Education Programs

Education and Outreach Staff

Rachel Watts, Director of Education and Outreach

Ms. Watts grew up in on the island of Trinidad and has long been dedicated to the arts. Her love of dance started at an early age and has continued throughout her career. In Trinidad, she studied dance under the direction of Noble Douglas, founder of the Noble Douglas Dance Company. In 1992 she moved to Massachusetts for college and continued studying Modern and West African dance at Williams College. Under the mentorship of Sandra Burton at Williams, she was a member of the Williams College Dance Company and the Kusika African Dance Company. Most recently, she was Director of The MYC Youth Center in San Rafael, California. At the youth center, she led the effort to create a state of the art facility and organization that develops leadership skills in young people through focusing on the arts and technology. Prior to her position in California, she worked in arts education positions at ArtsConnection Inc. in Manhattan and The Studio Museum in Harlem. She earned her M.A. from the NYU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and her B.A. from Williams College. Rachel began working for Ballet Hispanico officially in August, 2009.

Remi Harris, Site Coordinator

Remi Harris, from Brooklyn, NY, began her love for performing as an ensemble cast member in her high school production of “Into the Woods”. She then ventured into the world of dance studying ballet, jazz, and modern with Roberta Raymond and Patricia Dye as well as attending the Covenant Dance Studio studying under Marla Hirokawa. She received her B.A. in Dance from Hofstra University, where she studied classical and contemporary styles. She has been performing with dance companies, musicians and video artists around the country for years and is now a choreographer, teacher and performance artist based in New York City. She has incorporated her love of dance and education teaching all ages in after school programs, high schools, summer camps, private studios, and most notably Camp Thorpe, a Goshen, Vermont organization dedicated to enriching the lives of people with special needs. She is presently co-artistic director of a New York based contemporary dance company, HalloHalloInc. and continues to teach as well as traveling the country as a guest artist. Ms. Harris recently performed as a featured dancer for the upcoming independent short film “Funf and Twist” and as a guest artist with The Movement Collective and Lorena Egan Dance.

Teaching Artists

Alda Reuter grew up in a family of artists who celebrate the culture and traditions of Latin America. Her grandfather, Walter Reuter is an internationally recognized photographer. Her father Dr. Jas Reuter was a pioneer in the field of ethnomusicology having published numerous books. Being exposed to different cultures at an early age, she developed a lasting interest in the performing arts. Her professional career has included the styles of Jazz, Afro-Cuban, Flamenco and Mexican Folkloric Dance. Also trained in music, Alda is an accomplished percussionist and has appeared with major Artists in Mexico, Central America and the U.S. She is always exploring the close relationship between music and dance. Upon her arrival to New York she became part of the renowned female Afro-Caribbean dance and percussion ensemble ĄRetumba! She has been continuously working as a dance educator for the last 10 years with different Arts Organizations in New York and New Jersey. Alda is the artistic director and cofounder of Mexico beyond Mariachi and also founder of “Rhythm of the Arts”, an organization that brings an appreciation of folklore, culture and traditions through music and dance to thousands of young students and audiences of all ages.

JoDe Romano is a recent addition to Primeros Pasos. She has over twenty years of experience living, studying, and performing Spanish dance in Spain and Japan. Her extensive teaching experience encompasses a wide variety of Spanish dance techniques for students and adults. She currently teaches Spanish dance classes at The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center and Studio Maestro in New York. In the past, she has taught at other dance schools throughout the metropolitan area including The Alvin Ailey Studio and the Ballet Hispanico School of Dance. Her performing experience includes Spanish dance in Carmen at both the Houston Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Her choreographic experience includes: a number of works for José Greco Dance Company; the Broadway Workshop production of Rita Hayworth- Hollywood Goddess; many zarzuelas, which are traditional Spanish operas; and the mixed media dramatic presentation, Picasso's Guernica, at The Thalia Theater in New York. She has also completed a series of instructional videos on castanet and flamenco movement techniques. She is a graduate and former instructor of the High School for the Performing Arts, Houston, Texas.

Caron Eule is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She received her BFA in dance from SUNY Purchase. As the Director of C. Eule Dance, she has presented modern dance and contemporary ballet at venues all over New York and California. She has also choreographed for theater, film, and opera. Caron has taught dance at Ballet Hispanico School of Dance, the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute, Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech, and Chelsea Day School in New York City, and Peak Performance and the Tenafly JCC in New Jersey. She also teaches ballroom dance in the public schools for American Ballroom Theater.

Blanca Cubillos-Roman is a native of Bogotá, Colombia. Blanca has a BFA from Ohio State University where she graduated with honors, Summa Cum Laude. She danced professionally with the folkloric dance companies Ballet de Colombia and Ballet de las Americas. She was a scholarship student at both the School of Cleveland Ballet and the Cunningham Studios. Blanca has performed the works of Isadora Duncan, Charles Weidman, and Anna Sokolow. In New York City she dances with Erica Dankmeyer and Dancers, Young Soon Kim Dance Company, Anita Cheng Dance, and Filos Tanz. She recently became a certified Gyrotonic® Instructor. Blanca has been with Ballet Hispanico’s Primeros Pasos arts education program since January 2005.

Jackie Kalata has been performing and teaching Flamenco in the United States and Europe for more than 20 years. She performed as a soloist in the Maria Benitez Dance Company under the direction of Mario Maya, and then went on to form her own company touring Europe for 16 years. Juana has had the opportunity to work closely with acclaimed Flamenco artists such as; Antonio Canales, Javier Baron, El Junco, Alfredo Lagos, to name a few. She sat on the panel of judges ,3 years in a row ,for annual Flamenco Dance competitions organized by “La Pena Flamenca”de Milan. In 1999 Juana was professor of Flamenco in a Professional Arts Program for the European Community( a European equivalent to “The High School of Performing Arts”. She has been a resident Spanish Dance Professor in various universities across the United States. Juana enjoys sharing her experience by teaching Flamenco and Spanish Dance, from introductory courses to Master workshops for professionals.