Caroline Rocher – MOBBallet.org

Caroline Rocher Barnes

Dance Theatre of Harlem: Corps de Ballet (1999-2000), Soloist (2000-2001), Principal (2001-ca. 2004)
Bavarian State Ballet (ca.2005-ca.2006)
Lyon Opera Ballet (2006-2007)
Alonzo King LINES (2007-2014)

Caroline Rocher Barnes | Towson University Caroline Rocher Barnes is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Towson University. She trained at the Conservatoire de Montpellier in France with Madame Claparède and later graduated from the Rudra Béjart Art School in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1998, she moved to New York to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. In 1999, Mrs. Rocher Barnes joined The Dance Theatre of Harlem under Arthur Mitchell’s mentorship, was promoted to soloist in 2000, and then principal dancer the following year.

Her professional career extends to the Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, Germany, the Lyon Opera Ballet in France, and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet in San Francisco. In 2001 Mrs. Rocher Barnes was named “25 to Watch” in Dance Magazine.

Mrs. Rocher Barnes has been a great advocate for passing on her craft to the next generation of dancers. She is a current faculty member at the CityDance Conservatory, and she is part of the Alonzo King Lines Summer Program faculty, where she teaches the company’s repertoire and mentors the students. She is a member of the Kennedy Center Dance Council,
advising on the content of the ballet series offerings and serving as an ambassador for the Center’s dance programs to young performers, schools, and the local community.

In 2018, she returned to the Dance Theatre of Harlem to assist the company’s former Ballet Mistress, Lorraine Graves, in re-staging Arthur Mitchell’s Tones for the company’s 50th
anniversary.

Mrs. Rocher Barnes is certified in the Gyrotonic® & Gyrokinesis® Expansion System and the Progressing Ballet Technique®.

She is an ABT® Certified Teacher who has completed the ABT® Teacher Training Intensive in Pre-Primary through Level 5 of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.

Mrs. Rocher Barnes graduated Summa Cum Laude from Saint Mary’s College of California with a BA in Performing Arts, and she holds and MFA in Dance from the University of Maryland, College Park.