about haila strauss
Winner Back Stage Readers’ Choice Award for Best Dance Teacher
Read the Back Stage Magazine article here.
The Dance Workshop for Actors and Singers with Haila Strauss is the culmination of Haila’s more than 30 years of dance training and teaching experience. Grounded in sound anatomic principles, Haila Strauss teaches solid dance technique with humor and a respect for and understanding of the professional actor/singer’s process and needs.
Writing in Dance Magazine, Margaret Pierpont wrote that Haila’s teaching “combines the savvy of show business with the intelligence of modern dance training.”
- Haila has choreographed over 150 productions for the musical theatre and concert stage. Highlights include the Outdoor Drama – and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Lost Colony, Roundabout Theatre’s revival of Harold Rome’s Pins and Needles, and the
Jewish Repertory Theatre’s Kuni Leml, winner of four Outer Circle Drama Critics Awards.
- Haila is a tenured Associate Professor of Dance and Theatre at Marymount Manhattan College (MMC). Haila built the Dance Department at MMC and served as its Chair for fourteen years. Haila co-chaired the Musical Theatre Minor for seven years and is currently chair of the BFA Movement for Actors program.
- Haila launched the MMC Fitness Instructor Certification Program, unique on the East Coast, to meet the demand for qualified fitness instructors, both in health clubs and one-to-one settings. She developed and implemented special dance curricula to help student athletes (at C.W. Post and elsewhere) improve flexibility, strength, and stamina.
- Haila received her M.A. in Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is also a graduate of the dance program at Sarah Lawrence College, where she served as Guest Lecturer in Dance.
- Haila started dancing at the age of 3. She has had extensive training in modern dance, ballet and jazz techniques.
- Haila is a caring and devoted teacher of dance. If you have questions concerning classes or workshops, please call 212-388-7967 and Haila will be glad to help you realize your goals.