OUR MISSION

Michelle Kelly Wurf has been teaching dance throughout New York City, Westchester and Philadelphia for over 25 years. She began dancing at the age of 11 and hasn’t stopped since. After spending many years dancing and performing in the suburbs of Philadelphia, she continued to study dance at NYU and went on to earn her BFA in Modern Dance from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She danced professionally in New York City and Philadelphia with various choreographers and was a company member of Ausdruckstanz Dance Theater, Copperworks Dance Company and TeatoLocal. She began teaching for Kids Co-Motion in 1994 and became the Director of their Westchester Division for 10 years. In 2013, she opened her own studio, MK Dance, in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY. In 2020, Michelle merged MK Dance and On Hudson Fitness & Dance and opened the new studio as MK Dance On Hudson. Michelle has taught throughout Philadelphia, NYC and Westchester at various studios and schools, including: the Lamm Institute Pre-School in Brooklyn; the Grafflin Elementary School of Chappaqua; the Katonah Elementary School; the Riverdale Neighborhood House; the Children's Garden Center in Tarrytown; the Temple Beth Shalom Nursery School and Hillside Elementary School in Hastings-on-Hudson; the Chabad Pre-School, the Christian Pre-School, Springhurst Elementary School in Dobbs Ferry: the Virginia Marx Children Center at Westchester Community College and the YWCA in White Plains.. She was the Division Chair (Dance for Early Childhood) at the Y Dance Academy in Tarrytown and taught at the Rivertown Dance Academy in Tarrytown. Michelle resides in Dobbs Ferry with her husband and two children.  

Alex Martin graduated in 2010 from Wayne State University with a B.F.A. in Dance. Throughout Alex’s career at WSU, she performed works by Melissa Allen, Twyla Tharp, Meg Paul, Penny Godboldo, Ben Munisteri, and Nicholas Leichter.  One of her choreographed works, “Area of Stability”, was selected to be featured at the American College Dance Festival East Central Gala in 2009. Invited as a guest performer in 2009, she performed with Nicholas Leichter Dance at the Joyce Theatre for the premiere of “Killa”.  She is currently a member of Evolve Dance, Inc. and has recently travelled with the company to perform in California at the MixMatch Festival.  Alex is also a member of John J. Zullo Dance where she has performed at the HOT! Festival, Dixon Place, and Theatre for the New City with the company. In addition to actively pursuing her career as a professional dancer, she teachers and choreographs at several dance schools throughout the Metropolitan area.  

Billy Cohen, hailing from outside Boston, started his hip hop training at the young age of six at Joanne Langione Dance Center with his identical twin brother, and continued his training at Hofstra University while receiving a B.S. Degree in Dance Education.  This training at Hofstra gave him the opportunity to work with artists such as Fredrick Earl Mosley, Doug Varone, David Parker, Heather Waldon, Ellie Kusner, Bill Young, and Barbara Angeline, as well as train with Hofstra’s most notable Dance Department alumni, Larry Keigwin, on scholarship. Billy also created two works that represented Hofstra at American Collegiate Dance Association Conferences, and co-choreographed his own fully-produced evening dance show, “jux•ta•po•si•tion”. Outside of school, he continued his training with Broadway Dance Center’s Professional Semester and at Generation IV, learning and performing choreography from Teddy Forance, Devin Jamieson, Derek Mitchell, Emily Greenwell, Candace Brown, Jeff Lapes, Noel Bajades, Jonny Forance, and Emma Portner. Recently, Billy’s choreography was included in a segment of MTV’s Episode 2 of “Lit!” sponsored by Beats by Dre. Signed to Bloc Talent agency, Bill has worked with Reebok and was casted as a Principal Dancer in the upcoming season of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, choreographed by Marguerite Derricks. Earlier this year, Billy starred in a viral video called “Student vs. Teacher Battle”, totaling over 22 million views on all social media platforms and appearing on multiple news networks, including a short segment on “Inside Edition”. With his education background, Billy Cohen hopes to have continuous success in the dance industry, and to someday travel the world doing what he loves best: creating, performing, and sharing his knowledge of dance to next upcoming generation of artists.  

Carmela and Andrew have a combined 27 years of experience dancing NY-style salsa. They are principal dancers with Huracán Dance Company, where they have been members since 2016. They have traveled domestically and international performing and teaching salsa. They have also performed with a wide variety of Latin recording artists.

Carmela is a 3x World Salsa Champion who is known for her infectious energy and skilled communication as an instructor who loves to break down the fundamentals. Andrew is known throughout NY for his skill and flavor on the “social dance” floor.

