Faculty and Staff

Bridget Struthers, owner and director of BSD, is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and life-long dance and movement enthusiast. She hails from Putney, VT and was educated in dance at BSD by Kathleen Keller, Allison Mott, Holly Johnson, Jane LoMonaco, Pascal Benichou, Shannon McGough, Kalya Yannatos, and many others. She received a B.A. in Dance from Goucher College and an M.F.A in Dance and New Media from N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts. While at N.Y.U. she received a full scholarship as a Dance and New Media Graduate Assistant. During her time in New York City, she studied and worked with with Netta Yerushalmy, Amy Pivar, Darcy Naganuma, Vita Osojnik, Giadda Ferrone, Jim Martin, Phyllis Lamhut, Sean Curran, Allyson Green, and others. In 2012, alongside collaborator Olivia Wingerath, she founded Bridge & Olive dance—a contemporary dance duo that specializes in performing in unlikely places. She has performed and shown work nationally and internationally at The Crisis Arts Festival in Italy, Center for Performance Research, DUMBO Dance Festival, Peridance Capezio Center, DANY, Ailey City Performing Arts Center, The Tank, The Jack Crystal Theater, LaMaMa, Danspace Project, Movement Research at Judson Church, BookCourt, JAPAN Collaborative Brooklyn, Gaudi’s Park Guell in Barcelona, The Gardens at Villa la Pietra in Florence, and many other sites and stages. As a teacher, Bridget revels in opportunities to inspire students to go beyond their familiar limits. She strives to cultivate anatomically aware, smart dancers who know what it means to work hard, have fun, and be part of a community.

Born in Komchen, Mexico, Mucuy Bolles’ career spanned 23 years during which she performed as soloist and principal dancer with many acclaimed companies such as Feld Ballet, Elisa Monte Dance, Zvi Dance, Buglisi/Foreman Dance, Complexions, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Broadway credits include: The Red Shoes, The Kind and I, and Disney’s The Lion King. Teaching credits include company class for Alvin Ailey, Elisa Monte Dance, and Feld Ballet; judge and master teacher for the Youth American Grand Prix; and coach for the New York International Ballet Competition. Ms. Bolles’ most recently danced with the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company until her retirement from performing in the fall of 2009.

Rachel Hebert began dancing at the Moving Company in Keene, New Hampshire and at the Brattleboro School of Dance, where she trained for a total of fourteen years. She has trained in summer intensives at the Rock School, The Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, and Burklyn Ballet Theater. She participated in the Windham Regional Career Center Performing Arts Dance Program while attending Brattleboro Union High School, and from there continued her studies at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School, Point Park University, and The Ailey School. She is currently teaching Ballet and creating new works of choreography.

Jane LoMonaco is a Certified Yoga and Pilates Instructor. She currently teaches creative movement, fitness and Pilates classes and also works with individual clients at The Brattleboro School of Dance. She has taught at The Moving company in Keene, Northfield Mt. Hermon, Marlboro College and many area schools. While living in NYC she studied and performed with Dance June Lewis. Locally she has performed with the Brattleboro School of Dance, Coincidance, and ZIA, a multi-age dance group which toured in Russia in 1995. Jane holds a BA from Mt. Holyoke and an MA in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College of Education.

Nan Mann has been teaching theater, dance, preschool, and After School programs for young children in the Brattleboro area for over 20 years. She has been on staff at the Brattleboro School of Dance, in a variety of roles, for over a decade. She is well known to area audiences as an actress and also produces the School of Dance’s spring performances. Her classes, like her choreography, show her theatrical roots by emphasizing the story telling attributes of the art of dance.

Robin Wolf has studied dance extensively in New York, Chicago, and Boston and has taught dance in the Brattleboro area for more than 35 years. She has choreographed productions with Kathleen Keller and in well known in the area for her dance and theatre performances. Robin began studying Rhythm Tap at the Leon Collins Studio in Boston with Dianne Walker and Sue Ronson. She continues her studies with various tap masters at the Portsmouth Percussive Dance Festival in Portsmouth, NH, Tap City in New York, NY, and International Tap Dance Day at The Dance Inn in Lexington, MA. Robin is a member of the International Tap Association and holds a BS from Northwestern University and an MSW from Hunter College.

