Teaching Staff

JUNE POODIACK teaches creative movement classes, musical theater, tap, and jazz for beginners through adults.  June also directs the MC dance company JuMP! which has wowed audiences at several benefit and community performances.  She has a B.A. in Communications and Theater Arts and has choreographed and performed in many summer stock musicals.  

NANCY KAANTA teaches modern, tap, jazz, and creative movement. Nancy's trained with Virginia Tanner who was widely regarded as the country's most outstanding children's dance teacher. She also studied extensively in NYC, Wesleyan University, Connecticut College, Duke University and at the White Mountain Dance Festival.

JEANNE NEU enjoys teaching creative movement.  enjoys teaching creative movement, gymnastics and tap.  Jeanne is also a certified Zumba® and Zumbatomic® instructor. She graduated from UVM with a B.S. and took graduate courses in education at UVM and University of So. Maine.  Before coming to Movement Center she worked with children for many years as a public school teacher.

HEATHER MORRIS entered the College of Wooster, Wooster, OH in 1990 with a Scottish Arts Scholarship and has been passing on her love of Celtic dance to her students ever since.  She is certified by the British Association of Teachers of Dance and the Scottish Dance Teachers’ Alliance. She has been studying Irish Step Dance with Alice McNeish, T.M.R.F. and Moira McMahon, T.C.R.G.

ALYSSA PETTINGILL received her classical ballet training from Larry and Colleen Robertson, formerly of the Boston Ballet, San Diego Ballet and Houston Ballet. She also studied at the Boston Ballet School, the Portland School of Ballet, and the Milwaukee Ballet.  Alyssa danced with the Seacoast Company for over six years, performing such roles as Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Hermia in A Mid Summer Nights Dream, the lead in Carmina Burana, the Can-Can doll in La Boutique Fantasque, the Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, and in Les Sylphides and Pas de Quatre. Alyssa went on to attain a BA in Theatre and Dance from UNH, where she studied jazz and tap with Gay Nardone, and performed with the UNH Ballet and Jazz Companies. Trained in all aspects of theatre, she was awarded the Gary O'Neill "Triple Threat" Scholarship for Musical Theatre.  She has over a decade of experience as a teacher and choreographer, and many more as a performer, bringing her enthusiasm for the studio and the stage to all of her students.

CLARISSA DRILL started dancing when she was  a toddler and studied at The Irene Fokine School of Ballet in Bergen County, NJ. In her teenage years, she was a member of the Center for Modern Dance Education's Repertory Company and enjoyed many classes and workshops at Broadway Dance Center in New York City. She is now a part of the Orchesis Dance Company at the University of Vermont where she studies Nursing. She has a passion and love for dance and can't wait to see her wonderful, talented students excel!

ISADORA SNAPP grew up in Vermont, studying ballet, modern and jazz with Lorraine Neal and Holly Yacawych at Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio. Following her high school graduation, she spent a year in New York city training at Dance New Amersterdam Studios and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Since then, she has moved back to Vermont to persue her interest in teaching and her own work. She has had the opportunity and pleasure to work with many local and national artists, including the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Ron K. Brown, David Dorfman, Larry Keigwan, Yo-El Cassel and Christopher Anderson.

KIERA JOHNSTON began dancing at Movement Center at age eight. She has been a member of JuMP Dance Company for eight years, advancing her way into the senior company . Kiera has studied jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, and ballet over the past several years. She has been on Mount Mansfield Union High School's varsity dance team for the past 3 years, which competes in Jazz and Hip-Hop at competitions around the state. Last year they placed first in the state for hip-hop. Kiera has assisted many dance camps and classes.

ALEX BACHELLER is excited to join the staff at the Movement Center. She grew up in her mother’'s dance studio in southern New Hampshire and taught there for many years. Alex studied under Pierre Barreau for modern dance and Drika Overton for tap. She continues her dance education with annual master classes in Boston, MA; Plymouth, NH; and Manchester, NH. She'’s choreographed for the musicals Annie Jr., The Wizard of Oz Jr., and Guys and Dolls Jr. Alex competed for many years in high school as well as choreographed for dance competitions throughout New England. She’'s the former president of UVM'’s Orchesis Dance Company where she still performs and choreographs. Alex is a senior at the University of Vermont. She’'s a student in the College of Education with the goal to teach middle school English and Social Studies. Alex also hopes to integrate dance into every stage of her life!

KELSEY CROWLEY is currently a senior at the University of Vermont. She is studying secondary education with a concentration in history, and hopes to become a middle school or high school social studies teacher. She grew up in Ellsworth, Maine, where she began dancing at the age of 12. Throughout middle school and high school, Kelsey performed and competed in jazz, lyrical, tap, and musical theater. Once in college, she joined the UVM dance company, and has expanded into hip-hop, contemporary, modern, and ballet. She has choreographed many pieces for UVM and worked with a dance class at her local high school in Maine.  There is nothing she enjoys more than going to a dance rehearsal after a long day of classes and studying.

We also are pleased to have CHERYL FEINBURG and JJ HILL on our staff.  (Bios forthcoming.)

CHRISTY MAYNARD has a Bachelor Degree in Music Education from SUNY Fredonia where her major instrument was voice.  She has taught preschool, elementary and middle school music in Florida and Vermont.  Christy has experience teaching voice to students from young to adult and enjoys challenging students to become the very best they can be.  She has knowledge of a wide variety of musical styles from Classical to Broadway to Pop and each student’s personal musical goals and music preferences will be incorporated into each lesson to ensure a fun, successful experience.

MATTHEW KLOSS has worked as a freelance bassist and educator for the past decade.  A chameleon of musical idioms, Kloss' groove, sensibility, and style, makes him in much demand as a sideman in sessions for blues, rock, traditional styles, rockabilly, country punk, jazz and classical.  Matthew is often sought out as a composer/arranger for everything from chamber works to jazz groups to TV ads. He has been awarded numerous awards and grants for both composition and performance. His music has been heard on TV and radio the world over.  As an educator, Matthew focuses on student-based teaching. Offering lessons on upright and electric bass, guitar, cello, beginner piano, ukulele and theory/arranging, his approach is geared to peak the students interest using history, geography, math and science to explain key concepts within their musical studies.  The outcome is a fun and relaxed atmosphere with a focus on clear-cut goals and student growth.

MEGAN M. BEAUCAGE has a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education K-12, from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire where her concentration was voice. She has a background of teaching, piano, clarinet, theater, and tap dancing. Throughout her time at college, she was fortunate enough to be involved in the A Capella group, University Chorale, Symphonic Band, and numerous Musical Theater productions. She has experience teaching children of all ages all throughout central New Hampshire, and looks forward to her time teaching private voice and piano, as well as the developing new children's workshops at the Movement Center. Megan firmly believes in the student having opinions and choices about what they'd like to work on as well as achieve during lessons. She also loves communication with the students and parents to ensure that everyone is having fun, and succeeding in a positive manner!