CHOREOGRAPHERS AND
Carolyn Adams
Choreographer, Sister Duet
Carolyn was a principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company for nearly 20 years, creating roles in such Taylor masterpieces as Esplanade, Arden Court, and Cloven Kingdom, and further distinguishing herself in Taylor’s classic Aureole. After retiring from the stage, she maintained close ties to the company, restaging works, teaching Taylor technique and repertory at the Juilliard School, City College of New York, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and the Ailey School. She now serves the Taylor Company as director of education.
Carolyn’s passion for teaching emerged early in her career along with her commitment to community development and preservation. In 1969, the Adams family founded the Harlem Brownstone Preservation Committee to save historic buildings and established the Harlem Dance Studio “to nurture an endangered art form in an endangered community.” In 1993, she and her sister, Fusionworks owner Julie Adams Strandberg, founded Dancing Legacy to develop programs addressing access, education, and preservation. She was founding artistic director of the NYSSSA School of Dance where, for 32 years with co-director Strandberg, she developed innovative workshops for middle and high school students. She received an honorary doctorate from Juilliard in May 2024.
Carolyn’s passion for teaching emerged early in her career along with her commitment to community development and preservation. In 1969, the Adams family founded the Harlem Brownstone Preservation Committee to save historic buildings and established the Harlem Dance Studio “to nurture an endangered art form in an endangered community.” In 1993, she and her sister, Fusionworks owner Julie Adams Strandberg, founded Dancing Legacy to develop programs addressing access, education, and preservation. She was founding artistic director of the NYSSSA School of Dance where, for 32 years with co-director Strandberg, she developed innovative workshops for middle and high school students. She received an honorary doctorate from Juilliard in May 2024.
Rachel Balaban
Choreographer, Joy
Restager, Parsons Etude
DAPpers Founding Director
Restager, Parsons Etude
DAPpers Founding Director
Rachel Balaban is a dancer, teacher, and maker. She is a Rhode Island teaching artist and movement educator committed to helping people access their vitality and health through using their bodies, and to making dance accessible to all populations. Her focus is to underscore the importance of combining an intergenerational framework with art to empower older adults, caregivers, and young students as they build meaningful connections with each other. Rachel is founder and director of DAPpers - Dance for All People. At the Warren Alpert School of Medicine at Brown University, she is a Teaching Associate in Medical Science in the Section of Medical Education. She is also the regional co-ordinator for Dance for PD (Parkinson’s disease) and co-founder of Momentum Learning Lab. She is a trained yoga and Shake Your Soul instructor and teaches DAPpers classes regularly. She is a dance teaching artist at the Hattie Ide Chaffee Nursing Home. Rachel holds a BA from Brown University. When Rachel isn’t dancing, you’ll likely find her swimming, sailing, paddle boarding, biking, practicing yoga, or playing with her grandchildren. Being in motion and in community with others is what brings her the most joy.
Laura Bennett
Choreographer, The Loft Revisited, Joy
Reconstructor, Élan
Restager, Parsons Etude
Faculty, School Co-Director
Dancing Legacy Managing Director
Reconstructor, Élan
Restager, Parsons Etude
Faculty, School Co-Director
Dancing Legacy Managing Director
Laura Bennett is school director and is managing director of Fusionworks' parent company Dancing Legacy. Laura has been dancing since she was in her mother’s womb and had her choreographic debut at age 11, when she got her gym teachers to give up their physical education periods for her to create a dance on her classmates. A Brown University graduate, she has studied, performed, and taught techniques and repertory of the 20th century American concert dance lineage, beginning with her early training at the Harlem Dance Studio, led by her mother Julie Adams Strandberg and her aunt Carolyn Adams. Laura has worked with Dancing Legacy since the late 1990s, staging Repertory Etudes and performing with the Ensemble across the USA. She is a former member of Fusionworks Dance Company and holds a dance education certificate from New York City’s 92nd Street Y. She has taught dance and theater in community centers, schools, private studios, and summer programs, including 33 years at the New York State Summer School of the Arts School of Dance where she was associate artistic director. Outside of dance, Laura enjoys spending time with her treasured nephews, studying the Bible, following sports, and watching TiVo in high definition. She learned much about living a creative life from her paternal grandmother, Harriet Bennett Strandberg (1914-1991), a painter who brought the spirit of the artist to everything she touched; the name Bennett was taken as a public tribute to a private legacy.
