Erica Kruk is an alumni of First Position Dance Studio, where she trained from 2002-2012 in Ballet, Pointe, Modern, Jazz, Tap, Hip hop, Tumbling, and Showdance. She assisted with and taught pre-dance classes. Erica was a founding member of DT2 dance team, participating in local performances and regional competitions.

 

Erica earned a Bachlor of Arts in Dance from Slippery Rock University, focusing primarily on Modern, Ballet, Jazz, and Improvisation techniques. She studied many aspects of dance such as Dance Production, Music Fundamentals for Dance, Teaching of Dance,Yoga, Improvisation, Creative Dance for Children, and Dance Kinesiology. She performed and choreographed for 60x60 concerts, Fall and Winter Faculty Concerts, and Senior Synthesis productions. She also served as President for the Dance Honorary, Sigma Rho Delta, focusing on philanthropic events and involvement in the dance community.

 

In 2013, Erica attended the Asia-Pacific Dance Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii to take classes at the University of Manoa with Kumu Hulas Robert Cazimero, Vicky Holt Takamine, and Michael Pili Pang, New Zealand's Atamira Dance Company, professors from Taiwan's Taipei National University of the Arts, and South Korea's Samulgwangdae. She took classes and learned choreography in Hula Kahiko, Hula Auana, Maori, Indigenous Taiwenese Dance, and Korean Dance Drumming.

 

From 2013-2016, Erica was a dancer and historian with Afro-Colombian Dance Ensemble. She performed traditional Colombian dances such as the Fandango, Garabato, Mapale, Pilanderas, and Seresese. Erica traveled to Cartegena, Mompox, and Talaigua, Colombia to rehearse and perform traditional cultural dance with the Academia y Compañia de Danzas Cartagena de Indias under choreographer Luis Fernando Trouchon at the Festival Del Anfibio. She presented her research and experience for symposiums at Slippery Rock and Millersville University.

 

Erica has been working as a high school English teacher in Mansfield, PA since 2018. During this time she has choreographed for their production of The Wizard of Oz and taught Ballet to students during club time. She is excited to start teaching at FPDS again and keep sharing the love of dance with students.