Team Group: Teaching Artists

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. 

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.

Martha has been a practitioner of the TriYoga flow method since 1995 and a senior teacher/ trainer since 1997. She opened the Sheffield TriYoga studio, the first TriYoga Center outside of California in 1997. She has assisted Kali Ray and conducted her own trainings and workshops in the US, Germany, Italy, Singapore, India, and Austria. 

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.

Sereena Hunter is a powerhouse dancer, choreographer, and instructor. Her classes are dynamic, energetic, and LOVED by students of all ages and backgrounds because of her exceptional teaching style and the joyful atmosphere she creates. Sereena studied a variety of dance styles and completed her formal training as a choreographer and instructor at Manchester College and Clague and Green Performing Arts School in the UK. She founded Urbanized Dance Academy in 2014 in Manchester, UK and has been teaching and performing in the UK and US for many years.

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.

Fern is a freelance performer and dance maker based in Western Massachusetts and New York City. With a BA in Dance and Birth Studies from Goddard College, Fern has also had the privilege of training at the Gibney Dance Center, earning a certification from the Professional Contemporary Track, as well as various intensive trainings with Shannon Gillen’s VIM/VIGOR Dance Company, and has studied the unique partnering technique of Sharon Fridman (Artistic Director of Compañia Sharon Fridman) in Madrid. She has had the pleasure of performing as a youth performer with Albany Berkshire Ballet Company production, and later with Opera Nouveau, Moving Arts Ensemble, Buglisi Dance Theater’s Table of Silence project at Lincoln Center, Compañia Sharon Fridman’s US premiere of Caída libre, and much more. Fern currently choreographs and performs with VEERdance Company (which she co-founded in 2018), collaborates and performs with Rebecca Pappas’ Projects in Hartford, and Olga Rabetskaya Dance Projects in New York City. Additional work includes teaching Pilates at The Pilates Space and dance at LifeWorks Studio, both in Great Barrington.