Dwight Rhoden (Founding Artistic Director/Resident Choreographer of Complexions Contemporary Ballet) has established a remarkably wide-ranging career, earning distinction from The New York Times as “one of the most sought out choreographers of the day.”
A native of Dayton, Ohio who began dancing at age 17, Dwight has performed with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Les Ballet Jazz De Montreal, and as a principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He has appeared in numerous television specials, documentaries and commercials throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe and has been a featured performer on many PBS “Great Performances” specials.
Since 1994 Dwight’s choreography has been the lynchpin in the development of the Complexions repertory. He has been praised for his prolific body of work, visionary style and boundary-breaking sensibility. He has created over 80 ballets for Complexions, as well as numerous other companies, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Arizona Ballet, The Aspen Santa Fe Ballet Company, Ballet Gamonet, The Dance Theater of Harlem, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, The Joffrey Ballet, Miami City Ballet, New York City Ballet/Diamond Project, North Carolina Dance Theater, The Pennsylvania Ballet, Philadanco, Minneapolis Dance Theater, Phoenix Dance Company, Sacramento Ballet, Oakland Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, The Washington Ballet, and Zenon Dance Company.
Widely known as “a dancer’s choreographer,” Dwight has worked with, coached and created for some of the most diverse artists spanning the worlds of ballet and contemporary dance. “Rhoden’s work is post-Balanchinean choreography, a new aesthetic in movement, stage, picture, and performance concepts reflecting a post-modern, techno-savvy worldview” (Dance Magazine). He has directed and choreographed for TV, film, theater and live perform ances including So You Think You Can Dance, E! Entertainment’s Tribute to Style and Cirque Du Soleil. He has also worked with such high-profile artists as Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Kelly Clarkson, and Patrick Swayze.
Rhoden is the Resident Choreographer of North Carolina Dance Theatre and has lectured, taught, created works for and served as Artist in Residence at universities around the United States including New York University, Juilliard and The University of Mississippi, where his 2004 Racial Reconciliation Project was credited as a catalyst for dialogue in a community that has been historically divided. He is a 1998 New York Foundation for the Arts Award recipient and beneficiary of the 2001 Choo San Goh Award for Choreography. In May 2006 he received The Ailey School’s Apex Award in recognition of his extensive contributions to the field of dance.
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