Iris Andersen

Iris Andersen was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, graduated from Baltimore School for the Arts and holds a BFA in Dance from the California Institute of the Arts. She has trained at various schools and conservatories such as the Eglevsky Ballet, Washington Ballet, and at the Ailey School in New York, and has been a student under legends such as Irina Kolpakolva and Sylvester Campbell. Iris has performed premiere works by John Clifford, Lisa de Ribere, Hinton Battle, Ron Cunningham and Gus Solomons, Jr., as well as classic and contemporary repertoire ranging from Marius Petipa and Jules Perrot to Martha Graham, Pavid Parsons and Mark Morris. While at Cal Arts whe was nominated for the prestigious Princess Grace Award and was selected to study abroad at the London Contemporary Dance School. In December, 2003, she performed as a guest artist with the Cal Arts Dance Ensemble for the school's premiere performance at the new Redcat Theater at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. She recently performed at Highways with the Francisco Martinez Dancetheatre. Since joining Pasadena Dance Theatre in 2003, Iris has performed new works by Laurence Blake, Cynthia Young, Leslie Carothers, Scott Putnam, and Glenn Edgerton, as well as in several of the company's established ballets, including appearances as the Snow Queen, Sugar Plum Fairy, Waltz and Spanish soloist in PDT's annual Nutcracker and as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.