón Institute, and Kane School of Core Integration.

Ryoko’s classes explore movement based on the principles of the Limón Technique, which incorporates the effect of gravity and use of breath as an initiation of movement. We explore coordinating breath and weight in terms of falling, recovering, and suspending. The classes also address use of space, time and energy with clear intention and musicality for greater dynamic range of movement and richer coloring of human expression.

(photo credit: Nilaya Sabni)

Angel Lau is a percussionist based in Newburgh, NY. While his foundation comes from his classical percussion studies at Purchase College, Angel’s interests in Afro-Peruvian and Brazilian music expanded into different folkloric and modern percussion styles from across the globe. Angel is one of the musicians for “Odeon” by Bessie Award Winner Ephrat Asherie and has toured the US including the Spoleto Festival, Vail Dance Festival, and Fall for Dance to name a few. He is currently a faculty accompanist at Bard College and is in a work-in-progress work by Bessie Award Winner Souleymane Badolo from Burkina Faso. Angel has performed and recorded with artists such as Kala and the Lost Tribe, Wallace Roney Jr., DreHall, Anaïs Maviel, Neil ‘Nail’ Alexander, Birdland Latin Jazz Orchestra, and Kelly Quigley.

Dance for Boys Program Director
Musical Theatre Dance Program Director

Tom Masters holds an MS in Special Education from The City College of New York and a BS in elementary education with a concentration in dance and movement for elementary school children. As a performer he has danced with The Park Avenue Dance Company in Rochester, NY, The Alvin Ailey Student Ensemble in New York City, and with various musical theatre productions both nationally and internationally. He has taught dance and creative movement since 1990. Most recently he was on staff at the Center for Kinesthetic Movement in NYC as an educational tutor using dance to teach literacy, and using movement to increase the attention span of students with ADHD. Tom has been with Berkshire Pulse since 2009 teaching dance for boys, Humphrey-Weidman repertory, tap, and Broadway jazz.