Airdance - Philippine Contemporary Dance Company

Clarissa Mijares is a young professional with solid foundation in formal dance education, performance, production and pedagogy.

Clarissa started her formal dance training at the age of nine under Felicitas Radaic. She is knowledgeable in classical ballet, modern ballet, contemporary dance, jazz, tap and folk dance. She also dances Pangalay, Flamenco and Indian Classical Bharatanatyam. Her dance teachers include Basilio Esteban Villaruz, Violeta Velasco, Paul Morales, Angel Lawenko-Baguilat, Donna Miranda, Christine Novales-Maranan, Ligaya Frenando- Amilbagsa (Pangalay), Tatiana Balashova (Flamenco), and Shanti Sreedhar (Bharatanatyam).

To widen her range and expose herself to the other facets of dance, Clarissa participates in dance festivals in the Philippines and abroad. She has joined dance festivals initiated by the World Dance Alliance in Malaysia and Hongkong. In 2006, she studied Elementary Labanotation in Taipei, Taiwan under the auspices of WDA-Asia Pacific. Clarissa was part of the Philippine delegation of ballet teachers who observed dance classes at the very prestigious Beijing Dance Academy in May of 2007.

She has a degree in Dance from the U.P. College of Music where she graduated cum laude. Clarissa is the first honor graduate of the dance program of the University of the Philippines. She has also taken additional credits in Art Studies from the College of Arts and Letters in U.P. Clarissa is a member of the Honor Society of the Phi Kappa Phi.

Currently, Clarissa is a lecturer at the College of St. Benilde and a dance teacher at the Radaic School of Classical Ballet and My Masterpiece Arts Center. Clarissa is a member of Airdance, a contemporary dance company in the Philippines. She writes for Runthu, a dance magazine in the Philippines. Her writings have also been featured in local newspapers and in World Dance Alliance publication, Shifting Sands.

To further her skills in research and writing, she is pursuing graduate studies in Anthropology at the Ateneo de Manila University at present.

A budding dance artist and scholar, Clarissa is very much interested in music, dance, theater, and culture and takes every opportunity to learn as well as share her knowledge with others.