Elizabeth Boyd
Background
Elizabeth Boyd was raised in Peoria, Illinois. She began dancing at the age of three with Peoria Ballet. She has danced with professional companies through summer intensives and has been offered an academy position at Oregon Ballet Theater and a second company position at Orlando Ballet. She has attended summer intensives at The Rock School of Dance, Joffrey Ballet in Chicago, Oregon Ballet Theater, Ballet Magnificant, and Orlando Ballet. She has also studied under Eric and Laura Otto, Ian and Fabiana Poulis, Ian Thatcher, Jorge Laico, and Greg Merriman.
She has performed in many ballets, including Swan Lake, Cinderella, Snow White, and Paquita. She has performed principal roles in Alice in Wonderland, The Nutcracker, and a soloist role in Sleeping Beauty.
She has extensive training in all forms of ballet, Martha Graham, Duncan, Horton, Twyla Tharp, and contemporary and lyrical training.
Elizabeth went to college at Middle Tennessee State University, where she earned a minor in Dance under the instruction of Jade Treadwell, Kimberly Holt, Alex Weiner, Meg Brooker, Aaron Allen Jr., and Jee Ahn.
Recently, Elizabeth has participated in dance films, including a piece called "Beloved" by Unvieled Productions. She hopes to continue to explore these opportunities with Unvieled Productions as she furthers her dance career.
Inspiration
Elizabeth has always been inspired by the science behind the human body, hence why she also has an engineering degree. She hopes that by connecting dance to science, she will be able to better understand the movement and be able to make technological advancements in robotic prosthetics. She continues to harness this knowledge as she pursues a master's degree in Robotics and AI. Although she prefers the flowing movement of ballet, Elizabeth also finds interest in looking into the mechanics of human kinesiology and comparing it to the mechanics of machine kinematics.
As a member of the Society of Women Engineers, Elizabeth has studied the connection between dance and STEM courses and contributes to this research through her school's Women in STEM club. To learn more about this study, you can read the following article linked here.
