About the Star

Born and raised in the Philadelphia, PA area, Alison moved to New Hampshire 9 years ago. She also has lived in Idaho, Ohio, and Texas. Alison loves reading and writing and is passionate about the value of literacy in everyone’s life. She has taught College Writing at UMass Lowell for the last several years and also teaches at other area colleges. Most mornings she is sweating through workouts at a local gym, most days she is in college classrooms, and in the evenings she is a devoted wife and mother to two daughters, a son, and a sixty pound golden-doodle named Harvey. While she currently enjoys physical activities such as weight lifting, she used to run occasional 5K’s and play wallyball in PA, and she even worked as an aerobics instructor years ago. However, she found the most pleasure in ballet. In her twenties, she was actively involved with a ballet school of all adults. They performed locally and she performed and made the costumes for the company. Once, along with some of her friends, she took a company class at the Harlem Dance Theater in NYC that was mesmerizing because her ballet teacher knew the ballet master there. She also walked Baryshnikov by the arm to his limousine one night after his stunning and sensual performance of “Giselle” with the exquisite Natalya Makarova in Philadelphia. She also loves Springsteen, “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars”, listening to many types of music, watching movies in the theater, and her sweet and gentle husband, Stephen.

About her Partner

Mark Sherman is a graduate student in Computer Science, and is the president of the UMass Lowell Ballroom Dance Club. He received his BS in Computer Engineering from UML in 2008. Inspired by his peers at other schools, he joined the Ballroom Club here in 2004. Mark spends his days working with the Engaging Computing Group developing curricula and tools for engineering education. He also works heavily with Moonstruck Theater Company in his hometown of Worcester. Mark competes in rhythm dances at the Silver level, and is especially fond of smooth dances, which he competes at in Gold.

Beginning Interview

This interview was taken during week 7 of 10 of Alison's preparation.