Nancy Raffa

Nancy Raffa is an American ballet master and former professional dancer born in Brooklyn, New York City. Born around 1964, she began studying ballet at the age of seven under the instruction of Gabriella Taub-Darvash. By 1979, she had gained enough recognition to be featured in a New York Times article highlighting young dancers.

In 1980, at sixteen years old, Raffa became the youngest competitor and the first American woman to win the Gold Medal at the Prix de Lausanne international ballet competition. That same year, she appeared on Broadway with Makarova and Company, the production featuring Natalia Makarova.

Raffa joined the American Ballet Theatre in 1981 as a member of the corps de ballet, and that year she also performed at Jacob's Pillow, the dance center in Massachusetts. Her career subsequently took her to several major companies, including Ballet de Santiago, Ballet National Francaise, and Miami City Ballet, where she danced as a principal. Among her notable roles was Swanilda in Coppelia, which she performed in 1987 and which the New York Times reviewed that year. She also danced in Twyla Tharp's Push Comes to Shove alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov, and participated in a Tharp performance in 1985.

Following a serious injury that ended her performing career, Raffa transitioned into teaching and coaching. She joined the staff of the Miami City Ballet School in 1994 and later became head director of the American Ballet Theatre's National Summer Intensive program. In 2007, she was promoted to ballet mistress with the main ABT company. She has additionally worked with the American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and collaborated closely with resident choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, assisting in the choreographic process for every ballet he has created with ABT and setting his works with companies internationally.

Raffa received two special teacher's recognition awards from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts and was awarded a grant from the United States Information Services designating her a cultural ambassador for a company and school in Honduras. In 2002, she graduated magna cum laude from St. Thomas University with a bachelor's degree in Psychology.