Dream big. Work Hard. Love Always.

Kristi Smith was born in Hanover, MA. She soon after moved to Allentown, PA where she spent the majority of her childhood and initially found her love for dance. Other than performing fireplace musicals and dances with her 3 younger sisters, Kristi studied dance at Steps in Time Academy for Dance and the Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Guild of the Lehigh Valley as well as trained at Repertory Dance Theatre under Trinette Singleton.  She spent a large part of her adolescence playing soccer and field hockey which surely influences her love of athletic, quick movement today. In her junior year of high school, she realized pursuing a dance career was a possibility and decided to follow her heart to New York City. Kristi graduated from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Business from NYU Stern Business School.   

While at NYU, Kristi was exposed to the world of modern dance and was fortunate enough to train with many wonderful companies and choreographers including Larry Keigwin, Susan Marshall, Robert Battle, Ronald K. Brown, David Dorfman, Gina Gibney, and Jill Johnson. Along with school, she continued training at Broadway Dance Center and Steps on Broadway, allowing her to keep jazz and musical theater in her life.  She also spent a summer studying at the Laban Conservatory in Greenwich, England.  

Upon graduation, Kristi was at a crossroads as to what type of dance career she wanted to pursue.  She began apprenticing with TAKE Dance Company as well as dancing with a small contemporary ballet company.

Although she loved what she was doing, she always felt much more at home every M/W/F as she stepped into Josh Bergasse’s theater class at BDC. Knowing in her heart that Broadway has always been her dream, she finally looked into finding a voice teacher and began auditioning for musical theater. This shift was the best decision she could have ever made in more aspects than one. She finally booked Phantom of the Opera at a small downtown black box theater, the Player’s Theater, and has been pursuing MT ever since! 

Kristi has been so fortunate to perform and work in many realms of the dance world over the years and is a strong believer in hard work, experience, and perseverance.  Every opportunity allows one to learn, grow, and connect with the amazing community around us and there is always a story to be told.

Her main joy in what she does has been cultivating wonderful relationships and friendships throughout every experience.

Kristi strives to live life as authentically and positively as possible. She tries her best to take these principles into her work-whether it is performing, auditioning, teaching, assisting, adjudicating, or choreographing.  There is no better feeling than connecting with another’s heart through sharing the love of dance.