Instructors/Staff

Playing till the work emerges . . . . dedicated to the process

Instructors

NANCY SAYLOR (Owner and Director)

SANDRA DENIUS (Zumba, Belly Dancing, American and Latin Ballroom) is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in painting and printmaking and communication arts and design. She took ballet at a young age and fell in love with dance but growing up in Hot Springs, Virginia there were not many opportunities to study dance. While attending college at VCU and living in Richmond, she took advantage of many of the different types of dance offered. She took everything from African Carribean Dance at VCU, Middle Eastern Belly Dancing from Shiva, and American and Latin Ballroom at Rigby’s jig where she worked part time for three years and also began teaching Zumba. She has been dancing, teaching and performing salsa for seven years. In addition to being a mother of three beautiful children she is a triathlete, personal fitness trainer, master swim coach and Aquatics Director of the Alleghany Highlands YMCA.

STEPHANIE HODDE (Preschool Creative Movement, Dance Lab I and III) holds a BA in English and Dtram from William Smith College, an MA in Humanities from University of Chicago, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Illinois. Stephanie has been studying contemporary movement since her middle school years and, while in Chicago, she studied modern dance, ballet, and jazz with Joel Hall Dancers and Hubbard Street. She has over six years of experience as a physical theater artist and puppeteer with Redmoon Theater adn ahs extensive experience working with children and other teachers in the development of literacy and art programs in Chicago, New Jersey, Roanoke, and Lexington.

JESSICA MILLER (Dance Conditioning) is the costumer at Washington and Lee University where she has worked for the past six years, designing and creating costumes for all the Washington and Lee Theater Department productions. Besides working with costumes, Jessica loves to dance. She has been studying dance since age five, taking classes in ballet, modern, and jazz. She began taking the Dance Conditioning classes in 2002 and began teaching the class in 2007.

MARLA PALMA (Hip Hop) is a native Northern Virginian who has studied dance since the age of 3. She grew up dancing with the Russell School of ballet, home of Fairfax Ballet and Jazz Company. For a brief time in the 80s she lived in Houston, TX where she began high school at the High School for Performing and Visual Arts in downtown Houston with a concentration in dance. In 1986 she returned to Virginia and continued with the Russell School of Ballet, dancing in their Junior and then Senior Companies until she graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia in 1989. From there she went on to Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia dancing with students in Motion Dance Company and then George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia where she danced with the GMU Dance Company. With an intensive background in Ballet, Modern, and Jazz, she went on to study African Dance, Lyrical, Spazz (speed jazz), Freestyle, and Hip Hop under the instruction of dancers from the Wo Se African Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Company, Illstyle and Peace Productions, and other reputable dance companies. She also taught dance for FAIR in the summer of 2007 and is choreographer and assistant director for the 2008 Summer FAIR's musical, Godspell Jr.

IRENE TOWNSENDS M.D. (Dance Conditioning) moved from Boston, MA to Lexington, VA in 1985 with a career in adolescent medicine. Before coming to Lexington, Irene had tried standard aerobics classes and running as forms of fitness training. However, exercises didn't become fun for her until the fall of 1985 when, as a newcoming to Lexington, she discovered Halestone's morning, dance exercise classes for adults, then being led by Halestone's founder, Carol Kirgis (now Carol Winder). Irene continued exercising regularly at Halestone including during and immediately after pregnancy with her son William. In 1988 she was asked by Carol Kirgis to begin teaching the class. Two decades later, Irene continues to teach these regular, year round, dancing conditioning classes - still modeled on the original Kirgis lesson plan, but now designed and choreographed by the studio owner, Nancy Saylor. Irene says, "The Halestone program is variable enough and adaptable enough to continue for twenty years! And I'm not the only one who's been coming here so long."

VICTORIA MASON (Teacher's Assistant)

COREY SMALLWOOD (Teacher's Assistant)

AARON RACHELS (Teacher's Assistant)

Staff

LARRY EVANS (Bookkeeper) has been active in community based performing arts throughout his life. He grew up in Waynesboro, VA and helped to found the Shenandoah Valley Art Center there in 1985, serving as President before moving to Rockbridge County in 1987. A few years later he joined the Rockbridge Chorus (now the Rockbridge Choral Society) and works closely with its director, William McCorkle, in helping to plan and implement seasonal concerts as well as hiring a regional orchestra for their concerts. He is also a frequent soloist with this group.

At the invitation of The CDCT director, Nancy Saylor, he has performed in several of its productions participating as a dancer, singer, speaker as well as helping with backstage duties. He is currently the treasurer for The CDCT.

Larry served on the board of Fine Arts in Rockbridge from 1999 through 2005. He was a past Vice-President and President of FAIR and during his tenure saw the organization grow substantially with the addition of several new programs, which included the Rockbridge Youth Chorale and the Rockbridge Symphony Orchestra.

As a trained classical singer, Larry as appeared in many different venues in the Rockbridge area including productions at Washington & Lee University , Roanoke Opera, the Shenandoah Valley Choral Society in Harrisonburg, the Virginia Consort and Ash Lawn Opera in Charlottesville and Virginia Tech.

Larry believes strongly in community-based arts as a necessary part of a vibrant community lifeblood and is frequently seen either performing or otherwise advocating their presence in the community.

Larry resides in Rockbridge County and keeps busy with remodeling, bookkeeping, picture framing, gardening and life in general.

MARY LOUISA LANE (Advertising/Marketing/Web-Design and Web-Master) is a dancer and choreographer based in Washington, DC. Raisined in Lexington, Mary has studied dance since a young age, training at The Lexington School of Dance and Halestone Dance Studio. She was an attendee of The American Dance Festival in 2000 and 2002. Mary has performed and choreographed works throughout the region, working with such artists as Nataly Kasparova of Kannon Dance, Dawn Stoppiello of Troika Rance, Dana Tai Soon Burgess of Moving Forward Dance Company, Maida Withers of The Dance Construction Company, Donald McKayle, and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. She is currently serving as the Director of the High School Ensemble for The CDCT.

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