Alyssa Martin
Choreographer, Perfect, A Little Party Never Killed Nobody, Out of My League, Good Time
Alyssa Martin is a recent graduate of Dean College, where she received her BA in dance with a concentration in performance and choreography. Alyssa started dancing at four years old at Ja’Duke Center for the Performing Arts. She has trained in jazz, musical theater, contemporary, modern, ballet, tap, and hip-hop. She has performed in many musicals with Ja’Duke (including Crazy For You, Footloose, Hairspray, Grease, and more), as well as danced in many productions at Dean College. Alyssa is currently a cheerleader for the Worcester Railers Hockey Team. Over the years, she has developed a love and passion for dance, teaching, and performing! As a teacher, Alyssa values students feeling comfortable in her class, individuality amongst her students, and training strong dancers who work to understand their mind-body connection. She believes that dance can be used to express, explore, experiment, and learn; and she works to create a fun, comfortable, and supportive environment in her classes. Her goal is to pass on her knowledge of dance and, more importantly, her love and passion for dance to all the students she works with. Her hope is that through her classes, she can guide students on their journey of falling in love with dance and performing, just like she has.
Dina Ternullo Melley
Choreographer, Memories of Spain, Helium Daydreams, Valse d’été, Mondrian Movement
Restager, Nymphs from Walpurgis Night
Faculty, School Manager
Restager, Nymphs from Walpurgis Night
Faculty, School Manager
Dina Ternullo Melley is school manager and has been on faculty since 2021. She received a BFA in dance from the Boston Conservatory and received additional training from the Joffrey School in San Antonio and Gus Giordano in Chicago. Dina has performed masterworks by José Limón, Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, and Donald McKayle and has toured and conducted workshops nationally and internationally with the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble. Dina has had the pleasure of both choreographing works for and performing with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theater, Of Moving Colors, the Louisiana State University College of Music and Dramatic Arts, the Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Desert Dance Theatre, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s State of LA Danse. She was the choreographer for the LSU Opera production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and has choreographed and performed for the Arizona State University season-opening Gala Concert. She has also performed in the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre program, Ballet for Children, as well as AZDance Group, and Colleen Cavanaugh and Dancers. Dina has been on faculty at Boston College, Regis College, Louisiana State University, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she was also the artistic director of the Dance Guild at UL Lafayette. Dina is currently on the faculty at Dean College and began working with Dancing Legacy, Fusionworks' parent company, in 2019. Dina’s most treasured time is spent with her husband and son. She also loves hiking, biking, kayaking, and enjoying all the beauty New England has to offer.
Julie Adams Strandberg
Choreographer, Sister Duet
Faculty, School Owner
Faculty, School Owner
Julie Adams Strandberg is school owner and is co-founder of Dancing Legacy, Fusionworks' parent company. She is the 2022 recipient of the LIfetime Achievement Award from the National Dance Education Organization; she received the Charles Sullivan Pell Award for Distinguished Service in the Arts on 2015; and in 2020, the Brown University faculty honored her with the Susan Colver Rosenberger Medal, given for “specially notable or beneficial achievement” and only awarded 33 times since it was established in 1919.
In 1969, Julie founded the dance program at Brown University, where she is a distinguished senior lecturer emerita, transforming it from a recreational activity to a full academic program with professional-level experiences. In 1971, she co-founded the Rhode Island Repertory Company, which presented concerts for general audiences and ones designed specifically for young audiences, as well as workshops, lecture demonstrations, and master classes, exposing many Rhode Islanders to modern dance for the first time. In 2002, the Company reconvened to explore what mature dancers have to offer. In 1973, she co-founded The Harlem Dance Foundation with her parents, Julius J. and Olive A. Adams and her sister, Carolyn Adams, to "nurture an endangered art form in an endangered community." In 2013, she co-founded Artists and Scientists as Partners (ASaP) to research the relationship between arts and healing and the specific role of dance and music for people with Parkinson’s Disease and those on the Autism Spectrum.
