Jennifer Czerniak has been dancing for over 30 years. Growing up, she studied and competed under the direction of Patty Neal (Dance Spectrum) and Paul Garshnick (Off Broadway Performing Arts Center). At Buffalo State College, she minored in dance, where she met Kelly and Yvonne! Together they danced in Janet Reed and Dancers Dance Company, under the direction of Janet Reed. She taught at Dance Spectrum and Sherry Martin Dance before moving to NYC in 2003 to pursue other interests. In 2006, she returned to Buffalo to share her love and passion for dance. In 2008, she married her husband Jayson and they now have three beautiful children; Stella, Vivienne and Jayston.

Kayla Washburn, originally from Amherst, danced and trained at Sherry Martin Dance since the age of 3. Kayla attended both Niagara County Community College & SUNY Cortland where she performed and choreographed for The Tanzen Dance Company & The Mone Dance Project. During her collegiate dance career, Kayla trained in a variety of styles such as Hip Hop, Modern, Contemporary and African Dance. During her participation with the Tanzen Dance Company, Kayla trained and performed with The Garth Fagan Dance Company, who is the founder and artistic director of The Lion King on Broadway. Since 2011, Kayla has had her own choreographed pieces performed at a variety of Art festivals during her Summers here in Buffalo such as Music is Art festival, The Peach festival, Taste of Buffalo, The Erie County Fair and the Niagara County Fair. Kayla is also currently working full time in Retail banking for Northwest Savings Bank. Kayla began teaching Hip Hop at the age of 15 at Sherry Martin Dance and is thrilled to be back on staff with her SMD family again!

Lindsay Ackerman began her dance training at the age of 4 and joined Sherry Martin in 2012. She studied Ballet, Pointe, Jazz, Lyrical, Hiphop, Modern, and Tap. Throughout high school, Lindsay found a love for musicals and became Dance Captain for many productions. She currently attends Canisius College for a Bachelors in Economics. Lindsay began assisting at Sherry Martin in 2018 and is excited to join our teaching staff this year.

Lisa DeMartinis has been a member of the SM Dance family since 1993. Growing up as a student, shaped her into becoming an assistant and then eventually a dedicated teacher in 2007. Her background training consists of Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, and Hip Hop. Lisa has taken on a lot of the advanced Hip Hop and Tap groups throughout the years. She enjoys teaching the competitive groups at the studio as well and has helped shape the competition program into what it is today. She has won choreography awards at a variety of competitions and really enjoys watching her choreography come to life on stage. Lisa is also a full time Human Relations Generalist at a law firm as well as a mom of two beautiful children. After taking a year off to bond with her last baby, Lisa is excited to rejoin the SM Dance family again.

Jocelyn Keesee has been dancing and training at Sherry Martin since she was three years old. She is trained in ballet, pointe, contemporary, lyrical, jazz, tap, and hip hop and has been dancing competitively for the studio for many years. At the age of thirteen, Jocelyn began to pass on her knowledge and love of dance onto the next generation of dancers by assistant teaching a variety of dance classes at Sherry Martin, including ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop, and continues to assistant teach classes for children of all ages. She then began teaching a wide variety of levels and styles of dance at Stacy Zawadzki’s Performing Arts Center (ZPAC) and fell in love with choreographing. Jocelyn teaches the intermediate and advanced level ballet, pointe, contemporary, and lyrical classes at ZPAC. Jocelyn still keeps up with her own training at Sherry Martin because she is always working on being the best dancer she can be! She is incredibly excited to teach, inspire, encourage and strengthen the young dancers at the studio she grew up in and loves dearly. Jocelyn has always had and always will have a strong passion and deep love for dance and teaching others and hopes to continue to bring a positive and empowering energy to those around her through dance.

Raylin Brooks began her dance journey at Sherry Martin at the age of 3. Over the course of 15 years, she studied various genres including ballet, tap, jazz and hip hop. Raylin attended Niagara County Community College, where she performed and choreographed for the Tanzen Dance Company. Raylin took her love of dance and used it to pursue her next venture, Fitness. In 2013, she became a licensed Zumba instructor for various demographics, ranging from adolescent to geriatric. She now teaches at local community centers and churches with the goal of making fitness more accessible. In addition to a group fitness instructor, she’s a Client Services Manager in healthcare staffing. Raylin is excited to return to Sherry Martin Dance and is ready for another successful season!

Molly Kinkel has been a proud member of the Sherry Martin Dance family for over 30+ years as a student, teacher, assistant, stage manager, and volunteer at SMD events. After high school she continued her dance training at Ithaca College as a dancer and choreographer in the IC Unbound Dance Company while earning her B.A. in Speech Communications and minor in Theatrical Design. Over nearly two decades Molly has advanced her career in marketing and digital advertising holding positions at The Buffalo News, WGRZ-TV, Gannett Broadcasting, BlueCross BlueShield of WNY and most recently the Head of Marketing at Pause Breathwork where she received her trauma-informed breathwork facilitator certification. Molly will be bringing her breathwork expertise to the technique classes at Sherry Martin Dance focusing on using our breath to improve performance, increase focus, and manage stress both inside the dance studio and in the students' everyday lives. 

