Faculty
Our team of talented instructors are committed to developing the skills of their students and cultivating their own careers as professional dancers, choreographers, and trainers.
Cathy Acerba
Cathy has owned and directed Dancexpress since 1992. She has danced and competed nationally in Las Vegas and New York. In 1990, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts from West Chester University where she also minored in psychology and spanish. She has brought many dancers over the years to regional competitions, workshops, and showcases. Cathy also is in charge of the group “Showstoppers” who dance locally at nursing homes and community events. She continues to train and take class from the leading dancers and choreographers in the industry today. Cathy recently won a teacher’s scholarship to the Pulse Intensive in New York which she will be attending this Summer. In May, her competitive dance team junior and senior dancers won the high scores at 2 different dance competitions.
Sarah Bovat
Sarah Bovat is a Philadelphia based artist, originally from Central Massachusetts. She grew up in competition dance, studying at Diane Kelley Dance Studio for 14 years. In 2022, Sarah graduated summa cum laude honors with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Business. During her time at UArts, Sarah has worked with Michael Sheridan, Amy Aldridge, Gary Jeter, Sidra Bell,Tommie-Waheed Evans, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, and Mark Castera. Viewers would describe Sarah’s movement as fluid, soft, airy, and expansive. As a teacher, she loves to inspire, empower, collaborate, and learn from young dancers. Sarah breaks the boundaries of how a studio class is run through journaling and phrase making with students. She believes there is power in practices outside of dance, and such engagement can inform new ways of moving and thinking. Sarah is looking forward to being a part of the Dancexpress family!
Bella Crescenzi
Bella is currently a dance major at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Before attending UArts, she grew up in Staten Island, NY where she trained at various conventions and competed regionally and nationally. Later on, she joined Broadway Dance Center’s Children/Teen Program along with performing with the AIM company. Bella joined Unique Soulz The Company shortly after and began assisting conventions and masterclasses along the East Coast. She continued her training at Broadway Dance Center, Brickhouse NYC, and Peridance Center, as she continues to train here today. Bella began her teaching career just after joining The University of the Arts and is so excited to further pursue her professional career in dance as an artist, teacher, and choreographer.
Elizabeth Knecht
Elizabeth Knecht grew up in Bethlehem, PA. At an early age she began her performing career as a ballerina. Elizabeth began taking ballet lessons at the age of three and later studied at the Ballet Guild of the Lehigh Valley. She also studied at the Joffrey Ballet School in NY on scholarship and was coached by such notables as Dame Margot Fonteyn and Assaf Messerer. She danced principal roles with many companies such as Joffrey Ballet, Northeast Regional Ballet, Repertory Dance Theater and Philadelphia Civic Ballet. In 1997 she toured with the Morgan Scott Ballet Company of New York. For well over a decade Elizabeth could be seen around Christmas time every year at the Merriam Theater as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Children’s Ballet Theater production of the Nutcracker. In her younger days, she has appeared as herself on national T.V. in Kids World on ABC and also appeared on Captain Noah and His Magical Ark on WPVI.
Natalia Greene
Natalia is a Artist, Dancer, Choreographer and Improviser. At a very young age she’s developed a passion for dance. She started out making up routines with her sister and began to develop her own identity through dance. Her mother from the Bahamas and her father from Jamaica, There was always music and dancing going on in the house which enhanced her love for the arts.
For the past 8 years Natalia has been an inspiration shaping the lives of children and adults who love expressing themselves through dance and other forms of art. She received her foundation of training with her home studio BBSOD where she perfected her own craft. Throughout high school, Natalia was a member of North Penn Dance team from 2011-2013 which she had the opportunity to choreograph MR. North Penn with her sister and win 1st and 2nd place with her teammates at dance competitions.
Natalia attended Hofstra University where she majored in dance and furthered her career into the performing arts. She has had the opportunity to showcase her pieces at student rep showcases, Learn many styles from her teachers like Rachel List, Stormy Brandenberger and Robin Becker, Just to name a few. She also performed in a dance piece choreographed by her teacher Amy Marshall from Paul Taylor dance company and another piece from guest choreographer Mickey Davidson from Mickey D. & Friends. Natalia is very excited to be joining our studio and she can’t wait to share her love and passion for dance with you all!
Madison Eichert
Madison has been dancing at Dancexpress since she was 3, and has been teaching since she was 13. She has taken tap, jazz, and ballet every year, but trained intensely in ballet for 6 years. In the past 3 years, Madison has fell in love with hip-hop from taking classes with Matt Steffanina, Dana Alexa, at the Pulse and most recently Rosero McCoy. In the summer of 2014, she went to L.A. and took classes at Millenium Dance Complex, and IDA Hollywood for more dance experience. She has also competed with Dancexpress multiple times throughout her journey with us. Madison looks forward to teaching while she finishes out her college degree at Eastern University.
