MFDUSA
Studio Staff
MFDUSA
Studio Staff
Miss Michelle
Miss Michelle started out as a flamenco dancer at the age of 8. She discovered her love for dance when her Aunt was renting space at a dance school, while she was learning dances of her Spanish culture. Little did she know that it was that tiny window that opened a lifetime of opportunities. As she began her journey, she started out training where everyone else does, in New York City at Broadway Dance Center. Training with the greats like Frank Hatchett, Charles Kelly and many more. This fueled her fire to keep learning. It wasn’t even about the performing, although she loved it, she started teaching and discovered that’s what she really loved. Though she attended college to be an elementary school teacher, she decided that teaching and educating dancers would eventually be her future. Fast forward to 2120 and 28 years later, Miss Michelle has been training dancers all over Long Island. Some of the MFDUSA alumni have been successful on and off the stage. She is proud of the MFDUSA legacy and what it represents all these years later. Hard work, a great work ethic and focus; all the qualities everyone needs, whether you are dancing or just trying to live your best life. This is what she has tried to achieve all these years. Miss Michelle has been teaching since she was 15 years old. She has won choreography awards, entertainment awards and many others, but her most cherished job is being a mom to 3 beautiful daughters; Ashley, Chelsey and Dominique. She has been happily married to her husband Michael for 32 years and resides in Shoreham.
Fun Fact: After all these years, I still excited for my annual recital. It always feels like my 1st show, even after all these years! It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Miss Ashley
Miss Ashley has grown up dancing since the age of 3. With having a mom who was also her teacher for many years, it made it easy to want to teach classes of her own. At the age of 15, Ashley started teaching classes as well as choreographing pieces for the competition team. Along her journey of being a teacher, Ashley had the opportunity to choreograph for her two sister’s and cousin, which is something not all teachers can say. Ashley has trained in all genre’s and with many different choreographers that were brought into the studio. The genre’s she currently teaches are lyrical, jazz, technique, contemporary and acro. She still has the same drive to push every student she trains to be the best version of themselves that they can be.
Fun Fact: She is a Hair Dresser/Make-up artist who loves Dinosaurs, Hello Kitty, tattoos and French Fries!
Miss Tracie
Miss Tracie has been with Miss Michelle since ONE! She started dancing at the age of 2 and has been teaching since she was 14 years old. She has performed in all genres of dance but specializes in Acro here at MFDUSA. Miss Tracie is the Production Coordinator for our annual recital. She is mom to Mia and Carson!
Fun Fact: She loves her dog Jackson! Even more than most people!!
Miss Lisa
Miss Lisa has been dancing since 4 years old and teaching since the age of 15. She minored in dance at St. Joseph’s and continued teaching and taking dance classes while earning her master’s in psychology. Miss Lisa teaches all styles of dance; however, her favorites are Hip Hop and teaching her babies. Miss Lisa has won choreography, entertainment and national titles with the most talented, well rounded kids here at Michelle Ferraro’s Dance USA!
Fun Fact: She used to be a police officer in NYC!
Miss Gail
Miss Gail started dancing at the age of 4 on Long Island and continued her dance training on Long Island and at Broadway Dance Center in NYC. She has received extensive training in Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Contemporary and Musical Theatre. Growing up she was a competitive dancer where she competed across the east coast winning numerous awards and continued on through her college years dancing, teaching and performing. Miss Gail has been teaching for over 35 years and just started her 20th year here at MFDUSA!
Fun Fact: She loves everything Disney (especially Tinkerbell)!
Miss Kerri
Miss Kerri started dancing at the age of 3. She has taken all genres of dance including jazz, tap, hip hop, lyrical, acro and ballet. She was a dancer and competition member here at MFDUSA and has been with MFDUSA since 1997. She just began her 19th year teaching at MFDUSA. She is a mom of 2 boys and lives in Coram.
Fun Fact: Her favorite color is purple, and she likes to play Animal Crossing in her free time.
Miss Hali
Miss Hali has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Dance from the University of the Arts and has just recently completed her Master of Arts (MA) degree at Stony Brook University. She is currently the Head of Dance at Five Towns College and is also a coach for the Sachem East Arrowettes!
Fun Fact: After college she spent a year dancing in Israel!
