Dances with Wolves? No, Warriors!

Marisa Impalli comes from a “teaching family,” as she puts it. Her father was an art teacher for 40 years and both her mother and sister are teachers as well. So perhaps it isn’t so surprising that she found her calling by combining her passion for dance with her love of sharing and communicating with people and decided to get a master’s in dance education from New York University. She has a B.A. in dance from James Madison University and after a year of working retail in New York City and pursuing dance with small companies, she happened to come across NYU’s unusual master’s program and knew that she had found her vocation. She started teaching dance full time at Watchung Hills in 2005 and has never looked back.

Ms. Impalli is one busy dance teacher: she teaches five dance classes, directs the after-school dance ensemble, hosts a guest choreographer every year, puts on dance shows with her own choreography alongside that of her students, teaches an after-school yoga class for WHRHS staff and faculty, and participates in both the Watchung Hills Spring Arts Festival, as well as a local Teen Arts Festival. Her students know they are lucky to have her and an average of two of them a year continue on to college dance programs, hoping to become professional dancers someday.

Come see for yourself the results of Ms. Impalli’s hard work as her Warrior dancers shine in the WHRHS Spring Arts Festival held in the school’s Performing Arts Center on May 17, 18 and 19 at 7:30 pm.