FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Paula Coffey

The entire program at the Dance center is under the direction of Paula Coffey, who has taught dance for over 50 years. Paula has been a member of the Professional Dance Teachers Association; a board member of Dance Enterprises of New England; former President of the National Association of Dance and Affiliated Artists; former member of both the state and local Arts Council; Former Director of “Capeway Danscamp” – a resident dance program at Bridgewater State College; Longtime Chairman of the local Distinguished Young Woman (AKA Junior Miss) Scholarship Program; Director and performer for many local musical shows; graduate of John Robert Powers School; participant in Dance Olympus, Dance Caravan and Northeast Dance Workshop; a member of the East Bridgewater Business Association; member of the Metro South Chamber of Commerce; participant in the Broadway Experience at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Paula has been featured in the National dance magazine “Dance Teacher Today” and in the Enterprise in their “Women in Business” section. The Dance Center was chosen as the Reader’s Choice #1 Dance School in the Metro South Region five years in a row!

Paula and her husband, Jim are the proud parents to two sons, Jim III and Craig. Jim and his wife Denise are the parents of four – Kylie, Kirsten, Kendall, and Cullen. Jim & Denise are the owners of Busy Bee Childcare and Busy Bee Jumpers. Craig and his wife, Kristina reside in Cohasset with their son Dylan and daughter Sadie. Craig is Co-founder of O2X Summit Challenge Series. O2X designs training and continuing education plans for corporate, athletic, municipal groups and individuals.

Miss Kirstie

Kirsten Coffey

Kirsten is the Co-Owner and acting Director of Coffey Dance Center. After dancing at the studio for 15 years she continued her dance education at Providence College where she graduated in 2019 as the sole recipient of the PC dance minor award. While at PC Kirsten danced for the Providence College Dance Company and also professionally for the Lowell Spinners Dance Team. She was involved with the Step Up 2 Dance National Dance Competition where her role varied from stage manager to master class assistant. She is currently a Dancer for the Boston Cannons while also holding the title of Miss Bristol County. Kirsten teaches tap, jazz and contemporary and her love of both dance and her students is what makes her classes enjoyable for all.

Miss Denise

Denise DaSousa

Denise DeSousa started her dance training here at the Paula Coffey Dance Center. She continued to study attending many workshops, traveling to New York to take classes with nationally acclaimed teachers, Frank Hatchet, Mallory Graham, Debbie Dee and Al Gilbert. She spent her summers on staff at the local YMCA camp. Miss Denise danced professionally performing in Boston as well as Baltimore. She realized early on she preferred teaching. Miss Denise was co-director of a very successful resident summer dance camp held at Bridgewater State University.

She has been a director of the PCDC summer day camps for over 3 decades. She introduced an innovative Leader in Training Program for our young teens. Many of our students started as preschoolers at camp and return from college to help at camp. Miss Denise volunteered with the Jr. Miss Scholarship Program for over 20years as the choreographer for the fitness portion of the program. Her tap teams have earned many top awards, special judges awards and she has been recognized by the judges with choreography awards.

She has prepared our dancers for many Disney performances in addition to a performance on Disney’s Red Boat.

Miss Denise focuses on each student and loves to discover the uniqueness in each dancer and call it forth. The quote Miss Denise lives by is “Students may not remember everything I said or tried to teach them ,but they will never forget how I made them feel” Everyone is important in Miss Denise’s class.

Miss Jamie

Jamie Ballou

Jamie grew up in Bridgewater, MA where her love of dance blossomed at the age of 2! She continued her education at Dean College where she obtained her B.A. degree in dance performance and education, and then went on to dance with Urbanity Dance (Boston, MA) where she was lucky to learn/perform for 7 seasons.

