Miss Marsha
BA(hons) PGCE. MA. Company Director.

Marsha has been teaching and acting for over 15 years both in London, and Atlanta. She trained at the Royal Hollyway University of London, obtaining her Masters Degree in Theatre Studies and also at Brunel University majoring in Theatre and English, before qualifying as a Secondary School Teacher. In addition she is a qualified Drama and English Examiner, she specializes in Physical Theatre, Community Theatre and Directing. Marsha has also performed and toured across countries in Western and Eastern Europe, and as part of the Edinburgh Theatre Festival.

She moved to Atlanta with her family in 2005, she has five children. BAPA allows Marsha to pursue her passion of teaching children and directing shows; she has directed over 20 shows and looks forward to continuing to share her love of the arts with others.

Jennifer Plumley is a choreographer, actor, singer, and dancer from Huntsville, AL. Her choreography has been presented in theatre and dance productions in New York City, Hawaii, Atlanta, Denver, Texas, Connecticut and Alabama. As an actor, she has performed with Gallery Players (NYC), Alliance Theatre Company (Atl), Theatre in the Square (Atl), Atlanta Lyric Theatre,Theatreworks (National Tour) and many others all over the country. Favorite roles include: Lucy in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Sister Mary Amnesia in Nunsense, Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Columbia in Rocky Horror Show. In NYC, Jennifer coordinated Behind the Scenes Broadway, an education program through which students had the opportunity to workshop material with Broadway performers, directors and choreographers. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from The University of Alabama as a Theatre major and Dance minor, and she is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. Jennifer has had the pleasure of teaching dance, acting and musical theatre at BAPA for two seasons, she choreographed the very successful 2007 performance of ANNIE! She looks forward to continuing her work at the Academy.

Jey Sadeckas has been dancing since she was 18 months old.  She grew up dancing at Centre Stage School of Dance in Marietta, GA and was a member of their tap and jazz competition companies.  This is her sixth year of teaching dance and her third year here at BAPA. 
Jey has received a Associate's degree in Management Supervisory Development from Chattahoochee Technical School. She is currently at Kennesaw State University working toward a double major in Theatre and Performance Studies and Dance. Jey is also a member of the Kennesaw State University Dance Company.  She greatly enjoys working with all of the students here at BAPA and is looking forward to seeing their dancing skills progress.

Marie Hunter began her dance career at the age of 7 in Boston, Massachusetts, continuing locally at Dance Stop Studios from the age of 10, and progressing onto Pebblebrook High School, where her concentration was dance. Marie danced in various performances, such as Broadway Now, Hot Feet, and Will Roger's Follies. She was also a dancer in the Kris Kangelosi Dance Company. Ms. Hunter attended the University of Georgia, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Telecommunication Arts and Dance Education. Whilst in college she choreographed for Pamoia Dance Company, the musical The Whiz, in addition she received awards for Best Choreography. Mrs. Hunter was an assistant instructor and choreographer for the East Athens Educational Dance Center. She has studied under Kris Kangelosi, Pam Walden, Dr. Mark Wheeler, Bala Sarasvati, and many others. She wishes to be an inspiration to others through the art of dance. Mrs. Hunter has been at the Academy since 2004 where she teaches tap and jazz; she is currently responsible for the organization of the tap curriculum at BAPA.

Rebekah Bennett began dancing at the late age of 12. She began her training with Praise Him WIth Dance here in Atlanta as well as with classes at the Atlanta Ballet. She then began her Bachelors of Arts in dance at Wesley Institute for Ministry and the Arts in Sydney, Australia. Thereshe performed with Ask Dance Theatre as a student performer, the Sydney Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and The Student Performing group of Wesley during the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival. Upon returning to Atlanta, she taught at Praise Him with Dance working on various choreographic works for her students. Rebekah is a recent Graduate of Belhaven College with a B.A. in dance with a studied emphasis on Choreography and Modern Dance.

