Team Group: Teaching Artists

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.

Andres Ramirez is a Berkshire resident and owner of The Funk Box dance studio. He has been dancing for 11 years and has competed and taught in many different countries. His studio has placed top 3 within the USA Breakin’ League, has grown its reputation and was voted 2018’s Berkshires Best Dance Studio. Andres is here to share and spread his knowledge on breaking and hip hop culture.

Andrè Robles (he/him/his) is a dancer/choreographer, and educator based in Albany, NY. He has danced
for the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company, Dresden SemperOper Ballet (Germany), Metropolitan Opera
Ballet, Teatro Colon, Ulster Dance Company, and Ajkun Ballet Theatre. His training began in NYC at
Westside Dance Project and was further developed through the School of American Ballet, Joffrey Ballet
School, San Francisco Ballet School, and The Ailey School. Andre is on the faculty at Skidmore College
and many local dance schools in the Capital Region. Andre holds degrees from American University,
Empire State University, and Queensborough Community College. He hails from Brooklyn, New York.

Katelyn A. Sanchez is an artist drawn to narrative and how it can contextualize and illustrate where we are in time and place. She explores this in archiving, dance-making, teaching, performing, reading, researching, and collaborating.
In the last year, Sanchez moved to MA to begin working as a project archivist at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, presented a solo at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, co-produced and presented work in the second installment of Show ‘n Tell, a performing arts series, crafted audio descriptions for dance concerts and taught at The Wooden Floor in Santa Ana and Dancemark Studio in Lomita, CA.

Some highlights from the last few years include working closely with John Heginbotham as a rehearsal assistant at The Wooden Floor for his pieces, Boss and Nova, graduating from San José State University with a Master’s in Library and Information Science, performing in alexx shilling’s film rendition of Nothing There There (Topography), and co-choreographing a 30-minute music film for Jane Free Music which went on to be awarded Best Short Dance Film by San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival.

In 2018, Sanchez graduated from California State University, Long Beach with a BFA in Dance and a BA in English Literature.

Olivia Sblendorio spent her toddler years making up her own dances in her mom’s Broadway dressing rooms. After dancing through NYC, performing her way through Vassar College, flailing her way through Dell’Arte Int’l School of Physical Theatre’s Professional Training Program, and trapezing her way through Ringling Bros. Circus, Olivia settled into the Vaudeville life, performing one-woman shows in Fringe Festivals, streets, and hospitals across the world, teaching circus, and joining amazing physical theatre and dance ensembles across the country. Outside of the performing arts, she is certified in feminine leadership, and brings that work to her teachings of embodied intuition, somatic empowerment, as well as family and small business budgeting. Eight years into being a Berkshire resident, Olivia is thrilled to be teaching and performing more in her new home town. 

Born in Tübingen, Germany, Fiona Scruggs is a dancer, choreographer, researcher, educator, and writer. Fiona is an American Ballet Theatre Certified Teacher (Pre-Primary-Level 5) and received her classical ballet and contemporary training at Radford University with Inessa Plekhanova, Aleksey Plekhanov, and Deborah McLaughlin, Salzburg International Ballet Academy with Ildiko Pongor and Amelia Wanderlingh, Next Generation Ballet, Louisville Ballet, and Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts with Donna Carver. She has performed lead and ensemble roles from ballets including The Nutcracker, Chopiniana, and Don Quixote, musicals including Oklahoma! and Anything Goes, and numerous contemporary and modern works.

Fiona’s choreography has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (MA), 5×5 Dance Festival (CT), The Foundry (MA), Bard College at Simon’s Rock (MA), Chesterwood (MA), Choreography on the Edge (NY), Wandering Dance Festival (MA), Salzburg International Ballet Academy Gala (Austria), and Radford University (VA). She is the founder, artistic director, and choreographer of Qualia Dance Collective, 

the Director of Communications & Marketing at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, and a contributing dance writer for The Berkshire Edge. Formerly, she was a Teaching Artist Fellow through the Massachusetts Cultural Council Creative Youth Development program, the School Programs Coordinator at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and has modeled for fashion designer Samantha Pleet. Fiona received a bachelor’s degree in dance education, summa cum laude, from Radford University.

Rick Shrum has been drumming since age 3 when his dad (also a drummer) gave him his first drumsticks and began teaching him classical percussion. Rick played in school orchestras, concert stage bands, drum and bugle ensembles, percussion ensembles, and rock bands. He credits Arthur Hull, from Santa Cruz, as his primary teacher of African drumming. He began studying Afro-Cuban drumming in his 20s and has been playing and teaching this art for the last 30 years. In the 90s Rick played for Dance Kinetics (now called Yoga Dance) at Kripalu. Having been a Waldorf teacher for almost 20 years, Rick has taught drumming to all of his classes incorporating rhythm into the learning process. He has played for Afro-Caribbean dance classes at the Berkshire Pulse for the last six years. Rick has led drum circles at Mountainside drug alcohol rehab center. Having a Masters degree in neurobiology Rick has been a registered nurse from 2010 to present.

Noel Staples- Freeman was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She currently
resides in Pittsfield, MA. Graduating from Emerson College in 1987 with a B.S. in
Children’s Theatre/Performing Arts and Dance, Noel’s career spans over five decades,
primarily focused on teaching and performing in the Boston and Lowell Public Schools,
locally and internationally.

Her dance journey began at age 11 at The Billie Pope School of Dance in Roxbury,
followed by training at renowned institutions such as The Boston Conservatory of
Music, The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, The Art of Black Dance and Music, and the
Koumpo West African Dance Company.

Throughout her career, Noel has achieved numerous milestones, including
performances during Nelson Mandela’s visit to Boston in 1990, participation in Dance
Africa at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and appearances at Jacob’s Pillow. Notably,
she received the 1995 Commonwealth Award of Massachusetts as a member of the Art
of Black Dance and Music directed by DeAma Battle and performed in Senegal, West
Africa, at the Sorano Theatre for the President of Senegal as part of the Koumpo West
African Dance Company directed by Ibrahima Camara.

Noel is also recognized for her support and contributions to Aashka Dance School in
Hyde Park, MA, receiving the Commonwealth Award in 2016 and a Certificate of
Recognition from the City of Boston in 2023. As the Founder and Director of Uprising
Dance Theatre since 1983, she leads an intergenerational group focusing on traditional
and contemporary dance, music, and theatre from the African Diaspora. The group
offers community classes, lecture demonstrations, and Kwanzaa celebrations
throughout New England.

In recent years, Noel has expanded her involvement in community work, as a member of
Common Good Co-operative Urban Farm founded by Kafi Dixon and participated as a
panelist for “From Racism to Covid-19: Black Women in Community & Ongoing Public
Health Crises” at Harvard Medical School in 2022.

In 2023, she graduated from the inaugural Community Health Workers Engaging in
Integrated Care (COHERE) program at Tufts University School of Medicine, further
integrating her passion for dance with holistic healthcare practices.