An interview with Kelly Maccioli: Magic in Movement.
Biography
I’m a runner by morning, dance teacher by evening, and 24/7 I’m a mom of three.
Running is my hobby. It keeps me active and sane, and it’s my quiet start to the day. I run both for physical and mental health benefits. Movement and exercise is a huge part of my life, and I truly believe that movement and exercise will fix just about anything. I also belong to the local running club so sometimes it’s my social hour as well. I have completed nine marathons, and two Run-The-Year challenges (2019 miles in 2019, and 2025 miles in 2025) all as a Team Fox athlete fundraising alongside my training.
In addition to running, I have been a dancer my entire life. I grew up taking Jazz, Tap and Lyrical classes at a local studio and I continued dancing all the way through college at Colby-Sawyer (CSC) in NH. At CSC I took dance classes and both danced and choreographed for the Colby-Sawyer Dance Club.
As a college student I worked my way up the ranks of the Dance Club, eventually becoming a junior officer in my Junior year and Club President in my Senior year, where I produced two shows a year and managed over 100 dancers. Upon graduation in 2003 I moved to a new city and was looking for a studio to take classes at. I ended up not only finding classes, but also with a job teaching a few hours of classes on Saturday mornings! I taught there for seven years before moving back to my hometown with my husband to raise our children.
After taking a few years off while my children were very young, I went back into the studio teaching Ballet, Jazz & Tap. I spent my days teaching at a new small local studio in my hometown and after a few years I was running the Elementary Education program, designing all curriculum, workshops and summer camps for children pre-school to age 12. It was here that I decided that I wanted to make teaching dance my life’s work and went all in. I earned my certifications in Tap, Jazz & Ballet from Dance Masters of America in 2020 and in 2022 I accepted a job at Spirit In Motion Dance Academy teaching Ballet, and running, and growing, the Tap program. Here I earned my Point Safe Certification in October of 2023 and am creating and teaching the Pre-pointe and Conditioning programs as well.
Can you tell me more about your Advocacy?
I do a lot of fundraising through running. As a Team Fox athlete I’ve run nine marathons, completed two Run-The-Year challenges, as well as a few Inflatable 5ks, and Color Runs. In addition, my family and I created and ran “Putt-Putt for Parkinson’s” in the few years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. I just completed my 2nd Run-The-Year challenge and raised over $11,000 here in 2025.
In addition to fundraising, I also teach a “Tapping for Parkinson’s” Class at my home away from home – Spirit in Motion Dance Academy. It runs for one hour, one day a week and is free for people living with Parkinson’s, their caregivers, family and friends.
What is your passion and how did you get involved in Parkinson’s awareness and hope for a cure?
My passion is very clearly movement. I really believe that movement and exercise will make anyone’s life better. Running is my time in the mornings to decompress and get ready for the day and dancing is my life’s work. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about dance, whether it be hearing a song on the radio that I think would make a great dance piece, or thinking about how to be the best teacher I can be for my students. I spend a lot of time teaching, but I still take classes myself at least once a week, more often twice a week. And I am always planning my next run.
My mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s almost 15 years ago now, and it wasn’t long after that I started running again and I thought, I could do some good with this. I joined Team Fox in 2015 and my very first event was the Inflatable 5k, a race my sisters and ran together as Team Fox members.
In 2023, shortly after starting at Spirit in Motion, my parents asked me to come speak to their Parkinson’s Support Group at the Senior Center about the benefits of dance. I spent an hour talking to them and showing them some simple beginners tap steps and within a week I had multiple requests to start a class! They loved it!
What type of goals does individuals with Parkinson’s have when working with you?
Building strength, gaining back some mobility, fall prevention and hopefully some fun! I spend a lot of time reinforcing movement on their weaker sides, repeating exercises twice on the side that gives them the most trouble. Tap also asks a lot of your feet, breaking down steps and sounds to not just stepping on your foot, but separating out the parts of your foot, toes, ball, and heels which translates to greater strength and control when walking.
What type of training and how long are the programs?
The Tapping for Parkinson’s Class is one hour once a week. Additionally, my father and I send out videos periodically so participants can practice at home as much as they like.
What effect can your Advocacy have on an individual with Parkinson’s?
Hopefully when they join my class, they find a vibrant community that brings a little fun and music and movement into their life, with the added benefit of strength, memory, and balance work.
