Meghann Weaver
Director
Determined to fill her students with self confidence and passion, Meghann embraced her love of dance at an early age. She became a part of the Chester County Ballet and Starlight Tap Company while studying at Harrison Dance Studios in West Chester, PA. Upon graduation, she was invited to attend two summers of training at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.
Meghann received a BFA in Jazz Dance Performance from the University of the Arts and began a teaching career focusing on competitive dance and performance. Meghann is now an award winning competition choreographer with recognitions including Entertainment awards, High Score Overall awards, and multiple Choreography awards. She has been proud to guide her students to continue on to higher education including multiple students pursuing majors and minors in the study of dance.
Meghann has also created many professional quality shows with the children of Radnor Township as the Performing Arts Director each summer. Meghann continues her training and has recently been working toward her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training Certification.
With the opening of Main Line Dance Company, Meghann is motivated to provide an environment of intense training and individualized support that allows each of our dancers to thrive as the artists that they are born to be. Some girls are just born with glitter in their veins.
Carolyn Crissey
Ballet Instructor
Carolyn began her formal ballet lessons with Ms. Hedy Rock at the age of 6 and has been dancing ever since. Primarily trained in the Vaganova method she continued her studies at the Creative and Performing Arts HS of Philadelphia and graduated from Goucher College with a BA degree in Dance.
She started student teaching in 2004 and has taught classes of all ages and levels for the Pennsylvania School of Classical Ballet for the past 7 years. Her goal is to provide enjoyable yet challenging classes. She expects the best from all of her students and hopes that they continue to learn and love dance one class at a time.
Eryka Weaver
Assistant Competition Team Coach
Eryka began her training at the age of three studying a variety of forms at Harrison’s Dance Studios in West Chester, PA. After graduating high school Eryka attended West Chester University with a Bachelors’ degree in psychology and a concentration in Dance.
Eryka has been involved in competitive dance as an assistant coach since 2012. Eryka is currently continuing to fulfill her love of dance while wokring with the competition teams.
She recently completed her Masters’ Degree in School Counseling and, when not in the studio, works as a School Counselor. Eryka loves spending time with the dancers and helping them to fulfill their full potential from the little ones to our seniors getting ready to leave for college.
Gianna DiFurio
Ballet, Jazz/Tap, Acro Lyrical Instructor, Assistant Team Coach
Gianna began dancing at the age of 3, studying a variety of styles, and continued her dance training as a competitive dancer for 12 years. Additionally, she is a former Varsity cheerleader for Sun Valley High School. Having traveled all around for performances, competitions and training, she has danced in Disney World, the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade, and at River Sharks Games, Philadelphia Soul Games and Wings Games on several occasions. Once graduating, she went on to West Chester University to study Exercise Science. Gianna wanted to share her love of dance and began teaching and choreographing for all ages for both recreational and competitive dancing. Winning top scoring and choreography awards, Gianna continues to build her dance career, and hopes to help her students grow, thrive, and express themselves through dance.
Bilal Simpson
Contemporary Instructor & Assistant Team Coach
Bilal Simpson of Charlotte, North Carolina began dancing at the age of 10 at Fletcher School of Dance, BB Dance Productions, and Miss Donna’s School of Dance. At the age of 16, Bilal began to dance professionally with the NBA Hornets and the WNBA Sting. Shortly after he graduated from Northwest High School of the Arts, he began to teach at BB Dance Productions, Miss Donnas School of Dance and Academy of Dance and Fine Arts. In 2005, Bilal moved to Philadelphia, PA to attend the University of the Arts for Dance Education and began to teach at Dshay Academy of Dance Arts and Carols Center for Dance in 2009. Additionally, Bilal joined Grace Dance Theater and also became a resident choreographer for Grace Dance 2 and Training Company of Grace and the Children’s Dance Ensemble. In 2014 Bilal joined the company of Contempora Dance Theater. Bilal also has taught and produced choreography for The Dance Depot of Collegeville, Philly Movements Dance Company, Contempra Dance School and Jasmin Yahne School of Dance. Bilal’s choreography has won several 1st Overall and Choreography Awards throughout the nation. Bilal has had the opportunity to receive instruction from prestigious choreographers and artists such as Mia Michaels, Dale Lamb, Dee Caspary, Travis Wall, Anthony Burrell, Sadie Roberts, and Veronica Bradley Badgett.
