FACULTY

Gracie Butler
Celtic Company
Gracie grew up in Huntington, VT, began taking Scottish Highland dance lessons with Heather Morris at age 6 and have been dancing for the past 16 years. In high school she started taking Irish step classes in addition to Highland classes and was a member of Celtic Company. She has continued to Irish dance while attending the University of Vermont on their Irish Dance Team, The Celtic Cats, where she also served as both Treasurer and President of the team. Gracie is so excited to be back at GMPA, working with students and spreading a love for dance!

JENNA COMPANION
Hip Hop/Modern/Troupe
Jenna has been dancing since she was 4 years old. She started off in ballet and tap shoes for a few years, but realized although she loved dancing and performing these weren’t her passion. At the age of 7 she took her first hip hop class at One Studio where she instantly fell in love with the style and turned in her ballet and tap shoes for her hip hop sneakers. Jenna has studied Hip Hop for many years and attended many hip hop dance conventions like  Monsters of Hip Hop and continues to so she can advance her technique and style. She has been apart of every One Studio and GMPA performance, and still continues to be.  Jenna loves sharing her passion to dance with others.

KATIE DECKER
After Care
Katie has been interested in dance and performance since a very young age. She studied Jazz at David DeMarie in Buffalo, NY throughout her childhood and performed in a variety of local theater and musical productions. As an adult, she returned to dance and found an incredible adult dance community that she didn’t even know existed right here in Vermont! She fell in love with ballet, studying intensely multiple times a week, which soon led to the development of the Farm to Ballet Project, which she co-created with Chatch Pregger and a group of committed adult ballet dancers. In 2018, Katie and Chatch incorporated Ballet Vermont, a ballet company with a social mission. Ballet Vermont produces multiple ballet productions a year, hires amateur and professional dancers and musicians and runs several kids camps- and Katie coordinates and manages the whole thing: soup to nuts! Besides dance, Katie has almost 20 years of
experience as an educator and administrator- most recently as Director of Centerpoint School, where she concluded a 17 year commitment to educating students with emotional and behavioral challenges. She has taught students from ages 3 all the way up to college age students across a variety of skill levels and content areas. Other interests include: spending time with her family and friends, being outside, listening to music (and singing it loudly), watching hysterical cat videos and eating tacos.

LEAH GARDINER
Irish/Hardshoe
Leah has been Irish dancing for 13 years since the age of 7. She attended a small family dance studio in Warwick, Rhode Island where she was also a student teacher for three years. Since moving to Burlington in 2017 to study Art Education at the University of Vermont, she has been a member of the UVM Celtic Cats which has allowed her to continue performing, competing, and growing as a dancer and a teacher. She has experience working with beginners and advanced beginners of all ages and hopes to pass on her love of Irish dancing to her students.

FIONA GARUFI
Ballet/Tap/Modern/Troupe/After Care
Fiona is so excited to be back at GMPA after taking a year away. Fiona started ballet at a young age and through the years she has also studied Hip Hop, Jazz, Tap, and Modern. Fiona grew up dancing at GMPA and became an assistant teacher as a young teenager and began teaching her own classes six years ago. Fiona also spent three summers as a dancer in the Farm to Ballet Project performing around Vermont. Fiona’s goal is to make sure all students are having fun and building confidence through learning techniques and choreography. ​

Katherine Levasseur
Highland
Katherine has two decades of experience in Scottish Highland Dance and has competed and performed across the US, Canada, and Scotland. Studying under Heather Morris, she had a successful competitive career. Notable achievements include qualifying for the North American Sadie Simpson Highland Scholarships and placing in the top 5 at the U.S. East Region Championships in her teens. Katherine was Miss Vermont 2011 and was the first state titleholder to bring Scottish Highland Dance to the Miss America stage. She earned her Associate teaching credentials from the British Association of Teachers of Dancing (BATD) in 2007 and is currently working toward her BATD Member credentials. 

HEATHER MORRIS
Celtic Dance Program Director (Irish Step/Scottish Highland/Cape Breton)
Heather has been dedicated to teaching all aspects of Celtic Dance in Vermont since 2001. For more than a decade, Heather has been developing programs in Celtic dance across the state of Vermont, from Chittenden County to the Northeast Kingdom. She trains her students to participate in local performances, national and international competitions and examinations. Heather is a Certified Member and Fellow of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing (BATD), a Certified Member of the Scottish Dancer Teachers' Alliance (SDTA), and a Member of Rince Tuatha Nua.

KELSEY O'BRIEN
Hip Hop/After Care
Kelsey has been dancing with GMPA since 2014. She has been studying hip hop since then and more recently found a love for modern dance as well. Kelsey has also become a part of GMPA’s troupe competition team and loves furthering her passion and love for dance. Kelsey began assisting hip hop classes in 2017 and has loved working with the kids, getting to know them, helping them learn choreography and helping them have fun while dancing. She is excited to lead a class on her own and share her love of dance to all her students.

---

TAITE PLAGGE
Irish/Hardshoe
Taite was born and raised in Waterbury and now attends college at the University of Vermont. She started dancing at GMPA at the age of 4, taking Ballet and Tap but she transitioned into the Irish step program taught by Heather Moris at age 6 after watching her older sister dancing jigs at home. She began competing in Irish dance competitions at age 9 and with the help of her teachers, Heather and Dylan Broderick, throughout middle and high school she moved up the levels eventually becoming an open championship dancer. She was a part of Celtic Company and enjoyed dancing in countless shows throughout Vermont and the Northeast. Her hope is to share her passion for Irish dance with her students and help them become the best dancer they can be.

---

STEPHANIE STEVENS
Ballet
Raised in California, Stephanie danced her way to Philadelphia and received her BFA in Jazz Performance at the University of the Arts. Stephanie is a movement enthusiast, dance performer and teaching artist who especially loves Modern, Jazz, Creative Movement, Tap, Ballet, Hip Hop, Theater, Yoga and Ballroom. Some of her performance highlights include performing in the Off-Broadway production 8 Million Protagonists, An Alice Preview with Moda Movement Company, Cristal Palace at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, Sprout! A Full Length Not a Ballet at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and Caged at the oldest theater in the world in Athens,Greece. Additionally Stephanie has over fourteen years experience in dance education, teaching a wide range of age groups, from toddlers to seniors. Most recently she was lead teaching artist for Dance Exchange, Ballet X’s in school outreach program. Through Dance Exchange she utilized the world renowned methodology from the National Dance Institute to teach third and fourth graders in Philadelphia. Stephanie is also a certified yoga instructor specializing in Vinyasa and Yin Yoga. Previously, she taught at a ballroom dance studio and loves teaching many styles of smooth and latin dance. She has also choreographed many wedding dances including first dances, father-daughter dances and even flash mobs. Stephanie is overjoyed to share her love of movement at GMPA!