Teaching Artists

Rose Bedard

Rose Bedard, affectionately known as “Rosie B.” is a freelance artist, choreographer, and teacher under her LLC 2INSPIRE Dance. She can be found inspiring, teaching, and choreographing at local studios and universities in and outside of Vermont. She is the creator/director of her own adult dance company, SynRgy Dance Company. Rose has the pleasure to work with many dance studios around the state on a recreational and competitive level as well as continuing her own training in NYC, Boston, and beyond. She has been coach of the Mt. Mansfield Union dance team for 16 years.

Tom Cleary

Pianist/keyboardist/composer Tom Cleary teaches in the jazz studies program at UVM, coordinates the Flynn jazz program, and teaches private lessons in his home studio. He co-leads the jazz quartet Birdcode with vocalist Amber deLaurentis, and has performed and recorded with Mike Gordon, Ray Vega, Ellen Powell, Brian McCarthy, Patricia Julien, and Jamie Masefield. His work in musical theater includes music direction for shows at Northern Stage, Saint Michael's Playhouse, and UVM Theater. Visit his website and blog.

Amber deLaurentis

Amber oversees the vocal jazz program at University of Vermont, where she teaches voice and co-directs the UVM Jazz Vocal Ensemble with husband Tom Cleary. Amber regularly performs alongside Tom as a member of jazz quartet Birdcode, which recently released its first recording, You Are Here. As a songwriter, Amber released her second full-length record, Innocent Road, in 2019. She has performed with Marcus Roberts, Judi Silvano, and Ben Folds.

MC DeBelina Doyle

Mary Chris DeBelina studied Biology and Dance at Dartmouth College and combined her two passions at Sarah Lawrence College, receiving an MFA in Dance. MC is the current executive director of the Vermont Dance Alliance. She dances with Willow Wonder and Hannah Dennison, and has shown her own work at Phantom Theater. MC teaches at Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio and Montpelier Senior Activity Center. She taught movement for Parkinson's classes for two years in Philadelphia and now teaches in Montpelier.

Kristin Marchilena

Kristin Marchilena is a musician and educator based in Essex, Vermont. Kristin’s specialties include vocal coaching, curriculum design, classroom music instruction, music direction, songwriting, arrangement, and choral conducting. Kristin grew up just outside Milwaukee. At the age of 18, she moved to New York to attend NYU for an undergraduate degree in Music Education. As a classically-trained, contemporarily-influenced vocalist and educator, Kristin offers a versatile training experience for students of all ages.

Tracy Martin

Tracy Martin teaches young children around the state as well as through the Flynn’s signature Words Come Alive school program. She studied dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and received her MFA in dance from UWM. She is the artistic director of Phantom Theater, a venue that produces original works in dance, theater, and music.

photo credit: Emily Boedecker

“Professor” Ben t. Matchstick

“Professor” Ben t. Matchstick is the founder of the Montpelier-based Cardboard Teck Institute. He is the co-creator of the PinBox 3000 cardboard tabletop pinball machine kit (with Pete Talbot). He co-conceived the original Hadestown (with Anaïs Mitchell), now on Broadway. He has worked as a youth advocate, librarian, café owner, educator, puppeteer, artist, game master, and entrepreneur in Vermont for 20+ years. He has a BA in Theater from Northwestern University and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College.

Sara McMahon

Sara has been involved in the research, teaching, performing of movement as a form of artistic and personal development for the past 40 years. Her teaching approach draws from elements of Bartenieff Fundamentals, Body-Mind Centering, basic principles of anatomy and kinesiology, and improvisational and modern dance techniques. She has extensive training in Modern Dance, Body Mind Dancing, and is a Dance for PD® certified teacher.

Alison Mott

Alison Mott studied ballet, modern, and jazz technique as a young teen at the Brooklyn College Preparatory Center for the Arts in NYC. Here in Vermont, she has performed with Heather Bryce, and Joy Madden, and Lida Winfield in multiple performances, including dancing for Bess O'Brien's documentary All of Me. She was founding organizer of the Burlington International Contact Jam (reboot), and also a founding organizer of Traces! with Hannah Satterlee.

Gina Stevensen

Gina Stevensen is an award-winning playwright, performer, and teaching artist with an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and a BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch. Before moving to Burlington, she spent 13 years in New York City, where she taught theater and creative writing at Tribeca Performing Arts Center, The Brooklyn College Community Partnership, Leave Out Violence, The Writer’s Rock, Writopia Lab, and more. She is a 2023 Vermont Arts Council/NEA Creation Grant recipient. Her plays have been developed in NYC, London, and across the country. Since moving to Vermont, she's worked as a performer and dramaturg with Vermont Stage, Middlebury Acting Company, and Vermont Shakespeare Festival, and is the co-creator of the Front Porch Follies.

Stefanie Weigand

Stefanie Weigand (she/her) enjoys working as a presenter, clinician, and guest conductor across the region. She currently serves as the Chair of the NAfME Council for Choral Education, and she directs the Catamount Singers at the University of Vermont, where she is also on the voice faculty. Stefanie is the executive director of the non-profit organization Music-COMP. After completing her BFA in Musical Theatre from Ithaca College, Stefanie toured nationally with a Children’s Theatre Company. Since moving to Vermont, she has appeared as a vocalist, pianist, and music director for TURNmusic, the Vermont Philharmonic, Lyric Theatre, and more. Stefanie’s work as a studio vocalist can be heard on a number of albums, including the recent self-titled album by The Saturn People’s Sound Collective.