Mrs. Krista Di Lello
Krista Di Lello was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, where she grew up taking the Cecchetti and R.A.D. ballet international exams, as well as modern, tap, jazz, character, and musical theater. She taught English to children in Japan for one year after graduating high school. She received her Associates Degree in Dance from BYU-Idaho and then attended Brigham Young University in Utah where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Dance Education with a minor endorsement in Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL k-12). While at BYU Krista has performed on various companies including DancEnsemble, Ballroom Team (where she met her husband, a ballroom dancer), International Folk Dance Team, Kinnect, and other individual projects, including “Lost: Women of the Mormon Battalion.” She continues to perform in various semi-professional and professional performances throughout Utah. Krista was a panel presenter at NDEO in Michigan in 2004 where she explained her experience with collaborative choreography in the public school setting. She was a co-presenter at the NDEO Conference in Alabama presenting her research with with math and physics exploration through movement and partnering in the high school. Krista received her BASI Pilates and Dance Conditioning license in 2009 in California from Karen Clippinger. Krista recently was asked to teach the teen technique class at "dance and the Child international" conference in Texas in the summer of 2011. She has been teaching dance, aerobics, social dance and Artistic Director of the Performing Dance Company since 2005. Krista has been elected the "Utah Dance Education Organization" High School Representative for Utah. She is in her last year in graduate school obtaining a Master Degree in Dance Education from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She has 2 boys ages 6 and 8, a new baby girl, and a husband who serves in the Utah Army National Guard. 
Why I Teach?
When I was young I didn’t want to be a teacher, I wanted to be a dancer. So I danced. Then right after I graduated high school I hopped on over to Japan to teach English to kids for a year. This new adventure lead me to discover a love for teaching. I did not speak any Japanese, so I created exciting activities and games and realized how important the use of my body was to help communicate. It was fun!
Discovering Dance Education in college opened up my eyes to learning and to dance. I never had this back in my high school in Canada. The research is amazing about the importance of the arts, and especially dance, in the development of the whole person and how it helps improve intellectual academics.
I want my students to be creative problem solvers and to “think outside the box”, as these are the minds that will be the innovators and inventors of the next generation. I don’t want them to just memorize facts or do meaningless rote repletion coping what the teacher does like a robot. I believe that “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” (Alvin Toffler). It is my job to educate and to also teach how to think, learn, adapt, and apply.
I am very passionate about Dance Education. I have experienced first hand the breath of life that enlivens me when I dance. I wish for all to have the chance to experience the joys of movement, creative expression, exercise, problem solving, improvisation, creation, and performance. Everyone can dance, whether they are 1 or 101, whether they have 2 left feet or no feet at all, we all have the right to dance.
I know that I love what I do when I see my students trying and discovering new things for themselves, and getting excited about it. It is my greatest joy as a teacher to see that my students not only learned what I taught, but have learned to think, problem solve, and create. I have an important job, and I hope each year that my students will be open and willing to take the leap with me. For “it is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” Albert Einstein.
~Krista Di Lello
(always a student, always learning, always growing)
