jill rose jacobs

Senior Barre Instructor

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. To support Jill’s research for her original programme, The High Barre, she received a £35,000 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 at New York University (NYU). 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 and 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 specialised in and launched Barre programmes. Jill’s doctoral thesis, The High Barre: An investigation of Barre for the performing arts in higher education, posits that Barre is a highly adaptable methodology that can be tailored to bolster higher education performing arts curricula. Her research suggests that the holistic nature of such a Barre programme would improve the trajectory for the performing artist’s well-being beyond their professional career. Jill’s research interests include other applications for Barre methodology that feature elements of movement, music, and choreography that studies find are beneficial to participants. Her philosophy is that dance-movement is universal and that Barre methodology and practises foster improvement in muscle strength, tone, control, posture, mood, confidence, proprioception, and individualised artistic expression.