Teaching Bio

J Ryan is now in his 4th year as a regular teacher at Het National Ballet Academie and in his 1st year as a regular teacher at Codarts for the Bachelors of Dance Program and Dan Docenten Dept. He teaches the Harkness Ballet Method as taught by his mentor David Howard and is a certified Yoga Narada® teacher, developed by his mentor Hilary Cartwright.

Over the course of 4 seasons living and working in The Netherlands he has been a regular guest teacher for Introdans, Conny Janssen Danst, De Dutch Don’t Dance Division, Amsterdam University of the Arts Expanded Contemporary Division, ArtEZ Enschede, ICK, De Stilte, ArtEZ Arnhem, Korzo, Fontys, Henny Jurriens Studio, and ArtEZ Lyceum, among others.

In 2023, he had the pleasure of presenting 4 teachers training workshops at ArtEZ Enschede, Dansbelang and the last two presented by the National Ballet Academie.

In 2023, J Ryan represented Ernst Meisner and the Dutch National Ballet Academie as an adjudicator and teacher at the Italian Dance Awards, YGP Semi Finals in Barcelona, in 2024 at AmsterDans International Competition and again in Feb of 2025 at EUROPAINDANZA in Rome.

In the summer of 2025 Ryan will collaborate with his mentor Hilary Cartwright as they present together the first teachers training workshop for Yoga Narada®. The workshop will take place in Den Haag and will be in 2 sections. The first section will be taught by Ryan and will serve as an introduction to teaching Yoga Narada® and the second section will be taught by Hilary Cartwright to delve further into the teaching.

Before moving to the Netherlands, J Ryan lived in NYC and was a regular guest teacher at Broadway Dance Center, Peridance, and Ballet Arts. He has served on Faculty at summer programs for American Ballet Theatre, American Academy of Ballet, Peridance, Northwest Florida Ballet, and Joffrey Ballet NY, to name a few.

J Ryan was invited to adjudicate for the South African Dance Championships in Durban, South Africa. While there he taught Cape Town City Ballet II. He taught at the Jakarta Intercultural School in Jakarta, Indonesia.  While there he also taught for the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools Dance Exchange. He also had the pleasure to adjudicate and teach in Mazatlan, Mexico at Danza Sinaloa Concurso Internacional. He was invited to teach and work with dance educators at the TN Association of Dance Conference.

He has taught Yoga Narada® and the Harkness Ballet Method as taught by David Howard at schools, companies, festivals and competitions throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Netherlands and Indonesia.

About Dance

At 19 years old he apprenticed with Laura Alonso’s Ballet Company in Havana, Cuba. He went on to dance with Wes Chapman’s Alabama Ballet as a company member, American Repertory Ballet dancing soloist and principal roles and as a Principal Soloist with Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rico in San Juan. He was also a company member of and Les Ballets Grandiva. He has been a Principal Guest Artist with North West Florida Ballet, Portland Ballet, Western Ballet Theater of Puerto Rico, CoDa21 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Ajkun Ballet Theater in NYC, to name a few. The Ministry of Culture of Puerto Rico invited him to be the Premiere Guest Artist at the 2010 International Dance Festival in San Juan where he danced the Rose in Fokine’s famous “Le Spectre de la Rose” and the Young Man in Roland Petit’s “Le Jeune Homme et la Mort” in the Festival’s Gala performance. This was the first time that either ballet had been danced on the island of Puerto Rico.

Some of J Ryan's favorite dance roles include Oberon in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, Tybalt in ROMEO AND JULIET, Franz in COPPELIA, Cerventes in DON QUIXOTE, Hilarion in GISELLE, Marius in LES MISERABLES, Lucifer in INFERNO, Cavalier and Snow King in NUTCRACKER, Tootles in Septime Weber's PETER PAN, Moor in Fokine's PETRUSCHKA, Prince in CINDERELLA, Twyla Tharp's BAKER'S DOZEN, Claudius in HAMLET, Poet in Jose Pares' POEME, Alberto Mendez's PASION, Dracula in DRACULA,  Siegfried and Rothbart in SWAN LAKE, the Rose in LE SPECTRE DE LA ROSE and Young Man in LE JEUNNE HOMME ET LA MORT.