Kristen Faraclas

    Kristen Faraclas grew up in Connecticut where she began her dance training with New Haven Ballet and the New England Ballet Company. She attended many summer intensives including those at the American Ballet Theatre, University of Utah, Ballet West, Kaatsbaan Extreme Ballet, The Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts, and Eastern Connecticut Ballet. Ms. Faraclas served as a Resident Assistant for two consecutive summers at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and as an Arts Administrator intern for the Orlando Ballet School.

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    She earned her BFA in Dance with minors in Dance Pedagogy and Psychology at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania. At Mercyhurst she served as the Dance Club President, Outreach Representative, member of the department's Leadership Team, Inductee of the National Honors Society of Dance Arts and the Psychology National Honors Society, dancer with resident company SoMar Dance Works and the Liturgical Dance Ensemble. She was also a campus ambassador, served as a mentor for the ambassador pledge process, and has served as a peer mentor for the Autism Initiative at Mercyhurst.

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     Her dance career has led her to compete in competitions around the nation as well as experience international travel. Ms. Faraclas performed in a Liturgical Dance concert in Norwich, England, a small performance in Dungarvan, Ireland, the American College Dance Association in Westchester, PA, Project Dance in Pittsburgh, PA, and in the Jacob's Pillow Summer Dance Festival. Her performance experience has mainly consisted of classical and contemporary ballets, including leading roles in ballets such as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Firebird. She has also choreographed original works to be performed.

    Ms. Faraclas has extensive experience teaching children and young adults with mental and physical disabilities ballet. She continues this work throughh both founding and teaching the adaptive dance program at the Ballet Theatre of Maryland. Her teaching experience also includes having taught to underprivileged youth at Woodrow Wilson Middle School. Ms. Faraclas graduated from NYU Steinhardt where she earned her MA, Teaching Dance in the Professions: ABT Pedagogy. Kristen Faraclas is an ABT® Certified Teacher, who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 7 & Partnering. During her graduate studies so far she attended the 2020 Virtual National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) on scholarship from NYU SDEA (Student Dance Education Organization). During this time Ms. Faraclas worked as the Dance Costume Loan Advisor for the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and completed a summer internship with Ballet Hartford. She began her professional dancing career as a trainee with The Ballet Theatre of Maryland and now company artist with Ballet Embody. She has taught at several schools in Maryland including Johns Hopkins Peabpdy Preparatory, the Ballet Theatre of Maryland, Davy Dance Academy, Star Makers Academy of Dance and online through Outschool.com. Additionally, she is going into her second year teaching dance in Anne Arundel County Public Schools. As of November 2020, she is also the co-founder of Abun(dance) podcast which can be listened to via Spotify, Anchor, Apple Podcasts and more. She hopes to further her education and give back to the community through dance.

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kfaraclas.wixsite

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