Marcus Hardy, a native of Garner, NC, always had a passion for the arts from a young age. Much of that passion came from having a family of musicians. Though Marcus participated in many sports up until college, mainly track and field, he loved everything about the arts, which eventually led to him changing his major to Dance Performance his senior year of college. He went on to receive his BFA in Dance Performance, in 2012, at East Carolina University with a concentration in Jazz dance. Soon after, he moved to Chicago to dance professionally. Since then he went on to dance with Inside Chicago Dance where he was a performing apprentice for 2 years and company member for 3 years. He also performed with Chicago Dance Crash, SueMo Dance Company and WaterStreet Dance Company as a guest artist and has had the privilege of being a part of multiple Nutcracker productions portraying the roles of Drosselmeyer, the Arabian soloist, and Snow King. Marcus has also had the opportunity to dance alongside recording musical artists such as Chesca, Brian McKnight, and Stacey Kay and was the lead choreographer/dancer in Bri Joi's music video "Let me see you." Since 2022, Marcus has been a dancer at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, performing in Verdi's Aida, The Daughter of a Regiment, Fiddler on the Roof and two Grammy Award Winning Operas: Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up In My Bones and Champion. He was also part of the ensemble in Personality: The Lloyd Price Musical which premiered in Chicago. Aside from his performance career, Marcus has had the opportunity to teach at dance studios and collegiate dance teams across the country. His award winning choreography ranges from such styles as hip hop, contemporary, jazz, and ballet. Marcus has been a competitive judge for 9+ years and is excited to share his knowledge with the next generation of dancers.