Profile

Born in 1968 in Southfield, Michigan, Ellen Shea grew up around New York City. Her early artistic education began as a student at the School of American Ballet, and in performances with the New York City Ballet. She went on to study architecture, art and design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she received her BSAD and MArch as the Sanfield Scholar. While at MIT, she won design and art competitions and received grants for her photographic work in rural Egypt. The MIT Museum and the Boston Public Library presented the work in solo exhibitions. She served as guest design critic at MIT and the Massachusetts College of Art, and performed several seasons with the Ballet Theatre of Boston.

After leaving Boston, Ellen practiced architecture at several NYC firms, and worked as a freelance architectural designer in private residential and commercial projects. Since 2005, she has taught classical ballet at the Scarsdale Ballet Studio, coached privately, and founded and directed a young dancer’s program in Tarrytown, NY. Her students have been asked to join the San Francisco Ballet and attend the most prestigious ballet schools, such as the School of American Ballet, Miami City Ballet School, the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School in London. She has choreographed numerous works performed at SUNY Purchase College, and staged classics such as Swan Lake, Chopiniana, and Balanchine’sSerenade.

Splitting her time between New York and France, Ellen has also lived in Tunisia and Egypt. Her photography was published the book Made in France (Universe, 2008), and she translated from French the chronology for Alain de Mijolla’s International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis, (Thompson, Gale, 2005). Recently she is exhibiting drawings and monotype prints in the New York area.