Dancers
Seniors
Kari Marton-Rollins
Kari Marton-Rollins trained at the Westchester Theatre Dance Academy in Katonah, New York from the age of 3. The unofficial Sparks photographer, Kari can usually be found having a photo shoot with her friends, nursing an injury, or losing her cell phone. A junior Nurse Sparks, Kari is a double major in Nursing and Psychology. Her other interests include playing the viola, making birthday cards, and getting Kari-ed away.
Manda Mundy
When Manda Mundy isn't living the life of a chick-lit heroine, she enjoys working two jobs, being too busy to sleep, and dancing in as many pieces as the Sparks board will allow. Although her hair color never stays the same for more than a few weeks, she is easily identifiable by the cup of coffee permanently attached to her hand. The inventor of "The Sparks Hug," Manda loves to explore different styles of dance, and disgust the company with her flexible back and double jointed shoulders..
Brynn Shepherd (Creative Director)
Brynn grew up in Wilton, Connecticut, where she was a gymnast for twelve years and also danced in two of her high school's theater productions, Grease and West Side Story. She has always loved to dance and is thrilled to be able to contribute to Sparks as the company's webmaster. Brynn is a junior in Penn's School of Engineering, and is majoring in Digital Media Design. In her free time, she loves to drink coffee, read, play with Photoshop, and watch reruns of Friends.
Amy Sherman
Don't be surprised if it looks like Amy "The Shermanator" Sherman has a leg growing out of her head. This Hawaiian-turned-Ohioan (is that even a word?) has flexibility to rival that of Gumby. With training in jazz, ballet, tap, clogging, and gymnastics, this Spark's style is as flexible as her body. When Amy isn't singing the wrong lyrics to her favorite songs, you can find her studying Medical Anthropology, and explaining to people what that actually is.
Juniors
Adrienne Adler
Adrienne Adler comes to Sparks from Memphis, TN where she trained with the Memphis Ballet for 13 years. She has also been part of the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program (where she met the lovely Sara Farber.) Adrienne falls over with the grace of a swan at least three times per rehearsal, dizzy from the altitude of her (insert height here) stance. A sister in the Tri-Delta Sorority and a Pre-Med major in the College, Adrienne is always busy, and can usually be found in the library, procrastinating by indulging her 'Alias' obsession.
Jamie-Ann Acero
Jamie is in the Nursing school and is the youngest member of the Sparks nursing lineage. Somehow, she is involved with almost every extracurricular activity at Penn. It’s still a mystery of how she transports herself from Sparks’ rehearsal to volleyball practice to a Philipino Society meeting…and then runs a marathon. And yet somehow, she still manages to bring an infectious, infinite energy to rehearsal and class that we all have come to love. With that energy she also brings a great talent in pointe, hip hop, jazz, modern, and extremely enjoyable performance faces.
Sara Farber
A prima ballerina through and through, Sara Farber comes to Sparks after 15 years of training with the Boston Ballet, where she had the opportunity to perform in many of the company's professional performances. Aside from being a fantastic ballet dancer, she is an accomplished Project Runway fanatic, though she has decided to study Biology and Spanish in lieu of a career in modeling. Sara's other interests include Pilates, sarcasm, and shimmying.
Samantha Greenblatt
Samantha is a sophomore from New York City. She began dancing at the School of American Ballet and studied there through the beginning of high school. She continued her ballet training at Steps on Broadway as well as with her school's Dance Theatre Workshop Company. As a member of the company, Samantha studied modern and jazz in addition to ballet and choreographed both junior and senior year. She is so happy to be part of Sparks and especially loves participating in the community shows.
Sophomores
Anastasia Matijkiw
Anastasia hails from the far, far away land of…Philadelphia. All of Sparks is intrigued by her Ukrainian dance background, but you will only catch this modest gal busting some Ukrainian moves if she thinks you aren’t looking. She is also trained in ballet and hopes to explore other styles of dancing. Even though she is beautifully tall and easily spotted from afar, don’t be surprised if you can’t find her during the day…she’s essentially a nocturnal creature!
Brittany Johansen
This fireball from NYC can do it all. Ask her to do a time-step? No problem. Ask her to do a back flip? She’ll do three. With extensive training in tap, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, modern, ballet, and gymnastics, we are still searching for something that she can’t do (with no success). Brittany has also performed for a wide variety of audiences, including the nit-picky judges (and crazy mothers) at dance competitions, her high-school peers (think “High School Musical”) in school plays and dance team, and the loveable old ladies at our community shows. When she’s not dancing, you can find her immersed in tough science problems or speaking Russian.
Callie Taylor
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Callie started out with gymnastics and did that for 7 years and went into dance in 7th grade. She was on her high school dance team (3 time state champions!) and was co-captain senior year. She was also on the Oregon All State Dance Team, and has taken classes at te Multnomah Athletic Club and Elite Dance Studio. She wants to learn to ballroom dance someday (especially latin!).
Jamie Wessels
Jamie is a sophomore in the engineering school at Penn and has been dancing for seven years. She loves jazz and modern and also loves to tap. When she is not dancing, you can find her playing the piano, belting out show tunes.
Freshmen
Daria Gaut
Daria came to Sparks from sunny Los Angeles. She has trained extensively in many different styles of dance, including jazz, ballet, modern, hip hop, African, and even flamenco. With this foundation, Daria became a lead dancer and choreographer in her high school dance company. If you don’t find her in the dance studio, you’re likely to see her swimming at Pottruck or mixing chemicals in a chemistry lab.
Hilary Grosskopf
Hilary is a freshman in the Engineering School and is SO excited to be a new member of Sparks! Most of her training is in classical ballet but she also loves jazz and was a competitive gymnast for 10 years. Originally from Chadds Ford, PA, Hilary danced for 5 years at the Rock School West and then 8 years at the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia. She danced in the Pennsylvania Ballet’s Nutcracker for 6 years and as a result, has a fanatical obsession with Christmas. Her other interests include yoga, tennis, skiing, and shopping. She is a huge fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, Ben & Jerry’s half baked, and Hello Kitty.
Alli Letica
