Meet the Fellows


Melanie Brierley is a UK practitioner in Dance and Parkinson’s (Cumbria group) and a founder member of Dance for Parkinson’s UK. She is also a PhD researcher in the field, developing an understanding of why and how dance benefits those living with Parkinson’s. Mel is an ISMETA (International somatic movement, education, and therapy association) registered Somatic Movement Educator and university lecturer in somatic dance practice. She has been working in the field of community dance and education for the last 27 years.

 

Daphne Cushnie attended the University Hospital of Wales (Cardiff) to study remedial gymnastics and recreational therapy, becoming state registered in 1981, and subsequently practicing in the National Health Service (NHS). In the 1980’s, she set up dance movement groups in the community, working with different client groups, including adults with learning difficulties, adults with profound multiple learning difficulties, post-natal classes, and creative movement classes for adults and children. During this period, Daphne studied with Rudolf Stanger, Jabadao, Rosemary Lee and Miranda Tufnell. She attended the Laban International Summer School and began to develop her practice through an integration of approaches to dance and movement. In 1990 she became a state registered chartered physiotherapist specializing in neurology. She later completed an honors degree in performing arts, focusing her studies on such pioneering figures in the field of somatics as Charlotte Selver, Elsa Gindler and Moshe Feldenkrais. In 2000, she returned to work in the NHS in Kendal, Cumbria as a neurological physiotherapist, setting up a community dance group for people with Multiple Sclerosis in 2002, and another group for people with Parkinson’s disease in 2005.

 

Margot Greenlee received her formal dance training at The Ohio State University, completing an MFA in 1999. While in Ohio, she founded the multidisciplinary lab Total Theater, Inc., conducted dance residencies for the Ohio Arts Council’s Arts in Education program and also taught at Ohio Wesleyan University. She was a company member with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange from 1999 to 2007 and continues to serve as an Associate Artist. Her major projects with the Dance Exchange include the Hallelujah Project, a multi-year residency and performance tour; Wild Thing, a children’s performance directed by Celeste Miller; a project at the Kyoto Arts Center in collaboration with Japan’s Contemporary Dance Network; and Ferocious Beauty: Genome, a collaboration with scientists across the country focused on bioethics and the future of genetic research. Her current artistic projects focus on the integration of dance in education, corporate and health care settings.

 

Sarah Leversee is the Artistic Director of Art as Action, a grassroots movement of artivists, based in Denver, Colorado, whose mission is to use the power of collaborative art to create social change. Born in Edgewater, Colorado, Ms. Leversee trained and performed extensively in ballet, gymnastics and jazz throughout childhood at local studios near Denver, CO. At University of Colorado in Boulder she studied modern and ballet extensively, as well as taking electives in jazz, African and hip-hop. She was the co-founder, director, choreographer and performer for the fuzion project; featured choreographer and performer at National School of Fine Arts, Mexico City; choreographer and company member for Blue Moon Dance Company; performer in The Bridge Project, Seattle, WA; company member of oaklanDrive Dance Company, Seattle, WA. Ms. Leversee has been an Adjunct Professor at Red Rocks Community College since 2009, teaching ages 17-60, levels beginner-advanced intermediate in jazz, modern, hip-hop and lyrical dance. Art as Action has brought artivism deeper into the community by donating a percentage of ticket sales and hundreds of complimentary tickets to local non-profits including Warren Village, Moving to End Sexual Assault (MESA), Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), Attention Homes Longmont, The Inn Between and Urban Peak at The Spot.

 

Patricia Monreal was a professional dancer with Ballet Folk of Idado, and danced at MGM and Hilton shows in Las Vegas. From 1989-1999, she taught and danced with “Abundance”, a non-denominational dance workshop ministry, and is currently a pilates and gyrotonic certified instructor in the Las Vegas area. Since 2009, Ms. Monreal was been an exercise and movement instructor for the APDA Las Vegas Chapter.

 

A faculty member of Rollins College since 1984, Robert Sherry received dance/theatre training in New York, Los Angeles, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. His performance credits include: Broadway Salutes the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, with Mickey Rooney, Ruby Keeler & Lee Roy Reams, the national tours of Pal Joey, with Joel Grey, Alexis Smith, Kelly Bishop & Ron Perlman, Annie Get Your Gun, with Florence Henderson, and Flower Drum Song, with Pat Suzuki. He also performed in Hollywood Magic, at El Centro in Acapulco, Mexico and with Indiana’s professional modern dance company, Dance Kaleidoscope. He has directed and/or choreographed a broad variety of musicals, plays, industrial shows, and concert dance works in both professional and academic settings including: Show Director for Hollywood’s Pretty Woman at the Disney/MGM Studios and NBA All-Star Game Opening Cermony Show at the Orlando Oreena. He was also the choreographer for Joshua Logan’s last musical Huck & Jim on the Mississippi. He is the former president of the Florida Dance Association, based in Miami and the former Chair of the Orange County Bar’s Employment and Labor Law Section. Dr. Sherry teaches classes in dance technique, dance history, movement for actors, theatre, and musical theatre. He received his Bachelor of Science from Indiana University, his Masters of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist University where he received a full scholarship, and his Juris Doctorate cum laude from Stetson University College of Law.

 

Sharon Wehner is originally from San Jose, California. She trained with Jody White and David Roxander, San Jose Dance Theatre, San Francisco Ballet and San Jose/Cleveland Ballet. Ms. Wehner joined Colorado Ballet in 1996 and was promoted to Principal in 1999, and in the last 15 years, has performed many lead roles with the Company. These include Kitri in Don Quixote, Giselle in Giselle, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Medora in Le Corsaire, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Swanilda in Coppelia, Mina in Dracula, Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, the Principal couple in Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes and Rubies, Antony Tudor’s Leaves are Fading, and Twyla Tharpe’s In The Upper Room. She has been honored to have solos and pas de deaux created on her by choreographers Edwaard Liang, Mathew Neenan, Christopher Wheeldon, Darrel Grand Moultrie, Dwight Rhoden, Jessica Lang, Brian Reeder and Toru Shimazaki. In addition to Colorado Ballet, Ms. Wehner has also performed with The Washington Ballet, Oakland Ballet and Amy Seiwert’s Imagery. She has also been a guest artist at the Vail International Dance Festival, and in Japan in the Aoyama Ballet Festival, and the National Ballet of Japan’s Golden Ballet Co-star.