Director--Cathy Quigley

Cathy Quigley began her dance training at the age of 4. At age 14 she accepted the invitation to join Ballet des Jeunes, with whom she would have the privilege of touring Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.  She has trained with members of many professional companies including Pennsylvania Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, NYC Ballet, Group Motion, Erick Hawkins, Hanya Holm, and Koresh.  Ms. Quigley received her B.A. in Theatre Arts from Montclair State University.  While at MSU, Ms. Quigley wrote/directed an original performance art piece entitled Female Trouble, which gained departmental attention and led to a scholar award for academic excellence and service to the theatre department.  Female Trouble was featured at The Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia as part of the Philly Fringe Festival 2011 and received critical acclaim. She was invited to present an excerpt of the work at the Million Women March in Washington, D.C. in 2014, where the only other invited artist was 9-time Grammy award winner Sheryl Crow. Ms. Quigley has served as choreographer for seven productions at Lincoln University. She has directed and/or choreographed over 60 productions at the student, collegiate, and professional level. Cathy’s passion is passing along her knowledge and love of the arts to others, and most especially to children.  Over the last two decades she has taught dance and musical theatre in private studios, preschools, schools, universities, gyms, libraries, camps, and outreach programs to students age 18 months to 85 years old. Her teaching has crossed the globe from Kennett to Kenya, where she had the great privilege of teaching tap to the enthusiastic children of Sanjweru Primary School. She has served as the director of Carousel Performing Arts Center for 17 years,where she created the Triple Threat programming for the serious musical theater student. Some of Ms. Quigley’s past students have continued in the arts---performing in the Broadway International Touring Company of Cinderella, the Broadway Regional Touring Company for Billy Elliot, and for Disney Cruise Lines. But whether or not they go on to choose the arts as a career, Cathy truly believes that all children can benefit from dance, music, and theatre training stating, “I teach self-confidence, which will take them far in life, whatever their path may be.”