Jennifer Gelfand
Jennifer Gelfand was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and her early teachers included E. Virginia Williams, Shanna Bereska, Bruce Wells and Marie Paquet. In 1983, Ms. Gelfand received a grant from the David Howard Foundation to study with David Howard and also received scholarships from Boston Ballet School and the Harkness Foundation. In 1986, at the age of 14, she was awarded a Gold Medal at the International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. Ms. Gelfand toured with the Joffrey II dancers, dancing in Beauty and the Beast and Gardens of Boboli, Visitations, Pyrogen, Flower Festival at Genzano Pas de Deux and Swan Lake Pas de Trois. In March of 1989, Ms. Gelfand made her debut with Boston Ballet at the Company's 25th Anniversary Gala Celebration, dancing the pas de deux from Don Quixote with partner Daniel Meja. Two months later she accepted an invitation from Artistic Director Bruce Marks to appear as a guest artist in the role of Kitri in the Company's full-length production of Don Quixote (Photo by Jerry Berndt).
Miss Gelfand has distinguished herself in roles in both the classical and contemporary repertories, with her performances in the ballets Romeo and Juliet, Abdallah, Etudes, Giselle, Coppelia and Cinderella, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, Eugene Onegin, The Nutcracker and The Taming of the Shrew, Raymonda (Photo by Bernie Gardella),
The Four Temperaments, Allegri Diversi, Brief Fling, In The Upper Room, Waterbaby Bagatelles, Theme and Variations, Who Cares?, Serenade, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro Brillante, Others Because...(Photo by Bernie Gardella), Company B, Sky Beneath Waves, Before Ever After, Broken Wedding, The Wild Swans, and Aria, among others.
In 1995, Ms.Gelfand asked Boston Ballet for a leave of absence to work with Birmingham Royal Ballet for the 1995-96 season. With BRB, she added Birthday Offering and La Fille Mal Gardee, as well as Sir Peter Wright's versions of Swan Lake and Coppelia. That same season, she returned to Boston Ballet and performed in The Nutcracker and the Diana and Actaeon pas de deux. Miss Gelfand has appeared frequently as a guest artist in galas and with ballet companies in the United States and abroad. She has also appeared in the Don des Etoiles Galas in Montreal and Toronto every year since 1990, with both Fernando Bujones and Patrick Armand, dancing the Esmeralda Pas de Deux, Tarantella, Who Cares?, Flames of Paris, Don Quixote Pas de Deux and Brief Fling. She danced in the "Rudolf Nureyev and Friends Farewell Tour" in Boston and appeared with partner Daniel Meja in the gala honoring Robert Joffrey that opened the 1990 International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi.
Ms. Gelfand was featured in the international television documentary "Children With Wings", and her accomplishments have been noted in Dance Magazine, Boston Magazine, People, The New York Times, and U.S. News and World Report. In 1988 she received awards from the American Academy of Achievement and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. In 1989, she was named a Presidential Scholar and received a Presidential Medal in a ceremony at the White House.
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