Free with Student ID!

Yes, you heard it right: Dancing with the UML Stars! The UML Ballroom Dance Club is proud to be putting on a one-night show on

April 23, 2008 at 7:00 pm

in Cumnock Hall. It will be featuring real, live faculty and staff members who have been paired with members of the Ballroom Club. The "Stars" will train for seven weeks in their dances: learning the choreography, movement, style and character of each dance.

New! A Raffle, featuring great prizes including Free Dance Lessons, Free Movie Passes, and FREE PIZZA. Buy raffle tickets at the door, all the money goes to Relay For Life

The show will be featuring:

• Alan Williams, Music, dancing Tango with Amy Lefavour
• Michael Carter, Economics, dancing Foxtrot Heather Martin
• Erin Crouse, Director of Orientation & Coordinator of Admissions Events, dancing Waltz with John Fertitta
• Melissa Gardner, Marketing Coordinator of Athletics, dancing Cha Cha with Jake Meier
• Susan Pulido, Student Health Services, dancing Rumba with Justin Chin
• Nicholas Piscitello, Assistant Director of Reslife, dancing Swing with Gillian Murphy
• Christyn Toomey, RD of Fox Hall, dancing Tango with TJ Martin
• Paula Telesco, Music Department Chair, dancing Viennese Waltz with Mark Sherman
• Christopher Carlsmith, History, dancing Paso Doble with Mary Angeleri
• Trish Dunleavy, Management, dancing Foxtrot with John Fertitta
• Victoria Drakoulakos, Assistant to Chancellor Meehan, dancing Swing with TJ Martin
• Steven Rogers, Advancement Office, dancing Cha Cha with Heather Heather Martin

Alan Williams, Professor of Music

Alan grew up in western North Carolina, where everyone learned to clog dance. Beyond the awkward teen formals, and a completely out of character routine (including splits) performed in Jordan Hall while an undergrad, he has no real dance experience. But falling into the unknown is nothing new for him, having performed world beat on synthesizer in jazz clubs, acoustic folk music at CBGBs, obtained a Bachelor's degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in a program that banned written notation, and received a PhD in ethnomusicology at Brown University, researching the interpersonal dynamics and impact of technological mediation among recording studio participants. With all of these degrees, he has worked in a Crate and Barrel stockroom, an esoteric record store, signed to a major label, recorded with the classic Muscle Shoals rhythm section, engineered and produced a number of records, founded a record and publishing company, road managed for folk-singers, and somehow has maintained a teaching career at UML for over a dozen years. Williams is currently trying to simultaneously record an album and finish a book, and confesses to never having watched anything resembling Dancing With The Stars, though he has seen several Carlos Saura films, and of course Marlon Brando and Maria Schnieder. Mostly, he is hoping to come out of this alive.

Michael Carter, Professor of Economics

Michael's undergraduate days were spent at Yale U. where he majored in Economics and protesting the Vietnam war. A Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford followed. A love of ethnic cuisines, big red wines and the beauty of unspoiled landscapes and unique ecological niches began in the Stanford years and remains to this day. By the time he arrived at UML in the fall of 1986, he had made himself a specialist in financial markets and monetary policy with particular interest in the linkage between financial instability and broader instability in the real economy. Twenty two years later, he has become chairperson of the Economics department, faculty senate representative to the UMass Board of Trustees, more fascinated than ever with the ways in which globalization and financial innovation have increased systemic risk and--if old dogs can be taught new tricks--He's learning to dance!

Erin Crouse, Orientation & Admissions

After going to undergraduate and graduate school in upstate New York, Erin started working at UML in the fall of 2004 in Residence Life. She is now in Enrollment & Student Success as the Director of Orientation & Coordinator of Admissions Events. It’s a fun job that keeps her busy! Erin is an avid runner and has run and completed 20 marathons in 14 states. Her goal is to run a marathon in each of the 50 states. She danced in high school and college, so we will see what happens when she dusts off her shoes and shakes out the cobwebs!

Melissa Gardner, Marketing Coordinator of Athletics

Melissa started with the University last fall in the Athletics Department as their Marketing and Promotions Coordinator. Moving from Iowa, where she was the Vice President of the Quad City Flames, the AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames, she has worked in the hockey industry for the past seven years. In her role with the University she is responsible for all the promotions and advertising for the twelve UMass Lowell Athletic teams. The former two sport college athlete is hoping her athletic skills help her on the dance floor, as she has never participated in organized dance, but is highly competitive and excited for the challenge.