Cynthia Svigals is a dance artist and certified yoga teacher who has been leading movement classes for nearly three decades. As a student, she spent a term at the London Contemporary Dance School, and also holds a BA in Dance from Connecticut College, where her choreography was selected for the American College Dance Festival's National Gala at the Kennedy Center. After graduation, she spent eight years performing throughout the US and abroad as a member of Jane Comfort and Company. Additionally, she was a performer in various projects with Cynthia Oliver’s COCo Dance Theater and Potrzebie Dance Project, among others. Her own choreography has been presented in NYC at Dixon Place, Mulberry Street Theater, and Dance Space Inc. She currently collaborates with fellow Rivertown artists Joel Sherry and Michelle Wurf under the collective known as Teatolocal. 

cynthiasvigals.com

Davon D Chance is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer with an extensive background in modern, ballet, jazz and hip-hop. This Native to Westchester County graduated from SUNY Purchase College where they double majored in Dance (BFA) and Arts Management (BA). Davon also has a background in personal training, dance fitness and sports rehabilitation. Davon has been teaching and choreographing since they were 15 years old. Davon hopes to one day have their own dance company as well as their own dance, fitness, and wellness center. Davon currently teaches in Westchester County, Brooklyn and New York City and is a dancer with DiMauro Dance Company. 

Helen Clare Samoskevich is a performing and teaching artist based in the NYC area. She has worked with students from preschool through middle school ages as a dance and theatre instructor, director, and choreographer. Regional theatre performing credits include Ensemble in Sunset Boulevard (Music Theatre of CT), Lucy Van Pelt in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (STONC), and Pit Singer/Darlene Cover in Honky Tonk Angels (STONC). In her classes, Helen strives to create compassionate, safe spaces where students can grow as dancers and as people. She earned her BA in Arts Management from UMass Amherst and is currently pursuing her master's degree in Drama Therapy at New York University. Helen is excited to be joining the MK Dance On Hudson team!

Jessica Whitehorne originally hails from the Boston area. After earning a B.A. in Dance from Dean College she enjoyed dancing as a Soloist for Boston Dance Company. As a teacher, Jessica held positions at some of the areas top schools, most notably The Boston Ballet School. After leaving Boston, Jessica spent time in North Carolina where she performed as a Principal dancer with the Greensboro Ballet. Now settled in New York, Jessica resides in Hastings on Hudson with her husband and daughter and loves teaching ballet and modern to the next generation of dedicated dancers! She is also currently performing with the Classics Dance Theatre, Mooney Cooley Dance Company and Signature Dance Company.  

Mary Ford-Sussman has had a varied and extensive career as a modern dancer, teacher and choreographer. Most notably she was a principal dancer with the Limon Dance Company from 1996-2004 and the Mary Anthony Dance Theatre from 1994-2006. She is recognized for her musicality, lyricism, dramatic power and luminous performing presence.  Ms. Ford-Sussman has taught modern dance technique and composition nationally and internationally and has been commissioned to choreograph works for Springfield College, SUNY Buffalo, and the Masters School, among others. In the spring of 2015, Mary was invited to create a new work for a RAW workshop in Tarrytown. Along with collaborator Akiko Ko, she created an original duet, PATH, which will be further developed this year. She has taught Dance and Movement for children for SummerArts Camp in the Rivertowns since 2012.  Sensing a lack of dance offerings for adults in the Rivertowns, Mary began teaching Modern Dance for adults in 2012 and classes continue to grow steadily. She is happy to be asked to join the faculty of MK Dance. Mary lives in Dobbs Ferry with her husband, Bill, her daughter, Aleah, two dogs and a cat.  

Sharon McCann-Doyle is trained as a classical ballet dancer.  She was member of Eglevsky Ballet under the direction of Jane Miller and Paul Gifford and danced in a variety of soloist and corp rolls in both repertoire pieces as well as story ballets.  As a young dancer she performed with New York City Ballet in works choreographed by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Her training includes North Carolina School of the Arts, The Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet and Mid-Atlantic Ballet.  Sharon has taught both children and adults classes and relishes the opportunity to bring a sense of body awareness and joy of movement and dance to new students.  Sharon holds a MS in Social Research and currently works part-time at Columbia University. Sharon is also a Pilates Instructor and the owner of inmotionny.com. She recently moved with her husband and four children to Dobbs Ferry. 

Tanja Whited grew up in Santa Barbara, California where she began her ballet training with Lisa Abshere at the Goleta School of Ballet.  In 2001, she moved to New York City to earn a bachelor of arts in dance and English from Barnard College, Columbia University.  In 2004, she also participated in Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Professional Program.  Since graduating magna cum laude, she has danced professionally with companies, such as Charleston Ballet Theatre, Northern Ballet Theatre, Albano Ballet, Connecticut Ballet, Dances Patrelle, and others.  For the past 10 years, she has been teaching ballet to all age groups, passing on her passion and love for dance to the next generation.