BOCA TUYA SUMMER LAB
Lead by: Omar Román de Jesús 

 

06/08 - 06/12 || 10:00AM - 2:00PM
Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018

$350 for the full week

 

The Playground NYC allows dancers to experience various choreographic styles and ideas, engage with a new community of dancers, and gather resourceful information and inspiration from the array of choreographers involved. In turn, established choreographers are paid for their creative investigations, are given free space to explore new movement with professional dancers, and are provided with the opportunity to establish relationships with new dancers and fellow choreographers.  

 

Join Boca Tuya’s first Company Intensive — a 5-day immersive experience led by Artistic Director Omar Román de Jesús. Train alongside company artists while exploring the physicality, musicality, and emotional depth that define Boca Tuya’s distinctive movement language.

Central to Omar’s process is the creation of surreal characters and cinematic worlds. Through guided exercises, dancers will transform physical choices into narrative presence, investigating how gesture, rhythm, and imagination shape characters that feel both theatrical and deeply human. Participants will explore how movement, environment, and atmosphere interact to build layered emotional landscapes.

More than a workshop, this intensive is a collaborative creative space where Omar will develop new material with participants, inviting dancers directly into his choreographic process while encouraging curiosity, risk-taking, and personal interpretation. The environment is intimate and focused, fostering meaningful exchange and an opportunity to engage with the Boca Tuya community.

 

Omar Román de Jesús is a choreographer and the director of the NYC-based Cultural Movement Collaborative BOCA TUYA. He is the inaugural Baryshnikov Arts Center Fellow at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, a 2025 Works & Process Recipient, and a former Artist in Residence with 92NY. Omar is also a 2023 Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Awardee and was recently awarded the Alan M. Kriegsman Residency at Dance Place and the Kennedy Center. His accolades include the 2022 Princess Grace Award in Choreography, the 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Choreography, the 2022 Palm Desert Choreography Festival Grand Prize, and the 2020 Ann & Weston Hicks Choreography Fellowship at Jacob’s Pillow.

He has created works for over 20 companies and pre-professional programs, including The Paul Taylor Dance Company, Charlotte Ballet, The Juilliard School, Ballet Hispánico, BalletCollective, St. Louis Dance Theater, Joffrey Ballet Concert Group, Whim W’Him, Parsons Dance, The Ailey School, and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. His Papagayos, commissioned by Ballet Hispánico, premiered at New York City Center and later appeared at the American Dance Festival in North Carolina. Most recently, Like Those Playground Kids at Midnight was presented in celebration of the 92NY 150th anniversary.

Over the past five years, Omar has toured internationally to Colombia, Panama, the Canary Islands, and Germany, where he recently collaborated with WINN Dance in partnership with HUGO BOSS in Hamburg. His work has also been presented across the United States in New York, Georgia, Washington, Pennsylvania, and California.

Omar is deeply committed to education and has taught workshops and master classes internationally for professional dancers, students with special needs, people with physical disabilities, and marginalized communities.