Terri Higgins, Ballet Teacher & Choreographer
Terri began her dancing at the age of five. During her early training she passed her Royal Academy of Dancing (R.A.D.) examinations with "Highly Commended". She has studied with artists such as David Allen, Glenda Carhart, Yvonne Cusack, Dudley Davies, Alexander Goudinov, Stanley Holden, Irena Kosmovska, Yvonne Mounsey and Rebecca Wright. Terri trained on full scholarships at the School of American Ballet in New York, Pacific Northwest Ballet School in Washington, the San Francisco Ballet School and the National Ballet School of Canada. She danced under the direction of David Allen as a principal dancer with the California's Riverside Ballet for several years as well as a principal dancer with the Redlands Festival Ballet. Some of her performances include "Symphony in C", "Paquita", Princess Arora from "The Sleeping Beauty", Juliet in Eric Hyrst's "Labyrinthe (Romeo & Juliet)", Charles Maple's "Don Quixote" and "La Fille Mal Garde" Carlota Grisi in "Pas de Quatre", the Snow Queen and the Spanish dancer in "The Nutcracker", the Peasant Pas de Duex from "Giselle", David Allen's "ECT", Baby Swan in "Swan Lake", featuring Darci Kistler and Igor Zelensky, and Mother/Sweetheart in Eugene Loring's "Billy the Kid" for Dance Kaleidoscope in Los Angeles. Dance Magazine reviewed Ms. Russell-Higgins and her partners' performance in "Billy the Kid" as "a young beautiful couple with strong training gives a technically clean performance" and an artical in the Press Enterprise described her dancing in "The Nutcracker" as "lively and musical and Russell was her usual mixture of poise, grace and a little infectious whimsy". In another review in the Press Enterprise stated "exquisite point work, outstanding performance". Terri has appeared in Lionel Richie's music video "Ballerina Girl" and a music video for "The Wedding Present" of Great Britain. She has also modeled for an infomercial and various advertisements.
Terri has been teaching ballet and coaching professional bound dancers since 1992. Many of her students have joined prestigious ballet schools throughout the nation. She has coached students whom have had success at the Youth American Grand Prix competition, the Prix de Lausanne competition in Switzerland, as well as making finalists for the Music Center Spotlight Awards held in Los Angeles. Terri has taught ballet classes for Dance Masters of America and in 2001 was invited to TJE in New York as a guest teacher.
Terri Russell-Higgins joined the JPD family in 1999 and has proudly made JPD her home for teaching ballet on a full-time basis.
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