About.

Ellie Kathryn Crawford is a dancer and choreographer based in New York. A 2026 graduate of The Juilliard School, she moves fluidly between the rigor of classical ballet and the risk and invention of contemporary practice — a range built from a childhood in Alabama studios through four years of conservatory training and the stages of London and New York.

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Crawford began her training at the Alabama School of Fine Arts under Wes Chapman and danced with Alabama Ballet under Tracey Alvey — institutions that shaped her from 2016 through 2022 and built the classical foundation of line, musicality, and discipline that still anchors her work.

In 2022 she earned a place at The Juilliard School, graduating in 2026 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts under Dean Alicia Graf Mack and Director Melissa Toogood. She extended her training over successive summers at Kaatsbaan Collegiate, directed by Paloma Herrera, and through the Juilliard Summer Dance program led by Alicia Graf Mack — study supported by more than $12,000 in competitive scholarships to programs including American Ballet Theatre, Cincinnati Ballet, Colorado Ballet, and Louisville Ballet.

At Juilliard, Crawford performed the work of some of the most distinctive choreographers working today — among them William Forsythe, Pam Tanowitz, Shen Wei, José Limón, Alvin Ailey, and Wayne McGregor. Recent stage credits include Alvin Ailey's Night Creature and AUGMENTED, a Studio Wayne McGregor production presented at Sadler's Wells East in London — work that asks for precision and abandon, often at once.

Alongside performing, Crawford makes her own work. She choreographed for the Juilliard Dance Workshops every year from 2023 to 2026 and earned Senior Choreography honors at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Her choreography is informed by the same breadth as her dancing: an ongoing inquiry into how classical structure and contemporary impulse can live within a single body, a single phrase.

A second-prize winner with the National Society of Arts and Letters and a Great Khalid Foundation scholar, Crawford also teaches, stage-manages, and speaks French. Based in New York, she looks toward the companies and collaborators that will shape what comes next.