BACKGROUND Terri Best is the founder and Artistic Director of Terri Best Dance. She received her early training at the American Dance Academy in San Luis Obispo, California under the directorship of Pat Jackson, and later moved to Los Angeles to continue her ballet studies with Eva Ralf and Paul Maure, modern with Bill and Jacqui Landrum, jazz with Jaime Rogers, Joe Bennett and Ben Lokey, and Luigi technique with Hama. She performed both locally and abroad as a principal dancer with the Los Angeles Jazz Dance Company, and also appeared in the Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers Christmas Special, the American Choreography Awards, and in numerous music videos and industrials. Her choreography for television and theater includes the 15th Annual Golden Eagle Awards, Star Trek: Phase II, commercials for McDonald’s and Pacific Resident Theater’s production of Noel Coward’s Tonight at 8:30, which received the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Production of the Year (2000).
COMPANY Recipient of the 2008 Lester Horton Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance by a Small Ensemble, Terri Best Dance has performed at the Los Angeles Dance Invitational, Celebrate Dance, Pasadena Dance Festival, and the Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival, where Terri was a finalist for her choreography in 2009 (Duet and Recollected), 2010 (Through the Desert) and 2011 (Threshold). They have received a total of four Lester Horton Award nominations, including Outstanding Achievement in Short Form Choreography and Outstanding Achievement in Performance by a Company. Terri’s work has also been commissioned by the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, Commonality Dance Company and the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, and performed at the Luckman, Alex, Nate Holden, El Portal, Diavolo, Japan America Theater, Zipper Hall, McCallum Theater and the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, among other venues.
COMPANY Recipient of the 2008 Lester Horton Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performance by a Small Ensemble, Terri Best Dance has performed at the Los Angeles Dance Invitational, Celebrate Dance, Pasadena Dance Festival, and the Dance Under the Stars Choreography Festival, where Terri was a finalist for her choreography in 2009 (Duet and Recollected), 2010 (Through the Desert) and 2011 (Threshold). They have received a total of four Lester Horton Award nominations, including Outstanding Achievement in Short Form Choreography and Outstanding Achievement in Performance by a Company. Terri’s work has also been commissioned by the L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, Commonality Dance Company and the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, and performed at the Luckman, Alex, Nate Holden, El Portal, Diavolo, Japan America Theater, Zipper Hall, McCallum Theater and the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, among other venues.
TEACHING Terri is the honored recipient of the 2008 Stanley Holden Award for Distinguished Teaching, presented by Edward Villella at the 9th Annual Los Angeles Dance Invitational. She was on faculty at Dupree Dance Academy from 1980-1990, and is presently on faculty at EDGE Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles where, since 1993, she has trained and prepared numerous dancers for professional careers. Her students can be seen dancing in film and on television, on Broadway and in dance companies. Terri has also worked with students in the Professional Training Program at the Colburn School, and has been a guest teacher at Loyola Marymount University and the Los Angeles County High School of the Arts. She conducts master classes and workshops throughout the U.S. and abroad, including the International Summercourses at Balettakademien in Stockholm, Sweden, workshops at the Performing Arts Studios in Munich, Germany, Estudio Profesional de Danza Ema Pulido in Mexico City, and at Peridance and Broadway Dance Center in New York City.
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