Elizabeth George

BFA University of Arizona
MFA University of Arizona

Elizabeth George serves as Undergraduate Coordinator and an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona School of Dance in Tucson, Arizona. Now in her 21st year on the faculty, she teaches ballet, pointe, choreography, and yoga for dance majors while fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and creative research. She previously served as an Undergraduate Advisor for both dance majors and minors for 16 years and has also held leadership roles as Associate Director and Choreography Coordinator within the School of Dance. Throughout her career, she has remained committed to supporting both undergraduate and graduate student success while cultivating an environment that encourages artistic excellence and curiosity.

Elizabeth earned both her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and her Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Arizona, completing her MFA in 2005. Her professional performance career includes dancing with the Dayton Ballet, following her early training in Tucson with Ballet Tucson.

Throughout her career, Elizabeth has taught and choreographed for dance studios, universities, and educational programs across the United States while engaging with the international dance community. She has served as a guest artist and instructor at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, sharing her expertise in ballet, choreography, and movement practices with students abroad.

For more than two decades, Elizabeth has created original choreography for performances at the University of Arizona’s Stevie Eller Dance Theatre. Her recent creative research has centered on interdisciplinary collaboration, including the development of a choreographic work inspired by the Artemis II mission. This work grew from her participation in the Imagination 1 project at Biosphere 2 in Spring 2024, an all-artist simulated analog astronaut mission in which she and three fellow artists lived and worked for six days inside the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM), a hermetically sealed habitat analog located at the renowned Biosphere 2 that explores the challenges and possibilities of long-duration space exploration. Building upon this immersive experience, she continues to investigate the intersections of dance, science, embodied practice, and interdisciplinary inquiry. These collaborations have become central to both her teaching and creative activity, providing students with opportunities to engage in innovative, research-driven artistic practices while encouraging collaboration across disciplines.

In addition to her work at the university, Elizabeth remains committed to serving the Tucson community. She continues to teach dancers of all ages while sharing movement and somatic practices through the local yoga community. A certified yoga instructor with two 200-hour yoga teacher certifications, she recently completed certification through the Prison Yoga Project, further expanding her commitment to making movement, mindfulness, and embodied practices accessible to communities beyond higher education.