Elijah Richardson, originally from San Jose, California, began his artistic journey as a figure skater while building his rapport with the stage as an actor and singer in musical theatre, classical choir, and competitive dance teams throughout his public performing arts schooling. He went onto receive the Musco Scholarship for the Arts and earned his BFA in Dance Performance and a Minor in History from Chapman University in 2018. Additionally, Elijah furthered his education by spending summers on scholarship at renown intensives including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Zion Dance Project, and One Body, One Career Countertechnique Intensive in Amsterdam.
Upon graduation, Elijah joined DanceWorks Chicago for three seasons, where he humbly performed and taught nationally and internationally. At DWC, he was closely mentored by director Julie Nakagawa, and given the opportunity to take on more creative and administrative responsibility in various roles as a peer mentor, restager, and lead contributor on social media design and marketing. Most notably, Elijah curated “An InterVIEW Series with DanceWorks Chicago Alumni,” a showcase of over two dozen short films highlighting previous members’ company experiences and their current life updates amidst the global lockdown.
Elijah has since gone on to freelance as a guest artist, previously working with Anaheim Ballet, The Cambrians, Symbiosis Arts, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and Collage Dance Collective’s historic restaging of “Prodigal Son” by George Balanchine.
Throughout his career, Elijah has had the privilege of originating roles and premiering works by several choreographers including Shannon Alvis, Charissa-Lee Barton, Hanna Brictson, Donald Byrd, Joshua Blake Carter, Ron de Jesus, Rubén Graciani, Sean Greene, Will Johnston, Monique Haley, Vincent Hardy, Rebecca D. Huang, Tsai Hsi Hung, Alex Ketley, Joshua Manculich, Stephanie Martinez, Julianne O’Brien, Crystal Michelle Perkins, Wade Schaaf, Bobbi Jene Smith, Kia S. Smith, Ido Tadmor, and Faith von Atzigen. Additional repertory includes works by Alejandro Cerrudo, Frank Chaves, Christian Denice, James Gregg, Ohad Naharin, Christian Spück, and Demis Volpi. Elijah was also fortunate to be the rehearsal assistant to Joshua Manculich in developing new creations and restaging his repertory at Collage Dance Collective in 2019 & 2020.
His choreography has been performed at Chapman University, Evanston Dance Ensemble, Trifecta Dance Festival, The Rooted Space, Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival, South Chicago Dance Festival, Loyola University Chicago, Zion Dance Project, and Second City Dance Ministry. In addition, his dance films have been selected at Flatlands Dance Film Festival, Iowa International Screendance Festival, Inaugural Big Muddy Screendance Fest, and four times at the Mobile Dance Film Festival.
As a multifaceted educator, Elijah has frequently taught classes in contemporary, modern, jazz, and improvisation. His affiliations include University of Chicago, Chapman University, James Madison University, Western Michigan University, University of Michigan, Northern Illinois University, Sam Houston State University, Zion Dance Project: Summer Series, The Cambrians: Winter Intensive, Common Conservatory, Chicago Movement Collective, DanceWorks Chicago (Dance360 Program), Virtual Dance Lab (Lucky Plush Productions), and studios across the Chicagoland area.
He has been a company member with South Chicago Dance Theatre since 2021. He has been part of historic company debuts at Jacob’s Pillow, Spring to Dance, Harris Theater, Auditorium Theatre, collaborations with Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Laguna, and Giordano Dance Chicago, in addition to international tours to Colombia, South Korea, and Vietnam.
In 2023, Elijah was honored to be included in the Top “25 to Watch” List by Dance Magazine.
In 2025, Elijah was one of 11 dancers and dancemakers highlighted on the “Players 50: The 50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago” list by NewCity Magazine.
