Ami Yaro – Founder/Director
Ami Yaro has a BA with honors in Dance and English from the University of Iowa where she received the Dance Department Scholarship and was selected to perform works such as Susan Marshall’s Spectators at an Event and George Balanchine’s Stars and Stripes. Ami has performed with the Des Moines Ballet/Ballet Iowa, Iowa Dance Theatre, The University of Iowa Dance Company and Vine Street Ballet. She has also performed at The Kennedy Center as a national finalist for the American College Dance Festival.
Ami has taught for the University of Iowa Dance Forum, Donna’s Dance Place, Vine Street Ballet, and Robert Thomas Dancenter. She was also an instructor and choreographer for Iowa State Center’s Nutcracker and has been an occasional master teacher at Iowa State University’s Dance Department. She was the intermediate program director at the Burklyn Ballet Theatre’s national summer program in Vermont, and the ballet program director at the Creative Movement Dance Company for nine years. Ami is the founder and Artistic Director of Yaro Dance Company which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. She is also a choreographer and rehearsal director for Iowa Dance Theatre. In 2003 Ami became a Stott Pilates certified trainer.
To date, Ami has received ten choreography awards and three modern dance achievement awards. Her dancers have been accepted for study at many prestigious dance programs such as Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Rock, Joffrey Ballet, Boston Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, Ballet West, Ballet Met, Kansas City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Burklyn Ballet Theatre, Broadway Theatre Dance Workshop, River North Chicago, University of Iowa, University of Arizona,University of Kansas, University of Nebraska, Oklahoma City University, Texas Christian University, University of Utah, and Stephens College. Her students have performed in Broadway shows, various dance companies, college dance teams, become dance instructors, studio owners and professional performers.
Ami is honored to have coached multiple YAGP Hope Award winners as well as a Youth Grand Prix winner.
Emily Weber – Assistant Director
Emily Weber began her training with the Victoria Ballet Theatre in Victoria, Texas as well as the Ballet Austin Senior Summer Intensive, and the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Summer Intensive. During her time with Victoria Ballet Theatre she performed many ballets including: The Nutcracker, Peter and the Wolf, La Bayadere, The Red Shoes, Swan Lake, Don Quixote Suite, and Graduation Ball, as well as other various works of choreography. Along with these performances she also had the opportunity to travel to Austria with Victoria Ballet Theatre to perform in the Tanzsommer Dance Festival.
Emily attended the University of Iowa where she received a BA in Dance in 2010. During her time at the University of Iowa, Emily worked on several independent projects with undergraduate and graduate students, performing in several UI dance concerts as well as creating her own choreographic works. She also collaborated with faculty members on their choreography projects and was an active member of the UI Afro-Cuban Drum and Dance Ensemble. In 2009 she received her certification as a yoga trainer.
After graduating from the University of Iowa in 2010 Emily has taught ballet at Devine Dancers and participated in Iowa Dance Theatre’s Cinderella, Nutcracker and Seven Deadly Sins. She also participated in Yaro Dance Company dancing a variety of roles and is now the Yaro Dance Company rehearsal mistress. In 2018 Emily became a licensed Progressing Ballet Technique instructor. Emily received an MS in Kinesiology from Sam Houston State University successfully completing a thesis with a focus on dance learning in 2020.