Ashley Wheater News

For the first time as a Company, The Joffrey Ballet will make its Paris debut at the invitation of Les Etes de la Danse ("The Summer of Dance"), a highly-anticipated annual festival that welcomes the world's most prominent dance companies, artists and choreographers to Europe each summer for a month of performances.

The Joffrey Ballet set a new attendance record in 2017-2018 and achieved the highest grossing season in its 62-year history, breaking the previous record established during the 2016-2017 season. Total attendance in 2017-2018 exceeded 100,000, with ticket revenue surpassing $7.7 million. The record numbers come at a time of growth for the Joffrey, which recently received a $1 million grant from the Alphawood Foundation to fund a transformational three-year project aimed at audience expansion and sustainability.

The Gerald Arpino Foundation announces Eglevsky Ballet's Annual Student Workshop Performance as part of The Joffrey/Arpino Celebration, with a performance of Gerald Arpino's Viva Vivaldi, on Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 6:30pm at The Madison Theatre at Molloy College, 1000 Hempstead Ave, Rockville Center, NY. Tickets are $35 at the door.

The Gerald Arpino Foundation announces Eglevsky Ballet's Annual Student Workshop Performance part of The Joffrey/Arpino Celebration Tuesday, June 5, 2018 at 6:30pm The Madison Theatre at Molloy College

For its 27th annual event, Dance for Life Chicago presents a diverse group of companies and artists performing August 18 at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Parkway, Chicago. Dance for Life, which mobilizes Chicago's dance community by raising funds through dance, presents this annual benefit performance, which is preceded by a gala reception at the Hilton Chicago.

The Gerald Arpino Foundation announces Marymount Manhattan College's Spring Repertoire Concert 2018 as part of The Joffrey/Arpino Celebration, with a performance of Gerald Arpino's Light Rain.

The Gerald Arpino Foundation announces New York Dance Project as part of The Joffrey/Arpino Celebration, with performances of Gerald Arpino's Birthday Variations as well as new contemporary works by Gabrielle Lamb, Africa Guzman, and Tyler Gilstrap.

The Gerald Arpino Foundation announces New York Dance Project as part of The Joffrey/Arpino Celebration, with performances of Gerald Arpino's Birthday Variations as well as new contemporary works by Gabrielle Lamb, Africa Guzman, and Tyler Gilstrap. 

The Joffrey Ballet boldly closes its 2017-18 season with the North American Premiere of Midsummer Night's Dream by internationally renowned Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman. A full-length contemporary ballet vastly different from Shakespeare's tale, this fully immersive theatrical experience pays homage to the summer solstice and the Scandinavian Midsummer holiday-a time of uproarious celebration, mystery, adventure and love. Midsummer Night's Dream is presented in 10 performances, April 25-May 6, 2018.

The Gerald Arpino Foundation announces The Joffrey/Arpino Celebration, to be held beginning in 2018, the 10th anniversary of Gerald Arpino's passing and the 30th anniversary of Robert Joffrey's passing. The Foundation is honoring these two influential innovators in American dance by organizing performances of their works by renowned companies across the nation and internationally.

The Gerald Arpino Foundation announces The Joffrey/Arpino Celebration, to be held beginning in 2018, the 10th anniversary of Gerald Arpino's passing and the 30th anniversary of Robert Joffrey's passing. The Foundation is honoring these two influential innovators in American dance by organizing performances of their works by renowned companies across the nation and internationally.

The Joffrey Ballet has received a $1 million grant from the Alphawood Foundation to fund a transformational three-year project aimed at audience expansion and sustainability. The grant will be distributed over a three-year period, allowing the Joffrey to implement new marketing and development initiatives. The grant is intended to support these new initiatives over the next three years, after which they will become self-sustaining as part of the Joffrey's goal to generate new audiences and revenue.

Plácido Domingo, LA Opera's Eli and Edythe Broad General Director, has announced final details about the company's spring presentation of Christoph Willibald Gluck's landmark masterpiece, Orpheus and Eurydice, which will be conducted by James Conlon, the company's Richard Seaver Music Director. The new production, created by LA Opera in collaboration with Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Hamburg Staatsoper, is directed, choreographed and designed by John Neumeier and will feature the entire company of the Joffrey Ballet, one of the world's great dance companies.

The internationally renowned Lar Lubovitch Dance Company celebrates its 50th anniversary this spring with two programs at The Joyce Theater featuring the world premiere of Lar Lubovitch's Something About Night as well as signature works from the Company's vast repertory. The Company will be joined by the Martha Graham Dance Company and principals from The Joffrey Ballet, each performing seminal Lubovitch dances in honor of this milestone year. Performances are at The Joyce Theater April 17–22, 2018 (Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday and Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm).

Ashley Wheater, Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet, proudly announces an impressive 2018-19 season featuring the world premiere of Yuri Possokhov's historic reimagining of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel, Anna Karenina, presented as part of a first-time collaboration between The Joffrey Ballet and the renowned Australian Ballet, along with a world premiere by rising urban dance star Andrea Walker, the Chicago Premiere of Wayne McGregor's Kairos and the return of two popular works by Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.

The Music Center welcomes the return of The Joffrey Ballet to Los Angeles for a contemporary rendition of Shakespeare's timeless classic with the West Coast premiere of Romeo & Juliet.

The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet presents four world premieres in the eighth annual Winning Works program, the culmination of Joffrey's national call for ALAANA (African, Latino(a), Asian, Arab and Native American) artists to submit applications for the Joffrey Academy's Eighth Annual Winning Works Choreographic Competition. This year's Competition winners-Telmo Moreira, Omar Roman De Jesus, Claudia Schreier and Luis Vazquez-each have choreographed an original work created on the Joffrey Academy Trainees and Studio Company. Winning Works returns to the MCA's Edlis Neeson Theater (220 E. Chicago Avenue) for three performances, Saturday, March 3 at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM and Sunday, March 4 at 2:00 PM. Tickets for Winning Works are $25 and now available for purchase at joffrey.org/winningworks.

The internationally-acclaimed Joffrey Ballet has chosen Rush University Medical Center as the Company's preferred medical center for treatment.

For its annual winter engagement, The Joffrey Ballet presents Modern Masters, a mixed repertory program showcasing works by ballet's most celebrated contemporary icons along with today's top emerging choreographers, including the world premiere of Beyond the Shore by Joffrey Ballet Master Nicolas Blanc, the Chicago premiere of Glass Pieces by Jerome Robbins in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, the Joffrey premiere of The Four Temperaments by George Balanchine, plus the return of Body of Your Dreams by Myles Thatcher. Modern Masters is presented in 10 performances only, February 7 18, 2018.

The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago presents the return of Asia's leading contemporary dance company, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, March 2 and 3 at the Harris Theatre for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Drive, Chicago. This presentation is supported by Alphawood Foundation Chicago.