Associate choreographer
Photo: Jermaine Spivey
Choreographer, teacher, and performer Jermaine Spivey trained at the Baltimore School for the Arts and The Juilliard School. He was a member of Ballet Gulbenkian and Cullberg Ballet, and has worked as a freelance or guest dancer with Hofesh Shechter Company, Robyn Live 2016, The LID, Arias Company, and The Forsythe Company, as well as performing in American Repertory Theatre’s production The Shape She Makes, created by Susan Misner and Jonathan Bernstein. Since 2008, Spivey has been a member of Kidd Pivot, the company led by NDT’s associate choreographer Crystal Pite. He has staged Pite’s work for companies including Cedar Lake Ballet, Carte Blanche, Hessisches Staatsballett Wiesbaden, NDT, and Paris Opera Ballet.
As a teacher, Spivey has taught extensively across North America and Europe, working with professional companies, universities, studios, and training programmes such as the USC Kaufman School of Dance, CalArts, The Juilliard School, UCLA, NYU Tisch, Baltimore School for the Arts, The Performing Arts Project, MOVE NYC, No)one. Art House, Nuova Officina Della Danza, and GöteborgsOperans Danskompani. He is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award (2001) and a National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts 1st Level Award (1998).
As a choreographer, Spivey has created work for Salt Contemporary Dance, Rambert 2, LA Dance Project, The Broad Museum, Christina Aguilera Live at The Hollywood Bowl with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil, and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Together with his partner Spenser Theberge, he has also created and performed two full-length works: Rather This Then (2017) and Position 3 (2018). In the 2021–2022 season, Spivey created his first work for NDT, Code of Conduct (2022), as part of Up & Coming Choreographers, which later led to the creation of Codes of Conduct (2023) for NDT 2.
Spivey is known for his boundary-pushing approach, challenging both dancers and audiences to see dance from new perspectives. His creative process blends structure with spontaneity, using improvisation as a key tool for generating innovative ideas.
In the 2025–2026 season, Spivey will create a new work for NDT 2 as part of The Edge of Things, alongside works by Ethan Colangelo and Alexander Ekman. From the same season onwards, we are proud to welcome Spivey in a new role at NDT: that of associate choreographer.