ART
Karen L. Samuel: art, quilting, sewing, fashion design. Ms. Samuel is a native of St. John. At fourteen, she was awarded a scholarship to Southampton College in New York to study drawing and painting. She attended Corcoran School of Arts and received a BA degree in Secondary Art Education from The George Washington University in 1979. She has taught in the public school system for nine years and has been with SJSA since 1995. As an artist, she works primarily in oils, but also produces work in graphite, conté crayons, watercolors, hard pastels and colored pencils. Her subject matter includes portraiture, landscapes, seascapes, and scenes from contemporary life. Her work may be seen at Bajo el Sol Gallery on St. John.
DANCE/MOVEMENT
Jude Woodcock: creative movement, modern dance, tumbling. Ms. Woodcock received a BS degree from Southwest Missouri State and toured with Pilobolus Dance Theater from 1984-1994. She helped choreograph over 20 new works for the company and acted as touring and rehearsal director from 1989-1994. She still maintains ties with the company by representing them through teaching at various locales on the main land. Ms. Woodcock has taught at the American Dance Festival working with the young dancers program.
Kim Wild: ballet, tap, creative movement, developing the artistic eye through movement. Ms. Wild also serves as Assistant Director & Business Manager at SJSA. She holds a BA degree in dance at Columbia College and a MFA degree in dance at Florida State University. She has over 25 years of teaching experience extending from the young child to the professional student. With a teaching assistantship at FSU, she taught non-major dance classes in ballet and jazz as well as teaching choreography, modern and ballet to students at Tallahassee Community College as adjunct faculty. She served as Dance Director (1990) for the Colquitt County Arts Center, a community arts school in Georgia.
Patricia Myers: jazz/hip-hop. Ms. Myers graduated in 1994 Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Psychology from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD (sister school to Johns Hopkins) She has taught seminars for the Baltimore School for the Handicapped, the Baltimore Center for the Blind, and developmentally deterred children in public schools. She has taught tap, modern and jazz throughout her dance career and has choreographed and performed in regional production in Maryland and South Carolina.
Elizabeth Gowan: (Forthcoming)
Alfredo del Olmo: tango for adults. Mr. del Olmo, owner of Alfredo’s Landscape and Nursery, is a native Argentinean who came to St. John in 1996 who began formal studies in tango. He has shared his cultural dance with SJSA students since 2002. He holds a PhD in Veterinary Medicine from the University de Rio Cuarto in Argentina.
MUSIC
Jan Kinder: Orff Schulwerk, piano and voice. Ms. Kinder is a registered nurse (1975) and received her BA in Psychology from Upsala College (1977). She is a certified music therapist by the American Association for Music Therapy (1985); and Master Level Clinician in the musical development/sound and music therapy philosophy of Dr. Carl Orff with formal training at the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Teacher’s College at Columbia University and Mont Clair State University; vocal training with Jutta Rose, NYC (1979-89). In the late 1970s she created and established comprehensive healing arts and music and dance programs at Turtle Bay Music School in New York, and was co-founder of the Isadora Duncan International Institute (IDII). She is an accomplished classical pianist, composer and television commercial singer. Her early studies in piano were with Flora McGill Thomas who was a direct teaching lineage of Clara Schumann.
William Johnson: brass and woodwinds. Mr. Johnson has been the band director at Sprauve School with over twenty-eight years of teaching in the Virgin Islands. He received his BS degree in Music Education from Hampton University and a MM in performance with a concentration in multi-reeds from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His extensive performance spans from playing back-up for Diana Ross to Sammy Davis, Jr. He graduated from the United States Army School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia, the Sergeant Major Academy and the Command Sergeant Major Academy in El Paso, Texas. Before retiring from the military in 2000, Mr. Johnson served as the Bandleader of the 666th Army National Guard Band and the fourth Command Sergeant Major of the 786th Water Battalion on St. Thomas.
