Elizabeth Guerin

Elizabeth Guerin began studying ballet at the age of seven at the Princeton Ballet School in Princeton, NJ and continued in New York at the School of American Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, and with Maggie Black, David Howard and Choo San Goh. She was one of the first recipients to win the Presidential Scholar in the Arts award for dance, one of five dancers nationwide, performing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC as part of the awards ceremony. She went on to dance as a principal with Princeton Ballet (now American Repertory Ballet), The Washington Ballet, and Oregon Ballet Theatre, dancing in works by choreographers George Balanchine, Choo San Goh, Paul Taylor, Bebe Miller, James Canfield, Donald Byrd and Val Caniparoli. Her repertoire includes the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, Swanilda in Coppelia, Lise in La Fille Mal Gardee, as well as dancing the principal roles in Balanchine’s Serenade, Tarantella, Scotch Symphony, Concerto Barocco, Square Dance and Valse Fantasie, and creating the role of Juliet in James Canfield’s Romeo and Juliet. As a dancer, she toured throughout the Far East, China, and South America.

Elizabeth has taught at the Northwest Academy and as a freelance teacher in the Portland area. She is currently on the faculty of Oregon Ballet Theatre and Bodyvox as well as The Portland Ballet, where she teaches curriculum classes and assists in staging and rehearsals for the youth company.