Maria Benson's Centre for
Dance
Meet the Instructors
Maria Casey Brittany Kyle Kristen Jen
Maria Benson- (Director) Teaching for 25 years and DTCB certified. Maria trained under the direction of Kathy St. Jean and after her certification she has continued to travel to many workshops where she took classes with master teachers such as Frank Hachett, Art Stone, Sam Fiorello, Sara Jo Fazio, Debbie Dee, and Kirby Reed to name a few. Maria travels every year to National competition with her students and her team has won many top scores and special awards. Maria has won Best Choreography for her piece "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in 2008.
The studio is successfully in its fourth year and still growing. Maria puts all her time and energy for her students to be in a fun and family-like atmosphere. She is also active in the Cranston School system. Maria has taught short programs for Hugh B. Bain and Stadium Elementary and this her tenth year (directing for 6 years) at Woodridge Elementary School where she teaches the after school dance program every October-May.
Maria is married to Mike Benson and she has two wonderful children, Brittany; 17 years old and Alyssa; 12 years old. Along with the studio, Maria also owns and works at Hair Trends Salon in Cranston.
is a native of Rhode Island. She received her B.A. in dance performance from Rhode Island College. During her studies, Casey trained and performed with exceptional choreographers such as Clay Talifaro, Mark Taylor, Sean Curran, Angelica Vessella, and Deb Mernier. She also worked with Danny Buraceski in the re-creation of the Jack Cole piece entitled “Happy Ending Every Time,” which included the collaborative efforts of Brown University, Roger Williams University, and Providence College. After graduating, Casey continued to work with various choreographers as she participated in the Boston Summer Dance Festival.
Over the past few years Casey has delved into various performance opportunities working with many talented local artists that have taken her from Boston to New York. While an Andary Dance Company member she had the wonderful experience of performing at the Cunningham School in New York City, the Dance Complex in Boston and various venues in the Providence area. Casey also participated in the 2007 Bright Night Providence as a dancer in the Guilday Magic Show performed at the Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium. The show later traveled to New York for an encore performance. Casey’s other performance credits include works of Stephanie Harris and Paul Zunno, Michael Owen, Sherry Zuncker, and Tovah Bodner of Robin’s Egg.
Most recently Casey can be found teaching, choreographing, and learning. She has proudly seen students off to college to continue their studies in dance and has choreographed for young dancers who have received awards of excellence at various competitions. Although known for her contemporary style, Casey currently teaches jazz, ballet, tap, and hip hop at several private schools across the state of Rhode Island.
Brittany Benson: Brittany is a Senior at LaSalle Academy and has been dancing for 14 years. Six of those years was at the Festival Ballet and besides her Mom, she has had the opportunity to train with the Director Mihailo "Misha" Djuric, Ballet Mistress Milica Bijelic, former FBP Company Principal Leticia Guerrero, Karla Kovatch (Former principal FBP), Piotr Ostaltsov, and Ann Morsilli to name a few.
Brittany has competed in many Regional and four National Competitions. She was a Semi-finalist for The Dancer of the Year at Dance Olympus for the past 4 years, in which she has placed in the top 20 every year. She has won many 1st place and Platinum Medals in the Dance Olympus, IDC, and Sophisicated Productions (Placed 1st overall in the 13 -15 age division) and two Platinum Medals in this years Starquest International - which she placed 8th overall in the senior division.
She was Miss Global International 1st Runner up in 2005.
Brittany danced in the Nutcracker for Festival Ballet as the roles of Clara's Friends, the Soldier, Mice, Trepak, Attendants and the understudy to Snow.
She also performed at McCoy Stadium for the Italian and American Olympic Baseball Teams with her group at Festival Ballet.
In the summer of 2006, while competing in Florida, Brittany was part of the Dancer of the Year production which performed in Disney World.
In 2008, Brittany performed with Stephanie Harris from New York accompanied with Paul Zunno at the Perishable Theatre.
In June 2009, Brittany competed in the Miss Rhode Island Outstanding Teen Pageant in which she placed in the top five and won 2nd Runner up.
Kyle Weaver: Kyle is a graduate of Johnston High School and he is currently enrolled Rhode Island college to pursue his major in Music Education. He has been teaching for 6 years and he has coached many groups that competed in Regionals and Nationals which earned many top awards. In 2004 he was the Young Choreographer Award recipient for his duet "The Hot Mix".
Kyle teaches Hip Hop in the studio and he is currently teaching an all boys Hip Hop class in the studio as well.
This year he is choreographing for his soloist Alyssa and the Jr. and Sr. groups as well. They will compete in Regionals in which he will be performing with the seniors.
