Team Group: Teaching Artists

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.

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.