On Edge Movement
DANCE STUDIO
MEET OUR TEAM
The Influence Of A Great Teacher Can Never Be Erased
KARA TESTA (OWNER) began her dance training at the age of four in the Philadelphia area. She grew up studying Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, Lyrical, Modern, Tap, Hip Hop, Gymnastics, Ballroom and Theatre. Throughout her years of training she actively participated in dance competitions where she received numerous scholarships. In 2004 Kara was "one of thirty" dancers chosen in Pennsylvania to attend (PGSA) Governor's School of the Arts on a jazz scholarship. She went on to study as a dance major at the prestigious SUNY Purchase conservatory, known for their rigorous and competitive program. Kara joined
ASH Contemporary Dance Company in 2005 where she performed many original works by Braham Logan Crane (of Artists Simply Human) and a piece set by Mia Michaels. She has performed in many events including Marian Anderson awards ceremony honoring Gregory Peck, Carnival Ball, Annenberg Theatre, City Center, APAP, Tangerine Bowl halftime show ESPN, Lincoln Center, Joyce Theatre, 6 ABC Boscov’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Sunoco Welcome America 4th of July Parade, Republican National Convention, Fringe Festival, and Penns Landing concert featuring BaHa men. She was cast as an extra in the movie Transformers 2 and Limitless. Kara was signed with MSA agency before she opened OEM in 2010.
MAKENZIE CRANE is a third generation dancer and master teacher, and is proud to keep the tradition of a family of dancers alive into the 21st century. Makenzie trained at her mother’s dance studio in Pennsylvania as well as North Carolina School of the Arts, Interlochen Arts Center in Michigan, Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts, River North Chicago and Broadway Dance Center in New York City, where she was on full scholarship. Performance credits include: Jammin’ Gold Dancer, Tap Team II, ASH Contemporary Dance, DRA’s Remember Project, “The Best of…” and Broadway Dance Center’s Performance Outlets. While living in New York, Makenzie served as a sound technician and lighting designer for various performances throughout the city. She has also been on the staff and crew of a national dance convention. Makenzie has taught and choreographed for numerous schools and companies including the children’s program at Broadway Dance Center, NYC. Many of Makenzie’s students have gone on to pursue careers in dance including becoming members of professional dance companies, being awarded college dance scholarships, attending Pa. Governor’s School for the Arts, and winning regional and national dance competitions. She is also proud to have former students teaching and directing their own dance companies, and making their mark on Broadway, in Las Vegas shows, and cruise ships. Makenzie holds a degree in Health and Physical Education from West Chester University.
JILL McCLOSKEY DALY began her dance training in Bucks County, PA, at the age of three. Growing up, she studied tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical, and pointe and competed at the regional and national level. She fell in love with tap dancing early in her career and has dedicated much of her life to training young dancers and sharing her passion for tap dance with her students. Jill has had the privilege of studying with such talented tap dancers as Mike Minery, Anthony Morigerato, Ayodele Casel, Mike Schulster, Jason Samuels Smith, Barbara Duffy, and more. As a choreographer, she has been working professionally in the Philadelphia area for fifteen years and has loved getting to travel and work with young dancers. Jill also teaches English at a local high school during the day and continues to train by attending tap conferences and workshops around the country.
ALEXANDRA CHANCLER graduated from DeSales University in Center Valley, PA where she pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Psychology. At DeSales, she has studied under Julia Mayo, Angela Sigley Grossman, Timothy Cowart, Trinette Singleton, Lara Friedman-Kats, Angeline Wolf Gloria, E'lise Jumes, Derek Crescenti, Milan Misko, and Caili Quan.
During her undergrad experience, she has had many opportunities to work with guest choreographers such as: Bennyroyce Royon, Matthew Neenan, Caili Quan, Kristin Alexander restaging Alexander's own work "Glimpses and Layers", and Jennifer Connely restaging Martha Graham’s “Steps in the Street”.
Alexandra started dancing at 3 years old in Pottstown, PA at her local dance studio where she then student taught for four years. Alex then trained at On Edge Movement under Kara Testa and Makenzie Crane where she trained in ballet, modern, contemporary, pointe, jazz, tap, and acrobatics.
Intertwined with performing, Alexandra has taught under Angeline Wolf at the Totts Gap summer intensive [“One Touch”]. Over the summer of 2021, she set work on the residents of DeSales University’s summer dance intensive under Julia Mayo [“Dog Days”].
Starting in the fall of 2023, Alex will continue her education at Immaculata University for a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling. She is teaching at On Edge Movement under director, Kara Testa, working with students on a one-on-one basis as well as group classes/settings.
