Staff Bios

ROSEMARY LUKSHA - Instructor

Ms. Luksha has been a teacher for more than thirty-five years. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Art Education from Kutztown University, and M.E. in Art and Education, and an M.S. degree in Education from Wilkes-University. She is currently teaching high school art full time at Northwest Area High School and is pursuing an MFA in Illustration at Marywood University in Scranton. She is thrilled to be teaching dance as a faculty member at the Joan Harris Centre. Her formal training in modern dance began in college and she performed in Kutztown Performing Portmanteau at Kutztown University under the directions of Deanna Lenhart. After graduation, she began ballet training at age 21 under Ms. Jozia Mieszkowski, the artistic director of the Wilkes-Barre Ballet Theater. Rosemary became a company member and appeared in the ballet classics of “The Sleeping Beauty”, “The Nutcracker”, “Coppelia”, and in “Spanish Dances”, and “Raymonda Variations’ originally choreographed by Ms. Jozia. She studied modern dance under Ms. Jonette Lancos Wentzel and appeared as a soloist in modern works, “Carmina Bulrana”, “mass”, and “Scheherezade,”. Ms. Luksha choreographed a modern work “Continue The Balance We Hold” for the Wilkes-Barre Ballet Theatre, which was performed on the Young Choreographer’s Workshop Program at the Northeast Ballet Festival, and for which she was awarded a summer scholarship to the Melissa Hayden Ballet School in New York. Ms. Luksha was the co recipient of an NAEA Innovation Grant in 2006 to start a Dance Team at Northwest, and to form partnerships with resident dance companies.