2024-2024 CLASSES:
TEEN JAZZ & CONTEMPORARY

Susi made her professional debut at the age of 12 at Ashcroft Theater in the UK. She then went on to earn her BA in Dance from the University of Surrey, where she worked as a professional dancer and choreographer. Later, Susi set up her own Dance and Theatre company, Charlie's Works, in London and was always kept busy with product launches, fashion shows and reviews for renowned companies such as Tommy Hilfiger and British Airways. Since her arrival in the States she has choreographed and produced shows for the likes of Adirondack Childrens Troupe, Salem Central School, Salem Courthouse, Fort Salem Theater, Queensbury High School, Long Trail School (Dorset Vermont) and Broadway Upstate (Glens Falls, NY).

In Salem, Susi is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, an owner of the upcoming Jacko’s Corner, and creator of The Susi Shoes Dancers, who are made up of a diverse crowd of enthusiasts who dance and perform for community events, whose goal is to touch the lives of young people and to get shoes and any necessary items gently and gracefully on the right hands and feet, and to always ensure that youth who cross their path stand tall with confidence and pride.

2023-2024 CLASSES:
BALLET/TAP COMBO
BALLET BASICS
HIP HOP/JAZZ LEVELS 1 & 2

Mikayla Schaefer is a versatile and accomplished dance teacher with a rich background in both performance and education. Holding a B.A. in Theatre & Performance with a concentration in acting and a Playwriting Minor from SUNY Purchase College's prestigious Conservatory of Theatre Arts, Mikayla brings a unique interdisciplinary approach to her teaching.

Her extensive dance training at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, under the guidance of distinguished mentors Joseph Malbrough and Wallie Wolfburger, has provided her with a solid foundation in various dance forms. Additionally, her studies at Broadway Dance Center and Ferrara’s Dance Studio, under the tutelage of Jennifer Zimmerman and Lynn Ferrara, have further honed her technical prowess.

Mikayla's dedication and talent have earned her accolades, including the coveted 1st place national title at Royal Dance Competition and a Top 10 Overall Senior placement at Starpower Dance Competition. Her exceptional stage presence and performance skills have been showcased in a range of productions, notably including iconic works such as West Side Story, Footloose, and the Polar Express Experience.

In addition to her stage work, Mikayla has a wide range of experience on film, contributing memorable performances in productions like "The Good Mother," "You’re So Shy," and the award-winning "Meet Cute On Dance World" (Best Experimental Short Film - Adirondack Film Festival 2020), among others.

With a passion for teaching and a wealth of experience in both dance and performance, Mikayla is committed to nurturing the next generation of dancers and performers. Her multifaceted background and dedication to the arts make her a valuable asset to any aspiring artist seeking to hone their craft.

TEACHER’S AID / GUEST TEACHER

Liam is home-schooled and started dancing at the age of three. He is classically trained in ballet, along with tap, jazz, and modern.

Liam has performed with the Albany Berkshire Ballet for their Nutcracker holiday tours (Fritz), Liam then discovered musicals and added that to his love of the stage. Liam has appeared in Orange Star Smasharoo (Lil'Corky), The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Charlie), Pippin (Theo/Ensemble), Mamma Mia! (Ensemble), Chicago (Amos/Ensemble), Legally Blonde (Kyle/Ensemble), Footloose (Uncle Wes/Ensemble), The Sound Of Music (Herr Zeller/Ensemble), Gypsy (Farmboy/Angie).

He made his Fort Salem Theater debut in Footloose (Ensemble), before performing in FST’s The Pirates of Penzance (Pirate/Police), The Rocky Horror Show (Phantom/Rehearsal Brad), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Francis Flute), Mary Poppins (Neleus/Ensemble), and The Drowsy Chaperone (Gangster #1).

When not on the stage, Liam is a self-taught yoyo trick master.

PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Kyle West has three decades of creating award-winning theatre under his belt, working as a producer, director, choreographer, designer, and performer. His work has been seen all across the US, from Cape Cod, to Boston, Arizona and Dallas, to New York and has been recognized by the AriZoni Awards of Excellence, BroadwayWorld Awards, Column Awards, Annie Award, MET Awards, and MHSDG Awards, among others.

