Amanda Smelser is our Fine Arts Director and also serves as our K-12 dance & theatre teacher. Amanda began her classical ballet training at the Post School of Ballet (now Star City Ballet) in Salem, Virginia, and went on to dance with Southwest Virgina Ballet and Roanoke Ballet Theatre before she began her teaching career at the age of 18. She studied history at Roanoke College while doing choreography for and performing with their theatre department. After spending a year as a member of the Scottish Dance company Celtic Rose based out of St. Andrews Scotland, she went on to study dance at Radford University. There she trained in a variety of styles of dance with their world-renowned faculty. Amanda went on to complete her master’s degree at Hollins University under the thesis advisership of dance department chair Jeffrey Bullock.
Throughout Amanda’s almost 25-year teaching career she has taught in studios throughout Virginia and North Carolina, including four years at Roanoke Ballet Theatre, helping to pave the way for their current professional company and 4 years at her own studio, The Ballet Academy, before moving to Greensboro North Carolina. She has spent the last 7 years at Faith Christian Academy, creating and developing a performing arts program using her own curriculum of classical ballet, modern and jazz while incorporating creative movement, musical theatre and tap. She has directed all FCA’s performances in her time with them, most recently Snow White and the Prince, Broadway’s Mary Poppins, and Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Amanda has choreographed countless original works during her dance career including three children’s ballets based on beloved storybook characters Winnie the Pooh, Little Red Riding Hood and Mother Goose as well as a Christmas ballet The Magic Toyshop. She has staged many pieces from classical ballet’s including The Nutcracker, Giselle, Coppelia, Sleeping Beauty and Paquita.
