Blanca Huertas-Agnew
Jan 2024- Aug-2024
Academy Director. Leadership for all the programs for the Academy: Children’s Division, Preparatory Division, Advanced Division, Professional Training Program, Adult Division, and Community Division. Responsible for designing curriculum, implementation, scheduling, faculty leadership, and faculty professional development. Curate artistic program for Spring Production, Summer Intensive Showcase, and Performing Youth Ensemble. Stage classical and neoclassical repertoire for all divisions of the Academy. Led National Audition Tour in 19 cities. Evaluated students in 14 locations of the NSIA audition tour. Our successful collaboration across departments, from production to administrative, finance to marketing, was instrumental in achieving our goals. Created a marketing campaign, Pointe of View, to promote the program’s high standards of dance education via social media. Delivered professional development sessions for the Artistic Director and rehearsal Directors using Successful Language, Creating Community and Pedagogies for the 21st Century. Led and created curricula for Summer Intensive, Youth Summer Intensive, Collegiate Intensive, and Summer Dance Workshop. Revised curricula for the 2024-2025 school year. Developed relationships with Academy families and collaborators. Implemented programs for Nutrition for Dancers. I worked on developing mental health support for our professional development training program.
Program Director, Assistant Teaching Professor Dance Program. Responsible for scheduling, recruiting, retention, and enrollment. Responsible for staffing and supervising the adjunct faculty, accompanist, Guest Faculty, and choreographer. Responsible for curriculum development and artistic development. Administration and assist in communication through the faculty and other departments across the university and outside. Create and maintain the organizational budget. Design and instruct courses.
Create works on student dancers for concerts. Create and support Community-Based Learning opportunities. Involved in school and university through committee service and faculty. Developed Coop opportunities. Led threshold reviews panel.
Courses: Ballet Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, Repertory & History, Guided Study-Composition II, UNIV 101,
Dance Practicum/Ensemble. Summer Program Director- developed a four-week summer Intensive. Designed the first four-week summer intensive for the dance program. Creation of Global Classrooms and Intensive Courses Abroad. Develop opportunities for dance majors to perform in national and international festivals.
Developed and designed a new curriculum for La Academia Program, the school’s pre-professional program. Reviewed for Primary through Level five. Curriculum based on traditional pedagogies to include Russian, Italian, Classical French, CUBallet, and American-style pedagogies. Considerations have been taken to include the importance of biomechanics, children’s developmental stages, I.I.D.E.A, and artistic development. Consultant to support new faculty and mentor in delivering and implementing contemporary pedagogies. Level 1-Level 5, Trainee, and Pre-professional/Professional level.
Faculty, year-round program, and summer intensives. Pa’Lante Trainee Program, Ballet Intermediate, Advance, Pointe, variations, and Young Boys Program. Choreographing end-of-year performances for assigned groups.
Ballet instructor and responsible for writing curricula for all levels assigned: Primary, Foundations, Fundamentals, and Trainee levels. Lead Instructor and implement the curriculum as part of Dance Chance Program, the Pennsylvania Ballet Community Engagement Program. Develop programming for the School District of Philadelphia,1-minute ‘Brain Dance’. Instructor for summer intensives for the preprofessional program and adjudicating during the national tour. Lead instructor for Progressing Ballet Technique. Delivered dance history lectures for levels 2-8 and Pantomime interactive lectures for participants in the summer intensive. Staged classical repertoire for the end of summer intensives. Courses taught: Technique class, Variations, Pointe class, Repertory class, and Progressive Ballet Technique.