Ron De Jesús, who is the founder and director of Ron De Jesús Dance, joined the Department of Musical Theatre as assistant professor in 2012. De Jesús is the artistic ambassador of Northeastern Illinois University and artistic associate for StagePlays Theater Company in New York. He has received many awards including the New York Musical Theater Festival Award for Excellence for Best Choreography and the Chicago Music & Dance Alliance Award for Best Choreographer. A Chicago native, he has danced with Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater, Joseph Holmes Dance Theater, Chicago Repertory Dance Ensemble and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago where he was a leading dancer for 17 seasons. He was in the original cast of the Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel musical Movin’Out, was part of the creative team of Tharp’s Come Fly Away and is a repetiteur for Twyla Tharp Productions. De Jesús has created works for film, theatre, television commercials, festivals, special events and dance companies including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, HS2, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Luna Negra Dance Theatre, Sacramento Ballet, Momenta, and Thodos Dance Chicago, among many more. De Jesús has served as a guest teacher and choreographer at numerous major universities including Harvard, the State University of New York at Purchase, Point Park, Wayne State University, Western Michigan University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Pepperdine University.

Class for students runs from 12:10-2 PM. Public welcome to observe the class.

Each session features a different guest artist who teaches a master class and sections from their repertory—this panorama of the contemporary dance field is presented to broaden the student’s awareness of what career possibilities are out there. The guest artist conducts a 30-minute technique class/warm-up and then teaches repertory that is performed by the class.

In the final 15-20 minutes faculty coordinator Bill De Young conducts a Q and A interviewing each guest artist about their career and what recommendations they have about the transition from student to professional and what they look for when they audition dancers for their projects.