Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish

Elizabeth started dancing at the age of five and became the youngest member of Ballet Philippines. She came to the United States as a teenager and studied at the Ailey School and then danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Joyce Trisler and other companies before joining Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1984. She was the First Filipina principal dancer with the company. The New York Times described her as “a cool, still, lyrical center of the Ailey Storm”. She was featured in 1997 for Dance Magazine’s cover article and named by Avenue magazine as one of the 500 most influential Asian-Americans. After leaving Ailey in 1997, she continued to guest for the Ailey company through the years and continues to teach at the Ailey School. She has also taught at Harvard, Sara Lawrence and other colleges. Elizabeth received the Ma-Yi Theater Award honoring her contributions to the Arts. She has choreographed for regional theaters as well as for Off Broadway shows in New York as well as being commissioned to create works Internationally and in the United States. She has created several dance films as well as for the 2020 Soho International Film Festival and for the The Philippines Fifth Wall Fest in 2021. Her most recent project was creating a work for the Ailey 11 Dance Company, which will premiere this March 2023 in New York.