Ms. Michelle Boutros received her BA in Dance and BS in Arts Administration from Belhaven University (2010). Prior to her graduation she worked with TALK Dance Co in Jackson, MS as their intern arts administrator working as the right hand of the artistic and executive director, Stephen Wynne. Ms. Boutros created and directed the ballet department at the Joshua Center for the Arts in Brandon, FL in 2005, where she developed the curriculum, instructed, choreographed, and was the rehearsal director for the school for one year. 

Ms. Michelle Boutros was a member of Dance Theatre of Florida, Les Jeunes Danseurs, and the Chamber Ballet, where she toured the eastern United States as well as Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Riga, Latvia; performing various classical and contemporary roles in several ballets including: Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Le Corsaire, and La Bayadère, and original works from the directors and guest artists. While being a member of the Chamber Ballet, she had the opportunity to teach, direct rehearsals, as well as work as the assistant arts administrator. 

Ms. Michelle Boutros has spent many years under the tutelage of numerous teachers of prominence. She began her dance training at the age of 8 years old in St. Petersburg, FL. She started under the direction of Andrei Ustinov and Elena Martinson at the age of 11. Both Mr. Ustinov and Ms. Martinson were graduates of the Vaganova Ballet Academy and dancers with the world-renowned Kirov Ballet. Michelle studied with them for 11 years. They took her under their wing and instructed her in an in depth pedagogical study of the Vaganova Method and the stylizations of the Bourneville and Balanchine techniques. She also spent time studying under Madame Ludmila Kovaleva and Svetlana Osiyeva (now with Harid Conservatory) of the Vaganova Ballet Academy as well as Enn Suvé and Tiiu Randviir of the Tallinn Ballet School in Tallinn, Estonia while there with the Chamber Ballet for a month’s residency. Additionally, Ms. Boutros studied under Albena Arnaudova from the Bolshoi Ballet and current director of Blake High School Dance program. Michelle spent a year training with Christina Acosta and Richard Allen Ploch in Tampa, FL at the Hillsborough Community College where she studied Hawkins, Limon, and Cunningham techniques, along with Classical Ballet, and was awarded a scholarship to study at the Florida Dance Festival, where she got to study with Paul Matteson, Lara Murphy, and Arnold Quintane. Entering Belhaven University in August 2007, Michelle had the privilege to study with Cynthia Newland, Stephen Wynne, Britta Wynne, Laura Morton, Caleb Mitchell, Ravenna Tucker Wagnon, Emily Wright, Krista Bower, Betsy Macmillan, and Erin Rockwell where she studied Graham, Limon, and Release Techniques as well as the Vaganova Method of Ballet, Teaching Methods, Dance Pedagogy, Improvisation, and Choreography, among many other courses along with Production and Arts Administration. Michelle was able to attend the American Dance Festival in 2007 and was able to study under Ursula Payne, Sherone Price, Gerri Houlihan, David Dorfman, Daniel Clifton, Elizabeth Corbett.

Since her graduation, Ms. Michelle Boutros continued her time with TALK Dance Co as their arts administrator, rehearsal director, and company instructor. In January 2011, Michelle became the adjunct ballet and modern dance professor at Hinds Community College in Raymond, MS working under Tiffany Jefferson. She also became part of the world renowned, Ballet Magnificat!, where she was an instructor in the School of the Arts, workshop administrator for the Summer Dance Intensive, and assisted the marketing and development team for the company directed by Kathy and Keith Thibodeaux (known for his role as Little Ricky in the beloved TV Sitcom, I Love Lucy).

In September 2012, Michelle moved to Pueblo, CO to work with Stephen Wynne, once again as his assistant for the Sangre de Cristo School of Dance. She developed new curriculum, instructed, choreographed, was the rehearsal assistant, as well as performed. Productions that she aided in was Nutcracker, Swan Lake (contemporary world premiere), and restaged Sleeping Beauty. After spending some time working at the Ballet Society of Colorado Springs as the School Administrator and senior faculty, Michelle came back to Pueblo in March 2014 and opened Silhouettes Dance Boutique, a dance apparel store, in Pueblo West, as well as coming back to the Sangre de Cristo School of Dance to teach and perform with the Sangre de Cristo Ballet in Carmina Burana.

