Marcus Johnson is a native of Washington D.C who has been studying, and training rigorously in professional dance for 12 years. Marcus is trained in Ballet, Modern, African, and Hip Hop and started professionally training at Duke Ellington School of The Arts. Following his tenure at Duke Ellington, Marcus was chosen to tour in China for an international dance conference. He has performed with Sting and Paul Simon, toured in Los Angeles, where he also kept up his training. Marcus has been teaching dance for about 7 years at the Dance Institute of Washington, where he’s had the pleasure of instilling all that he has learned through the years to the next generation. Marcus believes it is very important to be versatile and adaptive in this field –“it enhances your capability as a young dancer”. Marcus is grateful for the experience of inspiring the next generation to come; to mold great, strong and disciplined dancers at the Dance Institute of Washington and to impact and change the lives of children through the Art of Dance. Marcus is also experienced in the ins and outs of programming and stage productions. While he may often teach, you can also find him in meetings working hard alongside of DIW’s Creative Director.
Born in Johnson City, Tennessee, Aaron Jackson began his dance training at the age of ten, with Susan Pace-White at Holloway Dancing School. He attended summer intensives on full scholarship at the Joffrey Ballet School, The School of Pennsylvania Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet School. Mr. Jackson attended the Summer Course at the School of American Ballet (SAB) before enrolling as a full time student in the Fall 1998. In 2000, Mr. Jackson was invited by Arthur Mitchell to join The Dance Theatre of Harlem. He then joined The Washington Ballet under Septime Webre in 2001. After eight seasons at The Washington Ballet, he joined Company C Contemporary Ballet in San Francisco for two seasons. Mr. Jackson retired from performing in 2010 and returned to Washington D.C.
Throughout his career, Mr. Jackson danced featured roles in many ballets. His repertory included George Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Allegro Brillante and Four Temperaments, Christopher Wheeldon’s There Where She Loved, William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated, Twyla Tharp’s Surfer at the River Styx, Arthur Mitchell’s Firebird, Laveen Naidu’s South African Suite, and Geoffrey Holder’s Dougla.
Mr. Jackson is currently the Head Ballet Instructor for the Pre- Professional Division at the Dance Institute of Washington. Jackson began teaching at The Washington School of Ballet in 2010 and joined the faculty of The Dance Institute of Washington in 2019. He was previously on the faculty of the Jones -Haywood Dance School and the Berrend Dance Centre. Jackson has also taught at The Ballet Alliance, Tennessee Association of Dance, City Youth Ballet, Tennessee. Internationally, he has taught at Tanzwerk 101, Tanz Akademie, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürich, Musical Factory, Lucerne, and Tanzkompanie des Theaters St. Gallen, St. Gallen.
Mr. Jackson was a 2017/2018 National Visiting Fellow at SAB and currently serves on SAB’s Alumni Advisory Committee on Diversity & Inclusion.
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