Ilsa K Bush

Ilsa Bush has taught ballet at beginning through advanced levels, pointe work, ballet history, and dance appreciation. Her ballet course follows a careful, academic approach to discipline both body and mind, focusing on alignment as the key to the control which allows freedom in movement. The goal is to build the capacity for joyful, artistic expression within the classical vocabulary. In addition to teaching ballet at George Washington University, Ilsa is on the faculty of Joy of Motion Dance Center and taught previously at George Mason University. She has been a guest teacher for the Georgetown University Dance Company, the hip hop company Jam Crew, the contemporary ClancyWorks Dance Company, and several local studios in the Washington, DC area. Her choreography has been performed by the Joy of Motion Classical Repertory Dance Theatre and the Georgetown University Dance Company. Ilsa performed with the New England Civic Ballet (precursor to the Boston Ballet), the Boston Opera Group, the Tufts Arena Theatre, and the Harvard Jazz Dance Workshop. She started her dance training in the Cecchetti method with Mary Corbett Burns and Margaret Craske, and went on to study ballet with E. Virginia Williams, the founder of the Boston Ballet, and Kelly Brown, a soloist with American Ballet Theatre. She studied Graham technique with Kathleen Hinney and jazz with Gary Naylor. In her non-dancing life, she practiced corporate and banking law, writes grant proposals for dance-related organizations, and has been a community activist in the area of children's health. Ilsa graduated from Harvard University, cum laude, in 1969, and Arizona State University Law School, cum laude, in 1973.