Jamar Roberts is a choreographer and a former dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where he was Resident Choreographer from 2019 to 2022. Jamar has made six works for AAADT: Members Don’t Get Weary (2016), Ode (2019), A Jam Session for Troubling Times (2020), Holding Space (2021), In a Sentimental Mood (2022), and Al-Andalus Blues (2024). He has also set Gemeos (2016) on Ailey II. For New York City Ballet, he has created the film Water Rite (2020), Emanon – In Two Movements (2022), and Foreseeable Future (2025). 

Jamar has also been commissioned by Vail Dance Festival, New York City Center’s Sara Mearns: Artists at the Center and Fall for Dance Festival, The Juilliard School, BalletX, San Francisco Ballet, L.A. Dance Project, ABT Studio Company, Parsons Dance, Martha Graham Dance Company, Miami City Ballet, and Works and Process at the Guggenheim, where he created the film Cooped. The March on Washington Film Festival invited Jamar to create a tribute to John Lewis, and he also made the film The First Bluebird in the Morning for the LA Opera.

Jamar is a graduate of the New World School of the Arts and the Ailey School. He first joined AAADT in 2002 and retired from dancing in 2021. His awards include the 2016 Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer and he has performed as a guest artist internationally, including with the Royal Ballet in London, as well as with Ailey II and Complexions. Jamar was a Director’s Fellow at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, has been twice featured on the cover of Dance Magazine, and currently serves as an Arnhold Creative Associate at Large and Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the Juilliard School.