Bio

Audrey Fenske began her training at Bounds Dance Studio and Triangle Youth Ballet in Chapel Hill, North Carolina under Lauren Lorentz de Haas, Christine Grider, Ashlyn Sumner, and Barbara Bounds.

During her high school years, Audrey trained at Virginia School of the Arts. At VSA, besides the full-time faculty of the school, she also received training from Jeff Rogers, Lorraine Graves, Gayla Zukevich, Denise Shultz, Louis Godfrey, Malcolm Burn, and Todd Rosenlieb. She received several awards from Virginia School of the Arts, including the Randolph Macon Women’s College Book Award and the Service Award upon graduation. While at VSA, Audrey danced featured roles in Sleeping Beauty (the Canary Fairy), and the Nutcracker (Columbine, Les Chinois), as well as in original works by David Keener and Ricardo Melendez. She also performed in Balanchine’s Serenade, and Kathy Brenner’s staging of Paquita. Audrey’s summer intensive training included time with Charlotte City Ballet, Houston Ballet, BalletMet Columbus, Pilobolus, and Virginia School of the Arts.

Audrey continued her training at Duke University under their renowned Dance Program faculty, including Tyler Walters, Julie Janus Walters, Clay Taliaferro, M’Liss Dorrance, Keval Kaur Khalsa, Barbara Dickinson, and Leonard Cruz. She graduated from Duke as the university’s first Dance major, and received the Dance Program’s highest award, the Julia Wray Memorial Award, as well the most prestigious award given to university-trained artists, the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts. While at Duke, Audrey danced in original works by the aforementioned faculty members, as well as Keith Thompson. Audrey also performed in Melissa Hayden’s Gershwin Medley, Bill T. Jones’ Chapel/Chapter, Tywla Tharp’s Torelli, and danced Tywla Tharp’s original role in Tharp’s Eight Jelly Rolls (staged by Kate Glasner).

Audrey’s first choreographic work was performed at Virginia School of the Arts, and featured dancers who are now dancing with Ballet West, Richmond Ballet, Dayton Ballet, and Boston Ballet. This work, Do You Only Wanna Dance?, was awarded at the Regional High School Dance Festival in Baltimore, MD, and was performed at the world-renowned Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Chalreston, SC. Several works which Audrey created at Duke were performed at the American College Dance Festival, as well as on Duke Dance Program’s mainstage productions, Choreolab and November Dances. Audrey also produced, directed, and developed her own full-length evening of works entitled Joissance: An Evening of Dance by Audrey Fenske, which performed on two nights to standing-room-only crowds. Her work has since been commissioned by Triangle Youth Ballet, Merge Records, and Duke University’s Dance Program. Her work for Merge Records was featured in Merge in Motion, a dance performance coinciding with Merge’s 20th anniversary festival, Merge XX.

Audrey continues to teach in the Triangle area of North Carolina, at both Walltown Children’s Theatre and Triangle Youth Ballet, where she directs the branch of the school at Durham Arts Council. She also teaches extensively at the Chapel Hill location of the school. With Triangle Youth Ballet she has continued to perform, most recently as Mina Harker in the school’s production of Dracula, where she performed with Erick Uphoff (a member of the band Skyline) as Jonathan Harker, and Anne Sandefur (formerly of Orlando Ballet) as Lucy Westenra. Aside from a degree in Dance, Audrey also has a BA in Developmental Psychology from Duke, giving her unique and knowledgeable insight into teaching children.