Adalhi Aranda, founder and director of Bluegrass Youth Ballet, is originally from Leon, Mexico. She trained under the Royal Academy of Dancing system. She continued in Guadalajara where she became a professional dancer and started teaching. There she was the founder and director of a small ballet school where she started her creative process of choreographing full-length ballets.

Adalhi moved to the US in 1994 and danced at Evansville Dance Theatre, IN where she also served as Ballet Mistress. She continued her career as a dancer and teacher when she moved to Lexington in 1999. She danced for Lexington Ballet, Ballet Theatre of Chicago and Kentucky Ballet Theatre, where she directed the Academy.

She has attended the Vaganova Syllabus seminar in Connecticut. Adalhi has danced numerous soloist and demi-soloist roles such as Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker), Swanilda (Coppelia), Paquita, Romeo and Juliet, Dracula, Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and others.

Adalhi created Bluegrass Youth Ballet in 2003 to satisfy the need for high quality dance education in a healthy, fun and encouraging environment. Here the students are the priority and are provided with performance opportunities.

She has also created numerous full length ballets, such as Pied Piper, Arabella’s Journey, Alebrijes – a dream that became art, Tales of tails, and her signature Nutcracker in One Act and Dia de los Muertos – performed for hundreds of people every year. She has also created short pieces such as Huapango, Hechizo de Luna, Banjo Fun, Four Seasons, El Baile, Ara and many others.

Several of Adalhi’s students have followed professional careers as dancers in companies such as New York City Ballet, Dance Theatre of Tennessee, California Ballet, Anchorage Ballet, Ballet Magnificat!, Atlanta Ballet, Augsburg Ballett and others. Her students every year are accepted in prestigious ballet summer programs such as Boston Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, School of American Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Ballet Chicago, North Carolina School for the Arts, Cincinnati Ballet, Nutmeg Ballet and others. Her students also have participated in the Youth America Grand Prix Ballet competition and have placed high in their categories, and have qualified to perform at the finals in NYC.

Adalhi has a daughter, Adalhi Elena who was born in 2003, and a son, Mariano Renato who was born in 2008.