Faculty
MODERN DANCE
BETTINA MONTANO Artistic Director, Modern Dance Director
Bettina holds a BFA in Dance from Temple University. She has performed professionally with Philadelphia's Sybil Dance Company and Dance Conduit, with choreographer Dawn Lane, as an independent choreographer and as a member of choreographer/film maker Laurie McLeod's Victory Girl Productions with whom she has performed extensively throughout the Berkshires, New York, and abroad. 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 2003. Bettina has been teaching classes in modern dance for students of all ages and levels throughout her fourteen year directorship of the program.
BALLET
RUBY AVER THUNG Ballet Director
Ruby has been the Ballet Director and instructor for Berkshire Pulse since June 2005. She has performed extensively since 1973 in North America, South America and Europe. Ruby's first ballet instructor, Ed Parish was Bronislava Nijinkska trained. At the age of 14, Ruby was the youngest dancer ever to place in the Chicago Dance Competition, judged by renowned dance historian Ann Barzel. In 1971 Ruby was awarded a full talent scholarship to the Harkness School of Ballet in Manhattan by Master Teacher David Howard, where she went on to become an apprentice with the Harkness Ballet Company. She performed as a soloist with the Chicago Ballet Company and Ballet De Caracas of Venezuela. She was principal dancer for Het Scapino Ballet of the Netherlands, where "Firebird" was set on her by choreographer Job Sanders and where she performed annually for the Queen of Holland. During these years she taught and coached dancers in the above companies and school as well as for the Hubbard Street Dance Company of Chicago. In addition to classical ballet, Ruby has performed contemporary ballet by Hans VanMannen and Nils Christie, Jazz choreography by Matt Mattox, and dance theater pieces by company members from Pina Bausch and Wuppertaal Tanzteatre. Other highlights of her performing career were working with the National Ballet of Canada for Rudolf Nureyev in his production of "Don Quixote. Ruby has been the Ballet Professor at Simon's Rock College of Bard since 2004. Ruby's artful and universal approach to the whole person ensures a well-rounded and fulfilling experience.
LINDA REIFSNYDER JENKINS Summer Ballet Intensive
Ms. Jenkins trained as a scholarship student at Joffery Ballet of New York, the Ruth Page Foundation and with Ed Parish in Chicago. She has performed as a soloist with Chicago Ballet, National Ballet of Peru, and Kiel (Germany) Ballet. Ms. Jenkins was the Director of Florence School of Ballet (Alabama), the Academy of Nevada Dance Theatre, and Jacksonville University's Dance with Distinction program and Principal Teacher for School of Ballet Oklahoma. She held the position of Artistic Associate for First Coast Nutcracker for 5 years. Presently Ms. Jenkins is teaching at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Florida State College and DanceMania in Jacksonville, FL . A much beloved master teacher, Ms. Jenkins has produced principle dancers for major ballet companies throughout the USA.
JAZZ AND MUSICAL THEATER
CLAIRE JACOB-ZYSMAN Jazz & Ballet /Jazz Fusion
Claire graduated summa cum laude from the University at Buffalo with a BFA in Dance, where she was a dancer and choreographer for the Zodiaque Dance Company. Additionally she has trained with the José Limon Dance Company, Doug Varone and Dancers, and Ballet Hispanico. She has also studied at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and at the Bates Dance Festival. Claire has performed with the Burnidge Clark Dance Company and with Melanie Aceto Contemporary Dance. She has also performed her own choreography at the Rochester Contemporary Dance Collective. Claire currently dances professionally with the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company in residence at The Egg in Albany.
ALANA CHERNILLA Choreography And Performance Workshop
Alana Chernila began her dance career at the age of six with Terry Pines and Barrington Ballet. In her teens, she continued her studies at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, MA, where she got hooked on choreography. In 1996, Alana studied at the Experimental theater wing at New York University, delving deeper into the intersection of theater and dance. Alana attended St. John's College in Santa Fe, NM from 1998 to 2002, and during her four years there, she took up residence as the choreographer for the school's twice yearly Shakespeare programs. In addition, she taught Modern Dance and Choreography at St. John's, and generated an active performing company during her time there. In 2002, Alana moved back to the Berkshires, where she now lives with her husband and two children. She has taught Modern Dance and Choreography with the Flowering Child Performing Arts program and Berkshire Pulse. She continues to dance, perform, and choreograph whenever the opportunity arises.
