Jacqueline Green

Jacqueline Green (born 26 December 1989) is an American ballet dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. She is noted for her elegant and commanding presence on stage as well as her unusually rapid ascent in being recognized as a great and powerful dancer.

Early life and education

Green is originally from Baltimore and began her dance training at age 13 at the Baltimore School for the Arts. The audition she completed to gain entrance to the school marked both her first audition and ballet class. During Green's second year of dance, she met respected Ailey alumni dancer Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell who was then actively dancing with the company. Green credits this meeting as pivotal and inspiring, as Fisher-Harrell was another woman of color from Baltimore. Fisher-Harrell encouraged Green and further introduced her to the world of professional dance. Green graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts in 2007. She continued her studies and went on to attend the Ailey/Fordham University BFA program with Denise Jefferson, graduating in 2011. Green states that, during summer ballet programs she attended, she was often the only or one of very few Black students and found dealing with white staff and students' expectations of Black bodies challenging.

Career

Green impressed the Ailey American Dance Theater’s incoming artistic director, Robert Battle, when she performed with Ailey II in ''Shards'' by the esteemed Seattle choreographer Donald Byrd. She auditioned for and was invited to join the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2011.

Green received a dance fellowship award from the Princess Grace Foundation in 2014. She has been granted prominent roles in many productions at Ailey including one in ''Pas de Duke'' and the key "umbrella" role in ''Revelations'', both by artistic director Judith Jamison. She also worked with Jamison in 2018 on ''Cry''.

In 2019, Green was recognized for her strong stage presence when performing in Donald Byrd’s "Greenwood", a dance production centered around the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

Green performed in ''Ode'', a work by the Miami-born choreographer Jamar Roberts that premiered in 2019 and whose subject matter was gun violence and its effects. ''The Observer'' praised both Roberts and Green for ''Ode'', stating that the work was "strengthened by the presence of Jacqueline Green in the central role—tall, strong, commanding yet modest, she has emerged as the company’s star. You can't keep your eyes off her, and you find yourself speculating on how she can expand her range." A reviewer at the ''Financial Times'' also lauded Roberts' ''Ode'' and described Green as "bewitching".

Considered a powerful talent and regarded as unusual for ascending so quickly despite a late start in her dance training, Green continues to impress critics with her abilities. She credits her success to the late Alvin Ailey, founder of the Ailey Dance Theater and a celebrated cultural leader and recipient of numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Personal life

It was reported in 2019 that Preston Miller is Green's fiancé.

References

External links

Rising Alvin Ailey Star Jacqueline Green on CBS This Morning

Green performing Jamison's "Cry"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Jacqueline
Living people
African-American ballerinas
1989 births
Fordham University alumni
Princess Grace Awards winners
Dancers from Maryland
Entertainers from Baltimore
21st-century American ballet dancers
21st-century American women