Clara Garcia is in her second year as head coach of the Ave Maria University competitive dance coach. Garcia assumed the role in June of 2022.
In Garcia's first season as the head of the dance program, the Gyrenes finished in second place at the NAIA Southeast Regionals.
Before arriving at AMU, Garcia taught select ballet, jazz, and lyrical classes at Edna Lee Dance Studio in Maryland for competitive middle school and high school level dancers.
As a dancer, she is proficient in ballet, jazz, tap, musical theater, lyrical, contemporary, modern, and pointe styles, while also possessing knowledge in acro and ballroom dancing. She competed throughout her childhood, and placed regionally and nationally for both solo and group competition.
Garcia is a graduate of the Catholic University of America, where she earned a Bachelor's of Music degree, concentrating in Musical Theater Performance, with minors in Dance and Theology. Additionally, she performed in musicals at the university including 9 to 5 and The Threepenny Opera, and she choreographed for Lumina Theatre Company in Baltimore.
