Staff/Faculty

Erin Du (School Director) Erin Du of Bensalem, Pennsylvania received her ballet training at Knecht Dance Academy at the age of seven, where she studied Ballet, Tap, Jazz, and Modern.  She was awarded scholarships and received the title of Petite Miss Dance of Pennsylvania for 1989.  She continued her ballet training at Princeton Ballet School under the tutelage of Ms. Elisabeth Carroll, Philip Jerry, Dermot Burke, Marjorie Mussman, and Katie Glasner, among others. In her senior year of high school, Ms. Du was invited by, then Artistc Director of American Repertory Ballet, Septime Webre to join the company and became the youngest member of the company. In 1999, she moved to Washington, DC to dance with The Washington Ballet.  During her nearly 10 years dancing with the company Ms. Du performed leading roles in various classical and neoclassical ballets including Giselle and Myrtha in Giselle, and the Sugarplum Fairy in The Nutcracker.  She has also had the privilege of performing featured roles by choreographers such as Paul Taylor, Jerome Robbins, William Forsythe, Nacho Duato, Twyla Tharp, Christopher Wheeldon, Lila York, Trey McIntyre, and Septime Webre.  Since 2005, while maintaining her position with The Washington Ballet, Ms. Du’s dancing career had a major advance when she joined The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, a creation of The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  Under the artistic direction of Ms. Farrell, Ms. Du has had the opportunity to perform soloist roles in some of the world’s most beloved ballets including George Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, La Source, La Valse, the full-length Don Quixote, Apollo, the pas de deux from Agon, and Clarinade in which she was recognized by The Washington Times as being one of the best performances of the year in their annual Cheers and Jeers column. After a glorious performing career, Ms. Du joined American Dance Institute in 2008 as a full time faculty member where she teaches Ballet Technique, Pointe, Ballet Repertory and was assisting in the overall operation of the school. In 2009, she became Ballet Mistress to the newly created Ballet ADI (then called Chamber Ballet).  She played a important role in the success of the two highly acclaimed Ballet ADI productions, as well as in the completion of the full length production of The Nutcracker for ADI students. Ms. Du has also taught master classes at Princeton Ballet School, The Washington School of Ballet, Berrand Dance Center, and Towson University. In addition to her performing and teaching career, she has served as a repititeur, setting Septime Webre and Trey McIntyre’s ballets worldwide on companies such as Miami City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Louisville Ballet, Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal, Ballet de San Juan, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and The Washington Ballet. In 2005, Ms. Du married her long-time colleague, Runqiao Du. They are blessed with 2 beautiful daughters.