Erika Schmidt

Erika Schmidt, director of Vital Spark Performance Art Group received her formal dance training with the prestigious faculty at Gus Giordano Studios, Evanston, Illinois. She is professionally trained and certified in the Cecchetti Method of Ballet and has been a teacher, choreographer and performer since 1980. Schmidt has worked with renown  performance artists Rachel Rosenthal at the Omega Institute in  New York and Pat Olesko at the Ringling School of Art, Sarasota. Schmidt  founded Vital Spark  in 1995 while in graduate school at the University of South Florida, Tampa where she received her M.F.A. in 1997. Her multi-media performance projects with Vital Spark include: Prague Fest, Prague, Czech Republic (awarded first place in contemporary choreography) University of Miami. Coral Gables, Fl. Florida Dance Festival, Tampa, Concorso Internazionale Di Danza, Cecena, Italy (awarded first place for Theatre Dance) San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco California, Elon University, Elon, North Carolina and the Jazz Dance World Congress, Chicago, Ill. Erika's choreographic work  extends to musicals for theater and she has been featured as guest choreographer for many dance and theater departments. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and commissions acknowledging her unique approach to performance. 

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