Kristen Geremia: Kristen teaches elementary school in Cranston and West Warwick school systems. She has a B.A. in Education from Rhode Island college and a minor in dance. Kristen received a scholarship from RIC Dance Company where she was a member for 2 seasons, performing modern dance. She is currently attending Graduate school at RIC working on her Masters in Education. Kristen's love for dance started at the age of three, and she has been dancing jazz, ballet, tap and lyrical ever since. she studied under the direction of Ms. Cheryl Cuzick Igliozzi (Miss Rhode Island 1987), at the Narragansett Performing Arts Center. She was placed on their teaching staff at the age of 16. She was selected to be a member of the Rhode Island Ballet Theatre at the age of 13 where she performed for three seasons in the Nutcracker for the Russian Ballet. While in High school, at the Prout school she had the lead dance part in West Side Story. Her Performances in many dance competitions throughout New England and New York lead her to win the Grand Regional Award in New York in the Stars of Tomorrow competition for her ballet solo. In addition, Kristen has studied and worked with renowned dancers, such as, Wade Robinson and Scott Benson.
Most recently Kristen performed with stephanie Harris accompanied with Paul Zunno at the Perishable Theatre.
In addition to working with our pre-school program Kristen will be getting involved with our Competition Team working with some soloists.
Jen (Foisy) Kapadia : Jen has been dancing for over 20 years. She has 10+ years of teaching experience and is certified through the Dance Teacher's Club of Boston (D.T.C.B.) in both Tap and Jazz. Jen has coached many competition groups and soloists. Her students continually receive top scores in their categories and numerous special awards. She has coached several soloists who qualified as "Dancer of the Year" semi -finalists. In 2005 Jen qualified as a "Dancer of the Year" semi-finalist. In 2005 & 2006 Jen was the "Young Choreographer Award" recipient for her work on a group jazz routine "Vodoo" and group hip hop routine "Bring em Out". She also received a choreography award in 2008 for a hip hop solo routine "Misdemeanor". Jen continues to attend conventions in order to stay current with today's hottest dance trends. In the spring of 2009, Jen had the honor of taking a workshop with Sonya Tayeh from "So You Think You Can Dance".
Jen graduated from Sacred Heart University with a B.S. degree in Human Movement- Exercise Physiology. A former personal trainer, Jen likes to incorporate strength/conditioning and core training into her dance classes. In addition to dance, Jen is an employee at Amgen Inc. in West Greenwich. Jen enjoys sharing her dance abilities with her Amgen colleagues. Last winter, Jen volunteered to teach a hip hop class for a co-workers church group in order to collect food for the needy. The event was called "Will Dance For Food" and she plans on returning again this year. This past October Jen taught 9 of her co-workers her rendition of "Thriller" dance and performed with them at a work sponsored Halloween Party.
This year Jen is working with soloists and our Intermediate and Senior Team for our competition season. Also Jen teaches an active adult Jazz and adult Hip hop classes as well.
Jessica Harris
Jessica has been dancing for the past 8 years. She has studied many genres which include tap, jazz, ballet, pointe, lyrical, acrobatics and hiphop. She has taught for the past three years as a hiphop teacher from ages 6 through adult. She has received numerous high gold and platinum medals. In 2006, she was the recipient of an “Intensity Award” for her hiphop solo, “Toma” at Dance America and received a paid scholarship which brought her to Las Vegas, NV in 2007 for Dance America’s Nationals Competition where she placed Gold with her hiphop solo, “Toma” and studied under various choreographers including, Mia Michaels from the hit TV. show So You Think You Can Dance and Chris Judd. Jessica had recently received a platinum medal for the 2008-2009 season for her lyrical solo, “Haunted” and also received for the past two years, Judge’s Choice Awards for her lyrical solo, “Haunted”. These awards included an “Intensity Award” in 2008 at Hall of Fame Dance Challenge and the “Entertainment Award” in 2009 at Hall of Fame Dance Challenge. Jessica has also been apart of the Woodridge after school program under the direction of Maria Benson for the 2006-2007 year where she choreographed two tap pieces and a ballet and jazz piece for their recital. Finally, Jessica incorporated two young dancers in her 2008-2009 hiphop solo “Bounce” for a dance recital. Jessica continues to learn and choreograph various hip hop dances. This year she will be traveling to Walt Disney World for Dance Olympus/Dance America Nationals Competition to perform two group dances which have both received high gold and platinum awards. Aside from dance, Jessica is an alumnus of Johnson & Wales University Class of 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management and a double minor in psychology and human resources. For the past 8 year she has worked for Stop & Shop Supermarkets and is a full time CAO clerk.