Robert Creighton is a recent transplant to the Buffalo area with his Amherst born wife, Whitney, and two kids. Born in Ontario, he has spent the last few decades in NYC and is a veteran of eight Broadway shows. Most recently he originated the role of the Duke of Weselton in Disney’s FROZEN and reprised that role in Disney’s touring production at Shea’s in 2021. He is co-author and starred in the hit off-Broadway musical CAGNEY which ran for over 500 performances and is working toward a Broadway run in the fall of 2024. For that role he won the Fred Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer and was nominated for the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards as best Lead Actor in a Musical.

Marisa Stani born and raised in Buffalo, NY, she has been an entrepreneur since the young age of 21 and is a proud sole proprietor to a small business - fitness studio in WNY, where the primary focus is to create an overall healthy well-being for all clients. Her passion for dance started at a young age of 22 months old, in a "Mommy & Me" class and she has been dancing ever since! Hip Hop is her all time favorite style of dance, but has also trained in many other styles. Marisa is so excited to return back to her dancing "home" at SM Dance, where she has danced for the majority of her career. Marisa strives to bring the "fun" element to every one of her classes. Her goal is to highlight the confident areas of each dancer's repertoire, while challenging her students to learn and grow outside of their comfort zone. She is so happy to be a part of the SMD team and celebrate the passion of dance!

Skyllar Cicero has been dancing at SM Dance since the age of three. She has trained in ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary and hip hop for 15 years while at Sherry Martin and became an assistant in the year 2012. Skyllar continued her passion for dance in college as she earned her bachelor's degree in business administration with a minor in dance. There she studied dance history, latin dance, modern dance, ballet, jazz and much more. Skyllar attended SUNY Geneseo where she got to work under the direction of Nicolette Ferguson - former professional dancer at The Garth Fagan Dance Company. Post graduation, Skyllar is so excited to be rejoining us this dance season as both a teacher and as an assistant. 

Lara Mojeski began teaching dance at age 15 at Spezio’s Dance Dynamics where she received her dance training. When she finished high school she continued to teach competitive dance of all genres while obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Childhood/Special Education at Daemen College. She attended New York University's Dance Education Masters program at NYU Steinhardt.  She returned to Buffalo and became a third grade teacher and has been teaching for 16 years. She welcomed her daughter into the world in 2014 and continued teaching Ballet and Acrobatics under the guidance and grace of Maris Battaglia at the American Academy of Ballet.  She comes to you with over 24 years of dance teaching experience!

Molly Schnirel joined the Sherry Martin Dance family in 1996. As a child, Molly performed in outside productions such as The Nutcracker with the American Academy of Ballet and the Empire City Ballet, and Hansel and Gretel with Pick of the Crop Dance. Molly began teaching at SM Dance as a high school student. During this time, Molly annually attended and performed in the summer and winter Intensive Programs at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City and spent time dancing at the Millennium Dance Complex in Los Angeles. Molly graduated from the University at Buffalo with her B.A in Psychology before moving back to New York City to work in Publishing (while she lived with Miss Kelly!). Since graduating from UB with her MA/AC in School Psychology, she now works in a high school. Molly spends her time with her son, Aaron, her daughter, Sawyer, and her husband Eric. She is so excited to be back on the team of teachers with her Sherry Martin Dance family!

Krista is beyond excited to begin her teaching career at SM Dance after dancing for 14 dedicated years as a student. Krista was a competitive soloist for 5 successful seasons in addition to dancing on the SM Dance Company competition team. She was an SM Dance assistant for 7 years and loves working with dancers of all ages! She has a passion for all kinds of dance, but holds a special place for contemporary, lyrical, jazz, and ballet. She studied as a dance minor at West Virginia University’s College of Creative Arts for one semester, and now attends the University at Buffalo and participates in club dance associations. She is thrilled to start this new chapter and hopes to continue to be a positive role model for all SM dancers!

Marideth Wanat began her dance journey at 7 years old in Central Pennsylvania after realizing gymnastics and the balance beam were not her thing. She quickly shifted her focus to classical ballet spending summers studying with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. After moving to the Midwest her training evolved to include Jazz, Contemporary and Modern dance techniques as a student with Dancenter North, Milwaukee Ballet, Southern Ballet Theatre and Illinois State University. Her dedication eventually led to a professional career that debuted in Chicago when she performed with Giordano Dance Chicago’s main company while a dancer for Giordano II and continued when she became a first company member with Inaside Chicago Dance. She then went on to become a founding company member of the international touring company formerly known as LehrerDance, originally based here in Buffalo, NY. As a part of LehrerDance she had the opportunity to teach, choreograph and perform across the U.S and abroad, including tours through Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Russia. Her work has received the honor of being in Dance Magazine as one of their “Top 25 to Watch”. Since stepping away from the stage, Marideth has taken her experience and technical expertise full circle back to the realm of gymnastics where she’s discovered a new passion for coaching gymnasts, specializing in dance technique and floor routines. She is absolutely thrilled to be returning to Sherry MartinDance, bringing her unique background and love for movement back into the studio.