Laura Ellis is a member of faculty of the Theater and Dance department at Cal State University East Bay, for whom she has choreographed numerous productions. With colleague Kimiko Guthrie she co-directed and co-choreographed A Chorus Line—which garnered critical praise and was the catalyst for CSUEB’s Musical Theater program. Ms. Ellis has also staged productions for Open Opera, Festival Opera, George Coates Performance Group, Douglass Morrison Theater, and Theatre Rhinoceros. A principal dancer with Dimensions Dance Theater, she has appeared in works by Emily Keeler, Donald McKayle, Garth Fagan, Deborah Vaughan, Joan Lazarus, Anne Bluethenthal, Kim Epifano, and Robert Moses; and is co-founder of the award-winning Black Choreographers Festival: Here & Now. In the summer of 2017 Ms. Ellis was a co-choreographer of Ragtime—a co-production of SFArtsED and the SF Bay Area Theatre Company performed at the Nourse Theater.