Heather Portue’s dance journey began at the age of seven at Ballet Coeur d’Alene. There, under the direction of Ceci Klein, her love for the art form of ballet was cultivated. As a high schooler, Heather studied ballet as well as other styles of dance at the Spokane Valley Academy of Dance with Kristen Potts, Phaedra Jarret and Lesley Gray.
For the past four years, Heather has been attending Whitworth University majoring in history and minoring in French. During her undergraduate years, she took dance classes at the university and taught ballet and contemporary for Whitworth’s dance club; Jubilation Ministry. Heather is currently in the Master’s in Teaching program at Whitworth to become a history teacher.
I believe taking ballet and dance does so much more than expand students’ dance ability. The skills developed in pursuing dance, such as perseverance and teachability can serve young people in so many areas of their life. And perhaps most importantly dancing is a source of great joy. My memories of dancing are some of the most cherished of my life and I hope my dance students will have those same kinds of experiences as they study at Ballet Arts Academy.
~Heather