Team Group: Teaching Artists

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. As a young adult she began teaching gymnastics and ballet to children at Berkshire South Regional Community Center and Berkshire Country Day School. In 2013 and 2014 Erin studied and completed Ashaya Yoga Teacher Training with Todd Norian, and in 2017 she completed Zumba Teacher Training. Erin enjoys helping people become better versions of themselves through all kinds of movement!

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 (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 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 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.

Angelica Polk is a performer, choreographer, and dance educator from Western Massachusetts.
She is the rehearsal director and performer for Kia The Key & Company. She holds a bachelor’s
in Dance and Arts in the Community and a master’s degree in mental health counseling from
Cambridge College. Angelica continues to artistically challenge and enrich the lives of many
dance communities such as Jacob’s Pillow and various educational settings and communities.
She is the founder and director of an all inclusive majorette dance line, The Community
Ambassadors of Spirit and Performance Team, C.A.O.S. C.A.O.S. is a unified collective of
studio and community dancers willing to learn majorette style and perform their own creations of
choreographed stands to reaffirm our power and strengths together for both our enjoyment and
for seasonal parades. Angelica was honored to have been a featured dancer and on the cover of
the New England Regional ACDA Dance Conference in 2016 at Springfield College. She also
had a life changing opportunity and studied dance history at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy
and visited Rome and Venice. Angelica is skilled in many dance forms and techniques such as
Horton, VopJazz, Contemporary, West African, House, and Hip-Hop.

Joseph Poulson is originally from Philadelphia, PA. He is a New York City based artist who has received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Iowa and Bennington College respectively. Currently a rehearsal director and performer in Punchdrunk’s New York City Production of Sleep No More, between 2000 and 2020 he has toured and taught nationally and internationally with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Susan Marshall and Company, David Dorfman Dance, Mark Morris Dance Group, Creach Co., Bill Young and Colleen Thomas and Dancers, Jeanine Durning, Melinda Ring and Aconarytori among others. Joseph received a Dance and Performance “Bessie” award in 2009. He has taught, collaborated, and created at numerous institutions around the world including Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, Springboard, and universities around the country.

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)

Ted Randolph grew up in Alabama, graduated high school in Texas, took several gap
years in Colorado, finished college in Vermont, and taught at a tiny K-12 school for five
years after that. He learned and enjoyed many varieties of folk dancing along the way,
but did not become aware of Scottish Country Dancing until the summer of 1988, shortly
before moving to the Berkshires. 
Fortuitously, there was a Scottish Country Dance class in Great Barrington, and Ted
was able to pursue his newfound passion there. He has attended regularly since
October, 1988, eventually becoming its teacher in 2018. This class has had many
homes, and has been held happily at Berkshire Pulse since 2014.  
Ted taught SCD at The Mountain Road School in New Lebanon, NY, from 1992-1998,
and in 2016 he started a children’s SCD class at Mettabee Farm and Arts in Hillsdale,
NY, continuing until 2023. He was a member of a Scottish dance demonstration team
led by the Albany SCD Class from 1989-2020, performing occasionally at the Altamont
Highland Games, NEFFA (New England Folk Festival Association), and every year at
the Saratoga Dance Flurry Festival. He has been a certified teacher of the Royal
Scottish Country Dance Society (https://rscds.org/) since 2019. Ted is also an avid contra
dancer, a dance organizer, and is working on improving his skills as a contra dance
caller.