Carrie Towle grew up and did her early training in Vermont at the Brattleboro School of Dance. She studied with the Boston School of Ballet, the New York School of Ballet, and was a dance major at SUNY Purchase. She pursued her love for teaching while dancing with the New Mexico Ballet by teaching at the NMB School, as well as throughout Albuquerque. Carrie has been teaching children, teens, and adults for 25 years and has honed her pedagogy through teaching extensively in VT and MA.  Her teaching credits include: Marlboro College, the Brattleboro School of Dance, the Career Center Dance Program at BUHS, the Stoneleigh-Burnham School, Kelly’s Dance Academy, Vermont Academy, The Ballet School at Bement (where she was also the director), and Deerfield Academy. In addition to teaching, Carrie has choreographed extensively and loves to set work on her students. Carrie holds a MA in Counselor Education from the University of NM and resides in VT with her three children.

Tehila Marks says… “I took a Pilates class while working at a high-tech company in college. That one class changed my life. I felt longer, stronger, and a deeper sense of connection within my body. My awareness shifted, and I fell in love with Pilates.

Now, more than 13 years since that class, I’ve owned two studios, managed and taught at others, and had the incredible fortune to study with some gifted teachers from around the world. My studios were focused on providing clients better awareness of their bodies, improved body mechanics, corrected alignment, and improving overall physical ability through Certified Pilates instruction. I’ve fostered a passion for the Classical Pilates system and have developed a sense of creating workouts that meet the individual client’s needs according to his/her own unique body.

At the beginning of 2020, I moved with my family to Vermont from Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville has a large number of people involved in the equestrian industry. As I continued to attract more riders, I wanted to better understand the mechanisms and techniques in horse riding which led me to Elizabeth Hanson’s Equestrian Pilates Training.”

Susan Czechel began her training in dance at the age of 5 in New York. She began teaching dance at the age of 18 and has been teaching ever since; a career she could never call a job!  Her training is from SUNY Purchase, SUNY Cortland, Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, The Ailey School, Westchester Community College, Mid-Westchester JCC and Central Park Dance, among others.  Although Susan has performed professionally in NYC and the tri-state area, her true passion lies in the area of teaching dance.  She has taught thousands of students in New York through the years, quite a few of which have gone on to be professional dancers and performing artists.  Her teaching credits include Fordham University, Westchester Dance Academy, New Dance and Dance Centre of Westchester (where she was also the director/owner), along with many other places.  Susan holds a B.A. in Elementary Education and an M.A. in Special Education.  She is a certified ballet barre instructor, personal trainer and group fitness instructor and has a black belt in tae kwon do.  Teaching dance is Susan’s true passion and she could not imagine a career more rewarding.  In 2021 Susan and her family moved from New York to Vermont.  She is extremely happy to be on the faculty at BSD!

Kate Tarlow Morgan—choreographer, author/editor, and somatic educator—is a certified teacher/practitioner of Body-Mind Centering™ and founder of the Somatic Writing Collective.  She is also trained in Erick Hawkins Technique, Zero Balancing, Ideokinesis, Awareness-through-the-Body, and The Rhythms Fundamentals. Kate is editor-in-chief of Currents Journal (Somatics) and Lost & Found: CUNY Poetics Document Initiative.

Gershom Moore has been dancing since the age of 2. He started with ballet, tap, and jazz, followed by theater dance before moving on to street dancing in 1988. Street dancing is where Gershom found his heart, and he spent lots of time in the clubs in and around New York City, Boston, and throughout Connecticut. He began teaching house dancing in the early 1990’s in Hartford, Connecticut. Gershom moved to Brattleboro, Vermont in 2001 and has taught dance at Luminz Studios, Marlboro College, and the Putney School to name a few area schools, and was also involved in a Brattleboro-based break dancing crew in 2003. After teaching at Brattleboro School of Dance from 2001 to 2004, he is very pleased to return to the studio. In Gershom’s words, “I’m here to rock with you.”