Shatik Stephens: voice and choir. Ms. Stephens is a native St. Johnian and a former Miss St. John. She was selected to be a representative as one of Governor Schneider’s Youth Commissioners, where she worked with different youths of all ages. She attended the Bethune-Cookman College and studied Music Education and Technology. While in school, she performed with the Concert Chorale, Young Artists, Jazz Combo and the Opera Workshop, which led to performances at Walt Disney World, the Citrus Bowl and the Rosen Centre. After returning home, she became the director of the Bethany Moravian Church Youth Choir and performs with “3 Sweet” along with solo engagements.
Mahlon Pickering: Scratch band/Quelbe music. Mr. Pickering, a.k.a. “KoKo” as he is known on St. John, performs at various events with his band “KoKo and the Sunshine Band,” a scratch band. He is employed as a police officer by the Virgin Islands Port Authority (VIPA). When he was a young boy, he started playing a small “uke” that the fisherman made him in payment for cleaning their boat. At Charlotte Amalie High School he was a member of the chorus. Between 1959 – 1967, he played steel drums with the Silver Tones, drums and vocals with the Jealous Sounds and played piano with the Waves. He is also a veteran in the Armed Forces.
Edward Bruce: Percussion. Mr. Bruce received his BA degree in Anthropology from Columbia University along with 25 credits in Mandarin and German. In 1982, he received his MA Ed. Degree from University of Phoenix, majoring in Reading Acquisition, problem prescriptions. In 2005, he received his International T.E.F.L. Diploma, Boland School, including China certificate. He came to St. John in 1974 as the director of the Cruz Bay Daycare Center. For many years, he has volunteered his skills to Julius E. Sprauve School as a reading teacher, special and general education teacher. As an accomplished musician, he is serving as SJSA’s ethnic drumming and dance teacher.
Barbara Winch: Orff-Schulwerk. Ms. Winch has a MS degree in Special Education and a BA in Psychology and Education with certifications from New York and Massachusetts. She also holds Exercise Safety Association Certification in Pilates, Aerobics, Cardio Kickboxing and more. She has been a teacher for over sixteen years and continues to teach students on a private basis. She is Level I Orff-Schulwerk certified.
Abigail Rene: strings. Ms. Rene taught violin and music theory in Dominica for grades 1 – 6 from 1989 - 1997 and was head of the science department at a secondary school. She also teaches violin for students at Antilles School on St. Thomas. She is a service representative for a local bank and is working toward a degree in finance.
James Anderson: guitar. Mr. Anderson has lived in the Virgin Islands since 1979 and has played professionally on guitar throughout St. Thomas and St. John. As half of Dos Guitarras, Acoustic Gypsies, The James Dean Band, in trios or solo he has played at Caneel Bay, the Westin, the Ritz Carlton Frenchman’s Reef and any place else they have live music. He started with Piano, played Drums and then Bass in High School bands and then fell in love with the guitar and has been playing ever since. He still plays out several nights a week and devotes his days to studying, writing and sharing his talent with local youth teaching guitar at area schools.
Luba Dolgopolsky: piano, Orff, voice, choir. Ms. Dolgopolsky is a Russian trained concert pianist who performed as a soloist with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra at the age of fifteen. In 2004 she received her MA degree in Music Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, NY and holds a BFA in Music Performance from The New School, New York, NY. She is Level 1 & 2 Kodaly and Level 1 Orff certified. She has taught in New York’s public schools as well as private instruction.
Staff
Jan Kinder: Executive Director
Kim Wild: Assistant Director/Business Manager
Jeff Rocha: CPA
Kazumi Schaub: Office Assistant/Building Manager
Douglas W. Frank: New York Office Director
Board of Directors
Sis Frank: Co-Founder
Ronnie Jones: President
Ronnie Lee: Vice President
Deborah Marsh: Treasurer
Helen Simon: Secretary
Mary Anne Campbell
Tom Campbell
Steve Deisher
Faye Fredericks
Theodora Moorehead
Andrew Penn
Elroy Sprauve
Donald Sussman
Michael Weinman
Glenda Werbel
Harvey Werbel
Advisory Council
Corky Siegel
Steven Lipman
Garry Dial
J. Brion Morrisette
Marcia T. Thompson
Lawrence O. Benjamin