Best known for creating larger-than-life musicals, some of Kyle’s credits include Hairspray, Next to Normal, Evita, White Christmas, I Love You Because, Fiddler on the Roof, Guys and Dolls, The Music Man, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Man of No Importance, West Side Story, Footloose, Into the Woods, RENT, The Rink, The Boyfriend, Schoolhouse Rock Live, Little Shop of Horrors, A Chorus Line, Chicago, Grease, La Cage aux Folles, The World Goes ‘Round, Cabaret, Pirates of Penzance, My Favorite Year, Annie, and Fame.

Kyle’s favorite onstage appearances include Footloose (Ren), West Side Story (Action), Godspell (Judas/John the Baptist), Grease (Eugene), and in commercials for Sony, American Eagle Outfitters and others.

In 2005, Kyle became manager of concessions for Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre, which was home to Mary Poppins at that time, before moving on to Broadway productions of Chicago and The Color Purple. He has since worked on marketing and social media for dozens of Broadway national tours and regional theatres. In June 2019, Kyle was asked to present to Broadway touring presenters about theatrical marketing and social media strategy at the Southwest Presenters conference. In attendance were leaders from Irving Arts Center, Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts, Children's Performing Arts Series, Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council, The Strand Theatre of Shreveport, MSC OPAS, Angelina Arts Alliance, Stephen F. Austin State University SFA School of Theatre, Corsicana Palace Theatre, Navarro Council of the Arts / Corsicana Palace Theatre, Grand Prairie Center, Mansfield ISD Center for the Performing Arts, Lutcher Theater for the Performing Arts, Piney Woods Fine Arts Association, UT Tyler Cowan Center, Reynolds Performance Hall, Letourneau University, Grand 1984 Opera House, Oklahoma City Community College, Banners at McNeese State University, Coppell Arts Center, McKinney Performing Arts Center, Courtroom Theater, Walton Arts Center and more!

Kyle has served on the Board of Directors of Mesa Encore Theatre, and as a board liaison for Phoenix Youth Ballet Theatre/Legacy Ballet Foundation.

LEGACY TEACHER

Krista Sullivan is a full-time childcare professional with decades of dance and fitness experience. Krista became a certified Zumba instructor in 2007, creating some of the first classes of the kind in the Salem community. Since then, she’s taught a wide range of dance and exercise classes, including Turbo, Piyo, Stride, Bokwa, Zumba Kids, Zumba Toning, Zumba, Step, Zumbini and more. Krista is a certified personal trainer through AFAA and certified Group Fitness Instructor through AFAA/NASM.

LEGACY TEACHER

Kyra grew up on her family's farm in Hebron and is a recent graduate of Yale University, where she double majored in Evolutionary Biology and Theater Performance. At Yale, she directed a production of an original virtual musical entitled Wakaresaseya, written by Parker Redcross, and co-directed Sweeney Todd with NYC- and DC-based director Noam Shapiro. Kyra is also an actor and a singer; she has studied vocal performance for four years through the Yale Shen Curriculum for Musical Theater, and has appeared on Yale stages as Maggie Winslow in A Chorus Line, Joanne Galloway in A Few Good Men, Mary Jane in Mary Jane, Heather in American Idiot, and Tobias in Sweeney Todd. Kyra grew up performing on the FST stage with her family, including in the world premiere of Happy If Happy When, an original musical co-written by her parents. Kyra and her family later performed Happy If Happy When off-off-Broadway in NYC in 2018. Last summer at the FST Kyra directed a staged reading of Nietzsche! The Musical, and most recently served as director for The Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition.

LEGACY TEACHER

Arianna is a recent graduate of the keystone high school. She is one the three cofounders of the new immersive theater company in Glens Falls, N.Y., Company of Curiosity’s LLC. She is also a dance instructor for the Spa City Dance and the Arts Competitive Team. Some of Arianna’s favorite roles include ZigZag, A New Musical (GIRL), Frozen Jr. (Elsa) All Together Now! (Jo March), and Grease (Cha-Cha). Most recently, Arianna appeared as Margo in Bright Star at Fort Salem Theater.