Miss Daniella
Miss Daniella moved out to Long Island 6 years ago from NYC to have her two children. She has been training/choreographing at competitive studios for over 25 years. Miss Daniella has been lucky enough to have a wonderful career in dance that has taken her all over the world performing in many different aspects of the industry. Some credit include: Radio City Music Hall NYC Christmas Show, Fosse US and European Tour, Resident Choreographer for INDIA (Franco Dragone Production in Germany), Dance Teacher Summit Fashion Show coordinator, BLOCH and Art Stone photo shoot choreographer, AGT backup dancer, Assistant Choreographer and Principal Dancer to several Choreographers for Industrials, Modern and Ballet Companies. Miss Daniella’s goal is to inspire dancers and pass on as much education as she can!
Fun Fact: When she started competing dance at the age of 5 and for a while after that, her strongest genre was tap!
Miss Bethany
Miss Bethany started dancing at the age of 3. She made the competition team when she was 9 and competed in all genres until she graduated high school. Student teaching started for her at 15 years old and she became Miss Bethany for the first time in 2006, then joined the MFDUSA staff in 2009. She loves to share her passion of dance with her students.
Fun Fact: She enjoys math and is very savvy with numbers!
Miss Vanessa
Miss Vanessa comes to us each week from NYC. She is the co-director of DoubleTake Dance and performs with DTD and Daniel Gwirtzman Dance. Her credits include: RSW & Associates, ABT, Tap City, Little Opera Theter, Balasole, Noir Tribe Media, Ryan Beck, Derek Mitchell, Guillem Alonso, L’OREAL, Heineken, Ameriprise, Yahoo, Ursus Vodka, KDDance, Lucsh, Fuse TV, X-Box/Kinect (with NeYo and Lady Sovereign), Rachel Ray…Faculty at PMT.
Fun Fact: She is a cheese and cookie addict!
Miss Aniya
Miss Aniya is a proud MFDUSA Alumni and has been under Miss Michelle’s roof since she was 2 years old. Since graduation, she has worked with Debbie Allen, Savion Glover, Jared Grimes and many other choreographers. She is so excited to be back home teaching!
Fun Fact: She loves to sing!
Miss Kyla
Miss Kyla is 17 and is on her 16th year at MFDUSA (but technically been at the studio since she was born). She has been assisting since she was 12 years old and is now on her 2nd year teaching. The studio has been her safe place and home ever since she walked into the doors. As a result of training at MFDUSA, in October 2019, Miss Kyla had the opportunity to perform on the Radio City Music Hall stage with The Syncopated Ladies.
Fun Fact: She has dreams to become a pediatric nurse to continue her work with children.
Miss Jkai
Miss Jkai is a young dancer and choreographer based on Long Island. She began dancing at the age of 3 and grew up training at Michelle Ferraro’s Dance USA, specializing in Hip Hop. She is also trained in jazz, ballet, lyrical & contemporary. In addition, Miss Jkai was captain of her high school dance team, “Obey” and choreographed routines for their performances which fundraised for the Bringing Unity to Youth (BUTY) program. She is also a preschool teacher’s aide and loves working with children. Miss Jkai is currently studying Psychology at Stony Brook University!
Fun Fact: She loves watching crime shows!
Miss Nina
Miss Nina was born and raised on Long Island and has been a teacher/choreographer for 6 years now. Miss Nina was introduced to dance as soon as she was born. She started dancing with a Latin dance group from a young age and had the opportunity to perform with “El Teatro Rodante Hispanico” in The New York salsa congress. She grew up dancing and competing right here at Michelle Ferraro’s Dance USA and her love for dance only grew stronger. After she graduated from Newfield High School in 2015 and went to Suffolk County Community College and danced on the Suffolk Dance Team until 2018. After her freshman year, she was captain for 2 years and won MVP awards for the 3 years she was on the team. She now is a coach for the Suffolk dance team, while also teaching and choreographing for the MFDUSA Superstars. She has won multiple choreography awards for her work and is super proud of all her students. She cares and loves each student that walks into her class every week and hopes to inspire these young dancers to become confident and grow their love to dance.
Fun Fact: Her dog’s name is Peppa, but not like Peppa Pig!