Coming Full Circle: How One Alum is Helping to Shape the Future of MMC Dance
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When Mondo Morales ’12 traveled to a Dallas high school in November to scout talent for MMC’s Dance program, he knew exactly what he was looking for—and what he might find.
The school, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, is nationally recognized as a pipeline into the arts world, and its annual senior dance showcase draws college recruiters from across the country. Like Morales, MMC’s associate director of recruitment and admissions, they look to identify standout performers and invite them to audition. (MMC’s Dance audition season runs from December through March.) For seniors, the showcase is one of the year’s most consequential moments.
Morales observed nearly 50 performers, searching for the bit of magic he says is crucial for an MMC dancer—not just technical precision, but “a capacity to absorb and expand.” “In watching our students’ growth over four years, you begin to identify the base level required for success, and it’s not just technique,” he said. “There’s something about a Marymount student—you can see that they’re a sponge, ready to take it all in. There’s this light about them and the way that they approach the movement that makes it special.”
He met several students who brimmed with potential and, as they lined up to speak with him, wasn’t surprised to see how excited they were to have an MMC representative in the room. He could relate—not only is Morales an alum of MMC’s Dance program, but also of Booker T.’s, having graduated in 2000. Though he’d stayed in touch with classmates and teachers over the years, the showcase marked the first time he’d returned to campus in 25 years, making the trip not just a function of his job, but a full-circle moment.
“It was a privilege to sit and talk with students. I felt that same hopeful, wide-eyed energy—like the world is right in front of you and your life is about to take off—when I was in their shoes,” he said.
Indeed, Morales vividly remembers his performance at the senior dance showcase and how it changed his life, boosting his confidence and setting him up for nearly every career move that followed.
In addition to highlighting talent, Booker T. uses the event to select students it sends to YoungArts, a national competition open to visual, creative, and performing artists in their final year of high school. Winners are named U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, one of the highest honors granted to graduating seniors.
Morales’s solo in the showcase, rooted in a traditional Mexican folk dance known as Ballet Folklórico, qualified him for the competition, which he went on to win. That national recognition brought bragging rights and a spot in school history: Morales is among 30 Booker T. students recognized as Presidential Scholars in the Arts and the first and only Presidential Scholar in Ballet Folklórico.
Moreover, the showcase marked the start of Morales’s long relationship with MMC. Among the recruiters in the audience was now-retired Professor of Ballet Anthony Ferro, who was so impressed by Morales that he offered him conditional acceptance, or admission to the College, so long as certain requirements were met. Morales was thrilled by the interest and the prospect of dancing in the world’s greatest city; though MMC was thousands of miles away, he’d been hearing about it. “Some seniors from Booker T. had gone to Marymount, and there were conversations about it being a great school,” he said. In the end, 71st Street would be the start of a new chapter—even if it didn’t immediately begin just then.
“This is where I belong.”
Morales’s journey as a dancer started in the first grade. Growing up in Grand Prairie, Texas, he was shy and introverted, often feeling out of place among peers. His parents had immigrated from a small town in Mexico, and though Morales had been born in the U.S., he spoke only Spanish at home. “I understood English, but didn’t speak much of it, and it made me very uncomfortable and insecure in school,” he said. Seeing his difficulty connecting with others, his teacher suggested that his mother enroll him in a local Mexican folk dance group to help him out of his shell. She agreed, on one condition: they would keep it from his traditionalist father. Still, it was clear from the start that Morales had found his lane. “I remember thinking, ‘I can’t be a dancer—I’ve never danced before,’” he said. “I had so many reservations. But at the end of my first day, I looked up at my mom and asked, ‘When can I come back?’”
They hid his dancing from his father for two years, until Morales performed with the troupe at the city’s Grand Cinco de Mayo Festival, and his mother insisted the whole family attend. “I saw my dad in the audience and was so scared,” he said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m never going to hear the end of this, and they’re going to make me stop dancing.” Instead, his father met him backstage, smiling. “He hugged me and said, ‘I’m so proud of you.’”
Years later, his father pushed him to trade dance for sports and join youth soccer and baseball leagues. But after Morales only halfheartedly complied—and insisted on playing in shiny penny loafers instead of sneakers—his dad relented and finally accepted his son’s passion for the stage. Morales’s mother deepened her support, taking him to see The Nutcracker and Alvin Ailey, as well as plays and musicals.
