Director of the Tiny Tot Fitness Program
As Director of Gymtime's innovative Tiny Tot Fitness program, Melissa brings a broad background of skills that makes her uniquely qualified to teach fitness, movement and early development to our youngest group of children. A professional dancer by trade, Melissa offers a depth of experience in both movement instruction and childhood development.
Melissa holds a Master’s in Dance Education from NYU, with a focus on Special Education, as well as a B.A. in Dance and a B.F.A. in Theatre from Hofstra University. She has also studied at Dansakademie Brabant in Holland. She has a wide range of experience teaching dance and movement to children, including with New York City Ballet and Young Audiences, programs that place artists in public school classrooms. She also volunteers at Mt. Sinai Hospital, offering play therapy to patients in the pediatric intensive care unit.
Melissa is certified in sign language instruction by the Sign2Me Instructors Network and developed a series of CDs and DVDs that teaches ASL vocabulary to preverbal babies as a means to increase bonding and communication between adults and infants.
All of these skills are evident in Melissa’s curriculum as director of the Tiny Tot Fitness program, where she works with children as young as seven months old, helping them develop formative motor and movement skills and teaching sign language and other early communication skills.
“Even at this early age, every child has a remarkably different set of needs when it comes to movement and motor skills. Because I’ve studied movement and development for many years, I have developed a sensibility that allows me to notice things that other people may not see, which can be helpful in understanding and stimulating a child’s development.”
— Melissa van Wijk
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Michael/Bonni Branciforte
Founders -
Melissa van Wijk
Director of the Tiny Tot Fitness Program -
Maxine Stadnik
Director of Art and PEP -
Andrew Parra
Director of Tae Kwon Do Program -
Lindsay Branciforte
Program Coordinator and Public Relations -
Carla Jolis
Director of Cooking Programs -
Chris Vollaro
Director of Gymnastics and Sports Program -
Haley Blair
Gymnastics Team Director -
Front Desk's Staff
Jessica Flores, Rehaab Zohny and Alexis Sweeting -
Victoria McLaughlin
Director of E.L.F. Preschool and PREP -
Frank Torres
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