Spring Intensive 2025

Steve Rooks

Former Principal Dancer with Martha Graham, Chair of Dance/Choreographer for Vassar College

Steve Rooks began his dance training in Washington, D.C. He continued his training in New York City as a scholarship student at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Mr. Rooks danced and toured with the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, and the Martha Graham Dance Company, where he performed for over a decade and achieved the rank of Principal Dancer.
Mr. Rooks has created a number of dances including “Cool River” that premiered at Lincoln center in 1996, and later became a part of the Graham Company repertoire. He was a 2004 winner of the National Choreographic Competition at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and created two solos for the 2004 Youth American Grand Prix Ballet competition. Mr. Rooks is currently Professor of Dance and Resident Choreographer at Vassar College, and has been a guest teacher with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Martha Graham Dance Company, the American Academy of Ballet, Ballet Nacional de México, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the International Summer School in Sydney, Australia. He has been awarded Vassar Research grants to travel to Riga, Latvia, Lusaka, Zambia, and in 2014 to Turku, Finland, where he choreographed “Plate Tectonics” on 24 dancers. As part of the Masterworks Festival, Mr. Rooks was commissioned to create ballets for a number of contemporary composers including Clarice Assad, Piet Swerts and David Skidmore – all to live orchestra.
Mr. Rooks has served as an adjudicator for the American College Dance Festival, and a solo “Vista” was created for Aran Bell (ABT) for the 2014 International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi. Four contemporary solos were submitted to the 2016 Youth American Grand Prix and in 2017, Mr. Rooks returned to Mumbai, India to create a new work for Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts. 2018 included guest residencies at the Bolles School in Jacksonville Florida and the Palladino School of Dance at Dean College. 2019 residencies included workshops in Costa Rica as well as the Studio Centre de Dance in Paris, France. In 2020, Mr. Rooks was invited to join the Board of Trustees for the Martha Graham Dance Company. Mr. Rooks would like to thank Jesus Christ for all that has happened to him.