Francesca Bourgault grew up dancing, began teaching at age 14, and never stopped. She specializes in tap, modern, and creative dance with an emphasis on getting to know your body in a fun and judgement-free atmosphere. She holds a BA in Dance from Western Michigan University. When not teaching, she can be found at her shop, Windham Movement Apparel, playing with her daughter, or relaxing with her family.

Marion Major has been dancing since she can remember. Idolizing ballerinas, she came to BSD in Ballet I and discovered her love of the art. Through the years she broadened her technique to other types of dance, learning the importance of cross-training. In college, Marion was a member of the Orchesis Dance Company at UVM, where she performed and discovered choreography. Returning to the BSD community, Marion has enjoyed taking classes, choreographing for the spring show, and performing. She is excited to contribute to BSD as a teacher.

Kathleen Keller, founder of BSD, holds a BA in child development and psychology and an MA in education and has been teaching for 26 years. She has studied at the New York and Atlanta Schools of Ballet, Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Center, and with such artists as Elizabeth Serbon, Erick Hawkins, and Twyla Tharp.  Kathi still returns regularly to teach, choreograph, and costume for classes and shows.

Anna Bowler began dancing in New York at the Adirondack Repertory Dance Theatre where she trained in ballet and modern dance technique. From there she continued her studies at the Brattleboro School of Dance and then at Manhattanville College in Westchester, NY. She has studied and performed with Doug Elkins, Jorge Pabon, David Howard, Nick Ross of Nicholas Andre dance and Bill Hastings. She is currently teaching and working in southern Vermont with Luminz Dance Company and synchronicity breakforce, building new works and exploring new genres of dance.

Holly Johnson has been associated with the BSD since 1985 as a choreographer and performer, as well as teacher of tap, modern, jazz, and most recently, ballet. Her professional affiliations have included Stage One Theater Co., Boston; Fusion Dance Studio, San Diego, CA; and her own former company After Image, Boston. She holds a master’s degree in dance therapy and has worked in creative arts therapies for more than 20 years. Prior to her BSD affiliation she performed in the Boston and San Diego areas, as well as in Copenhagen, Denmark while in residency with the Mermaid Theater.

Alison Mott‘s early modern dance training was rooted in the work of Mary Wigman and Hanya Holm, finding movement as it arises from inside. Along the way, she has incorporated a variety of approaches, from Contact Improvisation to Release Technique to movement science, in her quest to discover movement that is full-bodied, mechanically efficient, and expressive. She has taught in the Greater Brattleboro area since 1990, and was one of the founding teachers of the WRCC Dance Program. Alison makes her home in Putney with her wife, three dairy goats, and an enormous dog.

When Patricia Wilson discovered the Dunham Technique at age 22 in a class with Arthur Hall at the American Dance Festival, it was a spiritual and physical homecoming, weaving together the energy threads of her previous studies of dance, yoga, and meditation. patricia then dedicated herself to furthering her knowledge of Dunham Technique, attending the first Dunham Seminar in 1983 in East St. Louis and then returning each summer to study with Miss Dunham, Pearl Reynolds, Tommy Gomez, Lucille Ellis, Vanoye Aikens, Talley Beatty, C.K. Ghano, and Ronnie Yao Marshall, among many other fine teachers. In 1992, Patricia was honred to assist Katherine Dunham in the final week of her 47 day fast to protest the American treatment of Haitian refugees. Chosen to be part of the first group certified by the Institute of Dunham Technique Certification, Patricia was certified to teach the Dunham Technique by Katherine Dunham in 1994. Patricia is currently the Co-Director of the Institute for Dunham Technique Certification, working with dancers from around the world.

Patricia’s company, ziadance toured in Russia in 1995, with twenty-five dancers ranging from nine to seventy-five years old, performing two full evening shows, Imani’s Song, and Images to Grow By. Thirty-seven Russian dancers of all ages were incorporated into the concerts.

Patricia currently teaches Dunham Technique at Keene State College and The Putney School. She also teaches yoga and is dedicated to the Great Mother. Patricia received her BA in Music and Dance from Middlebury College and her MFA in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University.