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Erica Moshman (she/her)Director of Operations
Youth Repertory Director; Ballet, Modern, Partnering Erica Moshman is a dance artist, performer and facilitator. Erica's focus is in inclusive dance practice and community work. She is a co-founder of Parable Dance & Artistic Director of Parable NY, and has performed with Becky Radway Dance Projects, Heidi Latsky Dance Company, Evolve Dance Inc. Suse Tietjen/ Tanzorchester Suse Tietjen, Bahar Fattahi, and Jill Moshman, among others. Erica is also the Managing Editor of The Dancer-Citizen online journal. She holds a BA in dance and anthropology from Connecticut College (USA) and an MA in dance anthropology from the University of Roehampton (UK). |
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Alex Martin (she/her)Project Manager
Tap, Theatre Jazz, Early Childhood Dance Alex Martin is a dancer, choreographer and educator with a BFA in Dance from Wayne State University. Originally from Michigan, she relocated to NYC post-graduation and has worked with numerous companies, including The American Tap Dance Foundation, Evolve Dance, John Zullo/Raw Movement, and Nicholas Leichter Dance. Alex was an Administrative Assistant with Dorrance Dance for several years and has worked with The American Tap Dance Foundation for over 15 years as a festival coordinator and intern director. Currently, Alex devotes her time teaching over 40 classes per week throughout New York, including movement classes at two Special Education schools and is the Artistic Director of the MK Dance Company and Project Manager at Rivertown Dance Academy. |
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Renée KashubaDevelopment Manager
Renée brings more than 25 years’ experience in marketing and communications to RDA and has been a friend of the program since its inception and a lifelong dance student. After completing an undergraduate degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, Renée earned a master’s from Columbia University in New York City and entered a career in professional promotions in medicine, winning an Rx Club Award of Excellence for writing a patient education program. |
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Christina Morrison (she/her)Social Media & Content Creator
Christina Morrison Spellman is a professional dancer, teacher and social media manager based in New York City. Following her graduation from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance Performance, she spent four years in Chicago, performing locally, training, teaching diverse student populations and choreographing new work. Christina’s work has been commissioned for stadium events (NRG in Houston & Smoothie King in NOLA), outdoor venues and concert stages. Christina joins Rivertown Dance Academy with 4+ years of experience in social media and content creation. In addition to helping dance studios nationwide, she has also worked with SHOUT Marketing & Social Media to promote theater, dance companies, film festivals and more! Since 2022, Christina has been the sole marketing manager for the popular NYC Yacht Rock touring act, Yacht Lobsters. |
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Sandy Andrade (she/her)Front Desk Associate
Sandy brings nearly two decades of dance experience to Rivertown Dance Academy, having been part of the RDA community since the age of three. She is currently pursuing a degree in Digital Media Production at Manhattanville University, where she has also been a member of the Manhattanville Dance Troupe for four years. In addition to her extensive background in dance, Sandy is an aspiring graphic designer and animator. Her creative work includes developing social media campaigns, photography projects, logo design, and branded content for a variety of platforms. She is passionate about combining movement and visual storytelling, both in the studio and in her academic and professional pursuits. |
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Laura Aronoff (she/her)Jazz, Tap, Commercial Dance Education, Theatre Jazz
Originally from Atlanta, GA, Laura has lived and performed in Los Angeles, NYC and all over the country. She is SO happy to have found her permanent home with her husband and family in Sleepy Hollow. After graduating from Tulane University with a degree in Communication, Laura began her career in commercial dance and theatre. She has performed for brands such as Adidas, Southwest Airlines and Disney, as well as live premieres for Cartoon Network, FX Network and HBO. TV, commercial and film credits include Rooms To Go, Tall Girl 2 (Netflix), Step Up Series: Season 3 (Starz), Pretty Little Liars (HBO) and Will Trent (ABC/Hulu). Laura’s favorite music video credits include 'KIDS' by New Kids on the Block and the official video for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ ‘American Girl’. Regional theatre credits include: Footloose, West Side Story, Kiss Me Kate, National Tour of Rudolph, and The Music Man. |
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Caitlin Brady (she/her)Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, Contemporary
Born and raised in Peekskill, New York, Caitlin Brady has been a dance instructor since 2003. Caitlin studied dance at Hofstra University where she was also a student choreographer for both Danceworks and MoVom. She has choreographed for a range of events from the Miss Delaware Competition to the Annual Business Council of Westchester’s Dancing with the Rising Stars. She believes that dance should be a release from reality as well as a challenge of the individual mind/body within a safe space (@caitiilou) |