As far as my fundraising goes, during my time as part of the Team Fox family, I’ve seen research go from theory into practice, and that’s amazing. Anything I can do to help fund the research into this disease and ultimately a cure is well worth it.
What would you like to see as a future goal for your Advocacy?
Everyone is welcome to join our “Tapping for Parkinson’s” Class, I’d love to grow the program and help as many people as I can. As I work with my students I’m learning just as much from them about the disease as they are learning from me about Tap. I’m really interested to see how the program develops – and what kind of results I can get them to.
What events do you participate in?
For fundraising it’s almost always a marathon, mostly smaller ones, but running the Chicago Marathon with Team Fox in 2018 was one of the best experiences of my life. I have completed nine marathons as a Team Fox athlete, and I have also now completed two Run-The-Year Challenges – once in 2019 and again in 2025. In 2025 I raised more than $11,000 for running 2025 miles over the year.
How does this also assist the caregivers?
Research will help everyone, caregivers and patients alike.
In my Tap Class, caregivers are welcome to join the class as students themselves. They can learn a new skill and have a little fun with their loved ones. Or they can opt to stay home or drop their loved one off giving them an hour or so to relax without too much worry.
How can someone get in touch? What is your website?
Please visit the studio website at https://www.spiritinmotiondanceacademy.com/ they can send an inquiry through the form at the bottom of the home page, or they can email the studio at spiritinmotiondanceacademy@gmail.com. Give us a follow on instagram @simda1 as well!
How can others also become advocates for awareness?
Tell your story! So many supporters have told me that they are repeat donors because I have a personal connection to this cause. I didn’t just choose a charity for a race bib, it’s obviously something I’m passionate about and they want to support me and my family.
If you could add any questions to this interview that you may want others to learn about, what would the question(s) be?
Why Tap vs. other styles of dance?
The basics of tap are focused very much on the lower half of the body: feet, ankles, calf muscles, and knees, plus it asks you to separate different sections of the foot – toes, ball of the foot, and the heel. All of these are huge factors in balance and any kind of movement done while standing, helping not only balance but also prevention.
Tap works fine motor skills in the feet and gives auditory feedback when they get it right. If you don’t complete a step correctly it sounds different, so you learn both by, feel and by sound. Plus muscle has memory, as music does, put them together with regular rhythms and it makes it easier for your brain to connect with the movement and remember the steps.
In your opinion what is the key to effective advocacy?
How can we better fundraise to support a cure for Parkinson’s?
Telling your story and being involved yourself. I’ve learned a ton about how the disease progresses and affects others through teaching the tap class, and that in turn helps me promote the fundraising I do through Team Fox. People want to donate because I can talk about the advances in research and what that money is funding, and I can see the changes following my own mothers, and now my students, journeys.
What other activities do you undertake to help improve and support your daily living Eg exercise and alternative remedies?
I do not have Parkinson’s, but I run a lot, I also strength train a few days a week as well as take Ballet and Tap classes to keep my own skills up. My mother, who is living with the disease walks almost daily with my dad, attends Rock Steady Boxing twice a week, and attends my Tapping for Parkinson’s Class once a week. My parents together also run the Parkinson’s Support Group at our local Senior Center.
Why should people who don’t have Parkinson’s care about this?
You never know what you might find in any kind of medical research. They may discover something that also helps with living with or fighting another neurological disease. We were also very surprised to hear my mother’s diagnosis 20 years ago; it wasn’t something we had ever considered so you never know who around you it might affect someday.
Have you had any family members or relatives affected by Parkinson’s disease?
My mother has been living with the disease for 20 years now.
If you had one song that would tell us more about you or represent your life, which song would it be?
Work This Body by Walk the Moon Or I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by the Proclaimers. All these marathons and running challenges and my dance teaching career all started with one single step, and the need to move.
If you had one final statement or quote you could leave for the Parkinson’s community, what would it be?
The last few years I’ve found my mantra is “Keep going” I made a beaded bracelet before I ran the Cape Cod Marathon in 2023 with that on it, and had an amazing race. Now I wear it almost daily. There have been quite a few times in my recent life where self-doubt crept in and I just told myself “keep going”.
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TogetherForSharon® In memory of my mother, Sharon to voice awareness & hope for a Parkinson’s Disease cure. Sharon’s Son, George