Beginning August 1, 2014 and culminating in June 2017, Ms. Boutros became the new Artistic Director of the Sangre de Cristo School of Dance and the Sangre de Cristo Ballet. She was honored to accept the position and was excited to serve the families of the school and the company as well as the Pueblo community at large. During her tenure as Artistic Director, Ms. Boutros became the satellite director for Arts Immersion Pueblo, where she aided in developing a unique charter school program for young performing artists. She choreographed and produced four productions a year, including the Nutcracker, Through Her Eyes, an original contemporary work of Romeo & Juliet, An Evening Under the Stars; restagings of La Paquita, Le Corsaire, and Giselle; Event: Summer Dance Showcase and Spring Recitals. She developed a new curriculum for the early education program and brought Dance History, Improvisation, Choreography, and Teaching Methods classes to the school to prepare the students for higher education and careers in dance. 

Moving to Florida in June 2017 to begin working on her MFA in Choreography through Jacksonville University, she has had the privilege to work with Christina Teague-Mann, Cari Coble, Brian Palmer, Lana Carroll Heylock, Tiffany Sullivan Fish, Anna Sanchez-Colberg, as well as, Alonzo King from LINES Ballet and Marianela Boen from the National Contemporary Dance Company of the Ministry of Culture of Dominican Republic. While in FL, Michelle also became the artistic director of Movez Dance Inc and shortly after, due to artistic differences, became a guest instructor for the European School of Performing Arts in Ormond Beach, FL, where she had the absolute pleasure and privilege to work with Madame Zhanna Dubrovskaya.

Ms. Michelle Boutros founded Garner Arts LLC  with long time partner Jeremiah Garner. Garner Arts LLC is a New Mexico based company designed to invest in people and their ideas. Its mission is to promote opportunity in business, education, and the arts. Within Garner Arts LLC, Michelle and Jeremiah have four companies: ArtSpectives, Untamed Productions, Avix Art, and Garner Real Estate. We are very passionate about establishing a progressive integrated arts curriculum that will accelerate the learning outcomes of their students, while keeping retention at a maximum. Within their research, they have found new methods and techniques that enhance the teaching process within the arts and academics, giving the students an accelerated and heightened learning experience.

Currently, Ms. Michelle Boutros is the owner and Artistic Director of Ormond Ballet. She and Jeremiah Garner founded Ormond Ballet in January 2021 in order to serve the greater Volusia County and Eastern Central Florida’s need for a high quality training center for dance. Ms. Boutros loves living here and working with the students and looks forward to preparing them for their futures. 

Ms. Michelle’s Teaching Philosphy

I teach Ballet, Pointe, Partnering, Modern Dance, Contemporary Dance, Choreography, and Teaching Methods as well as Improvisation, Dance History, Contemporary Studies, and Media & Marketing. The practice and content of each of these classes come from my education and experiences from the past and present. As a student and a professional, I learned how to grasp information about the body and put it into practice in a very detailed manner, and have remained involved in exploring and observing the body and the multiple avenues it can take to create relationships and make connections; connections within itself and the forms and shapes it creates, along with relationships the body creates with other bodies on stage or offstage and how this grasps our audience's attention. My pedagogical goals are to mentor, guide, and instruct young students through the fundamentals of dance technique and choreographic discovery to successfully attain the rank of dance artist of each of these disciplines while bridging the gap between new trends in the field. 

Methods and practices in implementing class content derive from my investigation of the most efficient, effective, and relatable teaching methods and applications. I value the creation of a safe and transparent work environment where young artists are not afraid to ask questions and are certain that they will receive the most accurate and honest answer and explanation that I can offer at any specific time.

As an educator, I believe that the dance class is more than an exercise in becoming proficient in a particular style, method or technique; it is a process of discovery and of exploring the best way to develop artistry through this artform. Throughout my many years of teaching, I constantly encourage and remind my students to have confidence in themselves and to grow as young artists as they gain knowledge and ability to perfect movement skills. I feel that one of the most significant components of my teaching is the encouragement and empowerment that I offer the student in regards to their personal study of concepts, methods, and artistic development. This inspires them to pursue other avenues outside of their comfort zone, creating opportunities to explore, develop and grow, as a performer, an artist, and most of all a productive individual in society.

Being relevant is something that is very important to me, so I constantly use imagery from real life situations that my students can relate to and/or other references, as in books, movies, music, etc. I have danced and performed in different techniques and styles throughout Colorado, the Southeastern United States and Estonia, Latvia, and Russia; experiencing different audiences and many reactions that kept me on my toes on how to better perform and serve my audience and my community. 

The focus of my technique classes is to strengthen technique, allowing students to invest in body knowledge. My work process has a logical progression through daily classes using both tradition and repetition allied with the exploration of new methods; it promotes discovery leading to the knowledge that the body does not benefit only from routine but also from changes that can increase its awareness. Dance movement today is a combination of traditional knowledge and daily discovery of bodily practices. I believe that teaching a student to respect tradition and investigate new possibilities not only makes a better dancer but also promotes healthier social integration.

My instruction of classical ballet revolves around clarity, efficiency, and artistry. The technique directly allows for a detailed exploration of balance, placement, alignment, strength, and grace. When my students find their proper placement, this effortless quality surfaces and the artistic expression has the opportunity to be released. Having trained under Andrei Ustinov and Elena Martinson and danced in their company, The Chamber Ballet, as well as trained under Svetlana Osiyeva; I have the Vaganova method and the Russian style coursing through my body. In addition, I have studied teaching methods under John White, Margarita De Saa White, Ekaterina Chtchelkanova, Ludmila Safronova, and Irina Kolpakova with both the John White Vaganova Seminars and the Open World Dance Foundation. I have a firm grip on the methodology and progression through the Vaganova Syllabi and the development of an artist from start to finish. I enjoy using the whole body method of the Vaganova school focusing on clarity in presentation, plasticity of the limbs, the aplomb of the upper body, the grand strength and suppleness of the back and legs, and the use of allegro and pointe work to develop the strength and speed along with grace and form. Distal parts of the body should work in harmony with the core; when the whole body is integrated, the dancer has the freedom to express and move from within. This particular approach allows the dancers to discover the most efficient way to move and dance in any given vocabulary.

The overall intended goal of each lesson is to encourage self-investigation and promote active engagement. I offer a mixture of kinesthetic information along with spatial references, musical timing, general corrections, imagery, and the use of hands-on guidance. To be kinesthetically specific - I work with neutral pelvic placement, properly engaged pelvic and abdominal muscles, skeletal alignment, and the most efficient use of muscular effort in order for responsive, articulate dancing to be facilitated. I speak on bones and aligning the joints, finding the most efficient manner to execute movements, focusing on the use of breath throughout the use of allongé and the use of self within ballet technique. Through my knowledge, experience, and exploration, I find that ballet does not need to be a a stringent and uncompromising form of physical discipline that develops a limited thought process, but rather, it can be an investigation from within that blends sensitivity, awareness, logic, artistry and movement into one integrated discovery. Although these are my beliefs after years of constant cultivation and revelation in the artform, I have and will always uphold the traditional technical standards as this is where my discoveries have derived from. I love the physical brilliance, the artistic expression, and the strength and confidence classical ballet brings to my students. 

Artistic expression is highly encouraged in my ballet class and it is rooted in my sense of musicality. Proper use of pelvis placement and skeletal alignment is also experienced through the use of musicality and class construction. Port de bra is not only a stylistic component in my exercises and choreography but rather, it lends a somatic solution to aid dancers in connecting the upper and lower body. While physical specificity is a focus in my classroom, I also stress the importance of spatial awareness. 

My teaching of modern and contemporary dance technique is based on the same principles as my ballet technique classes. In addition, both have been greatly influenced by concepts presented in the techniques developed by Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Eric Hawkins, and Stephen Wynne. I have also very much benefited from the foundations explored in the Bartenieff Fundamentals. Having studied these various styles and methods under Stephen Wynne, Britta Wynne, Krista Bower, Emily Wright, and Christina Acosta; I have had the opportunity to explore my movement potential and kinesiological awareness. I have been able to develop my own style and integrated these methods and techniques into my class construction and choreographic process. Exploring the use of weight and breath and how it affects movement quality and groundedness has influenced each genre of dance I teach as well as my creations. 

My guidance and creation of choreography is tailored by the elements of dance; meaning body, action, space, time, effort, and relationship as well as music and technology. Additionally, there is a focus on developing new movement material and where it comes from. We explore what the students may already know and find new ways to approach what they have not discovered. The study and recognition of choreographers of the past and present and their work will help young artists in connecting to what is happening outside the classroom in the world of dance today. I often assign my students to write critiques on live dance performances and I encourage them to read different materials on dance-related subjects.

As a mentor, artist and educator, I believe it is my duty to provide our community and beyond with creative, critical-thinking, intelligent, wise, and confident professionals and artists that are actively participating in their surroundings. I want to feed their hunger for the knowledge and appreciation of the art of dance and properly inform and prepare them to succeed in all areas of this artform they wish to work. Time is taken with each student to assess and provide good counsel on the next steps in their career as dance professionals with hopes of furthering and prolonging their time in the world of dance and furthering my reach in our society.