Paige Matzerath
Paige Matzerath grew up training at The Dance Factory USA in Middletown, NJ. For several years, she performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade under the direction of Tony Parise of Camp Broadway. She furthered her education at DeSales University where Paige received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance. She was an apprentice dancer with The Lady Hoofers Tap Ensemble for the 2017-2018 season in Philadelphia, PA. With an interest in dance on camera, Paige has competed in the Boundless in Brooklyn and the DeSales University 48-hour screendance challenge where in 2018 she received the Best Choreography award for her collaborative work “Revolutions”. Her work has been performed at Ten Tiny Dances in Bethlehem, PA and the National Choreography Month (NACHMO) showcase in Pittsburgh, PA. Paige received her Master of Arts in Student Affairs in Higher Education from IUP and is currently an assistant director for professional development at Villanova University. She is thrilled to be a part of this incredible faculty!
Floyd McLean, Jr.
Floyd McLean, Jr., originally from East Orange NJ, began his pre-professional dance training at the age of 13 at Sharron Miller’s Academy for The Performing Arts In Montclair, NJ. He has trained with residencies/intensives such as The Dance Theater of Harlem, Ballet Hispanico, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, NYU Future Dancers/Dance Makers, and Dallas Black Dance Theatre.
He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts from Point Park University in 2018, with a concentration in Modern Dance where he was awarded the Don Craig Scholarship. During his time in college, he has trained with and danced for numerous choreographers and also found his love for choreography while enrolled in school! Choreography is now a huge passion of his and he plans to do it in a larger scale. After graduation, he began his first season with Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s DBDT: Encore! Under the direction of Nycole Ray, he has performed works by choreographers including Rennie Harris, Kate Skarpetowska, Joshua Peugh, Christopher Huggins, and many more. He is so excited to be in Philadelphia and beginning his first season with Philadanco and teaching at DANCEXPRESS too:-))
Lindsey Swyers
Lindsey Swyers is a movement-based performance artist and choreographer raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Her dance training began at Xpress Dance Company directed by Melanie Creek, where she performed with the studio’s competition team for ten years. Lindsey continued her dance education at the University of the Arts (UArts) where she earned her BFA in Dance spring of 2022, under the direction of Donna Faye Burchfield. While at UArts, Lindsey performed in numerous works by artists including Jesse Zaritt, Sara Shelton Man, Doug Varone, Paul Matteson, Fana Frazer, Shayla-Vie Jenkins, Katie Swords Thurman and more. Lindsey's main focus in her choreographic work is modern and contemporary dance but also enjoys curating alongside theatrical work. Lindsey is currently working in collaboration with Philadelphia dance artist Hillary Pearson on her evening length work titled HAIR, premiering September 11th, 2022. She’s excited to join the dancexpress family and share her love for dance with others.
Tammy Turberville
Tammy Turberville began dancing at the age of three at Touch of Class dance studio. She competed at the national level in New York City and Las Vegas. As an adult, she continued her dance education taking classes at Steps on Broadway in New York City, tap classes with Chloe Arnold, and the PULSE dance convention including classes with Mia Michaels, Wade Robson, and Brian Friedman. Tammy is a proud mom of two teenage children and her daughter Mia is a competitive dancer herself.Tammy previously instructed all forms of dance at Dancexpress for 10 years and is thrilled to be back!
Pamela Waters
Pamela Waters, of Narberth, PA, danced with DanceXpress for a few years when she was young and is very excited to return as a ballet teacher. She trained extensively with the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet. She went on to dance professionally with BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio, Columbia Classical Ballet in Columbia, South Carolina, and spent six years as a company member with Manassas Ballet Theatre in Manassas, Virginia. In Manassas she served as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, and event coordinator. Pamela had the opportunity to dance many leading roles with Manassas Ballet Theatre including: Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen, Lilac Fairy, Autumn Fairy, Big Swan, and many others. She also taught ballet, private lessons, coached, and choreographed for many local Virginia schools. Pamela also danced with Glorify Dance Theatre in West Chester, Pennsylvania for one season. Pamela is certified to teach ballet in the Vaganova Method and has had the privilege to train as a teacher under Ramona deSaa of the National Ballet of Cuba. She is also certified to teach Progressing Ballet Technique. Ballet has always been Pamela’s passion and she is eager to share this passion with her students at DanceXpress.
Brittany Wright
Brittany Leticia Wright, a recent graduate of Towson university and company member of Philadanco looks forward to sharing her knowledge and passion of dance. While learning from the creativity and exploration of the students. Let’s have a wonderful year!
Assistant Teachers