Julie has directed for college, community and professional theater; has designed programs for youth; and has created over 40 works for theatrical and alternative spaces. She has served on national boards and panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts and is the author of multiple published articles. She studied with 20th century dance pioneers Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, Melissa Hayden, José Limón, Donald McKayle, and Charles Weidman and is one degree of separation from George Balanchine, Katharine Dunham, Lester Horton, Doris Humphrey, Pearl Primus, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn. Julie is a graduate of the Ethical Culture Fieldston Schools, has a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University, a master’s in guidance from Bank Street College of Education, and a masters ad eundem from Brown University. Since 1965, she has been married to Josiah R. W. Strandberg, a computer programmer, who is a Captain, USNR (ret.) and holds a doctorate in philosophy. They have two daughters, Laura Carolyn and Marie Elisabeth, a son-in-law William Nels Porter, thanks to Marie, and grandsons, Andrew Kenneth and Jackson Josiah, thanks to Marie and William.
In 1969, Julie founded the dance program at Brown University, where she is a distinguished senior lecturer emerita, transforming it from a recreational activity to a full academic program with professional-level experiences. In 1971, she co-founded the Rhode Island Repertory Company, which presented concerts for general audiences and ones designed specifically for young audiences, as well as workshops, lecture demonstrations, and master classes, exposing many Rhode Islanders to modern dance for the first time. In 2002, the Company reconvened to explore what mature dancers have to offer. In 1973, she co-founded The Harlem Dance Foundation with her parents, Julius J. and Olive A. Adams and her sister, Carolyn Adams, to "nurture an endangered art form in an endangered community." In 2013, she co-founded Artists and Scientists as Partners (ASaP) to research the relationship between arts and healing and the specific role of dance and music for people with Parkinson’s Disease and those on the Autism Spectrum.
Julie has directed for college, community and professional theater; has designed programs for youth; and has created over 40 works for theatrical and alternative spaces. She has served on national boards and panels, including the National Endowment for the Arts and is the author of multiple published articles. She studied with 20th century dance pioneers Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, Melissa Hayden, José Limón, Donald McKayle, and Charles Weidman and is one degree of separation from George Balanchine, Katharine Dunham, Lester Horton, Doris Humphrey, Pearl Primus, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn. Julie is a graduate of the Ethical Culture Fieldston Schools, has a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University, a master’s in guidance from Bank Street College of Education, and a masters ad eundem from Brown University. Since 1965, she has been married to Josiah R. W. Strandberg, a computer programmer, who is a Captain, USNR (ret.) and holds a doctorate in philosophy. They have two daughters, Laura Carolyn and Marie Elisabeth, a son-in-law William Nels Porter, thanks to Marie, and grandsons, Andrew Kenneth and Jackson Josiah, thanks to Marie and William.
Jada Wooten
Choreographer, Name, Name, Name, Name
Faculty
Faculty
Jada Wooten has danced since the age of two at companies such as at Alvin Ailey, Debbie Allen Dance Academy, and Complexions, training in ballet, pointe, jazz, hip hop, tap, modern, mande, lyrical, contemporary, and liturgical. A senior at Brown University, Jada is double concentrating in Education Studies and Theater and Performance Studies on the dance track. At Brown, Jada has served as a teaching assistant for Beginning Modern, Mande Dance, and Dance Composition. She was also a member of Dance Extension, a company led by Fusionworks Dance Center Owner Julie Adams Strandberg. Jada was a 2022 Royce Fellow facilitating dance and educational programming at community schools and centers in Michigan, and she is a 2023 Artists and Scientists as Partners apprentice assisting with dance and theater programming at the Hattie Ide Chaffee Nursing Home in East Providence, Rhode Island. Jada is also a 2023 Mystic Seaport Museum intern, creating after school lesson plans that use the visual arts and dance to tell diverse maritime histories. Jada is happy to be teaching jazz and tap at Fusionworks Dance Center since her first job at her hometown studio, Ann Arbor Dance Classics, was assistant teaching jazz; and her most recent job at her hometown studio was teaching a ballet-tap combo class. When she is not in class or on stage, Jada likes to spend time with family and friends, read, puzzle, cook, travel, babysit, drink tea, and of course watch Michigan sports. Go Blue!
|