MARISSA OTT has been dancing since age 3 and began training with a competitive dance team at age 8. She has extensive training in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, lyrical, contemporary, street funk, hip hop, pointe, and musical theatre. She began dancing at different amusement parks and events at a young age through the hip hop dance team, Nyce Stylez, in Philly. Marissa also had the opportunity to perform with a dance team in Disney World, and has been seen as an OEM performer in the 6abc Thanksgiving Day Parade and West Chester Christmas Parade. Marissa joined the OEM Company family in high school and graduated in 2018. She has had experience student teaching and instructing dance classes since 2014, and obtained her barre fitness instructor certification in 2020. In her undergraduate experience at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Marissa received her Bachelor of Science in Speech and Language Pathology with a minor in Deaf Studies. Outside of classes, she was captain on a dance performance team and choreographed a number of routines for basketball games, shows, and parades. Currently, Marissa is a graduate student at Widener University for Speech and Language Pathology.
MADISON BARKER has been dancing since the age of three around the Philadelphia area. She made the decision to train more vigorously in all areas of dance when she made the switch to On Edge Movement for her high school career. She competed with OEM's competitive company for four years. The past two summers, Madi has headed the performing arts summer camp, where she has taught dance and basic acting skills. Madi had the pleasure of performing with the tap group called “Footwerx” for two years where they had the honor of performing at the Wilma Theater. Madison danced numerous times in the 6ABC Thanksgiving Day Parade, 6ABC Philadelphia 4th of July Parades and QVC West Chester Christmas Parade. Madi has a passion for working with children as she has worked at Stepping Stone Education Center for the past four years. She recently graduated from Eastern University with a Bachelors in middle level education.
JODY HAGGERTY began her training at the age of three in Philadelphia studying ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, musical theater, hip hop, lyrical, acrobatics and ballroom and participated in the Teacher Training Course at her home studio receiving the Choreography Award for her class. At the age of 5 she started traveling to train in New York City and various other cities participating in dance conventions for many years and was part of the group chosen to represent Pennsylvania in the first Young Americans Dance Festival. She has produced, choreographed and danced performances for Philadelphia venues and events including Shampoo Night Club and City of Hope. Jody also became involved in theater, performing roles such as Connie in A Chorus Lineand Louise in Carousel, and choreographing many productions including Oliver, Sound of Music, Annieand Brigadoon. She has recently worked at Media Theater, choreographing for the summer camp and directing/choreographing their production of Hansel & Gretel. She is currently serving as Resident Choreographer for Merion Mercy Music Theater were she has choreographed many shows including 42nd Street, Phantom of the Opera, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Crazy For You, West Side Storyand Beauty and the Beastfor which they received the 2006 Cappie award for Best Song at the Greater Philadelphia Critics and Awards Program for their performance of Be Our Guest.
SARAH SHAULIS sought out dance at a very young age at Oxford Center for Dance under the direction of Dina Gazzerro-Kinney in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Throughout the years she has studied at numerous dance studios and trained in many styles such as Modern, Contemporary, Jazz, Lyrical, Ballet, Tap, and Hip-Hop. While maintaining her busy dance schedule, she also performed as a child actress at several professional theaters including Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster, PA and Hershey Park’s Music Box Theater. Sarah participated in several competitions and conventions growing up where she received numerous overall awards and scholarships such as Artist Simply Human’s invitation to ASH theCOMPANY national convention in Las Vegas. In 2012, Sarah auditioned for the Koresh Youth Ensemble in Philadelphia and began her pre-professional training with Melissa Rector, Assistant Artistic Director of Koresh Dance Company. Performances included opening for Koresh Dance Company’s home seasons, Come Together Dance Festival, Philadelphia Youth Dance Festival, Artist showcases, and more. After graduating high school, she was offered an apprenticeship with Koresh Dance Company and continued her training with Artistic Director, Roni Koresh. Sarah officially joined the company in 2017. She continues to train and take class whenever she can and loves to share her passion of dance with her students.
PAIGE DEVITT, originally from Clarkston, Michigan trained at Spotlight Dance Works under the direction of Liz Schmidt during her adolescent years. She also trained at Steps on Broadway and Complexions Contemporary Ballet during the summers in High School. She then studied at Point Park University and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance in 2018. There she performed works by Adam Hougland, Sonya Tayeh, Alexandra Damiani, Jessica Hendricks, Troy Powell, and Garfield Lemonius. In 2017, Paige had the opportunity to perform works by Paul Lightfoot & Sol León and Václav Kuneš at Nederlands Dans Theater Summer Intensive, as well as a work by Ohad Naharin at Springboard Danse Montreal. She has also trained at programs such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Movement Invention Project, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, and Launch Northwest Dance Project. In 2018, Paige joined Koresh Dance Company, under the direction of Roni Koresh in Philadelphia. This is her third year with the company.
