Roman Cruz

Originally from Patterson, New Jersey, ROMAN CRUZ began his life as a dancer learning Latin dances from his mother. After a trip to Puerto Rico when he was 11, Roman’s mother enrolled him in salsa dance lessons with Griselle Ponce and Jossue Torres.Giving up his other love of football, Roman decided to dance full time and was accepted to Arts High School in Newark, NJ, under the direction of Ronnie Carney and Kim Richardson, where he began training in ballet and modern dance. After graduating in the top ten of his class, Roman attended North Carolina School of the Arts in the B.F.A. program majoring in Modern, and attended ABT Bermuda and Joffrey Ballet School summer programs.

Roman has had work created for him by Sidra Bell, Fabien Prioville, Alonzo King, Brenda Daniels, Brian Reeder, Ronnie Carney, and many more over the past six years of his professional dance career. He has received The Star-Ledger Scholarship for the Performing Arts and a scholarship from The Dizzy Feet Foundation.

Now in his second year at The Juilliard School, Roman received a special mention in the New York Times in March 2010 for his performance in Juilliard’s production of Jerome Robbins’ N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz.