Colleen Barnes

Colleen Barnes hails from South Texas, where she trained and performed with the Victoria Ballet Theatre. She has trained at Joffrey NY and San Antonio; Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet; International Ballet Competition; among others. While earning her BFA in Ballet from University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music on scholarship, Ms. Barnes danced with Dayton Ballet and lived abroad in Nanchang, China teaching all forms of dance as well as English at Allen Ballet under director Song Ting.
She danced with Ballet Pensacola (2011) and Dance Now Miami! (2012), touring to Honduras, New York City, and more. In 2013 Ms. Barnes had the honor and pleasure being hand-picked by Anna-Marie Holmes to work with the late David Holmes as the guest principal dancer in Sechelt, BC’s first ever production of The Nutcracker, where she performed both Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow Queen. Her favorite roles include Diego Salterini’s Chronicles; Hannah Baumgarten’s Unburden; Swan Lake’s Pas de Trois; the Opera Singer in Gaite Parisienne; and the demi-soloist role in Balanchine’s Walpurgisnact, among others.
Always interested in ballet pedagogy, Colleen participated in the teacher workshop at the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in 2014 and has attended the annual JBS teacher training twice. Colleen is also a certified Pilates mat instructor.
Ms. Barnes is the Artistic Director of the five-week Joffrey South summer intensive in Athens, Georgia. In addition to working as the administrator of the year-round Ballet Trainee Program, Ms. Barnes is on faculty in both Ballet and Jazz & Contemporary Trainee Programs. She also teaches class in the NY area, coaches dancers privately, and judges/teaches for the Wild About Dance Competition. Ms. Barnes has worked for the Joffrey Ballet School since 2009.