Susan Pulido, Student Health Services

Susan began working at UMASS Lowell in 2005 (the year she graduated from this fine establishment!) as an Alcohol and Other Drug Health Educator with University Health Services. It’s a great job and she really enjoys all the interaction she has with the students. Susan is the proud mother of two great teenagers who can’t wait to see their Mom dance. They need a good laugh! Other than boogying around her house Susan has no dance experience whatsoever. She did however drive her daughter to dance class for ten years, so she’s hoping that through osmosis she’ll somehow pull it off. After all, there is a gene there somewhere!

Christyn Toomey, Resident Director of Fox Hall

Christyn is an alumna of Umass Lowell (class of ’03) and returned to the University as Area Coordinator of Fox Hall in February. Christyn is very happy to be a part of the Fox Family and very much enjoys working with her student staff. Christyn is a huge Red Sox fan and enjoys watching and playing most sports, especially Rugby. When she is not working or hanging out with students she enjoys working out, reading, cooking, and sleeping. Christyn is also very close to her family and likes to spend as much time as possible with them. She has no experience with dance but is excited to give the Tango a shot!

Paula Telesco, Music Department Chair

Paula is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Music, where she teaches and coordinates the music theory and aural skills program. Additionally, she is currently engaged in the study of tango music and dance. Her passion for music is equaled only by her passion for dance, which she has pursued most of her life. Like many young girls, she started out with tap and jazz, but then after seeing a scene from Sleeping Beauty, she was instantly hooked on ballet, and continued studying ballet for many years. After several injuries she switched to ballroom dancing. (She had always liked ballroom dancing, but never had enough time to pursue that in addition to the ballet, while also having to work for a living.) She now dances competitively in the greater Boston area and hopes she won't embarrass herself in this show (like when she slipped on something in her last competition and her foot went flying out from under her, followed in short order by the rest of her! Curiously enough, she still came in first in that dance, a Bolero!!)

Christopher Carlsmith, Professor of History

Chris is an Associate Professor of History at UMass Lowell, where he teaches courses in early modern European history. At UML since 2001, his research interests include the history of education in Renaissance Italy and the history of childhood in Europe. He speaks Italian fluently and enjoys cooking at home. Chris grew up in California where his activities included soccer, skiing, and tennis. At various times he has experimented with square dancing, contra dancing, and swing dancing, but ballroom dance is somewhat new for him.

Trish Dunleavy, College of Management

After living and working in Boston, Munich, and D.C. for a number of years, Trish, a Lowellian from birth, returned home in 1982 to raise her son Thomas and thus began her tenure at UMass Lowell. A voracious reader, Trish’s interests include traveling, the study of languages, hiking, theatre, jazz, opera and art. She is an avid Red Sox fan, who also enjoys a good soccer game. Trish has been taking swing and Latin dance classes for the past one and a half years, but her experience with the Foxtrot is limited to the approximately one and a half hours of intro during a beginner ball room class that she attended two years ago. She is grateful to John, Heather and Mark for their time and patience and hopes to do them justice with grace.

Victoria Drakoulakos, Assitant to the Chancellor

Victoria began working at UMass Lowell in 2003 and is the Senior Administrative Assistant to Chancellor Meehan. She recently received her Masters degree from UMass Lowell in Criminal Justice and has a Law Degree from Queens University in Belfast. She currently lives in Dracut, MA but is originally from Holywood, Northern Ireland. Her interests include traveling, horse riding, opera and reading. Apart from the occasional dance with husband, Peter, who took some ballroom dancing lessons when living in Africa, and being thrown around the dance floor by her father, who is an excellent jive dancer, she has had no experience with ballroom dancing but is very much looking for the opportunity to learn a new skill, or embarrass herself in style.

Steven Rogers, Major Gift Officer

Rogers had been with the University since the summer of 2004 and is a major gift officer with the Advancement Office. He primarily works with the Dean and department chairs of the College of Management and with the Athletic Department with their alumni and development activities. Nearly 20 years in development, Steve previously served as annual fund director with Beverly Hospital, Merrimack College and Brooks School. He and his wife and two teenage children live in Wilmington. His son Caleb, 16, is a soccer and track athlete, along with a trombone player at Wilmington High School, while 13 year old Jake has played hockey since he was 5, and hopes to be on Coach MacDonald's team someday. He is an avid Patriots and Red Sox fan, and his dancing experience is limited to extensive knowledge of the "prom shuffle".

More information to come, so keep checking back!