Vernard J. Gilmore

Vernard J. Gilmore (Chicago, Illinois) be-gan his training at Curie Performing and Creative Arts High School in Chicago under Diane Holda. He later studied at the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theater with Harriet Ross, Marquita Levy, and Emily Stein. Gilmore received first place in the all-city NAACP ACT-SO competition in 1993. He attended Barat College with a scholarship and under the tutelage of Rory Foster and Eileen Cropley. Gilmore then studied as a scholarship student at The Ailey School and was a member of Ailey II. In 2010, he performed as part of the White House Dance Series. He is a choreographer whose work has been a part of the Ailey Dancers Resource Fund, Fire Island Dance Festival 2008, and Jazz Foundation of America Gala 2010, and he produced the Dance of Light project in 2010 and 2015. An excerpt of Gilmore’s La Muette was performed in 2017 as part of the “Celebrating the Men of Ailey” program at New York City Center. Nimbus Dance Works performed a new work by Gilmore in 2018. He is a certified Zena Rommett Floor-Barre instructor and teaches workshops and master classes around the world. Gilmore joined the company in 1997.