Who I Am
Dr Jill Rose Jacobs has recently completed her doctoral programme at Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, having accepted a Faculty Award from the School of Arts, English and Languages for academic achievement. During the course of her research, Jill’s original programme The High Barre was recipient of a 35K GBP award from ICURe (Innovation to Commercialism of University Research) on behalf of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton, Surrey, and Queen’s University, Belfast. Prior to entering the doctoral programme, Jill was a professor for dance-movement in the department of Performing Arts Professions, New York University. She holds a master’s degree from NYU in dance education and was awarded academic scholarships throughout her study. Her students are currently performers on Broadway, performing in musicals and operas across the country and abroad, and many are Barre instructors for leading fitness corporations. Prior to relocating to Belfast, Jill was also a Group Fitness Instructor with Equinox, where she specialized in and launched Barre programmes.
What People Are Saying
“She [Jill] works a lot with my students, teaching them body awareness, breathing, and maybe how to think about the way they move when they’re onstage . . . They might be opera singers, also very traditional musicians, and some that might be more experimental, but they all have in common that they have to go onstage and use their bodies to speak to an audience.”
— Dr. Franziska Schroeder, Professor for Music and Cultures, School of Arts, English and Languages, Queen's University, Belfast
“I certainly hadn’t engaged in the idea of dance as having the different kinds of benefits both beyond movement but also psychologically and neurologically that she has been able to point towards. It certainly has opened my eyes to what dance as an art form and as a mode of education can do.”
— Dr Matthew Rodger, Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Queen’s University, Belfast, The High Barre video-documentary
"Jill combines historic activities with her own new work and she handles this very well by crediting the people that came up with the first parts of the work. This is a simple and straight forward approach and one that I thoroughly recommend … Jill has developed Barre … it’s very good and she deserves recognition."
