Jessica Teague

Jessica Teague
Associate Professor of Dance, Assistant Director of School
teaguej19@ecu.edu
252-328-6327
101 Messick Theatre Arts Center
Mail Stop 553
East Carolina University

Jessica Teague is an Associate Professor of Dance and Assistant Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at East Carolina University. Before joining ECU, she began her professional dance career with the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, Washington. Afterwards she spent 20 years dancing professionally in Europe, with the Dutch National Ballet in the Netherlands and as a Soloist with the Gothenburg Dance Company in Sweden and the Royal Ballet of Flanders in Belgium. 

Throughout her career, she performed a wide range of classical and contemporary repertoire and had the opportunity to work closely with choreographers including William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, David Dawson, Nicolo Fonte, Christian Spuck, and Wayne McGregor. Her performances have taken her to Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, Sadler’s Wells London, the Paris Opéra Bastille, Teatro La Fenice Venice, and the NYC Lincoln Center Festival. In 2009, she was a cast member of the Olivier Award winning production of William Forsythe’s Impressing the Czar, and in 2016 she was asked to serve as a dance panelist for the Olivier Awards in London.

Jessica’s academic work includes a decade as a staff writer for Dance Europe Magazine and numerous articles in several other international publications. She is also the co-author of the book Ballet: The Definitive Illustrated Story (DK/Penguin Random House, 2018). 

At ECU, Jessica teaches across the BFA dance curriculum and regularly choreographs for the school’s dance concert series. She currently serves as program leader for two of the university’s global initiatives and study abroad programs in Nairobi, Kenya and Amsterdam, Netherlands and has helped establish formal partnerships between ECU and educational institutions in both countries.

Jessica holds an MA in Cultural Policy and Management from City St. George’s University London and a BA in Art History from the British Open University. Her teaching and global engagement have been recognized with an ECU Scholar-Teacher Award (2023) and the ECU Award for Achievement in International Teaching (2025).

Education:

City St George’s University, London – MA in Cultural Policy and Management, London, UK

British Open University – BA Art History, London, UK

School of American Ballet – New York, NY

Courses:

Beginning Ballet, Intermediate Ballet, Advanced Ballet, Dance History II, Pointe (all levels), Introduction to Dance, World Dance Studio