Miss Lindsey Hadley
Owner/Director
Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Pointe, Contemporary Modern, Pre-Dance, Dance With Me, Performance Team Director
Lindsey Hadley has been studying dance for over 20 years. She grew up in Salem, NH, which is where she first fell in love with teaching dance as an assistant teacher in high school.
Lindsey continued her studies at the University of New Hampshire, where she earned a B.A. in Theatre with an emphasis in Dance with Gay Nardone, Mary Beth Marino and Larry Robertson. While a student in Durham, she performed for four years with the UNH Dance Company and choreographed many pieces for the student dance showcases. At UNH, she also had the opportunity to train in aerial dance, which taught her a new way to look at movement while utilizing the trapeze, silks, lyra and other apparatuses. Lindsey even spent time performing in theater productions at UNH and working backstage as a technical assistant.
Since college, Lindsey has been teaching in the Seacoast area and continuing her dance education. She danced with Boston-based dance company DancEdge for three years and directed several of UNH’s youth summer programs. Her choreography has been featured in UNH summer theater programs, the Little Red Wagon, Dance Northeast and the Charles River Dance Festival. She is also the artistic director of the Alegria Dance Company, which she founded in 2010. Each year Lindsey contributes to her continuing dance education by attending seminars and workshops in order to bring fresh ideas to the studio.
Lindsey has been teaching at Joy of Dance since 2005 and has been the owner since 2011. She is thrilled to continue the tradition of helping children to become dancers and dancers to become a part of the Joy of Dance family!
Miss Sarah Corrow
Studio Manager & Fine Arts Club Lead Teacher
Sarah attended the University of New Hampshire as a Musical Theatre, and graduated a semester early in Fall of 2020! Sarah is from Durham, New Hampshire, but moved all around the world with her family growing up. She discovered her love of dance, theatre and education through the arts in high school after she began teaching at the Theatre Camp she grew up going to.
Along with being an educator, Sarah is a professional performer. She has performed at Prescott Park Arts Festival, The Players Ring, and Hackmatack Playhouse. She is passionate about theatre and sustainability, and enjoys writing children’s plays about how at any age you can be an advocate for our planet!
Sarah has been teaching and directing Youth Theatre for 7 years at multiple professional theatres. Her dream is to teach full time, and share her passion for performing with all ages!
Miss Cara Spilsbury
Performance Team
Cara has been teaching dance in the New England area since 2005 and has been dancing since the age of three. She grew up in Portland, where she studied at Maine State Ballet, Portland Ballet and Casco Bay Movers. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2006 with a B.A. in English/Journalism and a minor in Dance. She was a member of the UNH Dance Company and also had the opportunity to study aerial dance!
After college, she worked for several years as a news, features and sports reporter in the Boston area, but kept finding herself pulled to dance. She performed with DancEdge, Intimations Dance, OnStage Dance Company, DanceWorks Boston, the Boston Cannons Dance Team and the Lowell Devils Ice Girls. As a teacher, Cara worked with students at Broadway Bound Dance Center, the Arlington Dance Place, Starline Academy for the Performing Arts and Creative Steps Dance Studio. Cara also spent five years working for Boston Ballet School, serving in multiple roles as well as completing the Boston Ballet Adaptive Dance Training in August 2016.
In 2018,Cara founded the Joy and Movement (JAM) Adaptive Dance Program in 2018.. JAM is a fully inclusive dance curriculum for children with physical, developmental, learning and/or sensory differences. She designed the curriculum specifically to provide her students with opportunities to enhance their gross and fine motor skills, balance, coordination, social skills, self-esteem, communication, and self-regulation.
Cara earned her M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a specialization in Dance/Movement Therapy in May 2019 from Lesley University. She is also an Endorsed Practitioner of Rainbowdance, a certified Rhythm Works Integrative Dance instructor and a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist (R-DMT) with the American Dance Therapy Association.
When not dancing, Cara works as a clinical counselor at a therapeutic boarding school. She loves baseball, hockey, ice skating, kayaking, running, reading the Sunday newspaper and doing crossword puzzles!
Miss Hayden Fitt
Tap, Young Children Dance
Hayden has been dancing for 19 years and began her dance education at Brixham Danceworks in South Berwick, Maine. During high school she was a part of Marshwood Marching Hawks for 5 years, with her final 2 as Drum Major. She was the coach of the Marshwood Middle School Winterguard, choreographing their 2016 program- The Little Robot (based on Wall-E). After graduation she joined the Dance Team at Lesley University, choreographing 3 group pieces and 4 solos. She has taken at least one class in almost every style, including Tap, Hip Hop, Ballet, Modern, Contemporary and Jazz. This is her first year teaching at Joy of Dance and she is excited to join for this season!
Miss Sarah Russo
Contemporary Modern and Lyrical
Sarah was born and raised in Milford, CT where she started her dance career at just three years old. She grew to study ballet, jazz, musical theatre, contemporary, modern, lyrical, tap, and hip hop! Through a partnership with her home studio, Sarah trained at Broadway Dance Center in NYC where she has been able to train with some of the top choreographers in the city.
