Jacqueline Green


Jacqueline Green is an American ballet dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. She is noted for her elegant and commanding presence on stage as well as her unusually rapid ascent in being recognized as a great and powerful dancer.

Early life and education

Green is originally from Baltimore and began her dance training at age 13 at the Baltimore School for the Arts. The audition she completed to gain entrance to the school, marked both her first audition and ballet class. During Green's second year of dance, she met respected Ailey alumni dancer Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell who was then actively dancing with the company. Green credits this meeting as pivotal and inspiring, as Fisher-Harrell was another woman of color from Baltimore. Fisher-Harrell encouraged Green and further introduced her to the world of professional dance. Green graduated from the Baltimore School for the Arts in 2007. She continued her studies and went on to attended the Ailey/Fordham University BFA program with Denise Jefferson, graduating in 2011.

Career

Green impressed the Ailey American Dance Theater’s incoming artistic director, Robert Battle, when she performed with Ailey II in “Shards” by the esteemed Seattle choreographer Donald Byrd. She auditioned for and was invited to join the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 2011.
Green received a dance fellowship award from the Princess Grace Foundation in 2014. She has been granted prominent roles in many productions at Ailey including one in Pas de Duke and the key “umbrella" role in Revelations, both by artistic director Judith Jamison. She also worked with Jamison in 2018 on Cry.
In 2019, Green was recognized for her strong stage presence when performing in Donald Byrd’s “Greenwood,” a dance production centered around the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.
Green performed in Ode a work by the Miami-born choreographer Jamar Roberts that premeriered in 2019 with the subject matter of gun violence and its effects. The Observer praised both Roberts and Green for Ode stating that the work was "strengthened by the presence of Jacqueline Green in the central role—tall, strong, commanding yet modest, she has emerged as the company’s star. You can’t keep your eyes off her, and you find yourself speculating on how she can expand her range." A reviewer at the Financial Times also lauded Roberts' Ode and described Green as "bewitching."
Considered a powerful talent and regarded as unusual for ascending so quickly despite a late start in her dance training, Green continues to impress critics with her abilities. She credits her success to the late Alvin Ailey, founder of the Ailey Dance Theater and a celebrated cultural leader and recipient of numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Honor.

Personal life

It was reported in 2019 that Preston Miller is Green's fiancé.