Contact us to Help You Join the Happiest Dancers in Manasquan!

OUR INSTRUCTORS

Owner, Artistic Director - Sheryl Linfante

Ballet, Pointe, Combo, Musical Theatre, Company Director

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Sheryl Linfante graduated Cum Laude, with a BFA in Dance, from Wright State University, whose programs are affiliated with the Dayton Ballet School and the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. She was the youngest member accepted to the Northern Ballet Theatre Dance (Formally Granite State Ballet) in Nashua, New Hampshire, where she trained and performed with the company under the direction of Doreen Cafarella. She was also accepted to the prestigious Burklyn Ballet Theatre in Vermont, where she extensively trained with Angela Whitehill, David Howard, Arthur Leeth and many other leading ballet professionals. Professional Performance Credits include The Nutcracker (Clara), Sleeping Beauty (Energy Fairy), Don Q, La Bayadère, Nine, Into the Woods, Cabaret, and Beauty and The Beast. Sheryl has performed throughout the country in many venues including the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in Dayton, Ohio and Carnegie Hall in New York City. Choreography credits include The Wizard of Oz, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Grease Jr. and Bye Bye Birdie as well as many award winning concert pieces throughout New Jersey. Sheryl has also has traveled across the country as an Adjudicator and Convention Teacher for the dance competition, Dancer's Inc.


Caitlin Roman

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Caitlin has been dancing since she was 4 years old. She has studied genres from acro to hip hop to tap to jazz to ballet and everything in between, but tap has always been her favorite and her passion! Over the course of her dance career, she has danced competitively across New Jersey and other parts of the Northeast, performed in community events and fundraisers, and participated in many dance camps, tap festivals, workshops, and master classes. Caitlin has been working at Ocean Dance Force since 2007, first as a teaching assistant and currently as the tap teacher and Company Assistant Director. She also has run summer dance camps and classes at ODF and the Algonquin Arts Theatre. Caitlin is very passionate about furthering her own tap education so she can give her students her very best. With that drive in mind, since graduating high school, Caitlin has sought out unique tap opportunities and attended different tap festivals- like Syncopate, Jersey Tap Fest, and Big Apple Tap Festival- where she had the honor and privilege of learning from Tap Greats like Ayodele Casel, Hillary-Marie Michael, Jason Samuels Smith, Anthony LoCascio, Ray Hesselink, Dianne Walker, Karen Callaway Williams, Karida Griffith, Evan Ruggiero, and countless others. Caitlin is a member of ADTNJ, the Associated Dance Teachers of New Jersey, and has completed several tap education courses, like Karida Griffith’s Tap Teacher Training. She has also been a member of FutureSTEP, a pre-professional tap company under director Hillary-Marie Michael, from 2017-2020. During her time in FutureSTEP, Caitlin was afforded the amazing opportunity to work with other talented tap dancers and master teachers and perform at various events, like Big Apple Tap Fest and NJTAP’s Homecoming 25 at Kean University. In 2016, Caitlin graduated Summa Cum Laude and valedictorian from Georgian Court University with a B.A. in English and a K-12 teaching certification. Besides teaching dance, she is a full-time substitute teacher at Allentown High School and working hard to grow her crochet business, Crafty Caitlin Studio. In her downtime, you can find Caitlin in a onesie devouring books and amazing people with her crochet wizardry, turning ordinary string into extraordinary things with her magical crochet hook. Also, leopard. Teaching tap is Caitlin’s favorite thing to do, and she loves to share her shuffle wit the students at Ocean Dance Force! 


Jessica Kelly

Instructor

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Bio Coming Soon!


Erin McNerney

Jazz, Lyrical, Contemporary, Company Choreography

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Erin McNerney has been teaching dancers of all ages for over 15 years. Throughout her career she has worked with notable industry professionals such as Gil Stroming, Jose de la Cuesta, Sheila Barker and Tracey Morgan from Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. Professionally, Erin has performed with Holland America Cruise Lines, numerous theme parks throughout the U.S., industrials, commercials and Off-Broadway. Most recently, she was the Assistant Choreographer/Dance Captain for the Center Drama Theatre Company and was a 2012 New Jersey “Perry” award nominee for ‘Best Actress” for her role as Phyllis in 42nd Street. Erin has also been a staff member of Dancers Inc. for over 8 years, judging regional and national competitions all across the country. She has had the pleasure of directing and choreographing for Hershey Theme Park, as well as many dance studios in the Tri-State area. Erin was a Professor of Jazz at Wagner College in Staten Island and on staff at Red Bank Regional High School Performing Arts School. Erin’s unique style and enthusiasm have repeatedly brought her and her students national acclaim, most recently being the Access Broadway 2013 Nationals Critics Choice Award. Her “energetic” approach to teaching continues to inspire all her dancers and Ocean Dance Force is honored to have her on staff.