Christa St. John

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WKU Theatre and Dance Alum

Christa St. John is a professional ballet dancer, choreographer, and pedagogue. She began her early training in Colorado and at the age of 16, joined the Studio Company at Ballet Chicago under the artistic direction of former City Ballet Principal Dancer, Daniel Duell.

At Ballet Chicago, she had the opportunity to dance in a substantial amount of repertoire created by George Balanchine including Concerto Barocco, Serenade, Stars and Stripes, and Valse Fantaisie. At 17, Christa joined Ballet Austin and then continued her professional career dancing with Louisville and Key West Contemporary Dance Company. In 2011, she joined Northwest Florida Ballet as a Soloist with the company and became the director of the Northwest Florida Ballet Académie's Elementary Division.

As Elementary Division Director, she oversaw the implementation of syllabi for four levels of pre-professional ballet dancers and trained incoming Ballet Académie instructors. Throughout her thirteen-year professional ballet career, she performed diverse classical and contemporary repertoire. Some of her favorite roles include Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, The Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid, and the principal female in Fernando Bujones' Jazz Swing. In 2014, Ballet Indiana commissioned Christa to stage her own full-length version of The Nutcracker.

In 2017, she joined the faculty of Western Kentucky University's (WKU) Department of Theatre and Dance. She has created several choreographic works for the WKU Dance Company including multiple collaborations with the WKU Symphony. She continues to serve as a master teacher, guest artist, and choreographer across the United States. Christa is married to conductor and composer Brian St. John.