INTRO / FOUNDATION CLASSES
ILANA SINGER Foundation Ballet
Ilana has recently returned to the Berkshires after five years away dancing and studying in New York City and Jerusalem, Israel. Ilana began her dance education in Ann Arbor, Michigan with CAS Ballet Theatre School, the University of Michigan Dance Department, and the Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre. She continued her training at the Ailey School in New York City, as well as many other studios in a wide variety of disciplines. Ilana has been teaching Ballet since 1997, and taught in the Flowering Child Performing Arts Program from 1999 through 2003. In addition to Ballet, Ilana currently teaches Pilates and Yoga to individuals and small groups in and around the Berkshires, and is a certified Zumba instructor.
RENNI GREENBERG-GALLAGHER Ballet & Creative Dance (Also In-School Program Faculty)
Renni has taught and performed various forms of dance (modern, ballet, tap, flamenco) from New York City (Merce Cunningham Studio) to universities in the USA (Oberlin College, NYU, Bard), and abroad. She currently maintains a private practice in "Transdisciplinary Therapeutic Education."
KRISTINE WATERMAN Creative Dance (Also In- School Program faculty member)
Kristine is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy as well as a Theater/Dance major at the City University of New York at Queens College. She has been teaching dance and various types of creative arts programs for children for over 12 years in a variety of settings. In the Catskills she taught Physical Education to pre K - 12th grade. The program consisted of dance/creative movement, yoga and fitness. She also created a lower school drama program as well as leading an after school dance group. She has designed and taught a creative arts program, in NYC, for kindergarten and preschoolers, which combines creative movement, music and drama. Kristine has also performed both nationally and in regional theater. She has taught adults, and directed her own dance troupe "Gettin' Down," consisting of performers with developmental disabilities.
HEATHER FISCH Theater Arts
Heather has done the bulk of her training as a performance artist at the Teatro Estudi Victor Hernando in Barcelona, Spain as well as at Simon's Rock College and in private workshops. Her training is greatly influenced by the teachings of Jacques Lecoq, Marcel Marceau, and Avner Eisinberg. She has been performing in traditional and experimental theatre performances continually over the past eight years. Her work as a performance artist has brought her from the cobble stone streets of Prague to the local artist community here in the Berkshires. Her current performance work includes a dynamic clown performance called "Un-ortho" which she co-created and performs with a collaborator here in the Berkshires. Her current artistic interests also include developing her career as a performing musician.
LISA KAPCHINSKE (aka Ivory) Hip-hop Workshop
Lisa Kapchinske (a.k.a. "Ivory") - Having been classically trained in Southern California and the Berkshires as a competitive dancer in disciplines such as, Ballet, Lyrical, Character Jazz, Acro-Jazz and Fosse, Lisa later moved to NYC and there transformed herself through a passion for Hip-hop into the raw, energetic, diverse performer she is today. She returns to the Berkshires with her dance partner "St. Ise" to share with young students her experience of Hip Hop as a way of expressing personal, cultural, and political issues and as a method of storytelling through movement.
ANDREA BLACKLOW Adult Beginners Modern and Intermediate Modern
Andrea began dancing at the age of six at the Bostford School of Dance in Rochester N.Y. She began her modern training while attending Interlochen Arts Academy in Northern Michigan. Andrea graduated from Bard College in 1992 where she studied with Jean Churchill, Albert Reid, Aileen Pasloff and Lenore Latimer. As well as dancing and choreographing she taught creative movement and modern dance for children and teenagers at Bard's Summer Youth Theatre Programs. After graduating from Bard she performed and taught in Seattle, Albany and the Berkshires and danced with the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company for nine years.
