Originally from Massachusetts, Christina Paolucci trained at Boston Ballet School from 1981-1991 and began her professional performing career while still in high school, with Boston Ballet. A 1995 graduate of The Juillard School, Ms. Paolucci earned a BFA in dance, supported by The Jerome L. Greene Dance Fellowship. While a student at Juilliard, she danced the works of choreographers such as Paul Taylor and Robert Battle, and was a student of Alfredo Corvino, Maria Grandy, Linda Kent and many others. Immediately after graduation, she was chosen by thelate Benjamin Harkarvy to assist in the coordination of Juilliard’s first national summer dance program, sparking her interest in artistic coordination and arts administration. She also served as rehearsal director to choreographer Lila York, staging her ballets on national companies.
In 1996, Ms. Paolucci joined New York Theatre Ballet and remained with the company for seven years, dancing principal roles. She studied exclusively with Diana Byer and Sallie Wilson. She was one of two dancers chosen to represent the Cecchetti style at the First World Congress of Classical and Contemporary Ballet in Monterrey, Mexico and danced as a guest artist in the companies of American Repertory Ballet, Dance As Ever, North Star Ballet and South Georgia Ballet. She was the dance coordinator for the Columbia Pictures film CenterStage.
From 2004-2006, Ms. Paolucci held the position of Artistic Associate of The Tallahassee Ballet in Florida. She commissioned guest choreographers and artists and hired teachers to work with the company and assisted in fundraising and grant writing. Ms. Paolucci taught company classes and oversaw the training curriculum of dancers ages 8 through adult. She initiated a summer workshop series and as Director of DanceChance, The Tallahassee Ballet’s community outreach program, she was a moving force in the successful growth of reaching hundreds of underserved children, enabling them to study ballet free of charge. Many of her DanceChance students became young members of The Tallahassee Ballet’s training ground and performing company.
Ms. Paolucci served as ballet mistress for The Tallahassee Ballet as well as staff choreographer, presenting her dances for children of all ages at several venues in Tallahassee including the prestigious Ruby Diamond Auditorium. She occasionally performed with the company and as a guest artist and was coached by Dan Wagoner and performed in his modern dance work at Florida State University.
For four years, she was a faculty member at Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and was a guest teacher at the East Coast Committee of the Cecchetti Council of America’s conference. She served on the board of Florida State University’s Friends of Dance and for two years served as a dance panelist for the New Jersey State Arts Council. She was a senior faculty member at Ballet School NY, the official training school of NYTB from 2006-2012. In 2008 she assisted in the staging of Antony Tudor’s Judgment of Paris for American Ballet Theater at The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City and performed the role of Juno, in Judgment for the Antony Tudor Centennial Celebration held at Juilliard. In November 2010, Ms. Paolucci was a ballet and modern dance adjudicator in Milan, Italy for the country’s national dance festival. She was a 2010 Dance USA Access Dance Scholar and mentee of The Kennedy Center’s Arts-in-Crisis Program. She is a member of Dance USA.
In 2006, Ms. Paolucci became Associate Director of New York Theatre Ballet, and in 2009 was appointed Executive Director/Associate Artistic Director, a position she held until 2012 when she became Co-Director of The Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance in Ridgefield, CT, from 2012-14. In 2015, after a temporary position as Project Manager for Operation Summit at New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble, Ms. Paolucci joins NJDTE as Operations Manager and as a faculty member, teaching ballet and pointe. She also is an administrator of Burklyn Ballet Theatre and a newly appointed member of County College of Morris’ Dance Advisory Panel.