When imagining her future as a young girl, Jacinda Ratcliffe (Communication ’15) saw dance. Long before she was performing in venues across the country, the 28-year-old Virginia native fell in love with the art form from a young age and had the talent to back up her passion. “My first ballet teacher, when I.
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Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell is the first woman and first person of color to serve as artistic director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and she thinks those two milestones will have a significant impact on the 43-year-old company’s future.
“The representation matters,” she said. “I think it matters with my vision, moving forward and trying to diversify the body of rep we bring in and trying to diversify the dancers we bring on board.”
The Baltimore native launched her dance career in 1989-92 as a Hubbard Street member before moving on to the famed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and she has returned to those roots after being on the dance faculty at Towson (Md.) University since 2005. Helping her to prepare for this transition was her tenure as artistic director of that school’s dance company.