Natalie Smith Berry

Prof. Natalie Smith Berry (Part-Time Assistant Professor of Dance)

M.F.A. Ballet, University of Oklahoma
Areas of Emphasis: Ballet, History, General Education
Email: nberry2@kennesaw.edu

A native of Arkansas, Natalie Berry received her Master of Fine Arts in Dance with an emphasis in Ballet from the University of Oklahoma in 2002. Upon graduation, Berry was honored with the OU School of Dance White Buffalo Mask Award. Since then she has worked for Winthrop University and Brenau University and has been a guest teacher at Coker College, Middle Tennessee State University, Cary Ballet Conservatory in Cary, N.C. and York County Ballet in Rock Hill, S.C. among others. Berry was invited by the Dekalb County School of the Arts to teach and stage original works and continues to have an ongoing relationship with the program. She has taught at various summer programs including the Summer Wind Youth Ballet, Kennesaw State Summer Dance Clinic, Sawnee Ballet and many more. She was co-director of the Summer Wind Youth Ballet for one season and helped choreograph and stage the mainstage production.  She was the Ballet Mistress for Dancentre South in Woodstock, Ga. where she staged the annual production of The Nutcracker as well as choreographed original works that were performed throughout the southeast. She was commissioned by Ballet Arkansas to create a work on their pre-professional dancers and her work garnered acclaim.  Her choreography has been awarded honorable mention for two years at the Panoply Choreography Contest.  She currently teaches at Impact Dance of Atlanta and serves at the PTA Cultural Arts Chair for her children’s elementary school curating four concerts each year.

Berry has performed with Ballet Arkansas, Oklahoma Festival Ballet and the Alex Spitzer Dance Company. She has studied with such notable teachers such as Dennis Marshall, Dennis Poole, Robert Weiss, David Howard, Alonzo King, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Patricia McBride, Bill Evans and Miguel Terekhov. She has danced in The Nutcracker, Giselle, Gaite Parisienne, Carmina Burina, The Sleeping Beauty, Postmark Graceland and Serenade among other original works.