JENNIE ROSE DILLON has been dancing since the age of 3 and teaching since the age of 15. A native of Lansdowne, PA she performed in many local performances such as The Nutcracker as Arabian, Snow Lead and Dewdrop and local theater. She also was named an apprentice with Opus 1 Contemporary Ballet Company at the age of 14. Jennie danced competitively in both regional and national competitions. She was named NYCDA Best Dancer in 1997. During her high school career, she also spent time studying at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway with teachers such as Frank Hatchett, Sheila Barker and Joe Lanteri.
Jennie went on to work professionally while getting her bachelor’s degree at Saint Joseph’s University in Fine and Performing Arts. While at SJU, Jennie was a member of Opus 1 Contemporary Ballet Company, studied dance at Temple University and spent 4 years with the Sixers Dance Team. With the Sixers Dance Team, she had many highlights of her performing career such as dancing with Pink, Destiny’s Child, Will Smith, Ludicrous and Jermaine Dupree as well as working for MTV, NBA’s All Star Events and touring with the USO. Throughout this time, she continued as a dance educator and choreographer.
Once graduated from SJU, Jennie continued to shift gears more towards education, choreography and curriculum. Jennie continued with Opus 1 Contemporary Ballet Company until welcoming her first child in 2008. From there, she took on the position of Company director at Touch of Class dance studio in Broomall, PA. While there, she also created and implemented curriculum for an Improvisational dance program and remained an instructor of ballet, jazz and jazz conditioning, tap and improv as well as a choreographer. During her time as Company director, Jennie had the amazing opportunity to further her dance education studying extensively with teachers such as Denise Wall, Francisco Gella and Jason Parsons. She built a supportive network of progressive dance teachers across the country who helped shape her curriculum and foundation as a dance educator. Using progressive teaching techniques, Jennie now focuses on body awareness, building foundational muscle memory and understanding both the unique and whole (mind and body) dancer.
BRIA WALTON is a central Jersey native where she started dancing at a young age. Bria began her training with hip hop classes and quickly added many other styles of dance including ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and tap to her studies. After graduation, she continued her hip hop training at Academy of Phresh in Philadelphia under the direction of Smart Mark Boston.
Bria’s professional credits include Good Morning America, Pharrell Williams Sephora Fragrance Launch, and she was a featured dancer in Todrick Hall’s music video for his visual album. Bria has completed two seasons with Introspective Movement Project, under the direction of Sonia Pennington, where she was able to perform at the Wawa Welcome to America Festival and the Philly Fringe Festival.
Bria is a diverse choreographer and has had the privilege of choreographing for many dance studios and dance teams across the country. Her choreography has been seen anywhere from Squad 76, the new Philadelphia 76ers dance team to dancers competing at Youth America Grand Prix. Her true passion is traveling around the country to teach and choreograph for the next generation of dancers!
TAYLOR BARKER is from Phoenixville, PA and has danced since the age of 3. Beginning at Harrison’s Dance Studio, Taylor trained in tap, jazz, and ballet. At the age of 10, Taylor joined the newly opened On Edge Movement Dance Studio. From that point on, she trained in all styles including tap, jazz, contemporary, lyrical, musical theater, ballet and more. She became a member on OEM’s competition team. Taylor participated in the many opportunities OEM has to offer, including dance conventions, competitions, and local parades such as the 6ABC Thanksgiving Day Parades, 6ABC Philadelphia 4th of July Parades, and the QVC West Chester Christmas parade. She even sang and played her guitar in the Vocal category at competitions. She went on to attend Cabrini University where she was the captain of the Cabrini Dance Team for 3 years. The Cabrini Dance Team specializes in jazz, street jazz, Pom, and Hip Hop. Through CDT, she was able to dance Halftime at 76ers games, dance in the Miss Philadelphia 2022 Pageant, Fundraisers, halftime at Cabrini basketball games and on-campus events. She has developed many leadership skills while organizing a dance team, and choreographed many dances in her 4 years on the Cabrini Dance Team.
Taylor has a passion for working with children, as she attended Cabrini University for Elementary Education and Special Education. She graduated as the Class of 2022 Valedictorian and is now a full-time 1st Grade Teacher at the Phoenixville Area Early Learning Center.
Our Ballet Program has expanded under the guidance and supervision of NATHAN BLAND, the respected Owner and Director of the esteemed Berks Ballet Theatre Conservatory of Dance.
Ballet Faculty: DANIEL MAYO