Maggie McRae began traditional dancing when she was 12 years old at Sierra Swing Dance Camp and Centrum’s Festival of American Fiddle Tunes. She was one of the organizers of the Brevard College Contra dance in 2010 and 2011. She began calling contra dancing in 2018 under the mentorship of Jon Greene. Maggie is on both the Lenox and Sheffield Contra Dance committees. Maggie has called in Poughkeepsie, NY, Lenox, MA, and Cornwall, VT among other dances. She also has a growing repertoire of family dances and has taught community dance/contra dance at Berkshire Pulse in Housatonic, MA, and at the Oldtone Roots Music Festival. Maggie also has a working knowledge of a variety of Scandinavian dances, a passion that began while she was living in Norway, which she has continued to nurture.
Team Group: Teaching Artists
Bettina Montano
Bettina holds a BFA in Dance, Cum Laude, from Temple University.
In Philadelphia, she performed professionally with Philadelphia’s Sybil Dance Company, Artistic Director Eva Gholson, and Dance Conduit, Artistic Director Ann Vachon, for the reconstruction of Doris Humphrey’s “Dawn in New York.”
In the Berkshires, Bettina performed with choreographer Dawn Lane, Artistic Director Community Access to the Arts, as an independent choreographer and as a member of choreographer/film maker Laurie McLeod’s Victory Girl Productions with whom she performed extensively throughout the Berkshires, New York, and abroad.
Bettina’s dance training began with her mother Christa Montano, a student of renowned dancers Mary Wigman, Herald Kreuzberg, Martha Graham, José Limón and Louis Horst. Her early training continued under the direction of Truda Kashman, Martha Graham technique with Debra Zall, with various teaching artists at the Murray Louis and Alwin Nicolais Dance Lab and later with Educators/Choreographers Eva Gholson, Ann Vachon, Hellmut Gottschild and Marilyn Middleton Sylla. Bettina’s passionate belief in accessible dance education led her to teaching and inspired the creation of The Flowering Child Performing Arts Program in 1995 — which ultimately evolved into Berkshire Pulse in 2005. Bettina has been teaching classes in modern dance for students of all ages and levels throughout her 27-year directorship of the organization.
Christa Montano
Christa began her dance studies in Germany with Suzanne Kabitz, former assistant of Rudolf Von Laban. She continued her studies in Germany with Modern Dance innovators Mary Wigman and Herald Kreuzberg, and in the USA with Martha Graham at the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance in New York City, as well as with other renowned choreographers/educators such as José Limón, Alwin Nicolais, Murray Louis, and Louis Horst. In 1962, Christa established a Modern Dance Department in a private high school in Windsor, CT. For many years, she taught Modern dance for students of the now Oxford Kingswood High School, as well as Creative Dance for children and adults throughout Hartford, CT, and NY. After retiring from teaching during her late 70s and 80s, Christa enjoyed taking classes at Berkshire Pulse. She continued dancing every day into her 90s, inspired by her own practice and a lifelong appreciation for nature, poetry, and music.
Crane Morehouse
Crane Morehouse is a certified Kundalini Yoga Teacher. She did her training outside of Boston in 2008 and excelled in the training. She began teaching on a regular weekly basis in 2010. She taught at a studio in Great Barrington for 11 years and at Kripalu Yoga Center. She has also done workshops abroad. During the pandemic, she continued teaching on Zoom. Crane is a very enthusiastic teacher, devoted to this form of yoga that creates deep peace and happiness.
Erin Naylor
Erin has been an avid dancer since she could walk. Throughout her youth, she studied ballet, modern, and jazz as well as hip-hop and Afro-Caribbean, being one of the first graduates of the Flower Child Performing Arts Program that became Berkshire Pulse. She has been teaching dance and gymnastics since she was a young adult as well as being a preschool teacher for the past 15 years here in the Berkshires. In her spare time she enjoys playing paintball and kayaking with her partner and snuggling her 3 cats.
Raymon “Red Ink” Padro
Raymon “Red Ink” Padro is an accomplished Hip Hop dancer hailing from Hartford, CT. His dance journey began in 2009 at the age of 8 when he joined the Kalligraphy dance crew. After learning about Litefeet in 2018 through YouTube, he had fully immersed himself in the art by 2021. Since 2022, he’s been a dynamic member of the Brooklyn Nets’ Team Hype and has also joined Bombsquad, an critically acclaimed Litefeet team. Passionate about the dance style, Raymon is dedicated to sharing his knowledge and experience with aspiring dancers, aiming to share the Litefeet community with the present and future generations.
