Mica Romulo is a freelance dancer and choreographer based in the Boston – NYC area. Originally from Manila, Philippines where she was classically trained in ballet, jazz, modern, contemporary, and folk dance. She got her professional start teaching children’s ballet and jazz classes around various studios in the city. In 2016, she was hired by De La Salle University as the trainer for the La Salle Dance Company – Folk and produced and choreographed their concert, “Tala”. In the same year, she became a member of Hotlegs Dance Company, Manila’s premier commercial jazz dance company and performed on various TV appearances, concerts, and corporate shows. In 2017, she formed the Dance Collective together with a group of independent dance artists in Manila and produced and choreographed the show “DancExchange” for Manila’s Fringe Festival. With a strong desire to keep learning and developing herself as an artist, she moved to NYC and trained at Broadway Dance Center upon acceptance to their training program in 2017. Since then she has appeared on stage in works by Sheila Barker, Michelle Barber, Paul Alan Brown-Lombardi, Julia Kane , DoubleTake Dance Co., and walked and danced the runway during NY Fashion week. She is currently part of the project based dance company Alpas Dance (founded by Mica Butnar and Alicia Kee) and appeared in their premier dance film, “Rise Up”. In the fall of 2020 she choreographed, and directed her first dance film, “To Be Free”. This is her first season with 40 Steps Dance and is grateful and looking forward to all our upcoming performances in 2022.
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Teresa Tobin
Teresa was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and grew up in Stoneham, MA after a short stint in Lugano, Switzerland. She began training at a young age at Sandra Marie’s School of Ballet in Melrose, MA which operates today as the Northeast School of Ballet in Reading, MA. During that time she had the opportunity to train with Minneapolis Dance Theatre under Gloria Govrin (who trained under George Balanchine) and also with the Boston Ballet School in Boston’s Back Bay. She performed various works including The Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and an original work with the Boston Musica Viva based off the tales of the Brothers Grimm. She earned a BS in Psychology from Fordham College at Lincoln Center and had the opportunity to perform with some of Bushwick’s most avant-garde movement artists in the 2016 production, “Authority Figure” choreographed by Monica Mirabile (FLUCT) and Sarah Kinlaw. Since returning to Boston she has been an active member of Nozama Dance Collective and has participated in the Salem Arts Festival, Dance for World Community, and various other local festivals and events. She teaches ballet and tap at A Dancer’s Dream in Marblehead, MA and has been a member of 40 Steps Dance since December 2018.
Samantha Wilson
Samantha Wilson has been an active member of the Boston dance community for over 17 years. She has performed with Forty Steps Dance for over ten years. Additionally, Samantha has danced with Kelley Donovan & Dancers, Disco Brats, teXtmoVescollaborative, Rozann Kraus, Jenny Oliver, Caitlin Corbett Dance Company, Perceptions Contemporary Dance Company, Weber Dance and more. She has performed in Dance for World Community, 12 Dancers Dancers, Charles River Dance Festival, Salem Arts Festival, Across the Ages, etc. When Samantha is not dancing, she is educating youth in mathematics.
Chelsea Zawadzki, Assistant Director
Chelsea Zawadzki grew up in Bangor, ME, where she trained at the School of the Robinson Ballet and danced with the Robinson Ballet Company for eight years, performing throughout Maine and New Hampshire in their annual “Nutcracker” and Spring Concerts. Chelsea received her B.A. in dance at Dean College in 2012, where she graduated with the Trustees’ Prize for the Joan Phelps Palladino School of Dance. At Dean, she was a member of the Dean College Dance Company and performed in faculty and student productions. Chelsea began dancing professionally in 2011 with the Adagio Big Band, a jazz band based in Lowell, MA performing at dinner theaters, sporting events, and the annual Merrimack Valley Jazz Festival. December 2012 and 2013 she performed in Tony Williams’ production of the Urban Nutcracker in Boston. When Chelsea isn’t dancing, she can be found at Center for the Performing Arts in North Andover where she teaches dance and is Studio Manager. Chelsea joined Forty Steps Dance in 2013.
Forty Steps Dance article Daily Item
Forty Steps Dance Concert Returns To Nahant
The following article was published in The Lynn Daily Item by Sam Minton June 22, 2021 read here
NAHANT — Forty Steps Dance is aiming to bring people together after such a long year apart.
The Nahant dance studio will be hosting its 28th annual concert Saturday evening. Concertgoers will be in for a treat as new choreography and some old favorites will be on display.
Just like every aspect of human existence, dance was also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year the studio held its performance outside and will continue to do so on Saturday.
With Forty Steps finding success in their new, al fresco last year, coupled with relaxed guidelines from the state, Artistic Director Sallee Slagle said the best decision was to once again have the performance outdoors.
“We didn’t know, so we decided to prepare for an outdoor performance as we knew that we would probably be able to do that and were uncertain if we would be able to do any indoor variation,” said Slagle.
The choreography was also affected by the pandemic. A new work titled “Reverse Dance” utilizes and represents a medieval dance form that has dancers spread out and making limited contact.
For many, the arts can be used to bring the community together. Slagle and other dancers are very excited to be able to perform for the crowd once again.
“Just being able to present to the community and keep the arts alive — not just bring them alive but keep them alive — that’s the key, and we really feel like arts are essential especially to our spirit and all of that,” said Slagle. “I think through the isolation that we all experienced with the pandemic it’s really soul-feeding in that way and it definitely is something that we all missed during this period of time.”
Getting to perform for a crowd is not something that Slagle and her dancers take for granted, especially when they were forced to have online performances last year, she said.
“As dancers and performers, we have done some online work as well and it’s rewarding but it doesn’t have that same instant connection with your audience and you are never quite as sure whether you have connected with your audience when you are online,” said Slagle. “So, this (performance) is where we get to interact and connect and that’s really the soul of art.”
Slagle will also be performing a special solo, “Window Panes.” While it was choreographed in 2016, the piece strikingly hits home since it is focused on isolation.
“‘Window Panes’ kind of has the idea that you are always looking at other people’s lives and comparing your life to their life, and I think we’ve all had some introspective moments through this period too,” said Slagle. “Looking at our life and looking at others— trying to figure out what’s best for all of us — it has that kind of quality.
“It does show that there’s a little bit of that despair in there, but the final point … they are working together as a group as well.”
Tickets are available at fortystepsdance.org.
Bailey’s Hill Transformed for Forty Steps Dance
The following article ran in Nahant Magazine in the Fall 2020 issue. Read it here.
Photos from 2020 Residency at MCC
Forty Steps Dance was artist-in-residency at Middlesex Community College in February 2020. Here are a few photos from the concert. photos: Sallee Slagle
Photos from Salem Arts Festival 2019
Forty Steps Dance performed “Missing Pieces” at the Salem Arts Festival, June 2019.
Photos from 2019 Spring Concert
