Quick Facts
Biography
Ana Ines Barragan King (born 1957 in Bucaramanga, The Republic of Colombia) is the founder of the Latin Ballet of Virginia. She is a professional dancer and choreographer and was a 2016 honoree of Virginia Women in History.
Education
Ana Ines Barragan King attended the Instituto Departmental de Bellas Artes of Colombia, where she earned a BFA in dance and choreography. After moving to Richmond, she studied dance at Virginia Commonwealth University, later joining the faculty in VCU School of the Arts.
Dance career and formation of dance company
While in Colombia, she founded the Santander Jazz Ballet and was its artistic director for a decade. She began a dance company early in the 1990s in Richmond and by 1997 she had established the Latin Ballet of Virginia. For the 2016 production of the Latin Ballet of Virginia's The Legend of the Poinsettia, King featured her fellow VCU faculty member and founder of the Virginia Commonwealth University dance department Frances Wessells.
Honors and awards
In 2011 she received the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts (Dance) and was named Boomer Magazine's "Boomers and Shakers Honoree" in 2013. She won the YWCA of Richmond, Virginia's Outstanding Women Award for Arts in 2015.
Teaching
King is a member of the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts. She teaches and choreographs award-winning dance pieces, including the annual Legend of the Poinsettia, which in 2016 featured among its dancers Frances Wessells.Included in the classes taught by Ana King are master classes in dance taught by invitation at Virginia arts councils, cultural organizations, and colleges.
The Latin Ballet Company of Virginia's educational programs taught by Ana King include subjects such as "Spanish through Dance" about Hispanic language/culture, "Dance as Therapy" for special-needs children, "ELL (ESL) through Dance" with a goal of assimilating international children/families, and "EveryBody Reads!" which is a literacy program. All the educational programs of the Latin Ballet Company meet Standards of Learning (SOL) standards. CultureWorks of Richmond teamed with the Richmond Better Housing Coalition to identify three culturally underserved communities that could benefit from an arts and culture experience. One of the results was a Fiesta Del Sol event featuring Ana Ines Barragan King's Latin Ballet of Virginia at Winchester Green in North Chesterfield County in Virginia.