Erika teaches ballet to ages 6 & up, jazz, tap, modern/contemporary, Broadway repertory and gymnastics/acrobatics to older students. She has also taught ballroom to adults and offers private dance coaching (technique and/or audition preparation) to middle school and high school students.
Erika’s ballet background is a unique mix of Vaganova/Russian ballet and Balanchine technique. She started taking ballet at the age of 3, but her serious studies really began with Martha Mahr School of Ballet at the age of 6. Here she learned the terminology and traditions of Russian ballet. When she was 13, she started spending her summers in Manhattan on scholarship at the School of American Ballet, Balanchine’s “feeder school” for the New York City Ballet. She studied with the legendary Stanley Williams and Suki Schorer, author of the book on Balanchine technique; this developed in her a barre ritual relying heavily on tendus and focusing on the strength and agility of the feet. She continues to teach according to this tradition today.
Her jazz classes adhere to an older standard than typical jazz classes of today: with her strong ballet background, her jazz classes are a bit of a mixture between lyrical dance and classical Broadway traditions (Fosse, Michael Bennett, swing dance). This is not typical in today’s trends toward hip-hop, but it has proven to stand as a style of its own. She has also taught Fosse repertory, Michael Bennett choreography and choreography from the musical Wicked in both her jazz and her Broadway repertory classes.
Since she has coached preschool gymnastics, tumbling and women’s gymnastics to all ages, her offering acrobatics classes to dancers became a natural transition. She will help dancers find strength and stability in inverted positions, confidence in flipping and power in their jumps. She has taught this sort of class to students from 2nd to 8th grade at Conchita Espinosa Academy and high school students at The Academy of Arts and Minds in Coconut Grove, FL.
She prefers to appear as a guest teacher since she’s usually working on a production of her own most of the time: in this capacity she has worked with Ferguson High School, The Academy of Arts and Minds, Conchita Espinosa Academy and several private dance conservatories around Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. She also offers private lessons. Contact powerfulhuntress@gmail.com for more information.
Erika Diane 