Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Reveals April Berry as Director of Education and Community Engagement

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre announced the appointment of April Berry as its new Director of Education and Community Engagement. Berry will begin her role on July 1, 2024. Berry joins PBT from Kansas City Ballet, where she most recently served as their Director of Community Engagement & Education.

"I am excited to join Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and to have the opportunity to work with Adam, Nicholas and the PBT team to propel PBT's education and community engagement to new heights," said April Berry.

"I am delighted to welcome April to the PBT team," said Nicholas Dragga, executive director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. "April's storied career and work have shaped the field.

I can't wait to see the incredible impact April will have on Pittsburgh communities."

PBT's education team currently brings dance and ballet into local schools, classrooms and communities through creative movement residencies, ballet workshops and interactive events. The team also engages with adults in the community through dance classes and pre-performance discussions. These programs provide an up-close look at ballet repertoire, creative process and dance education and training - illuminating the many nuances of movement and encouraging people of all ages to create, express and explore. Some of the ongoing programs in PBT's education department include:

• Children's ballet classes with Hope Academy for Music and the Arts and the Lauri Ann West Community Center

• Creative Movement programs in public schools and in Pre-K classrooms

• Buzzword Pittsburgh - promoting literacy and language development in young children using the language of movement

• Phipps Conservatory annual ballet community performances

• PBT Connects theater programs around PBT company performances that include community discussions with PBT artists, staff and guest choreographers

• PBT's Community Youth Scholarship program

• Dance the Story programs at local community organizations, schools and hospitals

• Student Matinees for schools to attend PBT company performances

"April and I both feel passionately about education being a critical component of every ballet company," said PBT artistic director Adam W. McKinney. "I look forward to working with April to develop PBT's Education and Community Engagement department, and to create an even broader reach into the Pittsburgh communities."

About April Berry

April Berry is a dance director, master teacher, educator and former internationally-acclaimed dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Berry has been actively involved in the field of dance education and community engagement for more than 30 years. She has created award‐winning community programs as Director of Community Engagement and Education for Kansas City Ballet, as Director of Education and Community Outreach for North Carolina Dance Theatre (now Charlotte Ballet) and as Director of Education and Community Programs at BalletMet Columbus.

Ms. Berry has been a dance faculty member at Kansas City Ballet, Charlotte Ballet and BalletMet Columbus, and has served as adjunct faculty in the Department of Dance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her teaching experience includes serving as a guest instructor and lecturer at various universities and dance institutions and as a teaching artist representing several ballet organizations in various school systems around the country.

Berry has presented at various conferences, including the Dance/USA Conference in Philadelphia, National Dance Education (NDEO) Conferences, International Association for Blacks in Dance (IABD) Conferences and the Collegium for African American Dance (CADD) Conference at Duke University. She authored "Building Bridges for Ballet's Future" for Dance/USA's online journal From the Green Room, has served on grants panels for the Missouri Arts Council, North Carolina Arts Council and the Arts & Science Council in Charlotte and was the Founding chair of Dance USA's Community Engagement and Education Directors Affinity Group.

Berry's professional training in ballet began in New York at the former National Academy of Ballet and Theatre Arts and at the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Subsequently, Berry studied modern dance techniques and jazz dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Center (now the Ailey School) in New York and traveled to Cuba to study Caribbean folkloric and popular dance forms at the Escuela Nacional des Arts (National School of the Arts). A former principal dance artist with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), Berry worked under the direction of Founding Artistic Director Alvin Ailey and Artistic Director Emerita Judith Jamison. Berry is featured in numerous dance books and several AAADT videos, performed on two televised Kennedy Center Honors Programs and served as a guest artist with several ballet companies, including the Teatro La Scala Ballet in Milan, Italy.

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