Rosalynde LeBlanc

Rosalynde “Roz” LeBlanc is a Peabody Award-winning producer, and a New York Dance and Performance Award (BESSIE) nominated performer, as well as a choreographer and educator who has spent over thirty years in dance. Roz’s research examines movement as both an archive and a conveyor of the lived experience and her work spans the media of dance, film, and literary nonfiction.

Roz launched her dance career at 19 as Bill T. Jones’s partner in the duet, Shared Distance, The New York Times named her “sensational debut” among the best of 1993’s Year in the Arts. She remained a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company for the next six years, originating roles in Still/Here among other notable works. She then joined White Oak Dance Project, where she was one of six alongside legendary dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, performing repertory by renowned choreographers, Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, Richard Move, and Lucinda Childs among many others. Roz’s additional performance credits for stage and screen include: Samson et Dalila for New York’s Metropolitan Opera; Lo Sposo Deluso by Joachim Schlömer; Land of Dreams by Charles Moulton; Exploration of Feminine Range by Charissa Kroeger; light and desire by Colleen Thomas (BESSIE nomination); Resident Artists by Margaret Sunghe Paek; as well as John Turturro’s feature film, Romance & Cigarettes; Janessa Clark’s award-winning installation, Communion; and in music videos by singer, Janet Jackson, and the rapper, Offset. Roz still performs for stage and screen and is represented by The Movement Talent Agency (MTA).

Roz’s choreography has been presented around the country with dances licensed and commissioned by professional and student companies. In 2025, she was one of two choreographers selected for L.A. Dance Project’s prestigious creative residency, LAUNCH: L.A. where the first draft of her current project, WOMANLAND, received critical note. As a storyteller, Roz has published auto-ethnographic essays in industry periodicals like Dance Magazine and Ballettanz, as well as in the peer-reviewed journal, Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies. Most notably, Roz produced the critically acclaimed documentary film, Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Watersand co-directed the film with the celebrated documentarian, Tom Hurwitz, ASC. She earned research and production grants from the Drollinger, Graves, Andrew W. Mellon, and Ford foundations. The film was a New York Times Critic’s Choice and on the ‘Best Films’ lists of Vulture and Esquire magazines. In 2023, Can You Bring It was nationally televised as the season 15 opener for AfroPop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange and went on to win the Peabody Award, which recognizes “the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in all of television, radio, and online media.”

Roz is a full professor at LMU and chaired the dance department from 2019-2025, during which time she spearheaded the new programs, SHIFT: Moving (Beyond) Oppressive Systems in Dance, the Equitable Commercial Dance Program, and Community Dance Project, as well as overseeing the creation and launch of three new degree programs in dance. She has directed LMU’s Educational Partnership with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company since 2015, and from 2023-24, she served as LMU’s first Director of Scholarly and Creative Practice. Roz’s work in dance and service to education earned her an honorary induction into the Jesuit Honor Society, Alpha Sigma Nu, and the 2025 Exemplary Women in Dance in L.A. award. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the State University of New York at Purchase and a Master of Fine Arts from Hollins University.