Jorge Pérez

Jorge Pérez (born 1964 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is an American dancer, choreographer, educator, and director. He is the Executive and Associate Artistic Director for the Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, Illinois.

Pérez attended Northeastern Illinois University, as a speech and performing arts major, and took an administrative assistant position with Ensemble Español in 1984. He realized, after seeing Ensemble Español perform on stage for the first time, that Spanish dance was an innate part of his character. In 1985, with a scholarship apprenticeship, his formal Spanish dance training with Dame Libby Komaiko began. A year later, Pérez became a company dancer.

Pérez graduated from Northeastern Illinois University with a B.A. in Speech Communication/Performing Arts and a minor in Dance.

Over the years Pérez has appeared as a guest artist in various music and dance festivals.

Pérez serves on the board of Audience Architects and graduated from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program in 2014. In 2017, Pérez served on the welcoming panel for the 2017 cohort 18 class with special guests Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He has toured internationally with the company to Australia, Poland, Costa Rica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, and China.

Honors Dr. Bernard Brommel endowed two scholarships for Ensemble Español dancers, Brommel-Komaiko-Pérez Endowment Scholarship and Brommel- Pérez Endowment Scholarship for male student/dancers.