about our community

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Jess Grippo (she/her) is the founder of Dance Again, amongst other things - a creative coach, an author, a dancer, an amateur poet, and a dog mom. 

In her personal creative work, she writes and creates interpretive dances out of real life stuff, from dating woes to eating cheese to period problems. 

After leaving her classical ballet path and not dancing for years, she then started making dance videos alone in her room, which essentially brought her back to life. 

Since then she’s gradually developed a creative business and dance company, and has been featured at TEDxNYU, Lincoln Center's Dance On Camera Festival, the NY Comedy Club, and more, as well as dancing on the streets with strangers, which she documents on social media. When she’s not dancing, she’s writing, teaching, coaching, facilitating her dance and coaching programs, or napping with her puppy Lucy.

Read more about our founder, Jess Grippo 

Cate Prefontaine Hausmann (she/her) is an original Dance Again member and choreographer. Over the past few years, Cate has reconnected with her creativity in partnership with Jess through writing painting, dancing, and now, choreography. When Cate is not dancing, she serves as the principle of an all girls charter school in Manhattan. She has previously worked as a teacher, coach, administrator and consultant in schools around the United States. 

She loves to dance with her husband Kevin and to bring the gift of dance into the lives of family, friends, and even perfect strangers through teaching and taking classes, making dance videos and performing whenever possible. Cate is thrilled to be taking the lead as a facilitator with her dynamic, energetic, inclusive and down to earth approach to dance. 

Michelle Maso (she/her) is an original Dance Again member and choreogarpher. She identifies as a dancer, educator, wife, mother and many other things. She studied Dance at Rutgers University and Special Education at Long Island University. Michelle is a full time Dance Educator with the NYC Department of Education, where she teaches 3K and Pre-K Creative Movement.

In 2015, at the beginning of Jess Grippo’s You Can Dance Again movement, Michelle rediscovered her dancer self and has been dancing and creating ever since. She enjoys sharing her passion for dance and helping her students and her children, Amelia and Oscar, develop body awareness and comfort, while encouraging their creative expression.

Dana Rose DeFrancesco (she/her), leading our Jersey Shore classes, is a Dancer, Yogi, Healer, Body Worker, Builder and Teacher. In 2015 she was coached by Jess to find her spark again, and surprisingly, found a home and dance family in the newly forming You Can Dance Again movement.

She has been dancing since she was born, born breech, she jumped into the world ready to move. A native of Pittsburgh and being from a construction family, she always felt a deep connection to Flashdance.

Dana studied dance/dance education at University of the Arts, received high levels of training as a yoga teacher/therapist, is a liscensed massage therapist/bodyworker and has a masters in Sports Exercise Psychology. She was a professional dancer at many times in her life and loved everything about it! Unfortunately, she has been plagued, from the age of 16, with chronic injuries and has been put back together with the help of amazing bodyworkers. At some point, since her body seemed against her, she gave up her passion for dance and locked it away. 

Jess and the Dance Again community has been an incredible way to reconnect and to feed a missing part of herself, truly to find her soul again. A safe and inviting place to remember that spark of excitement for moving, and to let it grow and glow, making her life whole again.

April Cantor (she/her) leads expressive classes with us at Dance Again.

Through yoga, movement, interactive art experiences she teaches from a multicultural, interdisciplinary perspective. April Cantor has been teaching yoga & meditation for over 20 years and before that was an actor/dancer and theater educator. She is also of mother of 2 teen boys. All these roles influence her teaching - you will find elements of the stage, the mat, the cushion, and mamma-love in her classes.

Like any good mother, she wants you to leave class feeling nurtured, cared for and empowered. She also aims to help elevate the everyday to something magical and sacred through making dance a ritual, a way of “drawing down the divine.”