WORLD MUSIC AND DANCE
AIMEE GELINAS World Music (Also In-School Program Faculty)
Aimee Gelinas, M.Ed., is a musician and environmental educator who has been performing, teaching, facilitating, and developing educational programs for more than 15 years. She co-founded and performs in the all-woman world music drumming and vocal ensemble Gaia Roots, the Berkshire based original rock band Sifer and the Latin group, Trio Candela. Her educational business, Tamarack Hollow Environmental & Cultural Educational Programs, "Inspires environmental and cultural awareness, appreciation and stewardship" by providing drumming and nature programs for all ages. She has studied extensively throughout the Caribbean, Cuba, Mexico, Africa and the U.S. and co-produced her ensemble Gaia Roots CD entitled Mother Drum as well as the Afro-Caribbean Groove Dance instructional DVD with Live Drumming. Visit her website at www.tamarackhollow.com.
JOANNE DELCARPINE World Music (Also In- School Program faculty member)
Joanne DelCarpine is a 1998 graduate of the University of Colorado - Boulder, College of Music. She holds a Bachelor's of Music with high honors, with concentration in Voice Performance and Theater Arts. In addition, Joanne attended the Blue Tribe School of Music and Dance in Albuquerque, NM from 2001-03. There she studied West African and Zimbabwean dance, drumming, and song. Ultimately she became the lead singer for the troupe, and a drummer for the dance classes and performances. She has participated in numerous camps, workshops, and classes with master teachers from Zimbabwe, Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Cuba, and Haiti studying song, drumming and dance. Her performance experience is extensive. Joanne has crisscrossed the United States playing venues ranging from 20 seat coffee shops to folk festivals attended by thousands.
KIM WATERMAN Dances of Africa (Also In- School Program faculty member)
Kim has studied a variety of dance styles and has come to love the traditional dances of Africa. She has been studying, teaching, performing and sharing these dances with children and adults for over fifteen years. Kim holds a Masters Degree in Education and her extensive classroom teaching experience make her dance classes accessible to students of all levels. She currently teaches throughout the Berkshire public school system in grand funded programs, (schools include Richmond Consolidated School, South Egremont Public School, and Farmington River Elementary School) as well as teaching weekly classes at Berkshire Pulse. The highlight of Kim's summer this year was performing and teaching at Tanglewood in their Watch and Play program.
ADJUNCT FACULTY
CINDY GUTTER Musical Theater Performance Workshop
Cindy was born and raised in Manhattan and loved every minute of it! She graduated with honors from the high school of Music and Art in Manhattan with a major in piano and voice. This wonderful experience inspired Cindy to become a music educator and she went on to receive her bachelors and masters degrees from the Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts. While at BU she had the honor of being appointed assistant conductor of Boston University women's chorus, was the recipient of the prestigious Theodore Presser award for music education and graduated Magna Cum Laude. She went on to become a music teacher in the Bedford, MA public school system where she taught grades K-12 and was chosen to create the Bedford junior high school music curriculum. Her passion was directing the school choruses and coaching and accompanying the school's musical theater productions. Cindy eventually moved back to Manhattan to work in the television and film industry and subsequently started her own successful business in the fashion industry, traveling internationally for many years, during which time she stayed connected to music by coaching Ménage, an original Cabaret trio. Since relocating to the Berkshires four years ago, Cindy's career has come full circle and she is back to her first love, music education; she was the rehearsal pianist for Irene MacDonald, has taught at both the Hawthorne Valley School and the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School and was recently seen in the Two of Us Production of Oliver! She is currently rehearsing for the upcoming Berkshire Theater Festival production of Oliver! Cindy lives in North Egremont with her Husband, John and Daughter, Isabel. In addition to coaching voice privately, she is the 6th, 7th and 8th grade chorus director at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School, and accompanist for the middle and high school chorus at the Hawthorne Valley School.
MAXINE LYLE Urban Step (Artistic Director of Soul Steps)
Maxine Lyle began stepping at the age of seven in her hometown of Newark, NJ. She now performs, choreographs, and offers step instruction to youth and adults throughout the Northeast. She has extensively researched the local and international history of stepping. In 1996 she co-founded Sankofa, the Williams College step team, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006 and is now under the official auspices of the Williams College Dance Program. She has been a creative advisor to college and youth step teams and taught at arts institutions, including the Youth Alive Step Team (Pittsfield, MA), the Manhattan College Step Team, the Westfield State University Step Team, the Vermont Arts Exchange, Berkshire Pulse, Eden Hill, and Simon's Rock. Her choreography has been featured at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). She is a Master of Fine Arts candidate in Theatrical Management and Producing at Columbia University's School of the Arts.
