Caroline Markoch, originally from Fuquay-Varina, NC, teaches tap, jazz, hip hop, yoga, and general dance classes at Ligon Magnet Middle School. She is also the Director of Tapestry, Ligon’s well known tap dance company. This is Ms. M’s third year teaching in WCPSS after graduating East Carolina University’s BFA Program in Dance Education. Ms. M has trained, taught, and studied in tap, modern, jazz, ballet, pointe, contemporary, ballroom, African, hip-hop, yoga, and other various styles in North Carolina as well as along the East Coast. An American Dance Festival Alumna, Ms. M has performed works and studied notable choreographers like Danielle Sheather, Dirk Lumbard, Dave Ingram, John Dixon, Galina Panova, Ji-Eun Lee, Gerri Houlihan, and Teal Darkenwald. She regularly teaches all styles at the Holly Springs School of Dance in Holly Springs, NC and serves as a guest artist for several dance companies and studios in the triangle area. Ms.M is also active in furthering her knowledge of dance through membership of the National Dance Education Organization and North Carolina Dance Education Organization. Her most recent accomplishment is winning the Diane Kent Parker Beginning Teacher of the Year award out of 400 nominations for her work at Ligon. She was also nominated as a 2020 NC School Hero. Ms. M loves her pug puppy, coffee (what teacher doesn’t?), cooking, and spending time with her family and friends!

Amy Messer has been teaching movement and dance for many years. One of her biggest passions is children. Although she teaches all ages, she especially lights up with enthusiasm and joy while teaching children. Amy has two children of her own so she knows first hand the importance of early childhood education. She believes it is very important to learn and use the arts at a young age. Amy has been dancing since she could walk and has worked with well known choreographers such as: Mia Michaels, Tyce Diorio, Brian Friedman, Wade Robson, and Twitch to name a few. Amy believes she should be continuously growing and has always said, “You can never be satisfied as a teacher, you should always be willing to learn, grow and follow.” Therefore she has continued to take classes and study in order to better her choreography. Amy is also involved in teaching music classes with her husband in the Charlotte area. Amy, an energetic and thriving entrepreneur, runs her own business and is now teaching classes in movement, dance, and gymnastics in several schools and Art Institutes in the Charlotte area. She has been a teacher at Open Door Studios for many years as well as other studios, private and public school systems. Amy is driven to spread her love of movement not only to all of Charlotte but surrounding areas as well. She always strives to work as hard as possible in all she does. Amy is full of life and her teachng abilities speak for themselves. Her goal is to be a role model both inside and outside of the classroom.

Amy's MOTTO:

You should never be content in your art. You always have room to learn, teach, and grow within in the walls of your art. Be who you are and teach from the heart.

Erin Badger-Coffey discovered at a young age that, like many children who are sensorially driven, she learns best through movement. Since 2013, Erin has been supporting early childhood educators by providing arts-integration professional development in the classroom and virtually throughout North Carolina and Virginia as a Wolf Trap Dance/Movement Teaching Artist. Most recently, Erin joined the music education team at Kidznotes as a Program Consultant. In 2019 she became a Lead Dance Instructor for the Inspire Inclusion Dance program in Charlotte, NC. During the Fall of 2020 she began collaborating with Sarah Council Dance Projects to co-facilitate virtual creative movement and poetry workshop experiences for all ages called “Dancing the Poem.” Erin graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance.

Sarah Council is a contemporary modern dance choreographer and teaching artist with 20 years of experience. She is the artistic director of Sarah Council Dance Projects (SCDP), a contemporary modern dance company currently based in Charlotte NC. SCDP is focused on dance research, creation and performance and works to share these experiences with others through presentations, workshops and residencies.

As a dance educator, Council believes that the creative process is empowering and transformative for individuals and communities. Sharing this process with others is her passion and priority.

Council is celebrating her 10th year as dance teaching artist with the Wolf Trap Institute of Early Learning Through the Arts (DC, NJ, NC, VA) and has worked for 7 years with Together in Dance (NYC). She has developed Move Create and Collaborate: k-12 arts-integrated and PD movement residencies and workshops through her company SCDP. These programs were implemented in several Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Schools and featured at Wake County Arts Council’s Arts Integration Institute in 2018-2019.

She also has experience teaching dance and dance-making in community spaces in person and virtually (centers, libraries, ZOOM etc.). Her Dancing the Poem Workshop Series had been supported by of the Arts and Science Council (NC) Culture Blocks programs and Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Libraries.

Additionally she has had the opportunity to teach in numerous studio settings over her extensive career: Dance Place (DC), Joy of Motion (DC), American Dance Institute (DC), Glen Echo Park (DC), Ebb and Flow (NC).

SCDP has also received support from the Queens Council on the Arts, The Puffin Foundation and The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and Arts and Science Council.

Council’s choreography, described by the Washington post as “...uncommonly honest and expressive”, has been presented in numerous venues in NYC including: The Green Building, The 92nd St. Y, The LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Times Square Arts Center. The Flea Theater, The Secret Theater, The LABA Theater, The Riverside Theatre, Green Space, Triskelion Arts, Topaz Arts, Merce Cunningham Studio, Dance New Amsterdam, Gowanus Arts, Times Square Arts Center. Council’s work has also been presented at the following venues in Washington, DC, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Florida: Dance Place (DC), The Jack Guidone Theater (DC), Franklin Marshall University (PA),Glema Mahr Center for the Arts (KY) and Jacksonville Episcopal School (FL), Meredith College (NC), Bennett College (NC), The Duke Energy Theater (NC), Goodyear Arts (NC), Stephen Hyers Theater (NC) and BOOM Charlotte at Petra’s Bar (NC). She has performed with Gesel Mason, Deborah Riley, Helanius Wilkens, Cynthia Word and Citydance Ensemble.

Council has a BFA from the University of Oklahoma and is a Certified GYROTONIC® trainer.