Faculty, Lower Division Faculty, Upper Division Faculty
Lorraine Spiegler is a distinguished leader in the dance community whose professional dance career spans over 30 years as a director, coach, educator, and choreographer and embodies innovation in dance education, training and performance artistry at the highest national and international levels.
Ms. Spiegler served as Founding Artistic Director of CityDance Conservatory from 2007-2024. During her seventeen-year tenure, Lorraine was the visionary for the creation, implementation and management of the Conservatory and its innumerable successful programs. Ms.Spiegler enjoyed enormous success in her mission to recognize and promote individuals’ dance gifts while igniting future generations of dance professionals. Under her leadership and direction, the Conservatory became one of the region’s most prestigious centers for pre-professional/professional training and performance. In 2024, the Conservatory was credited “amongst the top 5% most prestigious dance academies in the USA” in a Northwestern University Study. Her philosophy of “stage not age”, a highly individualized approach coupled with high technique and artistic challenge is credited as being integral to this success.
CityDance Conservatory and its dancers have been recognized by various awards, honors and accolades from: NYCDA (including National Outstanding Dancers); NAACP ACT_SO (including the $10,000 Lancôme Write Her Future Scholarships); and Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). YAGP awards at the national and international levels include Youth Grand Prix, Grand Prix, Hope, Outstanding Teacher/Faculty, Best Choreography, Best Small and Large Ensembles, and Outstanding School Awards, as well as invitations to perform at Galas at Lincoln Center in NYC, San Francisco and Tampa, Florida. Festival invitations include Orizaba International Dance Festival in Mexico and Yervi International Dance Festival in Italy. Conservatory dancers have been finalists at YOUNGARTS, Prix de Lausanne International Competition, and Jackson International Ballet Competition — three semi-finalists and one finalist who garnered the Jackson Special Jury Recognition Award.
Ms. Spiegler’s training methodology, programming and mentorship of talents was instrumental in placing alumni in world-class colleges and universities as well as in dance companies. Her creative partnership with Ballet Master Stanislav (Stas) Issaev, Nijinsky Prize Winner whom she hired in 2017, further heightened that focus. Her students have enjoyed professional careers in many world-class companies, amongst them The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Philadelphia Ballet, Garth Fagan Dance, Mark Morris, Gibney Dance Company, StaatsBallett Berlin, Rubberbandance, Boston Ballet, Wayne McGregor Studio London, Zurich Ballet Junior Company, Ballet de L’Opera Lyon, and Ballet Hispanico. Spiegler created the first Conservatory Scholarship Fund soliciting individual gifts of up to $10,000 and beyond, and co-directed three Conservatory Galas, two of which were held at The Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, raising over $350,000 in scholarship monies.
Ms. Spiegler began dancing at age 7 at The Washington School of Ballet under Mary Day. She was invited at age 13 and 14 by Artistic Director Frederic Franklin to join the east coast tour of The National Ballet Company’s “Nutcracker” and “Giselle” productions in corps de ballet roles. At 15, she graduated from Emerson Institute and was accepted to the Mariinsky School in the USSR. She also studied on scholarship at The Harkness Ballet School and with Margaret Craske, Cecchetti Master at the Manhattan School of Dance. Spiegler danced in Laura Dean’s premiere of “Song” as part of Dean’s workshopped company explorations. Spiegler also studied with Twla Tharp and was selected for Mark Morris’ and Carolyn Carlson’s Choreography Workshops at Harvard as well as in workshops with Merce Cunningham, Erick Hawkins, Paul Taylor and Jose Limon companies for several summers learning signature technique and professional company repertory. Spiegler’s interests in pedagogy, kinesiology, dance history/anthropology, neuroscience, and artistic expression began to overshadow her performance interests.
Ms. Spiegler began her teaching and choreography career at The St. Croix School of the Arts and went on to dance professionally and serve as an NEA Artist-in-residence for The Caribbean Dance Company and School. In 1982, she became the Artistic Director of Theatre Dance School and Company, founded by Atti van den Berg, formerly of Ballets Jooss. There, Spiegler created an international exchange program with Bennington College, Vermont providing scholarships for talented Caribbean dancers to attend the July Program.
In 1991, Ms. Spiegler’s mentor, Mary Day, invited her to return to her alma mater, The Washington Ballet (TWB), as a full-time faculty member. In 1999, Spiegler became TWB’s first Director of Education and Outreach and co-founder of The Washington Ballet’s DanceDC Program with Septime Webre for which she created the “Dancing with Words” curriculum. There she also developed, co-wrote/co-directed “Cultural Partnerships for At-Risk Children and Youth Program: Dancing Toward Literacy” funded by the US Dept of Education in the amount of $135,000 connecting directly to TWB’s programming in Anacostia, DC at The Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus.
Commissioned twice by the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in partnership with The Kennedy Center as the Dance Director/Choreographer for “Music that Moves” Program (1999 & 2003), Ms. Spiegler worked in artistic collaboration with NSO conductors towards the realization of a symphonic music and dance program showcasing her choreography and DC area talents from from The Washington Ballet’s professional company and Young Dancers, The Kirov Ballet Academy and Duke Ellington School for the Arts as well as young talents from Cia Jovem do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ms. Spiegler’s international and intercultural dance exchange projects have taken her to the Caribbean, Europe and Latin America. Ms. Spiegler’s Brazilian/American dance and culture work has been extensive. She created and implemented a new bi-lingual dance and language project based on her methodology “Dancing Toward Literacy” for the Escola Americana in Rio de Janeiro (EARJ), served as a choreographer-in-residence for Richard Cragun’s Ballet De Anima and as a Cultural Specialist/Artist-in-residence funded by the US Consulate in Rio for Dalal Achcar’s Compania Jovem do Rio De Janeiro (also taking the company to dance at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC). She co-created with the Goucher College Dance Department in Maryland an international study abroad course, the “History and Practice of Brazilian Dance” connected to the renowned dance leadership in Rio de Janeiro.
In 2003, she garnered the American University Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Dance Field. Ms. Spiegler was also the recipient of the 2011 Metro Dance DC Award for “Excellence in Education” for her role in the founding and development of CityDance Conservatory — work that began in 2008.
Spiegler has served as a panelist for many organizations and conferences including Dance USA and The Kennedy Center’s D.C. Arts and Humanities Education Collaborative. She continues to serve on the Board of Rio de Janeiro/Maryland Partners of the Americas. Her publications include Dance Teacher Magazine.
Ms. Spiegler holds a B.A. in Dance cum laude (1979) and two Masters, (1991) in Dance History and Arts Management from American University and is trilingual in English, French and Portuguese.
