Ellen Rosa-Taylor is currently the Chair of the Dance Department at Idyllwild Arts Academy. She has also recently been named to the American Ballet Theater National Training Curriculum Board of Examiners. Originally from Wilmington, DE, Ms Rosa-Taylor studied with James Jamieson and Victor Wesley of the Academy of Dance. She received her Bachelor of Science in Ballet with an Outside Field in Kinesiology from Indiana University, Bloomington. Ms. Rosa-Taylor received her MFA. in Dance from Florida State University where she was the recipient of a Deans Teaching Fellowship for the School of Visual Arts and Dance as well as a University Fellowship.

Ellen has performed as a dancer with the Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera and the San Diego Opera. As a concert dancer, Ms. Rosa-Taylor has performed as principal dancer with City Ballet of Los Angeles, Media City Ballet, and Chattanooga Ballet, where she served on the board of directors of the Tennessee Association of Dance. Ms. Rosa-Taylor was also featured as the Bluebird in Disney’s Snow White, an Enchanting Musical at Disneyland and has toured nationally as a principal dancer in the multi-media cirque show Dreamscapes.

As a choreographer Mrs. Rosa-Taylor was selected to create the piece Weavings for the Contemporary Music Symposium in Chattanooga, TN. She was also finalist in the Dance Under the Stars festival in Palm Desert, CA and was invited to perform Last Dance in the Arabesque Dance festival held in Wilmington, DE. In 2009 she was one of 3 choreographers selected to present a work for the City Ballet of Los Angeles’ performance at the Ford Amphitheater in Los Angeles. Lewis Segal of the LA Times has called her style… “a unique jazz ballet style.”

As a dance educator, Ms. Rosa-Taylor is currently an ABT Certified Teacher for levels Pre-Primary to Level 7 and has received the distinction of ABT NTC Fellow. Ellen teaches all ages and levels of ballet, pointe, variations, pas de deux, dance conditioning, yoga and jazz dance.