Elizabeth Roxas was born in Manila and became the youngest member of Ballet Philippines. After receiving scholarships to Joffrey, Graham and The Ailey School, she danced with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Ohad Naharin and Joyce Trisler Dance Company before joining Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater where she was a principal dancer from 1984-1997. She was the first Filipina ever to dance with that Company. The New York Times described her as “a cool, still, lyrical center of the Ailey storm.” While dancing, Roxas worked with many of the most significant choreographers, including, Alvin Ailey, Katherine Dunham, Jerome Robbins, Talley Beatty, Lar Lubovitch, John Butler, Ulysses Dove and Judith Jamison. Roxas performed in the Emmy award-winning PBS specials “Two by Dove” and Judith Jamison’s “A Hymn for Alvin Ailey” among others, and was featured in a 1997 Dance Magazine cover article and named by Avenue Magazine as one of the 500 most influential Asian-Americans. After leaving Ailey as a dancer, Roxas was asked to perform on Broadway in The King and I as Eliza and went back to concert dancing and made several guest appearances in the United States and abroad as well as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has worked with Anna Deveare Smith at the Graduate School of New York University and was Movement Coordinator for Ms. Smith’s last show “Let Me Down Easy” and has choreographed in regional theaters and off Broadway. She has taught at Tisch School of the Arts through CAP21 and was guest faculty at Harvard University in 2010. She is involved on an ongoing basis in restaging ballets of Alvin Ailey works and is an integral part of the Ailey legacy. At the Ailey School, as part of the faculty, she has taught the Actor’s Studio Class and regularly teaches the Horton Technique.
She is married to Robert Z. Dobrish, a prominent matrimonial attorney in Manhattan.