Cheryl Mrozowski

Cheryl Mrozowski is an American dancer. Having toured the world as a ballet and jazz dance performer, she is now an active dance educator.

Cheryl Mrozowski has been the director of the Dance Company at Wheaton College (Massachusetts) since 1987, and a full-time member of the College's Department of Theatre Studies and Dance since 2001. She received her early training as a member of the State Ballet of Rhode Island and launched her performing career with the Dayton Ballet and the Cambridge Opera Ballet in England. As a member of the Cambridge Opera Ballet, Ms. Mrozowski was among the very first group of professional international dancers to perform in Russia after the country's dissolving arts scene escalated (the national problems that had led to the fleeing of such Russian dancers as Baryshnikov and Nureyev). While overseas, she studied the Vaganova method of dance and received her teacher’s qualifications from the Society of Russian Style Ballet Schools. She continued her performing career in the U.S. with the Peninsula Ballet Theater and the Esperance Dance Theater in California. While dancing with these companies, she began performing Luigi’s technique of jazz dance and was known for that particular style.

After earning a BA in history from Salve Regina University in 1970, she then earned a master’s in dance from American University where she served on the faculty for four years. In addition, she later served on the faculty of the University of Washington in DC for six years. She was also a faculty member of the Professional Actor Training/Master of Fine Arts program at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival at Auburn University before returning to New England. She has taught at the Southwestern Regional Ballet Festival in Dallas, at the Gifted and Talented Program at Goucher College in MD, and has conducted master classes in Pennsylvania and Ohio. In addition, Cheryl was previously featured in the magazines "Dance Teacher Now" and Dance Magazine. She was the subject of "NBC Timelines", a local documentary news program which showcased her Winter 2004 issue of the "Wheaton Quarterly".

Actively involved with the training and education of young dancers, Professor Mrozowski was on the summer faculty of the Acton School of Ballet in Acton, MA, and was the president of the Board of Directors of the Jeannette Neill Scholarship Program in Boston. She was a recipient of the Salve Regina’s 2005 Exceptional Volunteer Award and has served as alumni committee chair of the Governor’s Ball at Salve for two years. She recently became a trustee at her alma mater and gives money to the Salve Regina Alumni Annual Giving Fund. She currently lives in Newport, RI with her husband and son and continues to teach technique classes in Ballet and Jazz along with directing the Wheaton College Dance Company.

Her main teaching interests include classical ballet as an art-form in contemporary America and the use of the jazz idiom in musical theater dance and its ability to move the plot forward. Her research interests cover the reconstruction of landmark dance works such as Balanchine's "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" and the Flamenco version of "El Amor Brujo."

Miss Rhode Island 1966

Ms. Mrozowski began her pageant career as Miss Newport, RI. With that title, she then went on to capture the title of Miss Rhode Island in 1966. From there, she competed in the Miss America pageant where she was voted most talented dancer and most talented non-finalist.

She now serves as scholarship chair for the Miss Rhode Island Scholarship Program and has served as a judge at the pageant on several occasions and a volunteer for the past 16 years.Cheryl recently spoke out against a homophobic statement made by a Miss America title winner by saying “If it were not for gay men, the pageant probably would not exist. That is how strong that component is."