Laura Osgood - Artistic Director and Owner
- Tap, Jazz, Ballet, Lyrical, and Pre-Dance Classes

A native of Wilmington, “Miss Laura” has been a dance educator for over fifteen years. For eleven of those years Laura was the lead choreographer for the Tap & Jazz program at The North Reading School of Ballet. Under her guidance and direction the program flourished. She also developed a high caliber performance team that showcased dance talent at local competitions and benefit events.

Laura strives to produce well-rounded dancers, both recreational and competitive. As a choreographer, her students have won numerous high gold and platinum awards as well as specialty and overall high score performance awards at various regional competitions. She holds a bachelors degree in business management from Salem State College.

Laura’s dance background is diverse. Her primary training took place at Broadway Dance Academy in Tewksbury, MA where she discovered her love of dance. She has had the opportunity to train with top educators throughout Boston and New York such as Jeannette Neill, Thelma Goldberg, Barbara Duffy, and Marcus Schulkind. She is a graduate of The Dance Teachers’ Club of Boston.

As a professional dancer, Laura’s credits include performing with Celebrity Cruise Lines, Lily Langtry’s Dinner Theater of Pennsylvania, touring Canada with the Simply Magic Show, and as a New England Patriots cheerleader. Laura enjoys using her professional dance experience in teaching her students.

Laura is fulfilling a life long dream by opening the doors of Wilmington Dance Academy. She looks forward to building a school based upon teamwork, spirit and a passion for the art of dance.

Ruth Bronwen – Ballet and Pointe

Ruth Bronwen, a native Bostonian, received her early training and performance experience with Virginia Williams and Laura Young at the Boston Ballet, and with Cornelia Sampson at the Rochester School of Dance, Michigan. Her later training included four years with Mme. Tatiana Nikolaevna Legat at the Boston Ballet.  She then attended UMASS Boston earning a BA with honors in English and Dance.  Ruth has performed collaborative, ensemble and soloist work with Boston Ballet, Northern Ballet Theatre, Marcus Schulkind, Kinodance, and José Mateo’s Ballet Theatre of Boston; she has presented her own work throughout New England.  Important recent teachers and mentors include Anne Tolbert, Marcus Schulkind, Cosmin Marculetiu and Lorraine Chapman.  Ruth is a founding director of the International Ballet Academy of Norwell, and currently dances with Lorraine Chapman: the Company, and Contrapose Dance.

Jennifer Keller– Pre-Dance and Adult

Jennifer Keller has studied various forms of dance, including ballet, jazz, lyrical, modern, tap and theatre for over 25 years, receiving her primary instruction from Genevieve Severens.  She teaches dance and drama to more than 300 children each week in the Boston Public Schools in addition to teaching at several metro-Boston dance studios.  She also serves as Assistant Director of SummerARTS and the School Outreach Program at Community Music Center of Boston.  Jennifer is a member of the Lexington Women’s Dance Ensemble.  She has worked with the Albany Berkshire Ballet as rehearsal mistress for “The Nutcracker” and stage manages productions for local dance groups throughout the year.  Miss Jenn is thrilled to join the amazing staff of WDA this year and is looking forward to dancing with both new and old friends! 

Li-Ann Lim - Ballet

Li-Ann began her dance training in Lexington Massachusetts at the Lexington School of Ballet. She later studied at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. Through her training, Li-Ann has studied with Allegra Kent, Lourdes Lopez, Eleanor D’Antuono, and Donald McKayle, among others. In 2004, she joined Chen and Dancers and performed with the ensemble in the New York City area. More recently, Li-Ann has appeared in performance with Between Lines Dance Company, the Ziggurat Theatre Ensemble, and Rosanna Gamson/World Wide. In addition to performing, she has taught ballet, pointe, and modern dance at private studios and colleges, including the University of California, Irvine and Scripps College.

Nancy Murphy - Ballroom

Nancy began dancing at the age of 3.  Her early dance experience was in
ballet, tap & jazz.  As an adult, she performed with the Mandala Folk Dance
Ensemble for several years and moved into the world of partnered dance.  She began teaching in 1989.  Nancy has performed at many local events over the years, such as CIABDA's Cape celebration of National Ballroom Dance Week and the Boston Tango Society's annual Boston Tango Festival.  She teaches in the Boston area, in Merrimac, and is on the guest faculty at the Marblehead School of Ballet.  Nancy also periodically guest teaches at other venues, such as teaching Argnetine Tango in Bangor, Maine, Salsa at the annual fundraiser for the North Shore Civic Ballet, and Swing at Swing City in Boston.  She also runs a monthly dance social in Amesbury.

Melissa Meador - Modern

Melissa is a graduate of Point Park University receiving her B.A. in dance with a concentration in Jazz. Over the past four years she has been teaching ballet, jazz and modern classes to children of all ages. Melissa has taught dance at over three different dance studios in the area. She also choreographed the musical, "Bye Bye Birdie" for the Belmont Community Youth Program. She has over fifteen years of classical ballet training and advanced studies in modern techniques such as Graham, Dunham and Horton. She looks forward to teaching modern at the "Wilmington Dance Academy" this upcoming fall.

Jill Newman – Hip Hop

Jill Newman began her dance training in Dallas, TX at the Dallas Powerhouse of Dance studying under Kim McSwain and Roger Lee in styles of ballet, jazz, and hip hop.  From there she moved to Boston, MA and continued dancing vigorously through high school in those styles as well as in tap and lyrical. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Jill continued dancing and expanded her repertoire to include West African and Tribal Fusion. She was taught by and performed with Sekou Sylla, who was a principal dancer in the Guinea African Ballet, and also studied with Marilyn Sylla and Donna Mejia.  Jill taught jazz and hip hop at The Northampton School of Dance in Northampton, MA for two years. Her creative and challenging choreography has helped the studio’s dance team and soloists win many awards at competitions.  Jill graduated magma cum laude from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a sociology degree in May 2009. Recently she completed an internship at Dance Place, a non profit dance organization in Washington D.C. where she worked in Arts Administration, worked with children in an after school setting, taught outreach dance classes, and performed with the D.C. based companies DanceNOW Productions Inc., and the Life, Rhythm Move Project.

Lisa is a Certified Advanced Mat Pilates Instructor through Peak Pilates.  She been studying pilates since 2001 and teaching for the past 5 years. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree from Salem State College in Sports, Fitness & Leisure Studies with a concentration in Fitness.  She also holds an Associate of Science in Physical Therapy from North Shore Community College.  Lisa has extensive experience in the medical and fitness industries; working at local hospitals and fitness centers providing physical therapy services, cardiac rehabilitation and personal training.