Hailed by The New York Times as "one of the great modern dancers of his time," DESMOND RICHARDSON is a multi-talented artist who has mastered a wide range of classical, modern and contemporary dance genres. In 1994, Richardson founded Complexions Contemporary Ballet with fellow artist Dwight Rhoden. Praised for his powerful dancing and singular perform-ance quality, Richardson has been the hall-mark performer who has shaped the essence of the Complexions style for more than a decade.

When he danced the lead role in the Ameri-can Ballet Theatre's world premiere of "Oth-ello," The New York Times described him as "one of the most majestic dancers ever to tread the Metropolitan Opera House stage." In 1998, Richardson joined the original cast of the Broadway musical "Fosse," for which he received a 1999 Tony Award nomination.

Working in television, film and video in the U.S. and abroad, Richardson has performed with such musical artists as Michael Jackson, Prince, Aretha Franklin and Madonna. He made his on-screen sing-ing debut in Charles Randolph Wright's 2005 film "Preaching to the Choir" and is featured in Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi's film "One Last Dance," as well as the Oscar-winning movie adaptation of "Chicago." Richardson appeared in Julie Taymor's film "Across the Universe" and also performed the lead role of Beowulf in her "Grendel" at the LA Opera and The New York State Theater.

Among his many honors are The Ailey School's 2006 Apex Award and the prestig-ious 2007 Dance Magazine Award. He is also a recipient of a 1986 Presidential Scholar Award for the Arts and will be awarded the NFAA Alumni award later in 2009. Recently, he and Dwight Rhoden partnered with Diana Vishneva for her one-woman show, "Beauty in Motion," at New York City Center, the Orange County Performing Arts Center and in Mos-cow, Russia. In May 2008, he was one of two dancers invited by the President of the United States to perform at the 60th Presidential Conference in Israel. Richardson appeared on the Fox television hit, "So You Think You Can Dance," for which he choreo-graphed a duet with Dwight Rhoden.