Click here to see Raymon teaching Litefeet at Studio 860!
Jovanina Pagano
Jovanina Pagano (she/her) began her explorations in dance and movement as a competitive gymnast and subsequently as a gymnastics coach. She studied classical music performance in college and spent many years as a professional violist in New York City, during which time she continued her movement studies through the dedicated practice of Contact Improvisation, Afro-Haitian folkloric dance, Body-Mind Centering, and Iyengar Yoga. In 2002, Jovanina founded Bared Soles, a dance company dedicated to the creation of dance events and workshops for enthusiastic dancers of all ages and abilities. She has shared her love of dance and yoga with New York City public and private schools, St. John the Divine, Heifetz International Music Institute, Jackson Hole Dancer’s Workshop, Key West Dance Company, Earthdance, Omega Teen Camp, and the NYC City-Wide Youth Opera. Jovanina is also a clinical social worker and therapist, working with adolescents and young adults in private practice. jovaninapagano.com
Madison Palffy
Madison Palffy is a performer, dance-maker, and multi-disciplinary artist based in western Massachusetts. She holds an MFA in Dance and Choreography with an emphasis in Somatics and Improvisation from University of Colorado, Boulder. Her work is driven by a sense of experimentation and artistic cross-pollinationand has taken the form of films, installations, and evening length performances. Her work has been shown at Studio 303 (Montreal), The Iron Factory (Philadelphia), Ponderosa (Germany), The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought (Northampton, MA), GreenSpace (NYC), AS220 (Providence, RI), The Dairy Arts Center (Boulder, CO), and throughout New England. As a collaborating artist, she has had the pleasure of performing in work by Anya Cloud, Wendy Woodson, Lailye Weidman, Katie Martin, Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Kathleen Hermesdorf, and Paul Matteson (among others). Other collaborations include movement direction for Sleater Kinney’s music video “High in the Grass”. As an educator, Madison has been on faculty at Pioneer Valley Performing Arts High School, Berkshire Pulse, School of Contemporary Dance & Thought, Northampton Center for the Arts, Block 1750, Ape Co Movement School, and The Spark Performing Arts Center. She was a graduate teaching assistant at University of Colorado Boulder and has been a guest teaching artist at Keene State College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Moving Target Portland, Earthdance Workshop & Retreat Center, and the Williston Northampton School. She is currently an adjunct faculty member in the dance program at Keene State College and teaches at Berkshire Pulse and Loculus Studios.
Miriam Piilonen
Miriam Piilonen is a musician, dancer, writer, and professor of music theory at UMass Amherst. Miriam grew up in Blacksburg, VA where she was a member of the Hoorah Cloggers Appalachian dance troop. She holds a PhD in music theory from Northwestern University, an MS in human development from Virginia Tech, and a BM in composition from New England Conservatory.
Susan Quinn
Young Choreographers Program Director
Susan Quinn is a teacher, choreographer, and performing artist. She is currently enjoying directing the Young Choreographers Initiative at Berkshire Pulse with a focus on Movement and Activism and how choreography shows up in our everyday lives. She co-founded and co-directed Choreo Collective for seven years, a laboratory for choreographers to engage in the creative process and produce new work in the Triangle area of North Carolina. She also developed the Choreographers’ Workshop Series to showcase and provide feedback for artists across NC through the North Carolina Dance Alliance. Her choreography has been produced in a variety of venues, including the American Dance Festival and Dixon Place. She directed the dance department at Cardinal Gibbons High School and has been a guest choreographer in high schools and colleges. She has studied composition with Donald McKayle, Marlies Yearby, Neil Greenberg, Faye Driscoll, and David Dorfman. She studied technique privately with master teacher Sarah Neece and Alexander Technique with Anne-René Petrarca. Susan has also performed with many dance companies and choreographers, including Thread Dance Theater, HMK Dance, Sarah Daunt, Insurgo Stage Project, Sara Smith, Carol Finley/The Postcards Project, Isabel Gotzowsky, Stephanie Landouer, Caroline Williford, Beth Fath and Five Chick Posse Productions. (Photo: Skye Schmidt)