ABOUT

GRACIELA ACEDO

Began her ballet training in Caracas, Venezuela where she was born and raised; won a government scholarship to study at Boston Ballet and later she was awarded another scholarship from Harkness Ballet in New York. She has a BFA in performing arts from Saint Mary’s College. In 2005 she was honored with a grant award from the University of San Francisco to study pedagogy in Cuba where she received a certificate of methodology and pedagogy on the Cuban syllabus. In 2014 she was awarded with the teaching development fund to do an Intensive Pedagogical Immersion with Celia Marino.She is a certified Progressing Ballet Technique teacher

Her first ballet company was Ballet Teresa Carreño, in Venezuela, directed by Enrique Martinez, where she performed the classical repertoire, sharing the stage with prestigious ballet dancers such as, Rudolf Nureyev, Fernando Bujones and Julio Boca.

She was a principal dancer with Ballet Nuevo Mundo de Caracas, a contemporary ballet company directed by Zhandra Rodriguez, worked with choreographers such as Judith Jamison, Ulises Dove, John Butler, Gustavo Mallajoli, Elisa Monte, Paulo Denubila, Dennis Nahat, Choo San Goh, and Donald Mackayle among others. She traveled to Europe, Asia, South America and the Caribbean.

In the United States Graciela performed with Oakland Ballet and has been a guest artist with many bay area dance companies. Acedo have been teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area for over twenty years, she is a faculty member of San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA) and has created original work for them for the last ten years. As an adjunct professor of University of San Francisco she has created a relationship between Alonzo King Lines Ballet and students from USF. With the pre-professional program from Diablo Ballet she has staged the classical repertoire. As a main ballet teacher for the Dance Attack School (Sunnyvale) she created the ballet curriculum and program. She is also a faculty member at Ayako Ballet School and at Berkeley Ballet. Former Associated Director of Western Ballet where she developed the Youth Program; co-directed the Summer programs for Pacific Dance Theater of San Francisco. She was also former faculty member of University of Nebraska and Founding Associate Director and dancer for the Mark Foehringer dance project of San Francisco. Graciela taught company class for Oakland Ballet, Napoles Ballet and Dance Theater of San Francisco. as well as being a guest teacher at America’s Ballet in Tampa, Florida; Ballet de las Americas in Venezuela , and California State University, Los Angeles. She has been a judge for ballet competitions.

Acedo was faculty member and organizer of the first summer program study abroad at Webster University Geneva, Switzerland. As well as teaching at the Geneva Conservatoire. In 2015 Graciela started a program for Latino kids at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. In the summer of the same year she was invited to teach Intermediate ballet class at San Francisco Dance Center.

Graciela encourages students to strive for professional careers while giving them individual attention, stressing impeccable technique and nurturing the growth of their uniqueness. She believes in the importance of creating versatile dancers. Many of her students have gone on to dance with professional companies such as San Francisco Ballet, Julliard, Napoles Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Le Grand Ballet of Canada, Boston Conservatory,  and other important dance programs.