LEGACY TEACHER

Since relocating to Greenwich, NY, David has directed throughout the Capital Region, including shows at Curtain Call Theater, Confetti Stage, Hubbard Hall, Greenwich Youth Center, Soul Rebel Performance Troupe [now Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York], and the premiere of Our Time by Ken Levine (head writer “MASH”, “Cheers”) at Saratoga Arts Center. In addition, he has done training for Skidmore College’s “Awkward Kids Talking” improv troupe, and has performed here at Fort Salem Theater, where he appeared as Dracula in Jay Kerr’s Dracula’s Grandmother and as Linus in You’re an Old Man, Charlie Brown.

Prior to moving upstate, he lived, directed, performed and taught in both Atlanta and the NYC area. In Atlanta, on the strength of his Atlanta Circle of Drama Critics Best Actor-nominated performance as Jimmy Porter in Look Back in Anger, he joined Actors Equity and performed as Gunner in Misalliance with Dana Ivey (Hal Scott, director). Several other acting roles followed. While still performing, he began directing, and also taught acting and improvisation classes, from which he formed “Good Clean Fun – the Improvisation Company.” He went on to write and direct The Book of Esther and The Hermitage Show with the troupe, in addition to booking improv engagements at colleges, cabarets, schools and community groups. He also spent two years an actor-teacher-writer-director with the Academy Theater State Tour Team of Atlanta, an NEA-funded ensemble formed to tour to middle and high schools throughout Georgia, and created over twenty original theater pieces with his students.

In NYC, he taught, directed and performed at Process Studio Theater, as well as directing at Altered Stages and Good Clean Fun’s improv show at Storefront Blitz. At TOSOS, he assisted writer-director Doric Wilson in the comedy hit The West Street Gang and later joined the cast. He also appeared in productions at 13th Street Theater, at the Actors Studio under the direction of iconic director Gene Frankel, Circle in the Square, and at The Kitchen.

He also spent three years directing the highly praised Teen-Life Theater touring company for Planned Parenthood of NJ in association with Dwight Morrow High School. Later, while teaching and directing at William Carlos Williams Center for the Arts and at Paul Sorvino’s American Stage company, David taught, wrote and directed for Allyn Sitjar’s Youth Theater of New Jersey. At the Williams Center, he trained and directed the Manhattan Improv Troupe which performs widely in the New York metropolitan area.

David owes much to his directing studies with Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gene Frankel, Hal Scott, Claude Chagrin, Keith Johnstone and Paul Sills.

LEGACY TEACHER

Heather Magee is an experienced classical ballet teacher who joined the esteemed MOMIX dance company back in 2002 with the mesmerizing show Opus Cactus. She participated in new creations, performed several of their full-length productions, and toured the world with LunarSea, The Best of Momix, Viva Momix 35th Anniversary Tour, and Baseball. Heather has also performed as a dancer and principle character actress for Franco Dragone in his water spectacular called "The House of Dancing Water" located in Macau, China. Raised in Connecticut, she began her training with Arlene Begelman and Robert Maiorano at the School of Performing Arts and graduated from the School of the Hartford Ballet. She performed with Ballet Arizona, Atlanta Ballet and Madison Ballet Theatre. Under the direction of George Jagatic (Axis Danz), she learned “flagging” and has enjoyed sharing and exploring the craft. Theatrically, Ms. Magee toured internationally with the "The Phantom of the Opera" and danced in the musical "Carousel” and now resides in Hebron.

LEGACY TEACHER

Miss Alina is a graduate of the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts, where she studied musical theater and various forms of dance before starting her career as a performer and a teacher. For her work, Miss Alina has twice been named “All Star Performer” at the celebrated Junior Theater Festival and was also featured in the Junior Theater Academy’s All Star America group where she had the opportunity to travel and train in Europe. Miss Alina was also selected among thousands of dancers to film iTheatrics Choreography DVDs (Roxie in Chicago and Katherine in Newsies, among others) where she traveled to New York and performed with iTheatrics. Her recent choreography credits include Titanic, and Buddy: The Buddy Holy Story. She has been seen onstage in West Side Story (Consuela), Hairspray (Dynamite), Starlight Express (Buffy), Bye Bye Birdie (Penelope), Matilda the Musical, Tuck Everlasting, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and The Little Mermaid. Miss Alina is a guest at Fort Salem Theater, appearing in Little Shop of Horrors this March!