Something to Dance About with Jacqueline Porter
[Episode 1] Jacqueline Porter saw The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center at the age of 6 and she was hooked. In this episode Jaqueline discusses her journey as a dancer, performer, and ultimately a dance teacher. From her early days studying at the world-renowned Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, to moving to New York City at the young age of 17 with dreams of stage stardom, to founding The Dallas Dance Conservatory, she has no plans for slowing down.
Today, Jacqueline continues to embrace her passion for dance to the fullest as a teacher. Sharing her passion and instilling the love for dance which she had as a young girl into a new generation of dancers. From Pennsylvania to New York City, from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, through love and heartbreak, always with the passion for dance by her side, in heart and soul, she has truly found her calling.
Episode Book Pairing
Each episode of The Gray Matters podcast is paired with a book that complements the episode’s subject matter. If you’d like to explore more about contemporary dance we’d like to suggest the following book for your reading pleasure.
Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance
by Deborah Jowitt
In this authoritative biography, Deborah Jowitt explores the life, works, and creative processes of the complex genius Jerome Robbins (1918-1998), who redefined the role of dance in musical theater and is also considered America’s greatest native-born ballet choreographer.
This meticulously researched and elegantly written story of a life’s work is illuminated by photographs, enlivened by anecdotes, and grounded in insights into ballets and musical comedies that have been seen and loved all over the world.
Get your copy of Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance at Bookshop.org.
About Jacqueline Porter
Twice named YAGP’s Outstanding Teacher (2015, 2013) at the semi-finals of the famed international ballet competition, Jacqueline Porter was an award-winning Highland Dancer before beginning professional ballet training with the Chautauqua Festival, Lake Erie Ballet and world-renowned Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. She moved to New York at 17 after a year at Point Park College and landed her first Equity professional role within a month.
During her stage career which included two Broadway shows (1,600 performances of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoatand Jerome Robbins’ Broadway), three National Tours including The Unsinkable Molly Brown (understudying Debbie Reynolds in the title role) and principal acting roles Off-Broadway and in regional theatre, Jacqueline continued to study ballet with the most famous names in New York: David Howard, Fhinis Jung, Wilhelm Burmann, Lawrence Rhodes, Melissa Hayden and every major jazz and theatre dance teacher of the 80‘s and 90‘s.
In her own life as a teacher, Ms. Porter has guest taught at over 30 American schools, companies and festivals, and led (4) schools of her own in Santa Fe, NM, Santa Monica, CA and Dallas, TX (current). She has specialized in getting outstanding results in little time from Beverly Hills to Tokyo – in venues ranging from public school blacktops and international poverty missions to top ballet schools, upscale gyms and Hollywood producers’ homes. Ms. Porter is a graduate of Smith College in Comparative Literature (French and English).
Jacqueline moved to Dallas from New York in 2008, and since 2009 has trained an unusual amount of top-level dancers in record time, many “from their first plie”: 18 YAGP soloist winners/Top 12; 18 YAGP ensemble winners/Top 12; one two-time YAGP “Hope Award” and two-time Junior Grand Prix regional winner (one of the few in YAGP history); 5 Top Soloists at NYCDA; Four Outstanding Dancers at NYCDA; and numerous winning ensembles including three “Critics’ Choice” NYCDA. More than 100 of her students have been invited to participate in the YAGP International Finals since 2011.
Her theater and dance schools, Park Cities Studios and The Dallas Conservatory, host an international guest faculty and serve more than 1,000 students ages 18 mo-60′s annually for regular classes, camps and summer intensives.
Jacqueline has founded five performing companies for her students: the Dallas Youth Ballet (501c3 pending), The Dallas Conservatory C.A.S.T. (Company of Actors, Singers and Triple Threats), the Teen Elite Singing Ensemble, the Children’s Singing Ensemble, and BIG D DANCE, an umbrella entertainment company providing dancers, singers, flashmobs, hip hop and themed entertainment for functions and charity events throughout the metroplex.