Torrie Watkins-Redding A New Jersey native Torrie has been dedicated to the performing arts for over fifteen years, studying at the prestigious Essex County School of the Performing Arts. She got her start as an apprentice member of the Dun Dun Dole Urban Ballet in Newark, New Jersey and relocated to the Greater Tampa Florida area. Torrie has been in Atlanta since 1994, studying with several Atlanta based companies, and travelling throughout the US as a dancer. She has been featured on Toronto’s much music ”Electronic Circus” and Georgia’s Public TV. She has also been featured in videos with Grammy award winning artists “Speech” of Arrested Development and TLC. In recent years she was asked to perform at the Travis Smiley Health and Fitness Expo held in 8 States across the county. For the past several years Torrie has been working with young people teaching dance in after school programs, serving as a dance teacher and curriculum coordinator, establishing creative and entertaining programming. She has also worked as a preschool teacher and received her childhood development associates degree in 2005. In the same year Torrie founded Imzadi Urban Performing Arts Theater, which serves the community with workshops, classes, enrichment programs and is a performing company. Torrie is entering her fourth season as a dance instructor with BAPA; ‘I believe having a foundation in the arts gave me a confidence and discipline that is still valuable to me, I want to give this gift to other people.’

Marina Levasheva, is welcomed back to BAPA for her second season of teaching. She is no stranger to the studio, she taught here previously for 12 years, teaching The Academy Dance Company students under the former studio owner Wynn McCurdy. Miss Marina trained with her father, Vladimir Levashev, a world famous Ballet Master, rehearsal director, teacher and principal dancerwithThe Russian Bolshoi Ballet.Miss Marina apprenticed with The Bolshoi Ballet and Moiseyev Dance Co. in Russia. She earned her degree in Fine Arts and Dance at the studio of the USSR State Folk and Character Dance Academy, under the artistic direction of Igor Moiseyev. She performed with theBeriozka State Academic Choreographic Ensemble for more than twenty years and toured over 30 countries. She is the former assistant director for the Georgia Ballet. Miss Marina is a well respected teacher of the Vaganova Method. She has received wide acclaim for her staging of several of the Bolshoi Ballet's works including Carmen", "Les Sylphides", "Giselle", "Swan Lake", and "Sleeping Beauty". She is extremely pleased to be returning to her home from home, and once again teaching dancers here at BAPA. This year Miss Marina looks forward to setting classical ballet repertoire pieces on dancers, and continuing to be instrumental in their technical development and progress in the art form that is ballet.

Ms. Sherri Seiden is a soprano who has performed effortlessly in the genres of Opera, Concert and Musical Theatre. She made her Carnegie Hall debut singing in both the Brahms and Rutter Requiems, and was thrilled to return recently for an encore performance in June 2010. Sherri had a solo recital debut in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall. She is a National grand Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera Competition. Ms. Seiden recently performed with the National Philharmonic Orchestra; she has also performed with the Greenville Symphony, Toronto Festival Orchestra, Slovak National Symphony, as well as with Symphony Hamilton and Fort Wayne Philharmonic. Ms. Seiden was an original cast member of the First National Touring Company of Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast; she also had the opportunity to perform the role of Christine in the European tour of Phantom of the Opera.Sherri is thrilled to announce that currently her vocal students are on Broadway in ‘Mary Poppins’, and on tour as ‘Brigitta’ in the ‘Sound of Music’. Ms. Sieden is pleased to be returning to BAPA for her second year as a Master Voice Teacher.

Caroline Laubacher trained for 13 years at The Georgia Ballet School under Iris Hensley, Gina-Hyatt Mazon, Janusz Mazon, Michele Ziemann-DeVos, and Marina Levasheva, where she became the first student from the school to join the professional company directly upon graduation.During her seven seasons as a company dancer, Caroline developed a strong love and interest in contemporary ballet from working with choreographer Janusz Mazon. She created many lead roles in his ballets including Terpsichore in "A Young Dancer’s Guide to the Orchestra," Elena in "The Firebird," and Katrina Van Tassel in "A Sleepy Hollow Story." She also especially enjoyed dancing in "Giselle" (Myrtha), Balanchine's "Serenade" (Russian Girl), Nicolas Musin's "Going Bach," and "The Sleeping Beauty" (Canary Fairy, Blessing of Cupid). During her three and a half years as a faculty member at The Georgia Ballet School, Caroline gained experience teaching a variety of ages of students and also taught for many of their Arts in Education programs. Caroline recently graduated with honors from Kennesaw State University with a degree in Exercise and Health Science, and she is excited to be a new faculty member at both BAPA and the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education this year.

