Randy Duncan, a native Chicagoan, has the unique privilege to be a three-time recipient of Chicago’s prestigious Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Choreographer of the year. He teaches worldwide and for the past twenty-two years has been on the faculty of The Chicago Academy for the Arts, where he now serves as Dance Department Chair.
He has received numerous other awards including the Artistic Achievement Award from the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, three Black Theatre Alliance Awards for theatre, and the Gay Chicago Magazine After Dark Award for his work in Apple Tree Theatre’s production of Hello Again. He earned an American Choreography Award Nomination for his choreography in the block buster movie Save the Last Dance, starring Julia Stiles. Duncan’s work can be seen in the companies of Joffrey Ballet, Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, River North Chicago Dance Company, Bat-Dor Dance Company of Israel, Ballet Met of Columbus, Ohio, and many others. While working in such theatres as the Goodman, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, Actor’s Theatre, Court Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has created original choreography for Hair, Carousel, Zoot Suit, Once On This Island, The Rose Tattoo, Amadeus, Antigone, Death and the King’s Horseman, Pirates of Penzance, and the Pulitzer Prize winning play Ruined. Recently, he returned from Yale University where he choreographed director Liz Diamond’s production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale starring Oscar Award winner Lupita N’yongo. Since 1995, Duncan has choreographed world premieres for Chicago’s Dance for Life annual fundraising event. He is a proud member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Union as well as Actor’s Equity. More recently, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at his alma mater, Illinois State University.