“Dance teachers have a long history of learning through experience. Historically, the apprentice system has been our training ground. After logging thousands of hours in class, the dancer becomes a teacher. But the time has come to ground experience with theory. Analytical knowledge confirms intuitive choices and challenges old beliefs. This powerful combination of theory and intuition will help teachers train smart dancers who are ready to handle the demands of contemporary dance.”
~Jan Erkert, “Harnessing the Wind: The Art of Teaching Modern Dance”
Jessie Levey, Founder, Director, Teaching Artist

Jessie (she/her) 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.
As the founder and director of Barefoot Dance Center, Jessie continues to teach through Barefoot’s three lenses (creativity, somatics, and identity), which she developed over many years in the field. She holds an MFA in Dance from The Peck School of the Arts at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is a Registered Somatic Dance Educator, and certified as both a childbirth educator and yoga instructor. As a member of National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), she attends annual conferences to both present and participate. Her three published articles may be found in NDEO’s journal, Dance Education in Practice. Jessie is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Vassar College Dance Department and leads professional development workshops to classroom teachers and dance educators nationally and internationally.
Jessie is honored 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.
Carol Chappell, Teaching Artist

Carol (she/her) 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.
Rachel Sigrid Freeburg, Teaching Artis

Rachel Sigrid Freeburg (she/her) is dance artist, dance educator, and psychotherapist. Her choreography has been shown and supported through Movement Research at Judson Church, the Work-Up residency at Gibney Dance, and the WIP series at the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought. As a performer she has had the privilege to dance in works by Emily Climer, Angharad Davies, Beth Gracyk, Bebe Miller, Dustin Maxwell and Susan Rethorst as well as perform for the companies Arena Dances (Minneapolis) and Companie La Halte Garderie (Paris). Teaching dance is a meaningful and central part of her practice. She has taught at Mark Morris Dance Center, Gibney Dance, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, DanceWave, BalletMet, The Ohio State University, and the St. Paul Conservatory for the Performing Arts. Rachel holds a BFA in dance from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in dance from The Ohio State University.
Harriett Meyer, Teaching Artist

Harriett (she/her) 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 Warner, Teaching Artist

Jerylann (she/her) 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.
Ella Stier, Social Media Communications Director

Barefoot alumna, Ella (she/her) 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.
Past faculty members, teaching artists, and guest choreographers
Souleymane (“Solo”) Badolo, Pam and Mimo Camara, Christopher Daniels, Hannah Fox, Maia Claire Garrison, Charlotte Gibbons, Zvi Gotheiner, Betty Skeen Gorinson, Hillary Jackson, Erin Jennings, Nina Jerka, Yoav Kaddar, Zoë Lefkowitz, Isabel Levey-Swain, Julie Ludwick, Tara Lorenzen, Maureen Mansfield, Kathy McDonald, Mei-Yin Ng, Rupa Parikh, Leslie Partridge Sachs, Sarah Billings Wheeler, John Zullo