Barbara Atkins Ruhman

Barbara Atkins Ruhman studied ballet with Edna McRae in Chicago's Fine Arts Building for 10 years, winning competitions and gaining professional stage experience dancing throughout Chicago in Opera companies, Museum of Science and Industry programs, and other local venues. After high school, she joined the American Ballet Theater in New York, where she worked with choreographers Jerome Robbins, Agnes de Mille, and Micheal Kidd, and composers Leonard Bernstein, Morton Gould and Aaron Copland. In her 30s, while continuing to teach dance, Ruhman pursued academic study, earning degrees in psychology and social work. She worked as a psychotherapist at the Chicago Academy for the Arts and volunteered with Career Transitions for Dancers.