JONATHAN PINERO (aka St. Ise) - Hip Hop Workshop
Born in the South Bronx ghetto, home of Hip hop, Jonathan started dancing on empty basketball courts at night to blow off steam as a young teen struggling with intense family issues. Dancing became his language for life, a tool for facing the many difficulties of growing up in a poor and dangerous community. Jonathan has performed with many artists and won numerous dance competitions such as the "Move for Madonna" competition on MTV. He is the founder and Director of GPR Entertainment; an artist's collaborative based in NYC. Deeply committed to sharing his skills and experience with others Jonathan teaches children and youth the art Hip-hop as an empowering tool and vital medium for self-expression.
PAUL RIX Swing Dancing and Cardio Strength
Fitness Instructor & Swing Dance Instructor - Paul is an AFAA-certified personal trainer. He is also certified in TRX-suspension training. He is passionate about core strengthening and functional health. He has taught boxing and kickboxing classes. In addition to working as a personal trainer, Paul has also worked as a rehab specialist at a wellness clinic. He is knowledgeable about helping rehabilitate common injuries such as lower back pain, or shoulder problems.
Paul has been swing dancing since 2003. He loves the music of jazz and blues, and finds the qualities of both musical forms full of possibility for self-expression and improvisation. Paul has travelled extensively, studying with some of the best swing dancers in the world. In 2004 Paul began dancing with his partner Nadia. While in California, Paul and Nadia were performing members of the "Audio Land Rug Cutters" a swing dance company based in San Diego. Newly relocated in the Berkshires, Paul and Nadia are excited to share their experience and love of swing dancing with the Berkshire community. Young dancers will remember their exciting swing workshop at the Pulse's summer dance program.
TYLER MALIK
Born into a professional theater family, Tyler landed her first commercial (for Vicks Vapo Rub) at the age of 18 months. She has been immersed in performance and production her whole life-television, film, stage, musical theater-as both an actor and a director. At Hampshire College she studied cinematography, where she directed a documentary and several shorts. Tyler has taught drama across the country for 17 years, notably at the Aspen Valley High School and the Whidbey Island Waldorf School. She has lead professional acting classes for teens and adults, as well as coaching private students for college and stage auditions. Tyler's acting method is based on exercises created by Darryl Hickman and developed into technique by Diaan Ainslee, company founder and director of Manhattan Edge.
ANDREA BORAK - (The dancer within)
Andrea Borak has a BFA and MFA in dance, is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst and Trager practitioner. In NYC, she performed with the Eleo Pomare Dance Company (8 years), The Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company (14 years), and with others including Lenore Latimer, Bertram Ross, and John Wilson. While in NYC, she taught at HB Studio, NYU School of Education, Lehman College, Clark Center for the Performing Arts and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. She taught in the Artists-In-Schools Residency Program and was movement specialist at The Little Red School House in Greenwich Village. Relocating to the Berkshires, she has taught dance in the Pittsfield Public Schools, presented workshops for teachers, has taught as part of the Berkshire Pulse Summer Intensives and, since 1999, has been on the theater faculty of Berkshire Community College. She has just completed her fifth summer as dance instructor for Elderhostel in the Berkshires.
BARBARA BOUGHTON
From the age of eleven, Barbara has been in love with the sounds of latin music. She has been dancing her way through New York, Florida, Mexico and the Berkshires whenever there's room on a dance floor. In Florida, she was introduced to Zumba; an international dance phenomena, and advanced salsa classes. In August, Barbara will become a certified Zumba instructor. She is mixing all of these dance forms together, adding her own unique ideas of dance and out pops DANCE-A-TONIC, which is the name of a 1942 song her father wrote the lyrics to. This class is dedicated to Marvin Kahn and the only song he ever wrote. Barbara is also the owner of Barbara Boughton Interiors and the Executive Director of the Center for Peace Through Culture in Great Barrington, MA.
FOUNDING FACULTY
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. Christa has been a faculty member with Berkshire Pulse since 1999, teaching six and seven year olds.