Faculty
Meredith Wells
Meredith Wells has been educating youth in the art of ballet since 2003. She has taught at well-renowned ballet schools, recreational programs and public schools as well as coaching gymnasts and adult students. After years of exploring many outlets to share her knowledge, she is overjoyed to have created développé, a unique dance education program to foster the technique, desire and life skills that aspiring young dancers need to make their way in the world of dance.
Meredith’s ballet path started in Minneapolis where she studied at Ballet Arts Minnesota. Opting to pursue a college education post high school, she went on to Hampshire College where she focused her studies on child psychology and movement therapy. During her second year of college, she found herself dreaming of nothing but dancing professionally, so she took leave from her education and pursued a career on the stage. She moved to Atlanta, GA where she danced with Atlanta Festival Ballet for the ‘02-’03 season. In 2003 Meredith moved to Newport, RI to join Island Moving Company (IMC) where she was a company member until her retirement in 2013. It was there that she began her professional teaching career; working with the students of Newport Academy of Ballet, Rosemary’s School of Dance and teaching in the local public schools through the outreach program that IMC provided. When not teaching or on contract, she worked as a guest artist for Spindle City Ballet and Tony Williams’ Urban Nutcracker. In ‘13, Meredith retired from a full-time performance career, married her husband Jon and moved to Natick, MA. Since moving to MA, she has taught for NorthEast Rhythmic Gymnastics, Suzanne’s Dance Connection, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Koltun Ballet Boston, Revolution Trapeze and has taught open classes at The Dance Complex and Green Street Studios. She loves nothing more than helping dancers to find the potential that is within themselves and is beyond excited to have created a space where she can do that for her dancers every day.
Kristin Wagner
Kristin Wagner is a mover based in the Greater Boston and Worcester areas. Since 2012, Kristin has been performing with a number of local contemporary dance theater companies and freelance choreographers, most notably: KAIROS Dance Theater, Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion, and Chavi Bansal/Vimoksha Dance. As “Decent Dance”, Kristin - with partner Tony Guglietti - creates accessible contemporary performance works that dabble in comedy, dramedy, and all things silly, sweet and true. Kristin also creates work independently under the umbrella “Bodies Moving” and as part of “The Click,” a contemporary dance exchange comprised of Boston-based dance artists. Over the past decade, Kristin has had the honor of performing on stages at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Boston Center for the Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Jordan Hall, The Dance Complex, and Green Street Studios, among others. Her choreographic work has been presented across the Northeast, including at the Salem Arts Festival, The Dance Complex, Tufts University, AS220, the Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery, and the Maine International Film Festival, among others.
For three years, Kristin served as the Creative Director of the self-founded and now disbanded Lady BOS Productions, through which she supported the development and sustainability of local, independent dance and performance art through fundraising consultation, production planning and performance opportunities. She has also implemented educational programming and structural administrative systems for a number of established and influential community dance institutions, most notably The Dance Complex. In her administrative work, Kristin is motivated by the mission to make the experience of movement more financially, emotionally, intellectually, and physically accessible for students, performers, and audiences alike.
With a passion for supportive, rigorous, and eclectic dance education, Kristin has shared these philosophies and more with students ranging from youth to adult in competitive, pre-professional, and collegiate environments across Massachusetts. She is currently on faculty at développé Studios and Wilmington Dance Academy, and frequently guest teaches at Free Form Dance Academy and the Dance Theater of Greenville (SC). Kristin is a certified artist in the City of Boston, a RYT-200 yoga teacher, holds a B.A. in Hospitality Administration with a minor in dance from Boston University (2012, summa cum laude), and has been supported through residencies and grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts; MASS MoCA; The Dance Complex; The Foundry; the JMAC Worcester; the cities of Boston, Somerville, Brookline, and Worcester; and more.
In all that she does, Kristin is guided by the belief that authentic, uncensored movement can be a pathway for personal growth, authenticity, and healing. Learn more at www.bodiesmoving.com, or visit Kristin on Instagram at @bodies_moving.
