Meet the Staff

Meet Our Friendly and Experienced Staff

Ballet Instructors — Jo-Ann Faulkner in South Plainfield, NJ

Jo-Ann Faulkner

Jo-Ann Faulkner has been the Director and Owner of  Jo-Ann's Dance Studio, The Performing Arts Centre for over 44 years. She is on-site six days a week, and personally oversees all business and artistic aspects at the Centre. 

Over the past 44 years, the studio has grown from 50 students, all taught by Jo-Ann, to approximately 500 students, now with 8 professionally trained teachers. Jo-Ann is also the Producer and Director of the studio's annual performance at The State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ, where each student is given the opportunity to perform for their friends and family. 
Dance Instructors — Tara Faulkner-Catalina in South Plainfield, NJ

Tara Faulkner-Catalina

Tara Faulkner-Catalina is the Artistic Director at Jo-Ann’s Dance Studio. She teaches ballet, pointe, and moderne dance, and she is the Director for the the ballet and moderne productions. Tara has been teaching at the studio for 31 years. She derived her moderne training at The Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City. At our studio, she developed her own moderne dance program, incorporating the technique that she learned at the Graham School, and she combined that with other moderne techniques to come up with what the studio calls a “Graham-Based” moderne program. She has been teaching this program at the studio for the past 25 years. Tara is also the Co-Director of the studio’s newest program, Vertical Freedom, where she teaches Pole Fitness, Pole-Ates, Vertical Barre, Yoga/Pilates Flow, Pole Choreography, and she is also a certified POUND instructor.  

Tara was the director of the “Dance and Movement” program at The Center School in Somerset, where she tailored a program to teach students with special needs. In addition, Tara has been the school’s choreographer for 11 of their spring musicals. She has also taken on the role of Advisor for the Dance Ensemble, and spring musical Choreographer at Watching Hills Regional High School. Tara is a certified Pilates Mat and Pilates Reformer instructor, and is also certified in Barre and Stretch classes. She is a Group Training Instructor at Jersey Strong Gym in Edison, NJ,and she holds several Mossa certifications for classes such as Group Active, Group Centergy, and Group Power.
Dance Coach — Ashlen Udell in South Plainfield, NJ

Ashlen Udell

Ashlen Udell currently holds her Masters in Music Education from Northwestern University, her Bachelors in Music Education from Montclair State University (MSU) and has earned her PK-12 teacher certification in Dance Education from MSU. Ashlen has studied at The Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in NYC, the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan as a modern dance major and has completed master classes with many professional dance companies including Trisha Brown, Pilobolous and Freespace Dance. She also choreographs and performs in local community theater and high school musical productions. At Jo-Ann's Dance Studio, she teaches combination, ballet, moderne and jazz classes. Ashlen is also a music educator at Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School where she teaches instrumental music lessons and conducts the 8th grade Concert Band, Wind Ensemble and Flute Ensemble. Prior to moving to the middle school, Ashlen taught general music and choir at the elementary level in the Bridgewater-Raritan School District and Berkeley Heights School District. An accomplished musician Ashlen also performs locally in various musical pit orchestras. Throughout the year, she is on administrative staff of the Young Pianists Competition of New Jersey and the Shandelee Music Festival. 
Dance Adviser — John Barrella in South Plainfield, NJ

John "Comix" Barrella

Hip Hop/ Street Dance Educator, Choreographer, Consultant & Company Director

Based on the East Coast, John specializes in the instruction of dance culture, freestyle and choreography in the styles of locking, popping, b-boy, street/hip hop influenced choreography and more. He is owner of Soul Sessions hip hop dance convention. As a performer, John works as a solo artist and in collaboration with members of the hip hop community. He has been a featured dancer in music videos “HSKT” by Tenin and “Get Away” By Alissia. Other works include a tribute to the Lockers at “Waack to the Future”, Halftime shows for the NY Knicks, The Hoboken Unity festival and much more. As a choreographer, John’s work has been presented internationally. His unique approach to movement has been placed on dancers in a number of states in the United States, dance schools in Canada and colleges and universities with dance programs in the tri-state area. 

