Two-Part Interview with Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell is LIVE
Raising the Barre is BACK, featuring a special two-part interview with Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell, Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago!
This conversation was so good we had to split it into TWO informative features. In Part 1, Linda-Denise walks listeners through her career path to landing at Hubbard Street in 2021. Spoiler alert — she worked there at the beginning of her dance career, too! Part 2 features Linda-Denise’s Raising the Barre expertise. The episode, titled Rescue, Recovery, & Re-Birth: Reimagining a Company, is filled with takeaways from reinvigorating a company of Hubbard Street’s caliber. We are thrilled to share this great series of conversations with our DDP network! Tune in below or visit the Raising the Barre page of our website.
“We’re trying to build back with strategy, not just saying ‘we need a building.’ When it’s time to fill a building, what would you fill it with?”
Part 1: Meet Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell:
Tune in as Linda-Denise shares her journey to becoming Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, including her time at Baltimore School for the Arts, Hubbard Street (as a dancer!) and Alvin Ailey.
Part 2: Reimagining a Company with Linda-Denise
Tune in as Linda-Denise shares her strategy for bringing new audiences in, staying true to your mission, and using creativity to reinvigorate an institution.
Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell (Hubbard Street Dance Chicago Artistic Director, she/her) ascended to this role in 2021, after an extraordinary career as a professional dance artist and educator.
She was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and began her dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts under the guidance of Sylvester Campbell and Stephanie Powell. She was an apprentice with the Capitol Ballet in Washington D.C. and a full fellowship student at The Ailey School. While a student at The Juilliard School, she was invited by Hubbard Street founder Lou Conte to join the main company at the age of 19, thus beginning her professional dance career.
After three seasons with Hubbard Street, she became a Principal Dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, under the direction of Judith Jamison. During her 13-year tenure with the company, she performed all over the world and was featured in the works of Alvin Ailey, Robert Battle, Talley Beatty, Ron K. Brown, John Butler, Donald Byrd, Ulysses Dove, George Faison, Rennie Harris, Geoffrey Holder, Judith Jamison, Louis Johnson, Alonzo King, Lar Lubovitch, Donald McKayle, Elisa Monte, Jennifer Muller, David Parsons, and Dwight Rhoden. She was invited to give a number of special performances throughout her career, including the White House State Dinner in honor of the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, and the 12th Annual Kennedy Center Gala with Nancy Wilson and Liza Minelli.
She has led a distinguished career as a dance educator in her hometown of Baltimore where, since 2005, she has been a Professor of Dance at Towson University and has served on the faculty of the Baltimore School for the Arts. Her research and scholarship in continuing the Ailey legacy within the Towson University and Greater Baltimore community has resulted in the Ailey II residencies from 2011-2019 hosted by Towson University and the establishment of AileyCamp Baltimore at Towson University in 2014 where she served as Director. She holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in dance from Hollins University and is an ABT® Certified Teacher. As a scholar, her entry “Alvin Ailey” has been published by the Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. She and her husband have three children.
