Erena Ishii

Erena Ishii enrolled herself in aerobics and modern ballet at the young age of 2. Her parents finally enrolled her in Classical Ballet thanks to her modern ballet teacher's strong recommendation at the age of 8. She began training in one of the best school in Tokyo, Japan, Asami Maki Ballet Ballet School. At the same time, she trained at Mika Ballet Studio where she received free private classes from the school director. During this time, she represented the school in several “All Japan” competitions. She moved to Venezuela at the age of 12 and continued her training with Nina Novak, One of the original Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo members. After moving to the United States, Miss Ishii received her Balanchine training at San Francisco Ballet School. She also received Bournaville technique training under Lise La Cour, school director at San Jose Ballet School. She has been dancing under the Artistic director of Ballet San Jose, Dennis Nahat. Erena traveled to Europe to continue her art in dance as well as singing and she performed as a lead singer in a musical. Other accomplishments are: 1st place in classical and character in Grand Prix of Italy, receiving recognition from the city of San Jose in 2005. And 1st place in character dance at the Hungarian National Ballet in 2009.

Miss Ishii, who always dreamed of being a ballet teacher, started assisting on her free time for younger levels since 2002 at San Jose Ballet School. She started teaching for Ballet San Jose School from 2004. She has assisted the school director Lisa La Cour to put on the school productions, and she has also set the students for mice for The Nutcracker that performed with the Ballet San Jose Company. She has taught in Japan as well as other studios in the bay area. Miss Erena was the dance captain for the company she worked with in Germany and she is currently the co-company director for South Valley Dance Arts in Morgan Hill.