For John's full bio, click here.
Dance Instructors — Stephanie Prybella in South Plainfield, NJ

Stephanie Prybella

Stephanie has been at Jo-Ann's since she was a student back in 1986. She started teaching her own classes in 2004, and specializes in teaching our youngest dances (ages 3 to 7) in our preschool and combination ballet/tap classes. She also supports our special needs students in various classes. She is co-director of the productions that feature our younger dancers as well. Stephanie has degrees from Rutgers University, Biology and Nutrition, as well as at Kean University, Psychology. She is currently completing her Teacher Certification (K-5) from Kean University. She plans on receiving her master's degree in Special Education.
Dance Coach — Ashlen Udell in South Plainfield, NJ

Alexander Catalina

Alexander Catalina was born and raised at Jo-Ann’s Dance Studio. He spent most of his life taking moderne, jazz and hip hop classes at the studio. When he was not in the studio, Alex could be seen on the stage, appearing in many musicals such as Grease, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, The Wizard of Oz, and Beauty and the Beast. Alex teaches our combination ballet/tap classes for our younger students. He has been an instructor for the past 2 years and an assistant instructor for the 5 years prior to that. Alex assists with our moderne, jazz, preschool and combination classes. Alex has also worked at The Center School as the Assistant Choreographer for the past 3 years. He has helped choreograph Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, and The Wizard of Oz. Alex is also a certified POUND instructor, and teaches the class through the studio’s Vertical Freedom program. He enjoys taking classes in Pole and the aerial arts through Vertical Freedom.  
Coach — Ashlen Udell in South Plainfield, NJ

Ms. Julia Hambrecht

Ms. Julia began taking dance at age 6 and studied ballet, jazz, lyrical, contemporary, hip-hop, tap, and acrobatics. She began competitive dance at age 8 and won regional and national awards. Based on her dancing at competitions, she was selected to perform with Team Rave NY. Ms. Julia then went onto to Raritan Valley Community College continuing her studies of dance. She received her BA degree in dance at Rider University where she studied dance history, choreography and laban movement. She also studied ballet and modern through Princeton Ballet School. While attending Rider she did student teaching at Princeton Ballet School and began her teaching career at a local dance studio. She continued inspiring and teaching at various dance studios, after school dance programs at private and public schools, Play S.A.F.E dance program in New Brunswick, and a Teaching Artist for Dance Power of American Repertory Ballet. Ms. Julia is currently a dance educator in Franklin Township Public School District at Pine Grove and MacAfee Road School, teaching grades Pre-K - 5th grade. She has a passion for dance and love for working with children.
Coach — Ashlen Udell in South Plainfield, NJ

Ms. Nicole Sutherland

Nicole Sutherland has been at the dance studio since 1990 where she studied Ballet, Pointe, Jazz and Moderne. Nicole has also worked as an assistant to a variety of classes at all levels since 2005. She began teaching classes of her own in 2019. Currently, she teaches both Ballet and Pre-Ballet while also taking Moderne classes. Nicole has degrees from Union County College in education as well as Montclair State University in History Education. She currently teaches middle school social studies in Elizabeth, New Jersey to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Previously, Nicole also taught high school history to grades 10, 11 and 12. When not teaching or taking class at the studio, Nicole also takes aerial yoga classes at the Vertical Freedom studio.
Coach — Ashlen Udell in South Plainfield, NJ

Ms. Melissa Tambone

Melissa studied at Jo-Ann's Dance Studio for 15 years; Over that time she was trained in Ballet, Pointe, Moderne, Tap and Jazz. She was also apart of Le Centre Dance Ensemble which compeited yearly for the studio in the 90's. After graduation she majored in Nursing and minored in Dance Education at Middlesex County College. Then she went on to Pinelands School of Nursing to persue her LPN degree, which she received in 2010. She has worked at two major hospitals, Centre State Medical Center, and Hunterdon Medical, in various fields on different units. Melissa found her way back to the studio a few years later when she brouht in her daughter to register for classes. Her daughter has been dancing here for five years and is currently taking, Ballet, Moderne, Tap, Jazz, Musical Theater and Aerial silks. Melissa takes various classes at Vertical Freedom with Aerial being her current favorite. Melissa started out as a substitute dance instructor, for any teacher that needed it. She was an assistant in our Pre-school and Combo ballet/tap and ballet/jazz classes and just enjoyed every miniute of it. Now Melissa teaches our youngest dancers in pre-school and combo and couldn't be happier. Melissa says her favorite class to teach is the pre-school classes, because they have so much imagination. 
Coach — Ashlen Udell in South Plainfield, NJ

Ms. Katie Penrose

Katie has been a part of Jo-Ann's Dance Studio since she was just 10 years old, joining as a student. Katie studied Tap, Musical Theater, and Moderne at the studio and began assisting classes in 2014. She returned to the studio after attending college out of state to teach and direct the Tap and Musical Theater productions at the studio. She has a passion for dance and teaching students of all ages and abilities. 
Katie has a Bachelor's Degree in Middle-Level Education, with minors in Special Education and Educational Technology from Bloomsburg University. She is a certified NJ math teacher and currently teaches at Kumpf Middle School in Clark, NJ. Katie is also attending school for a Masters in Educational Technology.
In her free time, Katie loves to take dance classes and studies Aerial Silks at Vertical Freedom. 
For more information, or to register for a class, call us at 908-561-5094!
Share by: