Blanca Huertas-Agnew

Blanca Huertas-Agnew began her training in Puerto Rico under the tutelage of her mother, Blanca E. Cortés. She later joined Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico as an Apprentice (Taller) and became a member of the ballet corps under Lolita San Miguel's direction. Later, she joined Ballets de San Juan, where she earned the title of Principal Soloist under the direction of Ana García. During her career, she had the opportunity to perform an array of classical, neoclassical, and contemporary repertoires. She was chosen to dance lead roles such as Lise in Fille Mal Gardée, Swanilda in Coppélia, Princess Tsarevna in Firebird, and Myrtha in Giselle. 

During her years at Ballets de San Juan, she performed Balanchine’s repertoire with lead roles as Polyhymnia in Balanchine’s Apollo and Who Cares? As a soloist and corps of ballet, she performed Serenade, Valse Fantaisie, Rubies, and Concerto Barocco. As a corps de ballet member at Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, she learned classics such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Romeo & Juliet, Giselle, and Nutcracker from ballet masters such as Nicolas Beriozoff and José Parés. Autochthonous repertoire from Puerto Rican Choreographers includes Los Soles Truncos, Amores, Julieta, Pas de Quatre Criollo, y Misa Criolla, to mention some. She also had guest appearances with Ballet Municipal de San Juan under her father’s direction, Victor Huertas. Her professional career allowed her to perform not only in her native Puerto Rico but also in the United States, Central America, South America, and Europe. During her developing years, she had the opportunity to learn from dance professors from different methodologies, such as Michael Vernon, Alexander Filipov, Amelia Gilmore, Francesca Corkle, Ramon Molina, Juan Anduze, Sandra Jennings, Alexander Kamaranski, Gloria Govrin, Maria Carrera, Carlota Carrera, Marina Eglevsky, Petra Bravo, Hilda Navarra, David Storey, and Kun-Yang Li providing her a diversified training for a multifaceted career. 

As an educator, Blanca is an ABT® Certified Teacher who successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 7 & Partnering of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. She was also an ABT® Affiliate Teacher, an honor given to ABT® Certified Teacher that presented students for examinations and passed with High Honors. She is experienced in Classical French, Russian, Italian, and Cuban dance schools. Her students have been accepted to International Programs such as the Royal Ballet and Paris Opera Summer Programs, as well as national programs such as the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive, The Cuban Classical Summer Intensive at The School of Ballet Hispánico, The School of Pennsylvania Ballet, and Ellison Summer Intensive in NY. Blanca was the founder and Artistic Director of Pennsylvania Ballet Arts in Chalfont, PA. Blanca is certified to teach Progressing Ballet Technique Junior through Advanced level, acquiring PBT Level 3 Badge designation, the highest designation in the program. Most recently, Blanca completed her Certification in CUBALLET with Laura Alonso in primary through advanced levels. 

As a Choreographer, she works from a feminist approach to exploring movement and values collaboration. Some of the recent works include [Re] Frame, an exploration of Classical Ballet through the female body, L[ i ]ve ( an exploration of Cancer survivors and caregivers), [id]Entity (a collaboration with the Digital Media Graduate students exploring the pandemia aesthetics), and Erase una vez... (a collaboration with a Sing Language Interpreter exploring the resilience of a broken heart). She was part of the Faculty of the Philadelphia Ballet, formerly Pennsylvania Ballet, and was an adjudicator in their national audition tour. In addition, she was the lead teaching artist of the Pennsylvania Ballet in different Community Engagement Programs. Blanca is part of the Faculty of La Academia de Ballet Hispanico in New York City. 

Blanca also has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Temple University with a concentration in Risk Management & Insurance with a second concentration in Real Estate. In 2017, she received the Howard Gilman Fellowship Award at Jacksonville University, where she completed her MFA in Choreography in 2019, graduating with high honors. Blanca has been commissioned to choreograph for Drexel University and was an Adjunct Professor of the Drexel University Dance Program in 2020-21. Blanca is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Puerto Rico Classical Dance Competition, the first classical dance competition in Puerto Rico. Blanca is currently the Interim Program Director of Dance at Westphal College of Media Arts & Design of Drexel University.