Elisa De La Rosa, Assistant Professor of Dance, is a choreographer, performer, dance educator, and the founding artistic director of De La Rosa Dance Company. Prior to teaching at Texas Woman’s University, she was a dance educator for 14 years in middle and high school Texas dance programs in Aldine ISD, North Forest ISD, and Dallas ISD. She was nominated and selected as an Aldine INSPIRE speaker, and teacher of the year for her campus, and was selected as an Aldine ISD’s top three secondary teacher of the year finalist in 2018. In 2017, her students in Aldine ISD were adjudicated and selected to perform at The National Dance Education Organization National Conference in San Antonio Texas. De La Rosa has choreographed works for Muscle Memory Dance Theatre, MamLuft&Co. Dance, Eastfield College Dance Company, Mosaic Dance Project Tarrant County College Northwest Campus, and Perpetual Motion Dance. De La Rosa has presented at the Texas Dance Improvisation Dance Festival, National Dance Education Organization National Conference, Big Rig Dance Collective Dance Co-op, and Texas Dance Educators Association. De La Rosa’s new passion is to lead professional development for dance educators. She has designed professional development for La Joya ISD, and Edinburg ISD dance educators. De La Rosa integrates the Dance and Digital Media Communications Curriculum into her instruction and was awarded a $3,500 grant for technology by The Texas Cultural Trust.
De La Rosa holds a BA in Dance with Secondary Teacher Certification from Texas Woman’s University. During her time as an undergraduate student in the TWU Dance program De La Rosa held the position as Assistant Director of Texas Woman’s University DanceWorks, a repertory company actively involved with community outreach through lecture demonstrations. As a member of the company, she performed works by Sarah Gamblin, Amii LeGendre, Lesley Snelson-Figueroa, Michelle Moeller, Jose Zamora, Karrine Keithly, Gesel Mason, and Nicole Wesley. During her undergraduate years, she performed and choreographed original dance works that were highly recognized and produced by the Texas Woman’s University Department of Dance. De La Rosa choreographed works for DanceWorks Dance Company, including: Signature (2004), Voice of the Sea (2005), equilibria (2005), and Tiera de Oro/ Earth of Gold (2006). In March of 2005, Elisa’s choreography Signature was adjudicated at the American College Dance Festival and was selected to perform in the Gala concert. Elisa received The Outstanding Student Award in 2004 and The Excellence in Choreography Award from Texas Woman’s University for the 2005-2006 academic year. De La Rosa additionally studied improvisation performance works at TWU in Dance Lab under the direction of Professor Sarah Gamblin. Upon graduating from TWU De La Rosa performed professionally with Muscle Memory Dance Theatre.
In 2018 De La Rosa premiered her MFA thesis evening-length concert Tortillas y Lagrimas (Tortillas and Tears) where she shared her experience as a Mexican American Latina Woman in the United States, tracking back through her family heritage. As elements of her research, she studied Mexican Immigration experiences (particularly her grandmother’s), Aztec Dance, digital media for dance, and improvisational practice in the postmodern and contemporary dance field. De La Rosa holds an MFA in Dance from Montclair State University, in New Jersey.
