Blanca Huertas-Agnew began her training in Puerto Rico under the tutelage of her mother, Blanca E. Cortés. She later joined Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico as an apprentice and became a member of the corps de ballet under Lolita San Miguel’s direction. Later, she joined Ballets de San Juan, where she earned the title of Principal Soloist under the direction of Ana García. During her career, she had the opportunity to perform a wide array of classical, neoclassical, and contemporary repertoires. Some of her lead roles include Lise in La Fille Mal Gardée, Swanilda in Coppélia, Princess Tsarevna in The Firebird, and Myrtha in Giselle. While with Ballets de San Juan, she performed Balanchine’s repertoire with lead roles in Balanchine’s Apollo (Polyhymnia) and Who Cares? As a soloist and corps de ballet dancer, she performed Balanchine’s Serenade, Valse Fantaisie, Rubies, and Concerto Barocco. As a corps de ballet member at Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico, she learned many of the classics including Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Romeo and Juliet, Giselle, and The Nutcracker from ballet masters including Nicolas Beriozoff and José Parés. She also performed autochthonous repertoire by Puerto Rican choreographers including Los Soles Truncos, Amores, Julieta, Pas de Quatre Criollo, and Misa Criolla. Additionally, she appeared as a guest dancer with Ballet Municipal de San Juan under the direction of her father, Victor Huertas. Her professional career allowed her to perform not only in her native Puerto Rico but also throughout the United States, Central America, South America, and Europe.
During her developing years, she had the opportunity to learn from dance professors from different methodologies including Alexander Filipov, Amelia Gilmore, Francesca Corkle, Ramon Molina, Juan Anduze, Sandra Jennings, Alexander Kamaranski, Gloria Govrin, Maria Carrera, Carlota Carrera, Marina Eglevsky, Petra Bravo, Hilda Navarra, David Storey, and Kun-Yang Li, providing her diversified training for a multifaceted career.
As an educator, Blanca is an ABT® Certified Teacher, having completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Primary through Level 7 and Partnering of the ABT® National Training Curriculum. Her students have been accepted to international programs including the Royal Ballet and Paris Opera summer programs, as well as national programs including the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive, the Summer Intensive at Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance, School of Philadelphia Ballet, Ellison Ballet Summer Intensive, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Graduate Program, and the English National Ballet School Professional Trainee Programme. Blanca was the founder and Artistic Director of Pennsylvania Ballet Arts in Chalfont, PA. She is certified to teach Progressing Ballet Technique Junior through Advanced levels and acquired PBT Level 3 designation, the highest designation in the program. Most recently, Blanca completed her certification in CUBALLET with Laura Alonso in Primary through Advanced levels.
She was a faculty member at School of Philadelphia Ballet (formerly Pennsylvania Ballet) and was an adjudicator for their national audition tour. In addition, she was the lead teaching artist for Philadelphia Ballet’s community engagement programs. She was also a faculty member at Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance in New York City. Blanca also has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Temple University with concentrations in Risk Management and Insurance and Real Estate. In 2017, she received the Howard Gilman Fellowship Award at Jacksonville University, where she completed her MFA in Choreography, graduating with high honors in 2019. Blanca is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Puerto Rico Classical Dance Competition, the first classical dance competition in Puerto Rico. She is a consultant reviewing dance curricula and a lecturer on pedagogies for the 21st century. Blanca was most recently the Dance Program Director at Drexel University’s Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. She joins Cincinnati Ballet’s Otto M. Budig Academy as Academy Director in January 2024.
