Cleo Mack

Cleo Mack (MFA Interdisciplinary Art, BFA Dance) is an award winning choreographer and educator. Her work has been described as “a collision of quirky sophistication and unmeasured recklessness.” She has been commissioned by 10 Hairy Legs, Perpich School of the Arts, and Quad City Ballet. Ms. Mack has been honored to receive an Individual Artists Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, in recognition of her high artistic merit and was selected by Dance Magazine as one of the “25 to Watch.” Cleo has enjoyed support from the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and has also received space grants from  The Field, DTW, and Lincoln Center. 

Cleo’s former company, Cleo Mack Dance Project, was presented  at Joyce Soho, Dance Theater Workshop’s Fresh Tracks, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., WAX as part of “In the Company of Women”, P.S. 1 Contemporary Dance Center, George Street Playhouse in N.J., the Hungarian American Dance Festival in Hungary, and at NJPAC as part of Jersey Moves. 2016 marks the inception of Mack's newest project, Rock Dance Collective (RDC). This shared project with collaborators Kelli McGovern and Blair Ritchie is dedicated to pushing progress in the field of dance. As Artistic Director of RDC, Cleo makes work in traditional and non-traditional environments where the aim is to create worlds and design space to build a shared experience for audiences. 

Ms. Mack is the Director of Dance at the Middlesex County School of Performing Arts and co-owner of Washington Rock Dance. She has been a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts and a teaching artist for the American Repertory Ballet Institute, DeSales University, Muhlenberg University and the University of Iowa. She was the recipient of the 2017 Hollins University Teaching Award.

Ms. Mack’s work has been recently exhibited at he New Jersey Arts Annual at the Morris Museum.

Cleo is a professional costume designer and has created costumes for Pam Tanowitz, Kimberly Bartosik, Alexandra Beller, Meghan Frederick, Chein-Ying Wang, Randy James, Stephanie Batten Bland, Paul O’Campo, and Julia Ritter. Cleo serves on the board of Dance New Jersey and CoLab Arts. She recently served on the committees to rewrite the New Jersey State English Language standards as well as the New Jersey State Arts Standards.