Joshua Trader

Born in San Francisco, CA, Joshua Trader trained at the Academy of Ballet under the Direction of Richard Gibson. After completing his training he joined Eugene Ballet for two years where he danced numerous leading roles. He then joined Tulsa Ballet for eight years where he expanded his classical and contemporary works and was privileged to dance in the works of the world’s leading choreographers including Jiří Kylián, Nacho Duato, Val Caniparoli, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Hans van Manen, Christopher Wheeldon, Nicolo Fonte and Stanton Welch among others.

Mr.Trader was always interested in teaching ballet and began teaching early into his dance career. Some of his teaching credits include The Joffrey Ballet Summer Workshop in San Antonio, TX, Ballet Idaho Academy, Tulsa Ballet Center For Dance Education and Tulsa Ballet’s junior company Tulsa Ballet II. Upon retiring from the stage in 2010, Joshua began teaching full time at his alma mater the Academy of Ballet in San Francisco, CA. While teaching at the Academy he was instrumental in helping young students achieve their goal of becoming professional dancers. His students joined the likes of National Ballet Of Canada, Kansas City Ballet, Ballet West II, The Julliard School, and Fordam University among others.

In the fall of 2015, Mr. Trader and his family moved to Santa Rosa and he joined the faculty of Santa Rosa Dance Theater. In the Summer of 2017, Joshua was honored to be named the Artistic Director of SRDT. After 7 years of directing Santa Rosa Dance Theater, Mr. Trader is excited to join the faculty of Ballet West Academy.