After High School, Sarah continued her education at the University of New Hampshire. She is currently studying psychology with a minor in dance. Along with her dance classes, she also enjoys teaching and choreographing as a part of the student-run dance program called Sisters in Step.
Sarah is currently a senior at the University of New Hampshire. Next year, she plans to continue to sharpen her dance and teaching skills and keep doing what she loves. Sarah is so excited to be joining Joy of Dance this year and share her skills with the dancers!
Miss Maddi Rank
Young Children’s Program Manager
Young Children’s Dance
Maddi began her dance education over 20 years ago. She trained in multiple styles with studios in the Monadnock Region. After graduating high school, Maddi attended Franklin Pierce University and graduated with her B.S. in Marketing and Advertising. While at FPU, she performed with the university’s dance company to further her training. During her Junior and Senior years, she had the privilege of attending the American College Dance Festival. There she had the opportunity to train with many choreographers from across the country.
Since graduating, Maddi is thrilled to have had the opportunity to teach students age 1.5 to 18. She has also gained valuable experience in the business field as an administrative assistant and development assistant.
Maddi is ecstatic to join the JoD family in 2019, and bring her love of dance to the seacoast!
Miss Katie George
Young Children’s Dance, Hip Hop, Hip Hop Troupe
Katie has been dancing since she was only two years old. As she grew older, she started training in classical ballet. After falling in love with ballet, Katie began training in Jazz, Pointe, Hip Hop, Tap, Step and Contemporary. She was also an assistant teacher throughout her four years of high school where she taught ballet every Saturday morning. In her senior year, Katie was thrilled to be asked to choreograph a hip hop and tap piece for the studio’s end of the year recital.
After High School, Katie’s love for dance continued to grow. She jumped on the opportunity to teach Hip Hop to recreation programs and as well as summer classes at a studio near her hometown on Cape Cod. While studying at the University of New Hampshire, Katie continues to teach and choreograph for a student run dance program called Sisters in Step.
Katie is a senior this year and plans to be a child life specialist once she graduates. Katie loves working with children of all ages and is so excited to be part of the Joy of Dance family!
Miss Emily Perron
Dance With Me, Dance Explore, Hip Hop, Ballet, Jazz, Tap
Emily began dancing when she was only 3 years old. At age 11, Emily found Joy of Dance and continue her training here through high school. She has studied Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Modern, Hip Hop, Lyrical, competed with Joy of Dance’s Performance Team for 4 years and is a member of Alegria Dance Company. While at Joy of Dance, Emily has been fortunate to have studied under several teachers through the apprenticeship program for 6 years. She has been teaching her own classes for Joy of Dance for 4 years.
Emily loves to mix her passion with dance with her passion for working with kids. She plans to get a degree in early childhood education as well as continuing to expand her dance training.
Miss Marissa Moore
Ballet, Pointe, Jazz
Marissa has over fifteen years of dance experience, training in Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Broadway, Lyrical, Modern, and Contemporary. Along with training in her technique classes, she also performed in The Nutcracker, Dance Rochester/Dance Northeast, and across the seacoast with Sole City Dance’s Ensemble.
After high school, Marissa continued her studies at Franklin Pierce University for one year before transferring to the University of New Hampshire, where she received her B.A. in English Literature with a Minor in Dance. While at University, she had the fortune to train with Assaf Benchetrit, Gay Nardone and Susan Endrizzi, receive the Robert Alvin Performing Arts Scholarship from FPU, and perform as a member of the UNH Ballet Company for three years. Some of her favorite performance roles include Snow, Lead Arabian, Toy Flute, Flower, and Clara, all in the Nutcracker, Will O’ the Wisp (Hamlet: 7 Rooms, FPU), House Slave (Les Enslave, UNH), and Princess (Cinderella, UNH).
Not only has Marissa had the privilege of teaching young children’s dance around the seacoast, but she also taught her fellow classmates at FPU and UNH in Choreography and Pedagogy classes. Marissa joined the Joy of Dance staff in 2017 teaching in her main discipline of Ballet.
Miss Cherie Williams
Ballet
Cherie Williams began dancing at a young age and later studied at Boston Ballet under the direction of Virginia Williams (founder), French School Ballet Master Adolph Robicheau and Harriet Hoctor. She completed two years of college at the Boston Conservatory of Music in the BFA program. Her degree is from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA, now The University of Mary Washington. She graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in Dance. She implemented the Intramural Dance Program at the Tewksbury Junior High School, danced with MWC Dance Company performing in the Washington D.C. area, and taught for the Joy of Movement, a Boston based studio. Cherie owned and operated Dance Designs in Plaistow, NH for 28 years. Working with Operation Mobilization, a missions organization, and DanceLink Cherie helped choreograph for and danced with OM Arts in England, during the Summer Olympics in 2012. She headed back overseas for more dance ministry in July and August of 2015 and danced across Hungary. She will join the staff in the Fall of 2019 and is looking forward to sharing her “Joy” of dance with her new students.