Our Teachers!
Tuesday Faust
Tuesday Faust is proud to be directing children's ballet (ages 3-8) for Taos Dance Collective!
She has enjoyed a 15 year long professional dance career as a modern dancer. Most of her dance career has been in Kansas City as a principal dancer and choreographer with 940 Dance Company, City in Motion Dance Theater, aha! dance theater, Quixotic, Jane Gotch and co-director of Trapdoor Slippers.
She has taught all ages and levels of dancers in Kansas City dance studios, as well as adjunct dance instructor at Penn Valley Community College and William Jewell College. In 2003-2004 she lived in Amsterdam NL where she studied dance at SNDO and the Park studio, and performed in many independent projects including Cobra (Laura Moro and Nathan Fuhr) and Performance Hotel (David Hernandez and Renate Graziadei). In 2007-2008 she lived in NYC where she performed with Tze Chun Dance Company and Stone Dance Depot, and taught dance at Education in Dance (public schools in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx) and the Little Red Schoolhouse.
Since moving to Taos in 2013 her primary focus is sharing her passion for dance with some of the youngest dancers in Taos, New Mexico where she weaves the stories, props and music of ballet into each class. She also teaches Yoga and Dance at the Taos Day School and Anansi Day School.
She lives with her husband Brian, daughters, Elsie and Paloma and two dogs Velvet and Pearle.
Michelle Roaque
Michelle F. Roaque dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Michelle was born and raised in Taos, NM and started dance when she was four years of age at the Bette Winslow Dance Studio.
She has trained under Bette Winslow, Ludmilla Hart, Amber Vasquez, Jari Poulin, Olga Biagas in Taos and Sheila Ross at Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.
Training in many forms of dance including Jazz, Tap, Modern, Theatrical dance and Ballet/Pointe. She graduated from Taos High School, then went to pursue her degree at Eastern New Mexico University. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in University Studies with an emphasis in Theater and Dance. Dance has been a part of her life for 31 years, ten of those years she has been teaching dance.
Michelle has also had the opportunity to choreograph for Taos Children’s Theater for the last decade!
She is excited to work with the community, and enjoys incorporating her love of dance and movement in her classes, and is now teaching here at The Taos Dance Collective, as a dance instructor of Ballet and Tap. She also hopes to include workshops in Ballroom/Partner dance with her husband, Martin Roaque in the near future.
Laryssa Short
Laryssa Short is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and a member of DanceWorx since 2019. She was raised in Taos, New Mexico, and started dancing under the mentorship of Amber Vasquez in 2006. She fell in love with teaching at age 15, and has taught all ages from 2-82 throughout the last 10 years. She feels very fortunate to have had training from many nationally and internationally renowned teachers through the years.
Laryssa is constantly expanding her knowledge of dance, body mechanics, and education. She lived in NJ for the 2022/2023 school year to continue her 3 years of study in a program for young professional dancers called The Bridge Movement. There she studied various dance styles as well as acting, singing, and Neuromuscular training.
As a choreographer, Laryssa has had wonderful opportunities to choreograph and collaborate on many projects, as well as create her own work. Some of her recent work includes a collaborative piece for The Paseo 2019, also in 2019, a piece titled “Memories”, a duet co-choreographed and performed by her and Amber Vasquez. In May 2023 she created her solo, “Metamorphosis” for The Bridge Movement showcase 2023, which was performed in NYC in The Alvin Ailey Blackbox Theater.
Laryssa has been a part of bringing dance education into local schools, primarily by co-teaching the dance club for Taos Charter School with Amber Vasquez. Over the years she has worked at Twirl as one of the teachers of the ballet class, and this year started working for Twirl supporting arts in the community.
In her classes Laryssa focuses on the love of dance, and how each student can uncover their unique gifts. She also works to incorporate mental skills and relaxation tools in her teaching methods. She is passionate about the study of anatomy, and focuses on healthy bio-mechanics for her students. She is honored and excited to be a member of The Taos Dance Collective.
Amber Vasquez
New Mexico native Amber has enjoyed a varied career in the arts, spanning over 30 years.
Beginning as a professional modern dancer in New York City, she transitioned to Taos, opening a Dance studio which she ran for 18 years as well as establishing a program called "Dance and Learn," a free innovative arts program for Taos school children, blending dance and music with academic standards.
Currently, Amber wears multiple hats in the arts community. She directs DanceWorx, a STEAM-based dance company in Taos, and coordinates early childhood programs at Twirl Play and Discovery Space, crafting play-based STEAM initiatives. As education coordinator at The Paseo Project, she merges art with math, science, and computer science curricula to enrich classroom experiences and Internships.
In addition, Amber serves as the choreographer for John Biscello's Youth Ensemble theater company and volunteers as a youth education advocate in the community.
Amber's advocacy for arts-integrated education extends statewide earning her the Janet Webb Community Engagement Award in 2018, acknowledgement in “Early learning through the arts” from The Advisory council on Arts Education in 2020, and recognition as one of Taos County's Eight Women of Impact in 2023.
Outside the arts, Amber delights in her family, skiing, traveling and cherishing family moments.