About Us
Ms. Cait
Ms. Cait is an Olean native with over 25 years of experience dancing. She started dance lessons at the age of five under the direction of Michelle Marks and Susan Forrest at an Olean dance studio. In her time there she studied tap, jazz, ballet, and acrobatics. As she grew more involved she also took classes in pointe, hip hop and Irish dancing. Mrs. Cait worked many of her youth years as a teaching assistant under Mrs. Marks.
Ms. Cait started taking adult hip hop classes with Mauri Shembeda in 2014 and became a teacher at two different dance studio locations in the fall of 2016. She taught classes in hip hop, tap, jazz, ballet, lyrical, acrobatics and competition hip hop.
In 2018, Mrs. Mauri and Ms. Cait opened up a dance studio In Allegany NY known as Bradford Area Dance Center. A year later, the same dance studio is now known as Step Up Dance Acadmey.
Ms Cait has attended Dance Masters of America at the University of Buffalo as well as Hip Hop master training classes. She continues her education yearly by attending master classes both in person and online.
Ms. Maddie
Ms. Maddie is an Olean native who started dancing when she was 6 years old under the direction of Susan Forrest at an Olean dance studio. Ms. Maddie has experienced many styles of dance including contemporary, lyrical, modern, hip hop, jazz, tap, pointe, and ballet. She also has had many years experience of being a teacher assistant before she took her love of dance to the next level and became a teacher herself in 2018 to share her passion and love of dance with others. Ms Maddie has competed for 8 years receiving numerous awards as well as making it to Worlds multilple years in a row. She continues her dance education by participating in master classes and is currently a student at Saint Bonaventure studying business management.
Ms. Mauri
Ms. Mauri was born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is entering the 2022-2023 dance season with 15 years of teaching experience and over 25 years of dance experience taking her first dance class at 5 years old. Mauri danced competitively on the east coast for most of her middle and high school career with some of her greatest accomplishments earning several national titles with her teams. Shortly after graduation, Mauri moved north just outside of Olean, Ny and immediately began her teaching career under the direction of Susan Chohan at a nearby studio. Mauri taught in Olean, NY for seven years before expanding her career in Bradford, PA where she opened The Bradford Area Dance Center under her own direction, as well as a satellite studio in Allegany, NY that ran under the direction of Ms. Caitlin Davenport. Ms. Cait took over the Allegany location in the fall of 2019 and remained a cherished sister studio of BADC. In the Spring of 2021 Ms. Mauri closed the Bradford Area Dance Center and retired from her full time teaching career to spend more time with her family and two very small children. While teaching full time is no longer a desire for Ms. Mauri, her love for dance, teaching and raising up young dancers remains. Ms. Mauri is so very excited to be working with Ms. Cait once again and using her passion for all things dance back in the classroom.
She has experience in teaching students 2 years old - 18 years old and adults too. There is not an age group she doesn’t enjoy teaching. She also has experience in teaching many genres of dance such as: clogging, tap, jazz, hip hop, ballet, acrobatics, pointe, lyrical, liturgical, couples dancing and more.
Ms. Mauri has attended Dance Masters of America at the University of Buffalo as well as many years of Hip Hop master training classes, guest teacher appearances and founded a dance ministry at a local church in Bradford, PA.
Ms. Keke
Ms. Keke is from Rochester, New York and is currently a student at St. Bonaventure University. She started dancing at age 10 at Studio 19 Dance Company in Rochester. Ms. Keke has trained in many styles of dance including contemporary, lyrical, modern, hip hop, jazz, musical theater, and ballet. She has also trained with famous choreographers such as Desmond Richardson, Judy Rice, Francisco Gella, tWitch and many others. She has also had about 5 years of experience as a teachers assistant. Ms. Keke is continuing her dance training at master classes and on the SBU Dance Team at which she is also one of the choreographers.
Ms. Maddie H.
Ms. Maddie H. is originally from Rochester, NY. She moved to Allegany shortly after graduating with her master's from Keuka College, to begin her career as a school-based occupational therapist. Ms. Maddie has been involved in dance and musical theater for over 15 years and is trained in ballet, jazz, tap, musical theater, lyrical, modern and contemporary; she was involved with the competition team throughout high school and college and has trained in performance camps under the direction of Broadway professionals. Her passion for dance led her to become an instructor with over 10 years of experience teaching dance, three musicals choreographed and a TANYS award for musical choreography.
Miss Isabelle W.
Miss Isabelle is an Olean native who has been dancing for 9 years and counting. She has explored many different styles of dance including ballet, pointe, contemporary, hip hop, tap, jazz, and lyrical. Competing for 7 years, she has won several awards with multiple competitions. Her love of dance and passion for young dancers led her to begin teaching in 2023, with 4 prior years of teaching assisting. She is a junior in high school, and hopes to continue her love of teaching dance in the future.