IASAS Dance Workshop Leaders 2018

Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish was born in Manila and became the youngest member of Ballet Philippines. After receiving scholarships to Joffrey Ballet, The Graham and The Ailey School, she danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Ohad Naharin and Joyce Trisler Dance Company. She then joined Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as the first “Filipina”, where she was a principal dancer from 1984-1997. The New York Times described her as “a cool, still, lyrical center of the Ailey storm.” While dancing, Roxas worked with many of the most significant choreographers, including, Alvin Ailey, Katherine Dunham, Jerome Robbins, Talley Beatty, Lar Lubovitch, John Butler, Ulysses Dove and Judith Jamison. Roxas 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 Dance Magazine’s cover article and named by Avenue Magazine as one of the 500 most influential Asian-Americans. In 2017, she received the Ma-Yi Theater Award honoring her contributions to

the Arts. After leaving Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as a dancer, Roxas was asked to perform on Broadway in The King and I as Eliza. After her Broadway debut, she went back to concert dance and made several guest appearances in the United States and abroad, as well as returning as a guest artist for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for many occasions.

She has worked with Anna Deavere Smith at the Graduate School of New York University and was the Movement Coordinator for Smith’s Let Me Down Easy. Roxas has also choreographed in several regional theaters and off-Broadway. She has taught at Tisch School of the Arts through CAP21 and was guest faculty at Harvard University in 2010. She is continuously involved in re-staging ballets of Alvin Ailey’s works and is an integral part of the Ailey legacy. Roxas is a Horton technique faculty member at The Ailey School, and taught Actor’s Studio Classes. In July of 2014, she was invited and commissioned for Yabin Wang in Beijing, as part of “Dream in Three Episodes”. She has also choreographed for Armstrong Dance Company in Paris, Ballet Contemporaneo de Camaguey in Cuba, as well as companies in the United States. Most recently her works were performed in Bryant Park, Saratoga NY, the Ailey Citigroup Theater, and Marymount Manhattan College. She is married to Robert Z. Dobrish, a prominent matrimonial attorney in Manhattan.

Workshop series: Horton Pedagogy culminating in Horton-based choreography.

PJ Rebullida has fourteen years experience as a Professional Artist in Theater and Dance in Manila and Germany. He has worked with 9 Works Theatrical, Ballet Philippines, Ballet Luneburg (Germany), Daloy Dance Company, Philippine Ballet Theater, Stage Entertainment (Germany), Dulaang UP, Repertory Philippines, and Trumpets, Inc. He has received awards from PhilStage Gawad Buhay and Broadway World for his choreography of ‘American Idiot’ in 2016. For 2017, he received the same award from Broadway World for ‘Newsies.’ As a dancer, he received nominations for his performances from Gawad Buhay and Aliw Awards.

Workshop: Contemporary contact improvisation