Bio

Nina Ricciardi began her training at the Central Wisconsin School of Ballet (CWSB) before age three and studied intensely under Waltraud Karkar. At CWSB, Nina was featured in many roles including: The Nutcracker’s Clara, Waltz of the Flower’s Dew Drop, Snow Queen, Marzipan, and Spanish, Beatrix Potter’s Two Bad Mice and Carnival of the Animal’s Dying Swan narrated by Henry Winkler!! In 1994, Nina was awarded a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City and there studied with Dorothy Lister among others. Upon graduating high school in 1996, she attended the top ranked dance program at the University of Utah with an emphasis in ballet instruction. She later received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point. Nina has had the privilege of studying with legends of dance throughout her career including: Wayne Stuart, Gabriela Komleva, Shamil Yagudin, Irina Kolpakova, Vladilen Semonov, Barbara Remington, Luigi, Leslie Woodies, Patti Columbo, Jeanne Bresciani, Dorothy Lister, Yves de Bouteiller, Catherine Kingsley, Marius Andahazy, Barbara Hamlin, Conrad Ludlow, Bene Arnold, Charthel Arthur, James Moore, and Debra Pearse Rogo. Nina completed the Progressing Ballet Technique training with Marie Walton-Manon in West Palm Beach, Florida on April 17, 2017 becoming Wisconsin’s first registered certified instructor. Nina believes greatly in the benefits of training students to understand the importance of muscle memory and muscle activation for proper alignment and the proper execution of ballet technique. Nina also completed the Level 1-Dance Teacher and Health Professional Training (LaCrosse, Wisconsin) with Lisa Howell of Perfect Form Physiotherapy and The Ballet Blog (Sydney, Australia) on July 19, 2017. The focus of the course was to help fine tune observation skills, assessment of technical faults and anatomical restrictions, allowing the instructor to work with dancers at a much higher and safe level.