Sallee Slagle, Director

Danielle Foley

Tabitha M. Liversidge

Lauren McLucas

Amanda Montanez

Karleen Quackenbush

Erin J. Washington

Samantha Wilson

Sallee Slagle, Director

 Sallee Slagle has been performing and choreographing professionally for over 20 years. Since receiving her BFA from the Boston Conservatory, she has performed throughout New England, the Caribbean and abroad with a variety of dance companies, as well as her own modern company, Forty Steps Dance. Her choreography has been presented locally and internationally by the Culture Connection, North Shore Dance Alliance, Windhover Performing Arts Center, North Shore Civic Ballet Co., Somerville Theater, Majestic Cruise Lines as well as the Saint Hill European Arts Festival in England.

Slagle is currently delivering her Increasing Creativity through Movement workshop locally and abroad bringing creative dance to everyone. Sallee is the director of Dance Dimensions, a dance and fitness studio serving Nahant, Lynn and Swampscott.

Danielle Foley		 Danielle Foley is a senior at Salem State College and will be graduating in May. She began dancing at age three and never stopped. Danielle is double majoring in Sports and Movement Science with a concentration in Dance and Education. She has made Dean’s list every semester with a 3.5 grade point average and belongs to the Salem States Chapter of Pi Lambda Theta Education Honor Society. Danielle received the Creativity Award in 2008 and in 2010 and has been a Presidential Arts Scholar for four years. Additionally, Danielle is a preschool teacher at the Salem YMCA Preschool and is a dance teacher at Dance Class on Essex Street Studio in Salem. Danielle also created and runs a preschool enrichment camp at the Salem YMCA for the past three years. In May of 2009 Danielle joined Forty Steps Dance with her long-time ballet teacher Sallee Slagle.

Tabitha M. Liversidge		 Hailing from Andover MA, Tabitha Liversidge began her training at the Andover School of Ballet. In high school she continued her training in the Jeannette Neill Dance Studio’s Boston Youth Moves program. Tabitha recently received her BFA in Modern Dance from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. There she had the pleasure of performing works by Bob Fosse (Steam Heat), Louis Johnson (Forces of Rhythm), and Merrian Soto (Historias), among others, and was a member of the first college group to perform Martha Graham’s “Panorama” within a Graham Company program. Tabitha was a part of the university’s Choreography Emphasis Program and received the Dance Faculty Recognition Award for Excellence in Dance. She has been a member of the Windhover Dance Company in Rockport MA performing works by Doris Humphrey. It was through Windhover that Tabitha met Sallee. Tabitha also currently dances with Urbanity Dance under the direction of Besti Akerstein, and Deadfall Dance under the direction of Judy Wombwell.

Lauren McLucas		 Lauren McLucas is originally from Arlington, Massachusetts. Lauren graduated with a BFA in Jazz Dance from the University of the Arts in 2008. Lauren has performed in many venues in the Philadelphia area including the Merriam and Drake Theaters. After graduating, Lauren continued on to the seas, working for PGT Entertainment, as a dancer on board the Sea Princess cruise ship. Currently, Lauren is back home and is pleased to have been given the opportunity to be a part of the Forty Steps Dance Company.

Amanda Montanez		 Amanda Montanez started studying ballet at an early age and has always loved having dance as part of her life. As a young dancer she performed with Ballet Theater of Boston and Northeast Youth Ballet. As an art major at Smith College, she began to branch out from classical ballet, exploring modern, hip hop, flamenco, West African, and other dance forms. She joined a student-run dance company whose mission was to promote diversity through dance, and relished the opportunity to learn from her peers and also present her own choreography. Amanda currently works at Springstep, a non-profit arts organization that celebrates cultures through dance, music, and visual arts. She joined Forty Steps Dance last fall and is very happy to be part of such a wonderful, dedicated group of dancers.

Karleen Quackenbush		 Originally from Arvada, Colorado, Karleen Quackenbush graduated from Colorado State University with a B.A. in Performing Arts with a concentration in Dance and a Minor in English in August of 2009. At CSU, Karleen worked with several faculty choreographers including Chung-Fu Chang and Carol Roderick, as well as several guest choreographers including Jacques Heim, the artistic director of Diavolo Dance Theater. She was a member of CSU’s Tour Dance Company and performed at K-12 schools throughout the state of Colorado to share the art of dance with younger generations. During her college years, she danced with the Canyon Concert Ballet of Fort Collins, CO, performing in several roles including her favorite as Spanish Chocolate in the Nutcracker. Also at CCB, Karleen was privileged to work with guest choreographer David Taylor in his production of Contemporary Classics. Currently, Karleen teaches ballet at the Hamilton-Wenham School of Dance and works with Boston Ballet’s outreach program Citydance. When she’s not dancing, Karleen enjoys spending time with her husband Kevin, painting and going to Zumba classes. This is her first season with Forty Steps Dance.

Erin J. Washington		 Erin J. Washington has been dancing since age 10, after first doing gymnastics for three years at the Gymnastics Academy of Boston in Newton. She studied ballet, jazz, tap and modern for eight years at Paulette’s Ballet Studio in Newton, also competing in gymnastics on Newton South High School’s varsity team, and choreographing teammates' floor routines. In 2002 she received a B.A. in New Media from Emerson College, with a minor in Dance. Erin taught ballet, jazz, tap and pointe to all ages and levels at Paulette's Ballet Studio for six years. Erin was on Boston's Lady Panthers Dance Team from 2006-7 and has been a member of the Jhumka Dance Company since 2007. She danced in the "Urban Nutcracker" from 2004-2008 doing swing in the Party Scene, tap as Mother Ginger and ballet as the NutHead and in the Russian dance. Erin also taught ballet, tap and gymnastics for four years at the Tony Williams Dance Center, and was director of their jazz/hip hop performance team. In 2009 she performed in several shows with Kelley Donovan & Dancers, as a modern dancer and collaborative choreographer, and in the musical "Hair" at the Turtle Lane Playhouse in Newton. Erin also does graphic and web design for INDIA New England newspaper and the IndUS Business Journal. She has been dancing with Forty Steps Dance since 2009.

Samantha Wilson