Professional Training Division Faculty, Adult Program Faculty, Faculty, Upper Division Faculty
Originally from England, Woods trained at Elmhurst Ballet School and the Rambert Academy of Ballet. Her professional career began in Strasbourg, France with the Ballet du Rhin. Upon moving to the U.S. she danced with Delta Festival Ballet in New Orleans, Dallas Ballet and Ballet Oklahoma. Woods also spent several summer seasons performing as principal dancer with the Santa Fe Opera.
Her diverse performance repertoire includes works by August Bournonville, George Balanchine, Jose Limon, Alvin Ailey, Susan Marshall, Bryan Pitts, and Flemming Flindt, in addition to the traditional classics. Her work with many renowned teachers, choreographers and directors helped lay the base for her development as a teacher. She taught at Dallas Ballet Academy, School of Ballet Oklahoma, and Santa Fe Dance Foundation while still performing.
As former Artistic Director of BalletNova Center for Dance, Woods has been involved in the DC area dance community for many years. She is known for training students in a style that is clean, musical and technically and artistically unaffected, giving them the opportunity to build the solid foundation dancers need to be strong, well-placed and versatile. She takes the responsibility of educating students for dance and for life very seriously, and is committed to helping each student develop their self-esteem and sense of worth, qualities essential for a dancer to have a successful career and creative life.
She has a true passion for dance education and child development and is committed to preserving the art of classical ballet through quality training and positive mentoring.
Woods has played a major role in the pre-professional training of dancers in many professional ballet companies: Pacific Northwest Ballet, Suzanne Farrell Ballet, BalletMet, Sarasota Ballet, American National Ballet, and Semperoper Ballett, to name a few.
Photo by XMB Photography.