Emily Gach
Ballet Instructor
Prior to earning her BA in Dance from Goucher College, Emily danced with The Baron Ballet Company in Ridgewood, NJ. Studying under Mrs. Baron, Ralph DiRienzo, Paul Sutherland, Brunilda Ruiz and Mr. And Mrs. Dvorovenko, Emily learned stage presence, how to pick up choreography quickly and a genuine adoration of Ballet. While at Goucher College, she built a foundation for teaching which included History, Anatomy & Kinesiology and Stage Lighting & Music. Since Graduating in 2006, Emily has continued her education, earning her Yoga Teacher Training Certification and is currently working towards her Aerial Yoga Teacher Certification. Emily and her husband, Nate, are raising three young kids and sweet cat & dog outside of Philadelphia. Emily hopes to cultivate ongoing inquisitive, curiosity of movement and education in all of her students.
Allie Cox
Hip Hop Instructor & Private Coaching
Allie Cox has been dancing competitively from the age of 10. Originally starting off with just hip hop ,she quickly ventured into other styles including jazz, lyrical, contemporary, ballet, acro and even tap. During her competition days she had the privilege of competing at numerous regional, national and even world competitions winning many high scoring awards including 2012 and 2013 back to back national titles.
Following high school, Allie went on to Temple University where she joined a dance group called Dare 2 Dance. Within that group, she was able to open and perform for numerous events held by the university along with other competitions being held in the Philly area.
After graduation, Allie stayed in the city of Philadelphia and went on to dance professionally for a semi pro football team for a year. Following that, Allie was lucky enough to join the Philadelphia 76ers Dunk Team as their first female dancer. After two years on the team, she was named co-captain and is now in her fifth year with them and loving every minute of it. She has performed with artists including Run DMC, Bell Biv Devoe, Camila Cabello, Nina Sky, Biz Markie and many others. Allie feels very fortunate to have had so many amazing experiences in the world of dance and she loves being able to share that with her students and young dancers.
Bria Walton
Guest Faculty
Bria Walton is a central Jersey native where she started dancing at the age of 8. Though Bria started her training with hip hop classes, she quickly join a competition team where she studied many styles of dance including ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, tap, and hip hop. After graduation, she continued her hip hop training at Academy of Phresh in Philadelphia under the direction of Smart Mark Boston.
Bria’s professional credits include Good Morning America, Pharrell Williams Sephora Fragrance Launch, and she was recently a featured dancer in Todrick Hall’s music video for his visual album. Bria has completed two seasons with Introspective Movement Project, under the direction of Sonia Pennington, where she was able to dance for Matthew Schuler at the Wawa Welcome to America Festival. In 2014, Bria completed one of her biggest projects where she was the co-choreographer for an Off Broadway production in NYC called Sound Syndrome. Bria recently moved back from Los Angeles and is traveling around the country teaching the next generation of dancers!
Caitlin Cantrell
Guest Faculty
Caitlin Cantrell, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, started her dance training at the Edna Lee Dance Studio, under the direction of Miss Mary Moran and Mrs. Ashley Canterna-Hardy. She continued her training at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, where she received a degree in Dance Education, with a focus in Ballet.
While in school, Caitlin danced for Xhale Dance Company and performed throughout the Pennsylvania and New York areas. After graduation, Caitlin moved to New York where she dance professionally with Abarukas Contemporary Dance Company and Michael Susten & Company. She had the opportunity to perform at APAP, Manhattan Movement Arts, La Mama, Jacobs Pillow and many other fantastic festivals and venues. Caitlin has a wonderful passion for teaching and is happy to share her love of dance!