Miss Amanda grew up in California, received her training at Valley Oak School of Dance and Central West Ballet, and studied on scholarship at the Boston Ballet and Ballet Pacifica summer programs. 

While studying anthropology at Cal State, Long Beach on full academic scholarship,Amanda also received training in ballet under Sophie Monat, Lorin Johnson, and Alaine Haubert, and in modern dance.  There she created lead roles in several new contemporary works, and was coached for her role in Balanchine’s Serenade by Zippora Karz.

In 2004, she won the bronze medal at the Russian Pointe USA National Youth Ballet Competition.

Since joining the Georgia Ballet, Amanda has especially enjoyed performing featured roles in Giselle, Pas de Quatre, Going Bach, and Paquita, and both dancing and choreographing in Spectrum.

Katie Wright, an Atlanta native, found her passion for dancing when she was only four years old and hasn't stopped dancing since. Katie grew up dancing in Fayetteville, Georgia with The Georgia Youth Ballet, taking dance lessons almost every day from the time she was in elementary school all the way through high school. Her senior year of high school she had the opportunity to live in Philadelphia, PA and train with The Rock School for Dance Education. Here she had the opportunity to participate in Outreach for children, perform with the Pennsylvania Ballet, dance in New York City, and even perform with the Delaware Opera. After graduating, Katie went on to dance professionally with The Washington Ballet for the next two years. Here she performed in Giselle, The Nutcracker, and Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco. A chronic injury caused Katie to stop dancing professionally. She enrolled in college and is currently a student at Kennesaw State University. Katie has not abandoned her passion for dance. She continues to take various dance classes, teaches ballet, and enjoys Swing dancing with her husband. She is also involved with Refuge, a Christian dance company committed to providing a safe place for dancers to come, be inspired, grow as artists, and embrace their faith. Katie is pleased to have been on staff at BAPA since 2009 and is very excited to be expanding her teaching in 2010!

Mr Matthew Seiden, has been teaching drama for over 10 years in varying middle and high school in the Atlanta area. He is well versed at teaching all areas of acting including stage, film, T.V. and voice, During this time Matthew has successfully directed over 30 shows including Musicals Dramas, and Comedies. Matthew has over 20 years of experience in show business. He has also served as an Acting Industry Advisor, Teacher, and Coach for the prestigious John Robert Powers School of Acting and Modeling, where he Specialized in commercial and television auditioning; he also coached students on the business of being an actor. Matthew is a professional actor with acting experience Off Broadway, in Film and Television, he stared in Sister Sister. He currently appears in commercials, Films, and Industrials in Atlanta.

Kevin Crawford began his training at a studio in Acworth and is a graduate of Walker High School here in Marietta.  He studied hip hop, ballet, jazz, and acrobatics and enjoys every style of dance.  Kevin has a wide array of experience.  He spent two years as Homer, having fun as the Mascot for The Atlanta Braves. Kevin performs in ballets and competitions throughout Georgia, and has made it to the solo finals for So You Think You Can Dance.  This is Kevin’s fourth year teaching and choreographing; he is very excited to be joining the rest of the staff here at BAPA.  He looks forward to working with all of the students and seeing them excel in dance.

Xavier Demar was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He initially trained at Jordan Academy of Dance, with Butler University. He has also taken part in the Cincinnati Summer Program. New to Georgia, Xavier has enjoyed immersing himself in the dance community here. In 2009/2010 he danced professionally with The Georgia Ballet. Xavier also stared as the lead male dancer in The Academy Dance Company’s Spring performance of Coppelia, in 2010. He is currently on work study at the Atlanta Ballet, where he aims to continue to develop his professional dance training, whilst acquainting himself with all things Southern! Xavier has been fortunate enough to have worked with many talented dancers and choreographers, including: Petrus Bosman, Larry Attaway, Devin Carny, and Thon McFall, amongst others. Xavier is extremely pleased to be teaching at BAPA this year. He mentored younger male dancers at his previous studio, and was teacher assistant to the Studio Director for the all male company. Xavier is excited to be launching a new Boys Only Dance Project here at BAPA.

This is a chance for him to share his love of dance, to inspire others and focus on the art form that is dance. It is going to be a great year!