Gina Buntz
Modern and Contemporary Dance Teacher - Choreographer
“Ms. Buntz has been called a virtuoso performer and is obviously
a dancersʼ choreographer – the possessor of a virtuoso mind whose inventiveness
is of keen interest to other dancers. This is rare.” – The New York Times
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Ms. Buntz brings more than twenty-five years of experience as a professional dancer, choreographer and educator. She has taught and choreographed throughout the United States with international sponsorship from the United States Information Agency’s Arts America Program, the National Endowment for the Arts Choreographer’s Exchange Program in France, and the Olympic Arts Festival in Korea. Her work has been presented at the Korea Dance Festival, the American Dance Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Florida Dance Festival, and the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers, France. Ms. Buntz has taught and choreographed for the Dance Theater of Harlem School in New York City, the New World School of the Arts in Miami, the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, University of Michigan and the Haitian-American Dance Academy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Ms. Buntz is a five-time recipient of a Choreographer’s Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; the Fund for US Artists at International Festivals; the New York State Council on the Arts; the American Dance Festival; the Gulbenkian Foundation in London, and the Florida Arts Council. She has been a guest choreographer for the New World School of the Arts in Miami, where she has taught modern technique and repertory, in addition to summer programs for the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Perry-Mansfield Summer Institute, and the Florida Dance Festival.
Ms. Buntz has served on the faculties of the New World School of the Arts in Miami, the Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach, and Cranbrook Schools and was Dance Chair for the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. She has conducted teachers' workshop on modern dance pedagogy for the National Dance Education Organization, California Dance Educator's Association, and was a dance consultant for the Miami-Dade County Schools' magnet programs for dance.
Ms. Buntz trained at the Interlochen Arts Academy and in New York on scholarship at the Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey Schools; has worked with choreographers’ Louis Falco, Patricia Birch, Julie Arenal, Toni Basil and Andy DeGroat. As a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), she was part of a core group of principal dancers in the movie “Fame” who negotiated the first union salary rate for dancers in film and television.
Ms. Buntz received a BA in Dance from Stephens College and an MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan with an emphasis on intercultural studies in dance, ethnomusicology and communications.
ANITA PACYLOWSKI-JUSTo
Anita Pacylowski-Justo joins us as a part-time Ballet Instructor. Her formal ballet training came from the Washington School of Ballet in Washington, D.C. She is a Princess Grace Award winner in Dance, National Young Arts Level 1 winner, and a recipient of the Presidential Scholar in the Arts in Dance award by the White House Commission in the Arts. Anita was a finalist at the New York International Ballet Competition and semi-finalist at the Prix de Lausanne competition in Lausanne, Switzerland. She was a nominee for the coveted Benois de la Danse Award - "the Oscars" of the Ballet world - and as a result, was invited to perform in Moscow. Her professional career started in The Washington Ballet under the direction of Mary Day. While there, her international touring took her to Russia, Thailand, Singapore, France, England, and Spain. Highlights include performing the Grand Pas de Deux from The Nutcracker at the Kennedy Center for President Clinton, as well as for the First Lady at the White House Holiday Tea Party. Anita then moved to Charlotte Ballet as a principal dancer, where she met her husband, Hernan Justo. After seven years with that company, she joined her husband as artistic leader of Carolina Ballet Theatre.
For the last twenty years, Anita has been the co-artistic director of DanceArts Greenville. She served for two years on the Board of Directors of the Fine Arts Center as co-chair of the Parent Engagement Committee. From 2017-2020, she was the Associate Director of the Charlotte Ballet Academy.
