“When I dance,” says Jacqueline Green, “I feel like I’m free and like my body moves from a natural beat: my heart.” Jacqueline discovered her love of dance when she was in high school and she has stuck with it ever since; she plans to still be dancing when she’s eighty. Jacqueline loves all kinds of dance from ballet to West African. She considers herself part of an elite crowd; not too many African Americans can say that they love ballet.
Jacqueline’s mother always encouraged her to pursue her interests even if the family could not pay for them. Because her mother has six dependants, including an elderly parent and another daughter in college, paying for Jacqueline to attend Fordham University has been quite a struggle. To alleviate some of the financial burden, Jacqueline worked part-time. Nevertheless, Jacqueline is determined to share her love of dancing with others. She taught children in her local community to dance and believes that she can inspire people through her own dancing. “On stage,” Jacqueline says, “I want to dance in a way that people feel something from the movement I present to them.”
Through her education at Fordham, Jacqueline has perfected her technique and discovered levels of difficulty within dance that she never knew existed. She has learned to eat, sleep, and breathe dance, as well as attend all-day rehearsals and keep up with schoolwork. “I want to spread my zeal for dance to everyone from audience members to the familiar people who watch me dance everywhere I go,” Jacqueline says.
Jacqueline was accepted into the prestigious Alvin Ailey Dance Company this year. Her bio page with the company can be seen here. The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater is coming to Baltimore in May and tickets can be found here.