Olivia Coombs
Olivia began studying ballet under Jessica Wilson throughout her childhood. After high school, she studied for two years at the Alonzo King Lines Ballet training program where is she not only developed her technique, but began to push the limits on classical ballet and began to recognize her passion for contemporary dance. In 2013 Olivia apprenticed with Dawson Wallace Dance Project in Denver for one season. The following year she performed work by Ismael Ivo as part of a special research project at ImpulsTanz in Vienna, Austria and Sao Paulo, Brazi. In 2018 she became a founding company member of Boston Dance Theater, founded, and under the direction of Jessie Jeanne Stinnett. Coombs since has performed works by Jessie Jeanne Stinnett, Yin Yue, Sidra Bell, Shannon Gillen, Micaela Taylor, Rena Butler, Marco Goecke and co-artistic director Itzik Galili.
Olivia has been teaching throughout Boston Dance Theaters’ educational programs, and last year taught at Concord Academy. Olivia is so thrilled to be starting with Développé to continue to translate her knowledge to the next generation!
Alexandria Nunweiler
Alexandria Nunweiler is a contemporary choreographer, performer, and educator based in Boston, MA. Her movement, described by Dance Informa as “grace with power,” is rooted in history, human experience, and the fine line between darkness and humor. Alexandria earned her B.A. in Dance from Winthrop University where her thesis “Valhallveien” represented the university at the American College Dance Festival Southeast in 2014. She also holds her MSc in International Business from Hult International Business School, studying in both Boston, MA and Shanghai, China, as well as her 200-hour RYT which she brings into both yoga and dance spaces as a framework for how she organizes and translates movement practices.
As a choreographer and producer, Alexandria’s work has been featured up and down the east coast in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, BOOM Fringe Festival, Dance Complex’s A Drop in the Bucket, NACHMO Boston, and the Charlotte New Music Festival Dance Co-Lab, among others. She also co-produces the annual series ‘CURE8’ alongside collaborator Ashlea Sovetts, which premiered in 2022 in Cambridge, MA and has since extended into Charleston, SC. Alexandria’s work has been funded through New England Foundation for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the South Carolina Arts Commission and Alternate ROOTS.
In performance, Alexandria works within The Click, performing in works devised by Kristin Wagner (make light: or how I survived it all), Lonnie Stanton (Emotive Land), and Angelina Benitez (My Guide to Feeling It All). Her past performance work has been with Brian Feigenbaum, Tony Guglietti, THE MARK dance company, Martha Connerton/Kinetic Works, and staibdance. As an educator, Alexandria holds space for intuitive learning and dives deeply into improvisation as a mode of movement understanding.
Boris Richir
Boris Richir, originally from Antwerp, Belgium, received his dance education at the Paris Opera Ballet School.
He started his professional career in 2009 when he joined the Semperoper Ballet in Dresden, Germany, followed by the Boston Ballet, USA in 2014. In 2017 he became a freelance guest artist for various companies.
Boris Richir has performed soloist, and lead roles in a wide repertoire ranging from The Nutcracker to contemporary pieces such as the ballets of W. Forsythe. He has performed around the world on stages such as the Palais Garnier in Paris, The Bunka Kaikan Theatre in Tokyo, the Boston Opera House, The Saxon State Opera House in Dresden, and the Emirates Palace in Abu-Dhabi.
Boris Richir appears in the 2012 filming of The Nutcracker of the Semperoper Ballet Dresden by ARTE as well as the 2014 New Years broadcast on German national TV, ZDF.
In 2012 he became assistant director of ART of Ballet Courses and masterclasses where he is responsible for the organization of high level dance summer courses across Europe.
He is a sought after guest teacher and ballet master and is part of the faculty at the Brookline Ballet School and the Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre where he teaches the upper levels.
In 2017 he founded United Dance, a company providing dance education to specialized populations in Europe and North America.