Jamie co-directed the Urbanity Summer Intensive for five years while also becoming co-artistic associate director of Urbanity’s professional company. She has participated in several showcases, workshops, festivals and other performances around New England, including: The Boston Symphony Orchestra Holiday performance, The Alvin Ailey Women in Dance Series, APAP, Outside the Box, Boston’s ICA, and The Boston Contemporary Dance Festival. Beyond the performance realm, Jamie has also been instructing and choreographing for many years. She has moved with students from age 2-Adult in genres such as contemporary, ballet, modern, jazz, lyrical, improvisation, musical theater, world dance (beginner Bachata, Salsa, West African), and yoga. She has also choreographed and been recognized for several of her own works at BCDF, Urbanity’s NEXT, and local dance competitions.

Jamie enhances her skill sets via continued education workshops and dance classes, and is constantly drawn towards new projects and artistic opportunities. She is inspired by her students and is SO happy to be a part of the Coffey Dance Center family!

Miss Jen

Jen Amara

Jennifer Amara grew up in East Bridgewater and now resides in Plymouth with her husband and daughter. She has been involved with the Paula Coffey Dance Center since before she even started dancing! Growing up at the studio, allowed Jennifer the opportunity to study Tap and Jazz, become an assistant teacher, camp counselor, compete and further her dancing at Dean College where she was a part of the Tap Company where she was awarded the Gregory Hines Tap Scholarship.

Jen also took part in Break the Floor which is a week long of Tap classes ending with a show in NYC. Jennifer still continues her studies today at Bridgewater State University where she majors in Psychology and Special Education. Not only has she been teaching dance for almost 18 years now, she has also been a nanny full time as well as recently getting licensed to teach POUND and Generation POUND!

Jennifer continues her dance education where ever she can but her favorite place is the Dance Life Retreat Center where for the past two summers she has completed two Tap Intensives as well as a Rejuvenate Your Dance Teacher’s Spirit Intensive. Jen is so excited for another great season with the competition team but she is even more excited to be working with the “little ones” again.

Miss Kaeleigh

Kaeleigh Smith

Miss Kaeleigh is from East Bridgewater and has been at PCDC since she was 2 years old! She was a part of the Allstar Competition team her Junior and Senior year of high school. After graduating in 2014 she attended Bridgewater State University. She is graduating with her Undergraduate Degree with majors in both Elementary Education, and Dance as well as a minor in Special Education. While at Bridgewater State, Kaeleigh was a part of the BSU Dance Company all five years she was there. She served on the Advisory Board as a representative, Secretary and as Vice President. She choreographed for the Dance Department Winterdance performance as well as the BSU Dance Company performance for Pops. Kaeleigh was also a member of the National Dance Education Organization Student Chapter. As recognition for her grades and leadership contributions Kaeleigh was inducted into the NDEO Honors Society. Along with her professor and three classmates Kaeleigh presented at the National Dance Education Organization National Conference in San Antonio Texas on the importance of intergrading dance into academic school curriculums and research for students. At that same conference she was awarded the $500 Bloch Undergraduate Student Scholarship to continue her research on how to incorporate dance into elementary school academic classrooms. Miss Kaeleigh feels extremely blessed to be able to combine both of her passions…teaching and dance. “I am doing what I love and no day ever truly feels like work, how can it when your heart is dancing to your favorite song!”-Miss Kaeleigh

Miss Laura

Laura Crowell

Miss Laura grew up in North Dighton and her passion for dance began at age 3. She has studied all forms of dance. She is a 2012 graduate of Dean College where she obtained an Associate degree in Performing Arts. She then moved to New York City to train with the Alvin Alley American Dance Theater in June of 2012. She was a finalist in the Patriots Cheerleaders and Celtics Dancer tryouts.

She is a member of “The Dance to Save” company, a dance group that raises money for local charities. Laura has experience performing on local and national levels in various dance competitions, recitals, pageants, sports teams and theme parks including Disney World and Disney Land. She was the co-director of the Burt Wood Beats show choir and offered quarterly master classes.

Laura has been with Paula Coffee for 3 years and enjoys teaching. She loves the artistic expression and creativity her job demands. Seeing her students grow from the beginning of the year to the end is rewarding.