Jillian Hrushowy
Dancer and Production Manager
Place of Birth: Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
Arrival in Las Vegas: 1959
Work/Contribution: Dance
Date of Interview: 1995
Interviewed by: Joyce Marshall
Jillian Hrushowy grew up in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. She enjoyed a privileged youth in the British colony. Her mother encouraged her to study ballet and she took lessons from an early age. At the age of fifteen, her family sent her to a boarding school in England. At 18, she went to Paris to work as a dancer.
The following year, she came to Las Vegas as part of a company hired to appear at the El Rancho Vegas Hotel in a production called La Nouvelle Eve. She and the other dancers lived in bungalows behind the hotel. After leaving the El Rancho, she worked in several other shows, and traveled to Reno and Lake Tahoe.
She married and made her home in Las Vegas. She is now the production manager for Legends in Concert at the Imperial Palace Hotel.
This interview focuses on the years from Jillian’s arrival in 1959 until she retired from dancing in 1979. It follows her transitions from dancer, to principal dancer to production manager.
The following year, she came to Las Vegas as part of a company hired to appear at the El Rancho Vegas Hotel in a production called La Nouvelle Eve. She and the other dancers lived in bungalows behind the hotel. After leaving the El Rancho, she worked in several other shows, and traveled to Reno and Lake Tahoe.
She married and made her home in Las Vegas. She is now the production manager for Legends in Concert at the Imperial Palace Hotel.
This interview focuses on the years from Jillian’s arrival in 1959 until she retired from dancing in 1979. It follows her transitions from dancer, to principal dancer to production manager.
Photo courtesy of UNLV Special Collections. May not be reproduced without the special permission of UNLV Special Collections.