Artistic Director and Co-founder of Crozet Arts, previously taught ballet on the faculties of the Boston Ballet School, Walnut Hill School for the arts (Natick, MA), Boston Ballet’s Children’s Summer Dance Workshop, Amherst Ballet Centre (MA), Schwarz School of Dance (Dayton, OH), Wright State University’s PRODANCE (Dayton, OH), Albemarle Ballet Theatre, and at the Greenwood Community Center. At Walnut Hill School, she was a member of the dance department’s ballet faculty, and Director of the Dance Extension Division and Summer Dance Workshop. Prior to her teaching career, Sharon danced with the Dayton Ballet Company and Peridance, a contemporary ballet company in New York City. While in Dayton, she also served as Ballet Mistress for the company and apprentice company, Dayton Ballet II.

Born and raised in NYC, Boomie has lived, taught, performed and studied in NY; Tokyo, Japan; Los Angeles, CA and now in Virginia. She was a scholarship dance student with the Joffrey Ballet but gave up ballet to go to college. Boomie holds a BA in English and Theater/Dance from Princeton University, and recently completed her MFA in Pedagogy and Performance at VCU. She is Artistic Director of the Hamner Theater, which she co-founded in 2005; she runs the Hamner Improv Troupe and has taught Improv extensively to all ages as well as to businesses, caregivers and in other areas where Applied Improv is applicable. She does Playback Theater, has acted, directed and produced in theaters in Charlottesville as well as Richmond. She also founded the Central Virginia Theater Alliance and is active in the GCCA (Greater Crozet Arts Alliance). Boomie is the Theater Advisor for Crozet Arts where she also teaches theater classes for children and adults and looks forward to introducing the Crozet Theater Workshop at Crozet Arts to the community.

“Dr. Beth,” is a Resident Artist at Crozet Arts. She teaches cellists of all ages throughout the US and the UK. She is very active with the Suzuki Association of the Americas, which reaches from Alaska to Patagonia, as a Registered Teacher Trainer, and as former Chair of its governing board. She has taught children and adults at Suzuki Institutes and workshops throughout the United States and abroad for over 30 years. Locally, Dr. Beth maintains an active private studio at Crozet Arts. She performs as principal cellist of the Waynesboro Symphony, is a member of the Afton String Quartet, and plays regularly with groups throughout the region. She was, for many years, principal cellist for the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, and was on the faculty of Kennesaw State University and Mary Baldwin University. Dr. Cantrell earned degrees in cello performance and music history from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Florida State University, and the University of Georgia. Prior to moving to Virginia with her family in 2001, she was principal cellist for the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, and was on the faculty of Kennesaw State University. She was active in the Atlanta area for 18 years as a teacher, chamber and orchestral performer, adjudicator, and recording studio musician.

Laura Allen is a Virginia-based sculptor who creates primarily abstract, organic forms using post-consumer and reclaimed materials. Through hand-worked processes such as stitching, weaving, wrapping, and assembling, her work reflects traditions of women’s handiwork while exploring the tension between the natural world and the plastic one we create. Her sculptures grow piece by piece, echoing biological processes and carrying the histories embedded in everyday discarded objects. This slow, attentive, materials-led practice also shapes her work with children, where curiosity, experimentation, and making by hand are central to creative learning. Rooted in environmental and social inquiry, her quiet practice connects past traditions to contemporary issues and future possibilities.