Instructor
Rachel Ganteaume, born in Trinidad, first studied the Royal Academy of Dancing syllabus at The Caribbean School of Dancing in Port of Spain. Her accomplishments there led her to being honored with a scholarship to The American Ballet Center, now the Joffrey Ballet School, New York City, and also studied with David Howard and Maggie Black. She performed feature roles in the Joffrey II Company before joining the Joffrey Ballet in 1975. In the Joffrey Ballet, she performed principal roles in Oscar Ariaz’s Romeo and Juliet, Gerald Arpino’s Scared Grove on Mount Tamalpais, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Jazz Calendar, Jose Limon’s The Moor’s Pavane, and others by Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Kurt Jooss, Agnes de Mille, Alvin Ailey, Gerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp. Her television performances include Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, presented at the Kennedy Center at the request of the White House, marking the historic meeting of President Jimmy Carter and Deng Xiao Ping, then Vice Premier of the People’s Republic of China.
Moreover, her national television broadcast history included “The Joffrey Company at Wolftrap”, “An Evening with Agnes de Mille”, and “Nureyev and The Joffrey Ballet on Broadway”. In 1982 she moved to Maine joining the faculty of the Ram Island Dance Center and later the Portland Ballet where in 1996, she performed “Tituba” in Sam Kurkjian’s The Witches of Salem. Rachel has now taught Ballet at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine since 2003, at The Dance Center, Auburn, Maine since 2002 and has had the pleasure of being with Dance Studio of Maine since 2017. In addition, she has taught summer courses at Bates Dance Festival - Bates College, Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy, and at Greater Bay Academy of Dance in Kittery, Maine. While on family visits to Trinidad, she has also been invited to teach at the Caribbean School of Dancing.