Dance Northeast Int/Adv Master Class Instructors
Contemporary
Marie Bucklin
Marie Bucklin is a dance teacher, director and choreographer with nearly three decades of experience in performance, competition, and dance education. She is known for dynamic, high-energy choreography, strong musicality, and her ability to bring out both performance quality and technical excellence in her dancers.
Marie is the co-owner and director of JAM Dance Intensive, a workshop focused on developing technically strong, confident, and expressive dancers. She served as Head Coach and nationals choreographer for the Southern New Hampshire University Dance Team for multiple seasons, and has had the privilege of teaching and choreographing at numerous studios throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Marie’s background includes choreographing and performing with DanceWorks Boston for ten seasons, performing with Boston-based hip hop crew Unyted Stylz, and being on staff with the National Dance Alliance. She trained at North Shore Dance Academy in Massachusetts, danced on the Assumption College Dance Team and was captain her senior year, and completed her formal dance teacher training through the Dance Teacher Club of Boston. She is trained in ballet, tap, jazz, pointe, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, pom, kickline, and musical theater.
Jazz
Lacey Sasso
Lacey Sasso (she/her) is the founder and Artistic Director of Sasso & Company, a Boston-based modern dance company. She attended Missouri State University where she earned a B.F.A in Dance Performance and a minor in Psychology. She earned a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology and Expressive Arts Therapy from William James College. Lacey spent six seasons with Undertoe Dance Project (NYC) as the Jazz Captain and Resident Jazz Teaching Artist and four seasons performing and choreographing for Six One Seven Dance Collective (Boston). She spent five seasons performing in Project31’s contemporary professional company and serving as rehearsal assistant; her choreography was featured in Alice in P31wonderland and 5. Lacey joined the cast of City Ballet of Boston’s Urban Nutcracker as a tap lead, soloist, and ensemble member in 2024. She is a company member with DrumatiX and a freelance contemporary performer with CreatAVES. Lacey is NGCP® certified in the Basic-Professional levels of Giordano Jazz Technique, is certified in Progressing Ballet Technique®, Tap Roots® and Alixa Flexibility Modules 1 & 2, has completed the Dance for PD® Introductory Dance Teacher Training Course, Martha Graham School Intensive Teacher Workshop (NYC), and Kaelyn Gray’s Tap Basics with a Twist Workshop. She has served on the faculty at Boston University, Urbanity Dance, the Royal Academy of Dance (London) and Montage Theatre Arts (London). She currently teaches on faculty at Boston Dance Studios, Project31 Dance Studio and South Shore Ballet Theatre, where she is the Head of the Modern Dance Program.
Photo Credit: Timothy Avery Photography
Tap
Brooklyn Toli
Brooklyn Toli is a Boston-based educator and arts administrator. She currently serves as a faculty member at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee teaching jazz and tap dance, and is the Administrative Associate for Dorrance Dance. Brooklyn is also the choreographer for New Bedford Festival Theatre, and has set work on the Providence College Dance Company and Bristol Community College's Theater Program. In 2020, Brooklyn started “Sisters Support Success,” an organization that works to support arts accessibility, and awards an annual $1,000 scholarship to a high school senior committed to volunteerism. Brooklyn holds an M.F.A in Performing Arts Management from Brooklyn College and a B.A. in Dance Performance and Musical Theater from Rhode Island College.
Ballet
Jackson Gormley
Jackson Gormley was born and raised on Long Island, New York where he began to dance at the age of 11. What started off as an interest in hip hop grew into a passion for jazz, modern, and ballet. Jackson decided to pursue ballet more seriously at the Eglevsky Ballet where he trained under Laszlo Berdo and then Maurice Brandon Curry. Jackson went on to train at Ballet Academy East under the direction of Darla Hoover, and studied with Francis Patrelle, Joseph Malbrough, Cheryl Yeager, and Peter Frame. While attending Holy Trinity High School, he studied dance under his teacher, Catherine Murphy, and had the opportunity to perform works by Murphy, Christina Lynch Markham, Ty Graynor, and many others.
Jackson continued to pursue his dream of dance by attending Point Park University under the direction of Garfield Lemonius and has trained with Matthew Powell, Julia Erickson, Dana Arey, Susan Stowe, Rocker Verastique, Kiesha Lalama, and Jason McDole. While at Point Park, he was also fortunate to perform works by distinguished choreographers including Jessica Lange, Jae Man Jo, Christopher Wheeldon, Adam Hougland, and Tyce Diorio. Jackson will receive a B.F.A. in Dance with a concentration in Ballet in Spring 2021.