Team Group: Teaching Artists

Tarcísio is a Brazilian artist living in the Berkshires. His interdisciplinary approach to the arts gives him the ability to navigate through different art forms. He is a member of the brazilian percussion group Berkshire Bateria, and the bossa nova band Bossa Triba. He performs often with both groups. He has published two books, a poetry book called “Point of Departure”, and a children’s book titled “Quinho, a Kid Out The World”. Tarcisio has worked in Upstate New York at the Art Omi teaching theater. Presently he works for ONG, also in Upstate NY providing individuals with autism with artistic and practical avenues to live life and to self-express. Out of all art forms that he practices, he has practiced capoeira the longest. Capoeira was part of his upbringing in Brazil and he started it at the age of 10. He is excited to share it with the Berkshires.

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.

Nic Fortenbach/Notorious Nic is 21 years old from Connecticut. Nic is a member of United Outkast Breaking Crew of CT and a member of the legendary Floorlords Crew out of Boston, MA.  He spent his 2023 to 2025 performing for the Boston Celtics Jet Blue Flight Crew at Celtics home games. He has done many other projects such as videos, performances and is active in the breaking scene. Nic is very passionate about dance and enjoys learning from his peers/mentors.

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.

Lindsey Jones is a New York City–based dancer and herbalist, originally from St. Louis, Missouri. A graduate of SUNY Purchase, she has been a longtime member of Pam Tanowitz Dance and Dance Heginbotham. She has also performed with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Kimberly Bartosik, Sally Silvers, Bill Young, Caleb Teicher, and worked on productions at The Metropolitan Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Bard Summerscape, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, American Classical Orchestra, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim. Since 2012, Lindsey has performed with the Merce Cunningham Trust in a range of settings, including the centennial event Night of 100 Solos at BAM, Robert Rauschenberg’s Centennial, and the 3D film CUNNINGHAM. She has been certified to teach Cunningham Technique® since 2022. Lindsey has served as adjunct faculty at Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase, and Marymount Manhattan. In 2022, Lindsey was awarded a research fellowship from the New York Public Library, where she researched the intersection of dance and ecology. She is a graduate of the Arbor Vitae School of Traditional Herbalism. She is currently a Teaching Fellow at Smith College and an MFA candidate.