Harriet
Ross began her training at NY’s High School of Performing Arts and
continued on to earn a degree at the Juilliard School of Music. As a dancer, she was prominently featured in works by Jeff
Duncan and Jack Moore, the founders of Dance Theater Workshop. She has been
teaching, coaching & directing dance in Chicago since 1975 when she moved
here along with her husband and three sons.
Almost immediately, she began a longtime association with the Joseph
Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre serving there as teacher, coach and Associate
Artistic Director. When she left in
1993, she agreed to manage the choreographer/Artistic Director Randy Duncan who
had been her student. She continues
to represent him to this day. She
has taught in various schools and universities around Chicago including the
excellent dance department at Barat College in Lake Forest.
Her dance expertise is in Martha Graham Technique.
She coaches and consults with local modern dance companies when her busy
schedule permits.
In
1994, Ms. Ross founded the Dance For Life Fund to aid dancers afflicted with
HIV-AIDS and served as chairman of the Dance For Life ‘95 and ’96 Concerts.
Her ongoing role with Dance For Life is as one of the four members of
Chicago Dancers United, the parent organization that oversees and presents Dance
For Life. She is the Artistic
Administrator of The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago and has been associated with this
great ballet company since the day it moved to Chicago in the Fall of 1995.
Included in her duties at JBC, Ms. Ross is responsible for the Artistic budget,
for negotiating and contracting artists associated with the ballets that are
part of the Artistic plan such as choreographers, composers, designers, etc. and
for the companies touring plans.