Casey Harkness Andrade

FSPA Dance Director, Dance Company Director; Instructor of Jazz, Contemporary, and Dance for Musical Theater

Casey Harkness Andrade is a professional choreographer, educator, and performer. She received  her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Dance  Performance from Rhode Island College where she trained and studied with  exceptional choreographers including Clay Talifaro, Sean Curran, Colleen Cavanaugh, and Mark Taylor. Casey has worked and performed with various artists throughout the Northeast. While dancing with the  Andary Dance Company, Casey had the opportunity to perform at the Cunningham School in New York City. As a member of the Franklin Performing Arts Company,  Casey has enjoyed roles such as Morticia  in The Addams Family and Mayzie in  Seussical. Casey has ten years experience being an adjudicator and choreographer for regional and national competitions such as Elite Dance Challenge and  Celebration Talent. She has been an  adjunct faculty instructor at Rhode Island College, where she taught jazz and worked with the RIC Dance Company as assistant rehearsal director. Casey is currently an adjunct professor at Dean College,  teaching courses in both jazz and tap.  A member of FSPA’s Dance Faculty since 2011, Casey is the director of the dance department and the FSPA Dance  Company. She teaches a variety of classes  in dance and musical theater as well as  creates and facilitates curriculum,  placement of students, and performances for the school.  

Jeremy Ruth Howes

Instructor of Ballet and Contemporary

Jeremy Ruth Howes is a noted choreographer, educator, dancer, and freelance photographer. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College and a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Dance. She received her early training from Mihailo Djuric and Susan Duffy and she also studied at Boston Ballet School and the Martha Graham School. For the past 17 years she has been a dancer with Anna Myer and Dancers creating roles in Myer’s original choreography. Early in her career she danced with Virginia Ballet Theatre and Northern Ballet Theatre and as a guest artist with Hartford Ballet and Northeast Youth Ballet. Her diverse repertoire includes principal and soloist roles in neoclassical, contemporary and classical ballets including: George Balanchine’s Serenade, Martha Graham’s Steps in the Street, Katie Stevinson-Nollet’s Guernsey Fields, Thang Dao’s Adagio 4:4, Denise Cecere’s The Nutcracker, Passion, Big Band, Three Little Pigs and Ma Goose, Peggy Lyman Hayes’ Yes, is a World and the full-length ballet’s of Le Corsaire, Swan Lake, La Bayadère, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, Paquita and The Sleeping Beauty. Jeremy Ruth is also a highly sought-after educator and award-winning choreographer. Her choreography has been performed internationally and featured at the American College Dance Festival. She has created 21 original ballets for Dean College’s Dance Company and her newest ballet Ocean’s Apart premiered alongside work by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux and Joseph Jefferies at Northeast School of Ballet’s Fall Series. She is on faculty at The Conservatory at Northeast School of Ballet, Dean College and Walker’s Dance. She is a Resident Choreographer and Company Photographer for Northeast Youth Ballet. Many of her students have gone on to study at prestigious summer programs and dance with companies around the world. She is excited to join the faculty of the Franklin School for the Performing Arts this year. Her greatest joy is instilling the love of ballet in her students and watching the transformative power of dance in action.