Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish

Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish was born in Manila and was the youngest member of Ballet Philippines. She came to New York City in 1979, receiving scholarships to The Joffrey Ballet School, The Martha Graham School, and The Ailey School. Roxas-Dobrish also danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Ohad Naharin, and Joyce Trisler Danscompany. She then joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as its first Filipina dancer and was a principal from 1984-1997. The New York Times described her as “a cool, still, lyrical center of the Ailey storm.” During her career, Roxas-Dobrish has worked with prominent choreographers including Alvin Ailey, Katherine Dunham, Jerome Robbins, Talley Beatty, Lar Lubovitch, John Butler, Ulysses Dove, and Judith Jamison. She performed in the Emmy award-winning PBS specials Two by Dove and Judith Jamison’s A Hymn for Alvin Ailey. In 1997, she was featured in a Dance Magazine cover story and was named by Avenue Magazine as one of the 500 most influential Asian Americans. Roxas-Dobrish received the Ma-Yi Theater Award in 2017 in honor of her contributions to the arts. After leaving Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, she performed on Broadway as Eliza in The King and I. Following her Broadway debut she returned to concert dance, making several guest appearances in the United States and abroad, including with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Roxas-Dobrish has taught at New York University Tisch School of the Arts through the Cap21 program and the Graduate School. She was the movement coordinator for the Off-Broadway production of Let Me Down Easy. She has taught as guest faculty at universities including Harvard, Sarah Lawrence, and Marymount Manhattan. Roxas-Dobrish is a Horton technique faculty member at The Ailey School and is frequently involved in restaging Alvin Ailey’s works.

She has choreographed for several regional theaters and has been commissioned to choreograph in China, Cuba, and France as well as the United States. The Asian Cultural Council awarded her a grant to collaborate on a wearable sculpture/dance project which premiered in the Philippines in 2019. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Roxas-Dobrish created virtual choreography for the 2020 SOHO International Film Festival and the 2021 Philippine Dance Festival. In 2022, she created mediAcation for Ailey II and in 2023 she choreographed Me, Myself and You for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.