Yusha-Marie Sorzano

Originally from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Yusha-Marie Sorzano (pronounced Ooo-sha) is a relentless performing artist, choreographer, educator, and mentor who has worked in concert dance, theater, television, and film. She received her primary instruction from New World School of the Arts, Armour Dance Theatre, and The Dance Theater of Harlem. A YoungArts Foundation winner in dance, Ms. Sorzano went on to attend the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program and in her junior year was invited to join Ailey II. She has been a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Morphoses, TU Dance, and BODYTRAFFIC. She has also performed as a guest artist with Benjamin Millepied's LA Dance Project, performing in the work of Mr. Millepied and the work of Jermaine Spivey and Spenser Theberge. Ms. Sorzano is currently a member of Camille A. Brown &

Dancers, where she is part of the original cast of the Bessie-nominated Black Girl: Linguistic Play, and Ink, the 2nd and 3rd installments of Brown's acclaimed trilogy on race, culture, and identity.

As a choreographer, Ms. Sorzano has created works for dance companies including The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Idaho, Santa Barbara Dance Theater, Ballet Rhode Island, Moving Arts, Madison Ballet, and Zeitgeist Dance Theatre, where she is a founding Co-Artistic Director. She is currently a part of the creative team for Jeannette, A New Musical and the choreographer of A Ballet Through Mud created and composed by famed American rapper and record producer RZA. Featured in Dance Magazine for her "all-encompassing career", Ms. Sorzano has been the recipient of an Alvin Ailey Organizations New Directions Choreography Fellowship, a National YoungArts Foundation Dance Artist Fellowship, a Watermill Center Fellowship, and a Jerome Robbins Dance Division Research Fellowship at the New York Public Library. In 2021, she was nominated by a panel of leaders in the concert dance world, including artistic directors Virginia Johnson of Dance Theatre of Harlem and Lourdes Lopez of Miami City Ballet to join the 2021 cohort of 'Female Choreographers of Color in Ballet' — a collaboration with Dance Lab New York and The Joyce Foundation. Deeply passionate about the powerful role that educators play in the lives of young artists, Ms. Sorzano enjoys teaching and mentoring aspiring artists around the world.