birth_place birth_date article_title name current_group occupation
portland , maine 1974 alison roper
 alison roper oregon ballet theatre ballet dancer
alison roper

alison roper is an american professional ballet dancer who currently performs as a principal dancer with the oregon ballet theatre .
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 .
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 .
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 '' .
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 .
