Dancers
Seniors
Juliette Alimena
Juliette is a physics major and comes to Sparks from Monroe, Connecticut. She was trained in jazz, hip hop, modern and lyrical at the Dance Workshop in Monroe. She does research in the High Energy Physics Department, and hopes to one day become a theoretical physicist.
Kylie Gattinella
Kylie Gattinella is from Greenwich, CT and is a Health and Societies major concentrating in Markets and Finance. She is trained in a variety of dance genres including jazz, ballet, and hip-hop. In high school, she was part of an audition-only corps that displayed student-choreography and performed nationwide. Her other activities at Penn include the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority.
Stephanie Lichtinger
Stephanie is a senior majoring in Art History. Originally from Belgium, she now lives in Scarsdale, New York where she was trained in ballet and was a member of the Dance Conservatory of New York, performing in various venues throughout the year. Stephanie loves performing at CHOP and Ronald McDonald House, where children come up and take center stage with the company at the end of the show! She is really excited to spend her last year at Penn with the amazing girls of SPARKS!
Lindsay Pordon
Lindsay is a Senior Bioengineering major from Fairfield, NJ. She studied tap, jazz, ballet, and lyrical at Dancers in Motion in Nutley, NJ since the age of 3. As well as being the Vice President of Sparks, Lindsay is also the Dance Arts Council Chair. From practice to spontaneous dance parties to dinner downtown, the members of Sparks are always ready for a good time and Lindsay couldn't be more excited for her fourth year in the group.
Lindsey Sankin
Lindsey Sankin began dancing ballet and jazz with Jennifer Dell at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts when she was fourteen years old. She began choreographing soon after. She has performed in dance shows, musicals and community shows for most of her life. Lindsey is a Psychology and Hispanic Studies major with an English minor. She is originally from Briarcliff Manor, New York. In addition to her enthusiastic participation in Sparks, she also enjoys be involved in the Penn group Bikur Cholim, which gives her the opportunity to visit with patients in local hospitals.
Juniors
Jackie Candido
Before arriving in West Philadelphia, this nursing major from Essex Fells, NJ, studied dance at The New Jersey School of Ballet, The Mary Byrne School of Ballet, Broadway Dance Center, and other New York and New Jersey dance academies. Though she has studied pointe, hip hop, tap, salsa, and modern, her favorite styles are ballet and jazz, and she never turns down an opportunity to wear a tutu, as long as it's red. When she isn't hiding away in Van Pelt with her Anatomy and Physiology textbook, she can be found choreographing new dances for SDC, writing excessively lengthy emails to Sparks members, attending AXO sorority events and watching Grey's Anatomy.
Catherine Kane
A native of Philadelphia, Catherine is a ballerina through and through. She started at the age of 3 at Debra Sparks Dance Works, and went on to study at the Rock School and Metropolitan Ballet Academy. When she isn't dancing, she's usually baking, watching some version of Pride and Prejudice, or reading. This history major loves Sparks and only wishes she hadn't waited until Sophomore year to join.
Elena Wang (Technical Director)
Elena is from Peru and is studying Engineering. She was really happy when Sparks gave her the chance to do lights. When she's not figuring out how to do lights she's usually busy sleeping.
Sophomores
Stephanie Majchrzak
Stephanie is a part time student at Penn and works full time for Pennsylvania Hospital . She has studies dance for most of her life at such places as The Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, Koresh, and The Philadelphia Dance Conservatory. She has also done intensive summer programs at such places as Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and The Bolshoi Ballet in Russia. She loves being able to perform and provide community service through Sparks.
Kari Marton-Rollins
Kari, from Katonah, New York, trained at Westchester Theatre Dance Academy from the age of three to her junior year in high school and studied at Encore! her senior year. She enjoys many styles of dance and has been trained in ballet, tap, jazz, and some hip-hop. Kari is currently double majoring in Nursing and Psychology. In her spare time, she plays the viola, does photography, and makes birthday cards. She loves performing and is very excited for her second year with SDC.
Amanda Mundy
Amanda Mundy was born and raised in Northeast Philadelphia. Her mother put her in ballet class when she was two years old, and she began to take dancing more seriously as she grew older. Amanda started dancing at the Bucks County Dance Center in Bensalem, PA in 2001 and continued to dance with the BCDC Company until her high school graduation. She enjoys various forms of dance, but is particularly interested in ballet and pointe, and is greatly inspired by her grandmother, who is also a ballerina. Amanda is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, and plans to major in French with a minor in Consumer Psychology.
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 sophomore 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
Amy was born in Hawaii and then moved to Colorado and then to Cincinnati, OH, but wishes she had stayed in Hawaii long enough to learn how to hula dance. Instead, she picked up ballet and tap as a three year old in Colorado and has been dancing ever since. She has also added jazz, lyrical, and clogging to her repertoire. Amy was on a competitive dance team for five years and tried out gymnastics during her high school years. Her favorite type of dance will always be jazz and she plans to study Medical Anthropology at Penn.
Freshmen
Adrienne Adler
Adrienne is from Memphis, Tennessee and trained at Ballet Memphis from age five to eighteen. She spent the last four summers at the Boston Ballet Summer Dance Program, and her training has been primarily in classical ballet. However, she loves jazz and is excited to try hip-hop with SDC! She is a student in the College of Arts and Sciences and is currently pre-med. She can often be found in the library on her computerÉ normally procrastinating by watching TV episodes online. She has loved her first semester in Sparks and is so excited to be a member!
Jacqueline Cutler
Jackie Cutler is from New York City and is a freshman in the Huntsman Program for International Studies and Business. She began studying ballet when she was eight years old at The Manhattan Ballet School. She was a member, and eventually captain, of her middle and high schools' audition-only modern and jazz dance companies, performing both professionally and student choreographed pieces (including some of her own). She also enjoys taking hip-hop classes in her spare time. Jackie is so excited to continue dancing at Penn as a member of Sparks Dance Company!
Sara Farber
Sara comes to Sparks from Norwell, MA. She began dancing ballet at the age of 3 at the Boston Ballet and continued dancing there for the next 15 years. While studying there, she had the opportunity to perform roles in many of the company's professional performances, such as The Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet, and brings her love of performing to SDC. Sara is a freshman in the College and is considering a major in Biology and a minor in Spanish. In her free time, Sara loves to do pilates, watch Project Runway marathons and go shopping.
Samantha Greenblatt
Samantha is a freshman 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.