SALVATORE LARUSSA, a native New Yorker, is a graduate of Hofstra University, under the direction of Lance Westergard. LaRussa premiered his first NYC season in 2005 which marked the start of his company, Salvatore LaRussa Dance Theatre. SLDT has performed extensively in New York City in traditional and non-traditional spaces, including Merce Cunningham Studio, the Goldman-Sonnenfeldt Auditorium, DEEP, Green Space, and Knitting Factory, Aiely Citigroup Theater, and have been part of numerous festivals and symposiums in NYC and across the country, including the Emerging America Festival at the A.R.T. / Harvard University, Masculinity and Embodied Practice/ Movement Research & Urban Research Theater, Blooms Dance Festival, and the Queens Art Express. Commissions have included Hofstra University and Gritty Cherries Productions. LaRussa received critical acclaim in Dance Europe Magazine where Tim Martin writes, “…another example of LaRussa’s excellent sense of dance theatre”, has been named one of theTop Five Queens Trendsetter by the It’s Queens magazine, and NY1 News Queens Person of the Week. LaRussa has been a panelist for the Queens Council on the Arts and was featured in their artSPY Series: Dance in Queens. In 2009, LaRussa founded Salvatore LaRussa Dance Theatre – The Academy, a performing arts institution and home for his company, in Middle Village/ Queens NY. LaRussa’s dance credits include Robin Becker Dance, Now Dance, La Compania, Michael Mao’s ballet, Firecracker, and numerous projects with Broadway Choreographer, David Marquez, including Tom Sawyer (Broadway), and the Alan Awards.