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Robin Cantrell (she/her)Ballet, Teen Partnering
With a professional performing career spanning two decades, Robin has worked with numerous dance companies including City Ballet of San Diego, Rioult, Rebecca Kelly Ballet, and, most notably, as a member of Battery Dance for 17 years. With Battery, Robin has performed, taught, and presented her own choreography in over 65 countries around the world. Her original works for the company have been shown at New York Live Arts, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Battery Dance Festival in NYC. She is the subject of the award-winning documentary Moving Stories, about the company’s cultural diplomacy work. She serves as an adjunct professor at both Vassar College and PACE University. Robin currently dances for Gabrielle Lamb’s PigeonWing Dance and is the Artistic Director of Indelible Dance: a Brooklyn-based dance company that creates otherworldly dance films and presents multimedia immersive dance events. Her most recent dance films have garnered numerous awards and accolades, including Best Screendance of the Year at the 2022 Independent Shorts Awards. Robin is also the co-founder of Constant John Productions. The company creates dynamic films that tell their stories entirely through dance and music. She serves as the Director of Dance at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Society and curates a quarterly dance series called 12x12 in Brooklyn, NY. Robin Cantrell is a native of St. Paul Minnesota and received her BFA in ballet performance at the University of Utah as a Willem F. Christensen scholarship recipient. She loves her pet bird very much and continues to expand her mindfulness practice. |
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Kiana Davalos (she/her)Hip Hop, Early Childhood Dance
Kiana Davalos is a self taught international dancer, choreographer, and creative director from Yonkers, New York. Her passion and love for dance began ever since she could walk, and carried on throughout her life since. Without the luxury of being able to take classes when she was young, she took matters into her own hands and made "something out of nothing." At the age of 13, when she first began, she did everything from performing at local events for the community and teaching free classes to the youth, to just simply dancing for herself within the comforts of her own home. Today, that same passion and drive to share and learn has opened some amazing opportunities to travel, perform and teach master workshops all over the world in places such as Canada, Iceland, Puerto Rico and even an International 7 month tour throughout China as head choreographer, artistic director and performer. Kiana has also been featured in Paper Magazine, Complex Magazine, New York Times, International Dance Battles, and World of Dance. As well as worked alongside some amazing sponsors such as Snipes, Sprayground, Contra, Woxer, Staple Pigeon, NBA sports wear, and artists such as TKAY, 070 Shake, Annalise Azadian, Justin Love, Wiz Kid, Akon, and Jadakiss. Kiana uses her networking ability, and passion for dance and the arts to reach out to different people of all sorts of artistic genres to exchange and collaborate. Working with others has pushed Kiana to create in more ways than just dance- it led her to branch out into other fields and develop her own brand and company in which includes Videography, Photography, Fashion, and creative direction. Constantly driven, and inspired by her past and present, Kiana decided to make something that meant more than just a brand, she created a Lifestyle. |
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Joseph Harrington (he/him)Ballet, Pointe, Partnering
Joseph is a dance educator, fitness instructor, and performer based in New York City. He holds a BFA in Dance from Pace University where his concentration was Ballet Pedagogy. Joseph began performing at a young age, eventually making his Broadway debut at age 8. He starred as Billy in Billy Elliot The Musical on Broadway at age 11 and continued the child performer life for a few more years before heading back to Cincinnati, OH to focus on training and being a kid. He has since maintained a performance career alongside being an educator of dance and fitness to folks of all ages. Some of his favorite opportunities include creating a Boys Ballet program with Mariana Sanchez of Dance Matters in Queens, NY and initiating a theater dance program for seniors at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. He is a NASM-certified Personal Trainer and a certified Reformer Pilates instructor through Studio Pilates International. Joseph strives to use his experiences growing up to inform how he teaches his students. He is passionate about creating a safe, kind, and fun space for his students that inspires hard work and growth. |
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Maddie Hopfield (she/her)Early Childhood Dance
