Charisse Ponder
Teaching Artist
She/Her
Charisse Ponder (hear it) is a teacher, choreographer, and dancer working in the Twin Cities and Northfield communities for over 40 years. She trained as a classical ballet dancer at the Joffrey Ballet and a variety of schools in New York City and carries this instruction into all her work. Charisse performed with St. Paul Classical Ballet, Minnesota Dance Theater, Prairie Home Companion, Joe Chvala’s Flying Foot Forum Residency, Four Seasons Dance, and the Young Dance All Abilities Classes.
Charisse taught Young Dance All Abilities Classes in both classroom and outreach spaces. Since 2022, she has developed the online All Abilities Dancing offering. She has attended trainings for working with dancers with disabilities through Spark Inclusive Arts and Young Dance.
Charisse is also currently teaching and invested in collaboration with Big Woods Movement Collective in Northfield, where she teaches a ballet class for 55+ that inspires well-being and longevity awareness through gentle ballet technique.
Charisse is also passionate about language and culture and studies Spanish and French languages.
2024/25 Session Teaching Roster: All Abilities Dancing