Alison Roper

{{short description|American professional ballet dancer (born 1974)}}

{{Infobox dancer

| name = Alison Roper

| image =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1974}}

| birth_place = Portland, Maine

| occupation = Major Gifts Officer for Oregon Ballet Theatre

| current_group = Oregon Ballet Theatre

| former_groups =

}}

Alison Roper is an American professional ballet dancer who performed as a principal dancer with the Oregon Ballet Theatre.{{cite web

|title=Alison Roper

|publisher=Oregon Ballet Theatre, 2011{{ndash}}2012 season

|url=http://www.obt.org/company_bios/roper.html

|accessdate=February 24, 2012

|url-status=dead

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120218031659/http://www.obt.org/company_bios/roper.html

|archivedate=February 18, 2012

}}

Born in Portland, Maine, she trained with the Portland School of Ballet, the Boston Ballet School, and the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre. She also attended Hampshire College for one year.

{{cite news

|title=A Disciplined Soul

|work=Dance Magazine

|author=Ullman West, Martha

|date=June 2006

|format=PDF

|url=http://www.obt.org/news_links/dancer_profiles/AR_DanceMag_6-06_web.pdf

|accessdate=February 24, 2012

|url-status=dead

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221041747/http://obt.org/news_links/dancer_profiles/AR_DanceMag_6-06_web.pdf

|archivedate=December 21, 2010

}}

Roper joined Oregon Ballet Theatre as an apprentice at the age of 22 in 1996 and was promoted into the corps in 1997. She was ranked principal dancer in 2007, the year when OBT ranked its dancers for the first time.

{{cite web

|title=2007-08 Company Roster and Dancer Rankings Announced

|publisher=Oregon Ballet Theatre

|work=Press Release

|date=August 13, 2007

|format=PDF

|url=http://www.obt.org/news_links/press_releases/OBT_Exposed07_Release.pdf

|accessdate=February 24, 2012

|url-status=dead

|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315085735/http://www.obt.org/news_links/press_releases/OBT_Exposed07_Release.pdf

|archivedate=March 15, 2015

}}

Her repertoire includes ballets by George Balanchine, Christopher Wheeldon, Jerome Robbins, Frederick Ashton, Kent Stowell, Peter Martins, Paul Taylor, and Bebe Miller. She has also originated roles in works by choreographers such as James Kudelka, Trey McIntyre, former OBT artistic director James Canfield, and current artist director Christopher Stowell.

In 2002, Roper was named one of "25 to Watch" by Dance Magazine.

{{cite web

| title = 25 to watch in 2002

| work = Dance Magazine

| date = January 2002

| url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_1_76/ai_81764269/pg_5/

| accessdate = February 25, 2012

}}

She spent the summers of 2005 through 2007 dancing with the Trey McIntyre Project, where she has since served as ballet mistress and repetiteur. She also performed with Morphoses: The Wheeldon Company in 2010.

Roper is married to Michael Mazzola, and they have a son named John Alan.

She was a ballet mistress for School of Oregon Ballet Theatre until she retired in the summer of 2018