DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENT

Peggy Lyman Hayes is being honored for her extraordinary career and accomplishments in the world of dance. Her journey began in Cincinnati, where she trained at esteemed institutions like the Myrl Laurence Ballet Studio, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and Chicago’s Stone-Camryn Ballet School. Peggy’s impressive career saw her perform as a soloist with the Cincinnati Ballet, earn a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet school in New York, and dazzle audiences on Broadway in the musical “Sugar.”

Her remarkable talent led her to become a Principal Dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, where she played leading roles in some of the company’s most iconic works and starred in several new ballets created specifically for her. Her storied career has seen her perform and star on some of the world’s most prestigious stages and venues:  at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its first exhibition of the treasures of Tutankhamun, The Metropolitan Opera House, the City Center in New York, and multiple Broadway theaters. She has performed for distinguished audiences at the Kennedy Center, London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, which was attended by members of the royal family, and on television on several occasions for various dance specials and programs.

Beyond her performance career, Peggy Lyman Hayes is the Regisseur for the Martha Graham Center and has staged ballets for companies all over the world such as the Dutch National Ballet, Ballet Teatro Argentino, Rome Opera Ballet, Dance Connecticut, the Sarasota Ballet, the University of Michigan, Miami City Ballet and Ballet de Lorraine (France), among others.

Additionally, she founded her own dance company, The Peggy Lyman Dance Company, and has taught dance at various institutions, including Juilliard, NYU, Barnard College, The American Dance Festival, SMU, Northwestern, the University of New Mexico, and Eastern Connecticut Concert Ballet. At NKU and University of Hartford’s Hartt School, she taught dance and also designed curriculum for their dance and theater departments. She has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Hartford and serves as an Honoree Trustee on the Julius Hartt Musica Foundation Board of Trustees. In 2018, Peggy was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame. Peggy continues to inspire and contribute to the world of dance as both a performer on "MoveIt" dvd's and as a master teacher of the Martha Graham Technique.