Brittany Balandis, a junior at Fairport High School, was crowned as New York's Outstanding Teen on October 21st, 2006 in Binghamton, NY. Brittany took over the reins from Maria DeSantis (click for more), who went on to become Miss America's Outstanding Teen.
Brittany has spent her year as NYOT developing her platform, Encouraging The Performing Arts in Elementary Schools, by directing the musical "Mother Goose, Inc." at Brooks Hill Elementary School in Fairport. She worked with a cast and crew of over 100 enthusiastic second, third, fourth and fifth grade students, and held practices three days a week for five months. Brittany and her students had an excellent performance on May 4th, 2007 and are now very excited to get to work on next year's show!
Brittany is also actively involved in school clubs and organizations, including National Honors Society, Spanish National Honors Society, and working as an Editor for the school newspaper.
Brittany has been dancing for over 13 years and has a passion for performing. She just recently performed in Flower City Ballet's "The Nutcracker", dancing the role of "The Mouse King". Her credits include "Belle" in the Cobblestone production of "Beauty and the Beast", "Topsy" in Irondequoit Theatre Guild's "The King And I", and "Chastity" in Minerva DeLand's "Anything Goes".
Brittany has won numerous awards at dance competitions through out her years, however the most significant award happens to be the most recent: she won the Top-Student Choreography Award at the Footloose National Dance Competition, placing 1st in her category, for her self-choreographed tap number to the theme music from Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean."
Brittany is also a dance instructor at Bella Voce Performing Arts Studio in Fairport, NY. She has been working at Bella Voce for three years, teaching musical theater for children, tap, jazz and the Drama Autism teen class.
Brittany is honored to have the opportunity to represent New York in 2006 and wishes the girls competing for the title in 2007 good luck!