By fifth grade, Morales was recruited by a top Dallas dance company. He would learn about Booker T. through the older kids he met there, many of whom sought to audition for the school. Soon enough, it would be Morales’s turn to think about auditioning: Right before his freshman year, his family therapist told her contacts at Booker T. about him, and they arranged for a private audition. Morales got word that he had been accepted a week after he’d started his local high school in Grand Prairie.
At Booker T., his background in Mexican dance, with its intricate footwork, helped him take on the challenge of learning ballet, modern dance, jazz, composition, choreography, and repertory, which he worked hard to excel in, recalls Lily Cabatu Weiss, executive director of The Dallas Arts District, who spent more than a decade as Booker T.’s artistic director and Dance Department chair. “His can-do and never-quit attitude and willingness to spend extra time in the studio rehearsing made him a standout from the beginning,” she said.
By senior year, Morales could picture himself dancing in New York—but his parents could not. They urged him to stay close to home, so, instead of taking up Professor Ferro’s invitation to train at MMC, he accepted a full scholarship to a nearby college.
Almost immediately, he regretted it. “I kept thinking, ‘I should have gone to Marymount,’” he said. He was so unhappy that he left after a year and began dancing professionally, performing with ballet companies in Texas and Florida, working commercially, and eventually joining a cruise ship cast. There, he befriended dancers planning to move to New York and decided to follow.
At the time, he was in his mid-20s, and though he’d promised his parents he would finish his BFA, he had no intention of returning to school just yet. Instead, he continued dancing part-time and began working as a makeup artist.
That changed after he took a dance class in the city and encountered a group of MMC students. When he told them he had always wanted to attend Marymount, they urged him to audition. “I thought, ‘Let’s see what happens,’” he said.
He scheduled a campus visit, observing Dance classes taught by Katie Langan and Nancy Lushington. “I remember watching from a corner in the Great Hall and thinking, ‘This is where I belong,’” he said. He hired a choreographer to work with him on a two-minute audition piece and rehearsed relentlessly—only to come down with the flu on audition day. Refusing to let it deter him, he powered through the audition’s technique section and was among the dancers invited to perform a solo. Waiting in the Black-and-White, he took flu medicine to help him feel better and ended up falling asleep. “All of a sudden, I hear somebody say, ‘Armando Morales, it’s your turn,’” he said. He quickly pulled himself together, impressed the faculty judges, and was accepted into the College.
I remember watching from a corner in the Great Hall and thinking, ‘This is where I belong.’” —Mondo Morales ’12
In time, Morales became not only a star student but a vital part of the community and, eventually, the staff. “I knew that I wasn’t just getting my degree, but that there was something more to my reason for being at MMC,” he said. After he graduated, Langan invited him back in a contract wardrobe role that grew into a full-time position as costume coordinator—a job he held for 10 years, dressing MMC dancers “with a keen designer’s eye,” Langan said.
Morales also joined the MMC Dance Advisory Board, helping to plan and market the College’s annual Dance gala and designing photo shoots for recruitment materials. He joined the Admissions team in 2022.
Along the way, his MMC mentors, such as Langan, became more like family. At the College’s 2025 Charter Day celebration, where Morales marked his 10th anniversary on staff, Langan described his impact. “My love and respect for Mondo runs as wide as any river and as deep as any sea we find, though I am certain that I am not the only one who has been touched by his friendship, collegiality, and never-ending creative thinking,” she said.
Beyond MMC, Morales has built an impressive career as a designer and director. Among other things, he served as The Ailey School’s costume coordinator/wardrobe supervisor, costumed for organizations such as The Verdon Fosse Legacy, and collaborated with dance artists such as Sidra Bell and Christian Von Howard as an art director. In 2018, he presented his gender-neutral fashion collection, ONYX, at Brooklyn Fashion Week.
Reflecting on his path, Morales credits both MMC and Booker T. for preparing him to take on the world. “These two institutions absolutely changed my life,” he said.
In turn, he’s now inspiring others, Weiss said. “The faculty and staff at Marymount Manhattan saw the best in Armando and gave him the confidence and courage to pursue all that he has accomplished as a dancer, costume designer, and freelance art director,” she said. “When he visited us in Dallas, he was so honored to be able to do this for the next generation. The entire Dallas community is proud to have him as an alum of Booker T.”
Published: January 26, 2026
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