Biography

Jeffrey L. Page

Jeffrey L. Page is an Associate Professor with tenure and Coordinator of Musical Theatre in the Department of Theatre Arts at Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. An Emmy-nominated, MTV Video Music Award-winning director, choreographer, educator, filmmaker, and cultural preservationist, he treats Black performance as a living archive and choreography as a form of civic speech. His teaching and creative research examine movement as dramaturgy, rhythm as form, embodied knowledge, and the ethical responsibilities of artistic creation.

For three decades, Page has conducted field research in traditional dance, music, masquerade, storytelling, and ritual across Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau, with related research in Cuba. As Founder and CEO of Movin’ Legacy, he leads The GRIOT Project and advances the C³ Standard, Consent, Context, Credit, an ethical framework for documentation, cultural exchange, and consent-forward creative practice.

On Broadway, Page co-directed and choreographed 1776 at Roundabout Theatre Company, earning the Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics’ Choice Award from the Chita Rivera Awards, and choreographed Violet. His reimagining of Ain’t Misbehavin’ was named a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and his direction of Cost of Living at Philadelphia Theatre Company received the 2025 Young-Howze Theatre Award for Director of the Year. Additional directing credits include Choir Boy, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Running Man at Jazz at Lincoln Center, A Raisin in the Sun, Romeo and Juliet, and The Tragedy of Macbeth. His opera work includes L’Orfeo, Don Giovanni, The Turn of the Screw, and Candide.

Internationally, Page has directed and choreographed major Japanese-language productions for HoriPro, including Memphis and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie. His production of Memphis received recognition from the Yomiuri Theatre Awards and All About’s Musicals Awards. His commercial work includes choreography for Beyoncé’s “Run the World (Girls),” which received the MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography, creative work with Solange, and choreography for FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” His films include “Making Micheaux,” “TakTakShoo,” and “Blues People,” which have screened at festivals in the United States and Nigeria.

Page holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University and a BFA in Dance Performance from The University of the Arts. He received honorary doctorates from Muhlenberg College and The University of the Arts and was the first African American recipient of Juilliard’s Marcus Institute Opera Directing Fellowship. Before joining Howard, he served as Lecturer in Theater, Dance & Media and Director of the Harvard Dance Project at Harvard University. A Fulbright Specialist and Strokes of Genius Fellow, Page is Artist in Residence at Geva Theatre and serves on the boards of Jacob’s Pillow and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. At Howard, he brings together rigorous professional training, Black performance scholarship, cultural stewardship, and a commitment to preparing artists to engage the world with skill, imagination, and purpose.