Marcus Jarrell Willis

Marcus Jarrell Willis began his formal training at the Johnston Performing Arts Middle School, the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and Discovery Dance Group in Houston, Texas. At age 16, he moved to New York City to study at The Ailey School as a scholarship student. Willis is a recipient of a Level 1 ARTS award given by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts and has received scholarships to many schools including Juilliard. He was a member of Ailey II and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and has also worked with Pascal Rioult Dance Theater, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, and Tania Pérez-Salas Compañía de Danza. 

Willis has presented choreographic work in the 2009 TDDC Contemporary Dance Festival in New York City, The Ailey Dancer’s Resource Fund performances, The Dance Gallery Festival, The Moving Beauty Series, and Gdánsk Festival Tańca in Poland. Commissions, residencies, and film creations include works for Ailey II, TU Dance, New York Choreographic Institute with dancers of New York City Ballet, Ballet Cymru, Ballet Memphis, The Big Muddy Dance Company, Company Danzante, Juilliard, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, The Ailey School, New World School of the Arts, University of Minnesota, Lucia Marthas Institute for the Performing Arts, Rubicon Dance, COCA, Satellite Collective, The Dance Gallery Festival Level Up Commission in 2013, and The 92nd Y Dance Introduction Series, among others. He was named Best Choreographer in City Pages 2018 “Best of the Twin Cities” for his TU Dance creation, Sensible Existence. The evening length expansion of Sensible Existence was commissioned as a TU Dance Project in 2022. 

Willis was the 2018-19 Leverhulme Choreography Fellow at Rambert Dance in London. In 2021, he was appointed Resident Choreographer for Ballet Cymru in Newport, Wales. In 2022, he launched the choreography initiative Works in Progress (WIP) in partnership with Ballet Cymru, which aims to bridge gaps between mid-career choreographers and venues in Wales. In the spring of 2023, he curated and produced the first performance production of Works in Progress, WIP23. Included in the production was the premiere of his latest creation, I.M. – Inherent Multiplicity. In October 2023, he joined England’s Phoenix Dance Theatre as the company’s ninth artistic director.