Barefoot Team

Jessie is a contemporary post-modern dancer and has been teaching for more than thirty years. In addition to making her own work, she has performed with many choreographers throughout the New York Metropolitan area, Wisconsin, Lebanon, and the Hudson Valley. Jessie considers her life as both an educator and artist to be deeply intertwined.

Jessie is honored to to have received the National Dance Education Organization’s 2023 Award for Outstanding Leadership (in the private sector) and New York State Dance Education Association’s 2021 Award for Outstanding Dance Educator. She was also the recipient of the 2015-17 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship for excellence in teaching, and holds an MFA in Dance from The Peck School of the Arts at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She is certified as both a childbirth educator and yoga instructor. She is also a Registered Somatic Dance Educator  and  member of National Dance Education Organization where  she  attends  annual  conferences to both present and participate. In addition, Jessie is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Vassar College Dance Department and leads  workshops to classroom teachers  and dance  educators  nationally and internationally.

Carol is a choreographer, dancer, percussionist, and instructor of traditional West African dance forms as well as Chinese health exercise practices, including Tai Qi and Qi Gong. She had been teaching West African dance to adults in Woodstock for 40 years. She is president and managing director of Nego Gato Afro Brazilian Music and Dance, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to empower and enrich the world community through performance and education in African-Brazilian arts of music, dance, and Capoeira. She has toured with the company as a dancer, percussionist, and historian of African Brazilian Culture in educational institutions and cultural venues throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. Carol also co-founded and directed Lisangua Ya Bato Drum and Dance, a not-for-profit organization whose activities include residential workshops, master classes, and performances of traditional music and dance of Africa and the African Diaspora for 20 years. Since 1976 she has studied with master teachers from Kongo, Mali, Senegal, Guinea and Brazil.

Christopher is a therapist and dance artist living in the Hudson Valley of New York. Christopher has presented performance work at institutions including CICA Museum (Gimpo, South Korea), Yinka Shonibare Studios (London, England), and The Place (London, England). Christopher received his dance education and training at Joffrey Ballet School and London Contemporary Dance School, and is currently training to be a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner.

Christopher formally began teaching movement workshops in 2018 on a tour throughout mainland China with DMC (Dance Master Class). Since then, Christopher has led classes throughout the United States and most recently at various institutions in the Hudson Valley. Christopher’s teaching aims to facilitate awareness of one’s internal, emotional and somatic experience as a means to developing movement. His approach is informed by an intention to support dancer’s technique and creativity while nurturing artistic individuality and safety in one’s body and movement. 

Harriett is a dancer, dancemaker, and educator based in Kingston, NY.  She received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Bard College in 2012, and her Master of Arts in Teaching from the same in 2016.  In her eighth year as an educator, Harriett continues to center student voice and well-being in a practice that includes teaching movement, teaching writing, and advocating for educational equity. Harriett is thrilled to work at Barefoot, where dancing artists are able to grow as movers, creators, and collaborators. 

Jerylann offers students of all ages a blend of rigor and whimsy aimed at facilitating creative agency and solid dance technique. Her engagement is nurturing and takes dancers very far in their personal and artistic journeys. 

Barefoot alumna, Ella graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in May, 2023 after completing her Honor’s Project in Dance. During her tenure at HWS, Ella was awarded both The Cadence Joy Whittier Prize in Dance and The Janet Seeley Performing Arts Scholarship (for Performance and/or Choreography), and was invited to present her choreography at the prestigious American College Dance Association Conference. Ella studied dance at Barefoot for eleven years, and was a Barefoot Dance Company member for almost half of that time. She was also an assistant dance teacher in both Creative Dance and Contemporary Modern I classes, and returned to assist in our summer programs. Post HWS graduation, Ella returned to be Barefoot Dance Company’s guest choreographer and became our very first intern.