Greta Valeyko
Associate Artistic Director
Instructor
Growing up in a small town in Virginia, Greta was one of the first dancers to major in dance in college. After finishing her BA in Dance from Columbia College, in Columbia, SC, she taught dance in a middle school, daycare, and studio to gain more experience. After a year of teaching, Greta was accepted into the Graduate Dance program at American University in Washington, DC and was granted an assistantship. After completing her MA in Dance, she took a position as the Member Services Coordinator for a non-profit national dance service organization for professional dance, Dance/USA. Although
Greta enjoyed her work at Dance/USA, she wanted to get back to teaching. Luckily, a teaching position at a local middle school was created and Greta was offered a dance teacher position at Kenmore Middle School in Arlington, VA. It was at Kenmore that she developed the first ever dance program for Arlington Public Schools. During that time, she choreographed and directed The Nutcracker, multiple dance concerts, and choreographed all the musical theatre productions. Wizard of Oz, Music Man, 5 Guys Named Moe, and Guys and Dolls, to name a few. While teaching at Kenmore, Greta became a certified Dance Specialist through a program called CETA (Changing Education Through the Arts) offered by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In 2005, Greta was invited back to American University to be Artist in Residence for the Musical Theatre department. Her semester’s long work with students ended in a musical montage of past musical theatre numbers, which was showcased at the opening of the Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre at American University.