Teacher
Unlike most professional dancers Alfonso Figueroa had never stepped into a ballet class until the age of 18, an age considered by most as "too old" to begin training for a professional dancer career. But his natural kinetic sense and his intellectual approach to dance technique brought him success. His awareness of the need to understand how to build his own strength and compensate for physical limitations as a dancer has made him one of the rare teachers, a teacher who teaches his students HOW to approach dance technique, not simply copy movement. Dance success is not about natural ability, it is about being a thinking, knowledgeable dancer.
Mr. Figueroa has been a dancer of many dance styles. His career as a dancer in both modern and ballet companies gives him a broad spectrum of teaching knowledge.
As a choreographer he knows what types of dancers are desired by most choreographers. He works with dancers to develop the strongest and most diverse dancer possible. He builds dancers that are in demand! He believes that a strong technique gives the dancer freedom to dance.
Alfonso Figueroa has studied with many major dance personalities within all the different schools of dance styles including: Cecchetti Method, English Royal , Balanchine and Russian Vaganova techniques and in modern dance, Horton and Graham. He has integrated all the best of the techniques to create the "American" dancer, one capable of dancing within a neutral style ready to be molded by the choreographic challenges of each dance piece and style.
Mr. Figueroa has taught as a ballet master and master teacher in many schools and companies. Some of the schools he has taught in include; The Alvin Ailey Dance Center, Boston Conservatory of Music, Boston Ballet, Trinity College, Rutgers University, Birmingham Southern College, Illinois Southern College, The New York Dance Conservatory among others.