Maddie is a New York City-based dancer, performer, choreographer, writer, and taiko drummer. Her movement practice and history include shotokan karate, postmodern dance, contact improvisation, house, hip hop, and waacking. She has shown at work venues including Kestrels, The Brick, LifeWorld, the MAAS building, and Urban Movement Arts. She has collaborated with Kayla Bobalek and Julia Bryck, and currently makes work with Marin Day under the name PEPTALK. She has performed in the work of Barnett Cohen, Amelia Heintzelman, Paris Cullen & Sarah Zucchero, Lindsey Jennings, Maya Lee-Parritz, Amalia Colón-Nava, Leah Stein Dance Company, Philly Kerplop (Vince Johnson), Lily Kind, Concept Kinetics ("Cricket" / James Colter), among others. She also performs taiko drumming with Casual Fifth (Philadelphia) and Taikoza (NYC), and dances with Christina Reaves’ company, The Creature (NYC). She loves teaching dance to young people and is excited to be working at Rivertown Dance Academy! |
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Elisabeth Jeffrey (she/her)Ballet, (Pre)Pointe
Elisabeth Jeffrey is currently the Rehearsal Director and a member of Periapsis Music and Dance, while also being a freelance artist in NYC. She is a full scholarship graduate of the Joffrey Ballet School, and has trained with schools such as The Royal Ballet School, Houston Ballet and Washington Ballet. Elisabeth has taught company classes for Benjamin Briones Ballet and led auditions for Periapsis Music and Dance and Emotions Physical Theater, as well workshops for Central Minnesota Ballet Academy's Adult Program, Montana School of Classical Ballet, MADco Dance Company, and is a core teacher for NYCommunity Ballet. She also enjoys being a supplementary teacher for Greenwich House of Music School, Dancation (NJ) and Logrea Dance Academy (NY). Elisabeth’s class is built on an honest and straightforward approach to ballet. Classes provide a firm technical structure, focus on the individual’s needs, technical goals, and accuracy of movement, helping the student to build layer on layer of technical tools, while preparing the professional for the day. |
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Kristin Licata (she/her)Ballet, Modern
Kristin Licata holds a BFA in dance from the Fordham/Ailey program & is an ABT© Certified Teacher in Primary through Level 3 through the ABT® National Training Curriculum. After graduation she worked with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company II, Yuka Kawazu/Danse En L’air, Felice Lesser Dance Theatre, Regina Nejman and Company, Tamara Saari Dance, Vabang! and Vox Lumiere. Kristin is a freelance dancer in New York City working with Ariel Rivka Dance, Covenant Ballet Theatre of Brooklyn, Matthew Westerby Company, and Valerie Green/Dance Entropy. She is Associate Artistic Director of Matthew Westerby Company. Kristin is a dance teacher on faculty at Covenant Ballet Theatre of Brooklyn and is their Artistic Advisor to CBT-2 Junior Company, and Elite Performing Arts Center in NJ. Photo by Whitney Browne. |
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Jill Moshman (she/her)Ballet, Modern, Early Childhood Dance
Jill Moshman is a choreographer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist. She holds a BA from Middlebury College in Vermont, USA and an MA from Bath Spa University in Bath, UK. Her work is primarily grounded in movement, while seeking to explore the intersections between dance, film, text, and visual media, and the diverse ways in which movement can be captured for an audience. www.jillmoshman.com |
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Charis Polycarpou (she/her)Early Childhood Dance
Charis has been a part of the RDA community since the age of 7 and served as a student mentor for 6 years. She began teaching with RDA as a substitute in 2022. Charis is pursuing her BFA in Creative Writing at Stony Brook University, where she founded Dynamic Dance, a non-competitive performing ensemble open to all students. As well as leading Dynamic Dance, she teaches Ballet and Modern. Her choreography, in addition to being performed at Stony Brook, has been included at RDA’s Frost Fest 2025 and the MWC Youth Dance Platform. |
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Rachel Shaver (she/her)Jazz, Contemporary, Jumps & Turns
Rachel grew up dancing in Chesterfield, Virginia and obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the Conservatory at Shenandoah University. She was fortunate to perform with Washington D.C. based contemporary dance company Christopher K. Morgan & Artists while still in school and was later presented as an independent artist in the D.C. dance scene. She moved to New York City with the goal of broadening her dance education and fell in love with teaching. She has continued performing for various NYC based choreographers while exploring her own choreographic voice. Rachel teaches at numerous Westchester local studios, and was recently on faculty at Broadway Dance Center. She has been teaching Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, improvisation, composition, and more for 10+ years. She holds a certificate in Personal Training from NASM, and enjoys coaching her fitness clients in private and group classes. |
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Wave Waldman (she/her)Yoga
Wave is an RDA alum and currently studies Psychology and Health and Human Services at Wake Forest University. Wave also teaches Vinyasa Yoga classes at her University's gymnasium, and is eager to share her passion for Yoga with current RDA students! |
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