Team Group: Teaching Artists

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.

Brianne Szymanski specializes in dances of the Vintage Swing Era including Lindy Hop, Charleston, St. Louis Shag, Collegiate Shag, and American Vernacular Solo Jazz. Brianne has offered class series and workshops in these forms at The Ohio State University, Ohio University, and other communities for the past nine years. Previously, she was a Ballet instructor with the Toledo Ballet Association and other venues in Ohio and Michigan, teaching students varying in age (3 to adult) and skill (Creative Movement to Advanced Company classes). Brianne also performed with the Toledo Ballet’s Company for six years with a repertoire that includes various roles in The Nutcracker, Giselle, Peter Pan, and numerous original productions. She continued her dance training at The Ohio State University, and at the graduate level at Ohio University. Brianne is credited as an accomplished competitor, placing frequently in local and regional Lindy Hop and Jazz competitions with improvised and choreographed work. Presently, Brianne performs as a freelance dancer and instructor. She also serves as the Community Engagement Programs Manager at Jacob’s Pillow.

Moving Life Stories Coordinator

Tom Truss is a performer, creator and educator. His 30 year career includes dancing, acting, choreographing, directing, devising and teaching. He toured with the Liz Lerman/Dance Exchange (’89-’94); ran his own dance company (’94-’01); was a community artist at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (’94-’99) leading workshops at local schools and various communities throughout Berkshire County; taught at American Dance Festival (’93-’98); and has been a teaching artist with Flying Cloud Institute since ‘95.  Tom has been published in Dance Magazine, Contact Quarterly, and was a frequent contributor to OutRightRadio an award winning radio show on PRI. He has performed all around the world and his work has been seen at the Kennedy Center, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New Zealand’s Wellington Fringe, American Dance Festival, On the Boards, Dance Place and The Foundry to name a few, as well as in parking lots, rivers, furniture stores and cars. Truss graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Texas; obtained a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from the University of Iowa; a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the College of Wooster; is an AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique; and is a level one certified Internal Family Systems practitioner.  Some awards Tom has received are Best Choreography – Austin Critics Table Awards (HAIR), Best Actor- Austin Critics Table Awards (The Idiot), Best Actor Nominee – B. Iden Payne Awards (The Idiot), New England New Works grant – New England Foundation of the Arts, and an Artist Fellowship –  Massachusetts Cultural Council. Currently he is touring a dark comedy, solo show about growing up queer called, Tell me what you learned Tuesday, and ReWritten, a multimedia evening length duet co-created with Matthew Cumbie about the intimate relationship between Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Teak Welch (They/Them) grew up in Dallas where they attended the Dallas Ballet Center for 15 years. They studied ballet, tap, jazz, modern, hip hop, and lyrical. They were a teaching assistant while there and went on to teach Musical Theater dance in their summer workshops for the next 4 years. They attended Booker T. Washington HS for the Performing and Visual Arts, where they split their studies between theater and dance.

Teak has been involved in professional theater since a very young age and continues to love this form of expression more than twenty years later. They grew up performing with their musical parents on the road and have appeared in many productions in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area over the years. They performed on an Equity stage for the first time at the age of ten in a production of Peter Pan as Michael Darling. To this day, they refuse to ever truly grow up. Some favorite roles include Hen in Giggle Giggle Quack- Dallas Children’s Theater National Tour; Kelli in Hands on a Hardbody; Bess in The Human Comedy; Dre/Rhiannon/Evelyn/Others in Precious Little; Anna (Original readings) in Creep: The Musical; Eveline in (Original reading), The Manufactured Myth of Eveline Flynn. And the cherry on top was dancing in the prominent LGBTQIA+ fundraising event, Broadway Backwards, in 2018.

Wendy Welch happily moved to the Berkshires from Dallas in 2019. She was in WAM Theatre’s zoom production of ‘Roe’, the WAM Gala at the Mahaiwe, and directed and performed in ‘A Broadway Cabaret’ at Dewey Hall in Sheffield the last 2 Decembers. She has spent her 35 year career in the theater as an actor, director, coach, and teacher. She received her BFA in Acting from SMU, and did graduate studies there as well. She studied at HB Studio and was an intern at Chelsea Theater in NYC. While living in NYC she and husband, singer/songwriter Willy Welch, and their band were regulars in the NYC folk circuit (Folk City, Bitter End, Speakeasy, West Bank Café) and around the country. In Dallas, Wendy worked at most of the D/FW theaters and regionally, in roles from Margaret Johnson in Light in the Piazza, Sally Durant in Follies, Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman, Sonia in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Madame Armfeldt in Little Night Music, and Mrs. Bennet in Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice, to name a few. She has been seen in many commercials, TV: Murder Made Me Famous, Deadline Crime, Barney and Friends, Sweet Tornado, Film: Upstream Color, Occupy Texas, Cyberdancing, and the Emmy Award nominated documentary Shatter The Silence. Wendy has taught voice and coached privately for over 25 years. She taught Voice and Diction at SMU, Musical Theater and Acting at Richland College, and Musical Theater/Performance/Audition Master Classes at SMU, OCU and USI, as well as in public professional settings. She has taught and directed a number of musicals in colleges, and teen camps including Dallas Theater Center, Lyric Stage, Dallas Ballet Center, Park Cities Dance.

Isadora Wolfe is a dance-theater artist located in New York City and the Berkshires.  She is currently an Artistic Associate of Punchdrunk, following her tenures as Resident Director and Associate Artistic Director at Sleep No More.  Isadora has collaborated with makers such as Johannes Wieland (Kassel, Germany and original member of Wieland’s NYC company), Martha Clarke (Garden of Earthly Delights, Angel Reapers), Punchdrunk (Sleep No More), Richard Jones (The Hairy Ape), David Auburn, Maxine Doyle and Gerald Casel.  She has taught for companies and institutions including Alvin Ailey II, Ballet Hispanico, Jacob’s Pillow, Marymount Manhattan, NYU’s Tisch School, Rutger’s University and Springboard Dance Festival; and is on faculty at The Juilliard School where she continues to develop her Acting for Dancers course. www.isadoramovementarts.com