Kristina Lind

Born and raised in San Jose, Kristina began taking ballet classes at the age of four with Maggie and Xavier Ferla at Dance Theatre International. At age 17, she was invited to join the trainee program with the San Francisco Ballet, under the direction of Jean-Yves Esquerre. Two years later, she was offered a corps de ballet position in the company by Helgi Tomasson. Kristina danced with the San Francisco Ballet for six seasons, performing principal roles in Jerome Robbins' "Glass Pieces", George Balanchine's "The Four Temperaments", and Helgi Tomasson's "The Nutcracker". 

In 2015, she was given the opportunity to join the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam, and began a new chapter in Europe. Amsterdam offered greater exposure to more classical full length ballets, such as Giselle, John Cranko's "Onegin", Wayne Eagling's "The Nutcracker", and Natalia Makarova's "La Bayadere", as well as depth into the unity of the corps de ballet in those productions. 

In 2017, Kristina received an invitation to audition for the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich. She was offered a soloist contract, and decided to make the move to Germany. While in Munich, Kristina rose to the rank of principal dancer, and dove into their vast repertoire of classical and contemporary choreographers. During her seven seasons with the company, she performed leading roles in works by John Neumeier, John Cranko, George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Wayne McGregor, and Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon. Her favorite roles were "Manon" in Neumeier's "Lady of the Camellias", "Diamonds" and "Emeralds" in Balanchine's "Jewels", and "Bianca" in Cranko's "The Taming of the Shrew". 

Kristina brings this wide range of experience to her classes. The opportunity to develop her teaching began early on, when she was a student teacher to the younger levels at Dance Theatre International. She has continued to teach throughout her performing career, and has experience teaching masterclass and choreography workshops to youth and adult ballet students. Kristi has recently begun teaching ballet to absolute beginners - both children and adults. She loves introducing new dancers to the beauty of ballet, as well as sharing in the joy of discovering how graceful and expressive the body can be.