Faculty

Ruth Lewis

Ballet / Pointe

RUTH LEWIS is the director of Dimensional Dance. She has been commissioned by singing groups, museums, arts organizations, and churches to create choreography for their exhibitions. In 2025 she worked with Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet's director Elisa Shroth and CONCORA for the piece Path of Miracles with music by Joby Talbot performed at Trinity Chapel, Hartford, CT. Lewis choreographed Mothering the Earth: We Are All Connected for which she received funding from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, which also receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency in 2024. In 2023 she was commissioned by St. Alban's Episcopal Church to create the full-length ballet The Story of Ruth to be performed live with New England chamber choir Voce. Ms. Lewis conceived and is the lead choreographer of the award winning work Whole-Souled Women: The Story of Prudence Crandall and Sarah Harris which premiered at the Guilford Performing Arts Festival in 2021. Lewis completed Dimensional Dance's signature piece, O Squared, for it's full length premiere in 2019. Her first commissioned work in 2012 for the Wadsworth Atheneum was Wyeth: Looking Beyond for their Andrew Wyeth exhibit. In addition Lewis has choreographed works for the Hill-Stead Museum (the Antoine-Louis Bayre Sculpture Exhibit), Hartford's Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Fairfield Congregational Church, Rocky Hill Congregational Church, Avon's Valley Baptist Church, and West Hartford Congregational Church. In addition her dance pieces have been performed by Ballet Theatre Company, CONNetic Ballet, Saratoga City Ballet, Princeton Ballet School, Taft Dancers, Porters Dancers, and guest artists of Ekklesia Contemporary Ballet Company. She trained at Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts before turning professional. Lewis danced professionally with Hartford Ballet, The Berkshire Ballet and American Repertory Ballet (ARB). At ARB she finished her career dancing the principal roles under the direction of Marjorie Mussman and later Septime Webre. While at ARB she performed in pieces by Alvin Ailey (Lark Ascending), Gerald Arpino (Reflections), George Balanchine (Allegro Brilliante), Dermot Burke (Evening Dances, Basics, Don't Teach Me Sweet Poetry, Nutcracker-Snow Queen, Dew Drop Fairy), Phillip Jerry (Our Town), Marjorie Mussman (Variable Winds, Nutcracker-Sugar Plum Fairy, Snow Queen), Paul Taylor (Mercuric Tidings), and Septime Webre (Shoogie, Nutcracker-Sugar Plum Fairy). During her last two years dancing at ARB she became rehearsal assistant under Webre and then company manager. Lewis was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, but spent the majority of her youth growing up in the pastoral town of Harvard, Massachusetts where her parents owned and operated the International Youth Hostel, Friendly Crossways. Lewis is also teaches yoga and is a Connecticut teaching artist. She has led teaching artist workshops, residencies, and collaborations as well as professional development workshops with agency Hartford Performs. Lewis has taught Saturday classes at Ekklesia School of Ballet for the last two years. She is thrilled to be teaching level 6 this year.