About the Dance Faculty
Full-time Faculty
Sheila Sullivan
Dance Department Coordinator, Dance Department Artistic Director, Level 3 Advisor
Modern 3, Ballet 1/Anatomy, Composition, Choreography
Sheila has her Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from Temple University and her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance and Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has taught at Temple University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Randolph Macon College and Raritan Valley Community College. Sheila was on the original Arts panel for the NJ Department of Education and was instrumental in the writing and implementation of the NJ Dance Standards, Dance Certification for teachers, as well as one of the authors of the Vocational Arts Dance Exit exam. She danced professionally from 1983-1993, where she was rehearsal director and principal dancer of several small modern dance companies in New York, Philadelphia, and finally, right here in New Jersey. She had her own dance company, Dance Network, for three years until her first child was born. She is a Certified Movement Analyst as well as a Certified Private Trainer. In 2020, Sheila became a Professional Energy Practitioner, using the physio philosophy of JIn Shin Jyutsu, for balancing and harmonizing the body. She has a practice in Bound Brook and Far Hills. Sheila has been at Vo-Tech since 1989.
Maureen Glennon Clayton
Artistic Director of Repertory Company, Level 1 Advisor,
Modern 1 & 2, Improvisation, Rhythmics, Teaching Methods, Composition, Choreography
Maureen received her Master of Arts in Dance Education in December, 2022 and has her BFA in Dance from Montclair State University. She has taught Master Classes throughout the United States and, in 2008 & 2010, taught at A Taste of NY, a summer dance intensive in Cyprus. In 2011, Maureen was one of eight dance educators chosen from a national pool to receive a Dance Educator Fellowship that provided the funds for the three-week festival held at Bates College in Maine. Maureen has been part of the dance faculty at Montclair State University, Centenary University, Union County College, and County College of Morris. She has taught at numerous K-12 public and private schools and dance studios throughout NJ. She has danced professionally with Freespace Dance, where she is an original co-founder, Beyondance! and Umoja Dance Company. Her first professional dance gig was with Nicholas Rodriguez and Dance Compass, with whom she toured nationally. Maureen is the Founder & Artistic Director of moe-tion dance theater, a NJ modern dance theater company. (www.moetiondancetheater.org) Currently, three SCVTHS Dance alums are dancing with her company! Maureen and her company are members of NDEO and Dance New Jersey, where she was on the board for over 10 years, During her term she was an active board member and served as President, Nomination Chair and Dance Education Chair. Maureen graduated from the Breathe for Change 200-hour Wellness, SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and Yoga Teacher Training Program in July 2023 and is now a Certified Yoga Instructor and SEL Facilitator. This past summer Maureen's workshop, Movement Heals, was selected to be presented at Bill Evan's 10th Annual Somatic Dance and Movement Conference in Port Townsend, Washington. Maureen has been at Vo-Tech since 2005.
Mary Lynne McAnally
Artistic Director of Tap Company, Level 2 Advisor
Jazz 1, 2 & 3, Tap, Composition, Choreography, Pilates Certificate
Mary Lynne has a Master of Arts & Choreography from UCLA, and a BA from Mason Gross – School of the Arts/Rutgers University. She has taught at the University of California Los Angeles and Grant McEwan College in Alberta, Canada. She was the resident choreographer for the Edmonton Festival Ballet where she choreographed Duke Ellington’s Jazz Nutcracker, which has been part of the company’s repertory ever since. Mary Lynne has danced professionally in over 15 musicals throughout Europe and the United States. She worked as the resident choreographer for Ballet Classique and Entertainment, a production company based in Hannover, Germany, choreographing European tours from 1986-2001. Mary Lynne’s choreography, Down to Business and Hats Off to Fosse, was selected to be performed at the NY Jazz Choreography Project. Mary Lynne is trained in STOTT Pilates. She has been teaching at Vo-Tech since 1994.
Laurie Reader works as the Production Manager and Lighting Designer for all of the Performing Arts programs. Her training in both lighting design and production management was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. After leaving Madison she moved on to work at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA and then West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV, freelancing with various dance companies as a lighting designer along the way. After her marriage, she moved to New Jersey and began travelling with the national tour of CATS (still lighting, not dancing). During the down time from the tour, she designed Off Broadway for Music Theatre Group and assisted both on and off Broadway, still freelancing with various dance companies. She began work at Vo-Tech after the birth of her third child, teaching lighting design to the dance students.
Part-time Faculty
Kathleen Connolly Amalfitano
Ballet 2/Anatomy, Pilates Certificate
Kathleen is from New York and grew up in a musical home. Her father is a bagpiper and teacher from England, and she, indirectly, received an education in the complexity of cultural music from this art form. She received her Master of Arts at Teachers College, Columbia University in Dance & Dance Education. She trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance, Steps on Broadway and Broadway Dance Center under teachers such as: Milton Myers, David Howard, Jacqulyn Buglisi and others. Kathleen was selected to join the prestigious Modern Jazz (Contemporary) program at Jacobs Pillow in Becket, MA with Milton Myers and shortly after, she served as the School Administrator at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center before moving to Baltimore, MD. She has performed on stage with the Towson Ensemble, Baltimore Dance Theater and was cast in a stage production of The Mysteries and What’s So Funny at the Baltimore Theater Project. She initiated the dance program as dance coordinator at the Patapsco HS and Center for the Arts in Baltimore, MD. She has performed in video and has appeared on television (MTV). Kathleen joined the SCVTHS dance program in 1997 upon her return to the NY/NJ area where her family resides. Kathleen is also a certified STOTT Pilates instructor in Mat, Reformer, Cadillac, Chair & Barrels and teaches private clients and classes at Lotus Mind & Body studio in Bernardsville, NJ.