Leslie Cuyjet is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her practice is decorated with performances and collaborations, both formal and informal; with contemporaries, legends, and counterparts; on rooftops, good and bad floors, and alleyways; on stage, in film, art, on tour, and on the fly since 2004. She was awarded a 2019 New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for her sustained achievement as Outstanding Performer. And her 2021 solo, Blur, earned her a 2022 award for Outstanding Choreographer/Creator. She is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography.

“A potent choreographic voice,” says the New York Times. Her independent work has been presented in New York, where she aims to conjure life-long questions of identity, confuse and disrupt traditional narratives, and demonstrate the angsty, explosive, sensitive, pioneering excellence of the Black woman.

Headshot
150/250 word bio found here
Voiceover Demo       Represented by CESD Talent

 Artists/Collaborators

Jane Comfort
A.O. Movement Collective
Julian Barnett
David Thomson
Niall Noel Jones
Jennie Marytai Liu
Kim Brandt
Okwui Okpokwasili & Peter Born
Sarah Michelson
Duvet
Jennifer Monson
Johann Diedrick
Cynthia Oliver
David Gordon
Stephanie Acosta
Sean Donovan and Sebastián Calderón Bentin
Emily Wexler
Amanda K. Ringger
Brandon Wolcott
jess pretty
Mabou Mines
Tere O'Connor
Matthew Deinhart
Mark Dendy
NARCISSISTER
Vanessa Walters
Will Rawls
Juliana F. May
Katie Workum
Yanira Castro/a canary torsi
Darrin Wright
Wide Awakes Dance Corps
Daniele Sarti
Neal Wilkinson


Featured in Performances by

Meredith Monk
Nicole Wolcott
Maria Hassabi
Anohni
Andrew Schneider
Tiona Nikkia McClodden 
Solange Knowles
Faye Driscoll






Awards / Residency Support


Artist in residence
Mercury Store 2025

Artist in residence
Chinati Foundation 2025
Artist in residence
Watermill Center 2025

Guggenheim Fellowship Recipient
2025

2023 - 24 Research Artists-in-Residence
Danspace Project
2024

Technical Resident
Center for Performance Research
2023
New York Dance & Performance “Bessie” Award
Outstanding Choreographer/Creator
2022
Foundation for Contemporary Arts,
Grants for Artists (Dance)
2022


Princeton University Hodder Fellow
2021 - 2022




Curatorial Experience


Selection committee participant
Open Call
The Shed


Selection committee participant
New Dance Aliance
Performance Mix



Selection committee participant
Marble House Project
Dance




Press


Dance Magazine
-> How Leslie Cuyjet Brings Together Personal and Social Histories in For All Your Life
2025
Dance Magazine

-> 2025–26 Season Preview: The Shows Our Contributors Can’t Wait to See
2025

Dance Magazine
30 Over 30: Dance Pros Who Prove Success Can Happen at Any Age
2021
New York Times

All Her Life Studies
2021




Work / Education


Goldman Sachs One Million Black Women:
Black in Business Graduate
2022


Critical Correspondence
Co-Editor
2019 - 2021



Jane Comfort and Company
Administrative Director
2006 - Present





© 2026 Leslie Cuyjet