Associate Professor Kelly Ozust is an educator, choreographer, and performer with a focus on narrative storytelling and community engagement. In the Department of Theatre and Dance she teaches modern, jazz, tap, and musical theatre techniques, as well as courses in choreography, dance education, and dance theory. She works closely with the musical theatre concentration by choreographing for the annual musicals, choreographing for the musical theatre workshop course, and teaching musical theatre history. She choreographs for the faculty concerts annually and directs the Winthrop Christmasville RockHettes each fall.

She has taught master classes and shown work at Piedmont University (Demorest, GA) , Colorado State University (Fort Collings, CO), Lindenwood University (Saint Charles, MO), and Greensboro Fringe Festival (Greensboro, NC). She is also on faculty at the DanceWV festival (Weston, WV). She has performed throughout the southeast and danced with Van Dyke Dance Group and Sarah Council Dance Projects. Kelly is an award-winning filmmaker with projects that have been shown at the Georgia Museum of Art and the ACDA Screendance Gala. She is interested in the narrative possibilities of the body and uses her training in dance and theatre to create unique works that often explore historical people, events, and places. 

Kelly is a member of The National Dance Education Organization, The Dance Studies Association, and The South Carolina Dance Association. She presents her creative and scholarly work annually at these conferences, as well as at the American College Dance Association Conference. Her current research lines focus on dance and motherhood, musical theatre pedagogy, and vernacular dance forms.