debra wexler

Debra Wexler began her ballet training at the age of 8, in Buffalo, New York. She was awarded a Ford Foundation scholarship with the School of American Ballet, the affiliated school of New York City Ballet. She began training both in Buffalo and NYC. She studied under full scholarship at the Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, Harkness Ballet, and American Ballet Theater (ABT).

She finished her training at the Buffalo Ballet Center. She was accepted into the affiliated professional company, Niagara Frontier Ballet (later the Festival Ballet of New York) at the age of 15. Following graduation, she auditioned for and was accepted into the Joffrey II company. After a serious knee injury sidelined her career for a year, she was accepted into the Maryland Ballet Company in Baltimore, Md. Here, she worked her way up from corps de ballet, to soloist, to principal artist during the ten years she performed with this company. She worked with many famous dancers and choreographers, performing in works by Alexandra Danilova, Anton Dolin, Natalia Makarova, Fredrick Franklin, Ruth Page, Alvin Ailey, George Balanchine, and Sir Kenneth MacMillan to name a few.

Debra appears in a documentary about Peter Martins, director of New York City Ballet. She also performed Romeo and Juliet with ABT Principal dancer, Clark Tippet. She was the lead in the world premiere of the Broadway hit, Eqqus. It was called Eqqus The Ballet and was performed in Baltimore in 1980.

Debra began her teaching career in 1982 following the birth of her first son, at The Baltimore School for The Arts. Following the birth of her third child, her family moved to Memphis in 1985. She has been teaching in Memphis for 35 years.