Ashley Wheater News

The Joffrey Ballet launches its 2016-2017 season with the return of Polish National Ballet Director Krzysztof Pastor's popular Romeo & Juliet, which mesmerized audiences at its Chicago premiere in spring 2014. Romeo & Juliet is presented in 10 performances only at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 East Congress Parkway, October 13-23, 2016.

The Joffrey Ballet is pleased to announce a major leadership reorganization for the Joffrey Academy of Dance featuring a new team comprised of respected dance industry veteran Raymond Rodriguez as Head of Studio Company and Trainee Program, effective late October, and Joffrey Ballet's Karin Ellis-Wentz as Head of Pre-Professional Programs, effective immediately. Both of these newly created director-level positions will report to Karine Provost, who will serve in a newly elevated role as Academy Director. Additionally, Joffrey Ballet's Artistic Director Ashley Wheater will now serve as Artistic Director of both the Academy and the Company - assuming creative leadership across the organization. 

The Joffrey Ballet launches its 2016-2017 season with the return of Polish National Ballet Director Krzysztof Pastor's popular Romeo & Juliet, which mesmerized audiences at its Chicago premiere in spring 2014. Romeo & Juliet is presented in 10 performances only at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 East Congress Parkway, October 13-23, 2016.

The Chicago Humanities Festival announces a number of additions and changes to its Fallfest/16: Speed line-up.

The Joffrey Ballet will offer the public a rare glimpse into the rehearsal studio when it streams a live, first look of the highly anticipated world premiere production of The Nutcracker by Christopher Wheeldon, winner of the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Broadway hit, An American in Paris. Seeing the master at work and watching the impeccably trained dancers of The Joffrey Ballet is a one-day-only opportunity, Today, September 8, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm (CT) and is accessible via the Joffrey's online YouTube channel.

The Joffrey Ballet will offer the public a rare glimpse into the rehearsal studio when it streams a live, first look of the highly anticipated world premiere production of The Nutcracker by Christopher Wheeldon, winner of the 2015 Tony Award for Best Choreography for the Broadway hit, An American in Paris. Seeing the master at work and watching the impeccably trained dancers of The Joffrey Ballet is a one-day-only opportunity, Thursday, September 8, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm (CT) and is accessible via the Joffrey's online YouTube channel.

The Joffrey Ballet will offer the public a rare glimpse into the rehearsal studio when it streams a live, first look of the highly anticipated world premiere production of The Nutcracker by Christopher Wheeldon, winner of the 2015 Tony Award® for Best Choreography for the Broadway hit, An American in Paris. Seeing the master at work and watching the impeccably trained dancers of The Joffrey Ballet is a one-day-only opportunity,Thursday, September 8, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm (CT) and is accessible via the Joffrey's online YouTube channel.

The Board of Directors of The Joffrey Ballet is pleased to announce that a new five-year contract for its company of 41 dancers has been approved, effective immediately through the 2020-2021 Season. The announcement was made by The Joffrey Ballet's Executive Director Greg Cameron and follows negotiations with the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA), the union representing the dancers. 

The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, announces a national call for ALAANA (African, Latino(a), Asian, Arab and Native American) artists to submit applications for The Joffrey Academy's Seventh Annual Winning Works Choreographic Competition.

What happens when you bring together the music of composer Bela Bartok, noted for developing new sounds for a new century, The Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Franz Welser-Most, and The Joffrey Ballet, under the creative vision of Ashley Wheater, and the sounds of two well-trained opera singers? The result is a creative, spell-binding visual and musical concert of high audience pleasing quality.

CHICAGO – The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago present four World Premieres in the sixth annual “Winning Works” program, the culmination of Joffrey's 2016 Winning Works Choreographic Competition. This year's Competition winners - Jeffrey Cirio, Christian Denice and Mariana Oliveira each choreographed a work, along with a fourth by Joffrey Academy Artistic Director Alexei Kremnev, titled Coco + Igor. All four works are performed by dancers from the Joffrey Studio Company and the Joffrey Academy Trainee Program. The Joffrey Academy of Dance's “Winning Works” program is presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's Edlis Neeson Theater, 220 E. Chicago Avenue, over three performances only: tonight, March 5, at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM and Sunday, March 6 at 3:00 PM. 

On April 7-10, 2016 The Cleveland Orchestra, Music Director Franz Welser-Most, and The Joffrey Ballet will perform a double-bill of staged opera and ballet in four performances at Severance Hall. The performances feature two works by 20th-century Hungarian composer Bela Bartok: his gritty and tragic ballet The Miraculous Mandarin and the operatic psychological thriller, Bluebeard's Castle. Chicago's The Joffrey Ballet and Artistic Director Ashley Wheater continue their long-term partnership with The Cleveland Orchestra with this production featuring newly commissioned choreography and staging for both Bartok works under the direction of choreographer Yuri Possokhov. Bluebeard's Castle features two renowned singers, bass Mikhail Petrenko and soprano Katarina Dalayman, and members of The Joffrey Ballet in this riveting drama of a man introducing his new wife to the secrets of his past. Both productions' set, lighting, and projections are designed by Alexander V. Nichols with costume design by Mark Zappone and costume construction by Mark A Zappone & Co.

?Atlanta Ballet announced today that Gennadi Nedvigin, principal dancer with San Francisco Ballet, will join the 87-year-old company as only its fourth artistic director.

All performances take place in the Joffrey's home venue, the historic Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, in downtown Chicago at 50 East Congress Parkway. All programs throughout the season feature live music performed by the Chicago Philharmonic conducted by Scott Speck, Music Director of The Joffrey Ballet.

CHICAGO – The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago present four World Premieres in the sixth annual “Winning Works” program, the culmination of Joffrey's 2016 Winning Works Choreographic Competition. This year's Competition winners - Jeffrey Cirio, Christian Denice and Mariana Oliveira each choreographed a work, along with a fourth by Joffrey Academy Artistic Director Alexei Kremnev, titled Coco + Igor. All four works are performed by dancers from the Joffrey Studio Company and the Joffrey Academy Trainee Program. The Joffrey Academy of Dance's “Winning Works” program is presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's Edlis Neeson Theater, 220 E. Chicago Avenue, over three performances only: Saturday, March 5, at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM and Sunday, March 6 at 3:00 PM. 

The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago present four World Premieres in the sixth annual "Winning Works" program, the culmination of Joffrey's 2016 Winning Works Choreographic Competition. This year's Competition winners - Jeffrey Cirio, Christian Denice and Mariana Oliveira each choreographed a work, along with a fourth by Joffrey Academy Artistic Director Alexei Kremnev, titled Coco + Igor. All four works are performed by dancers from the Joffrey Studio Company and the Joffrey Academy Trainee Program. The Joffrey Academy of Dance's "Winning Works" program is presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's Edlis Neeson Theater, 220 E. Chicago Avenue, over three performances only: Saturday, March 5, at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM and Sunday, March 6 at 3:00 PM.

For its annual winter engagement, The Joffrey Ballet presents "Bold Moves," a program of three contemporary ballets including a World Premiere by British choreographer Ashley Page, along with the return of two popular works from the Joffrey repertoire - Yuri Possokhov's RAkU and Ji?i Kylian's Forgotten Land plus live orchestral accompaniment from the Chicago Philharmonic, led by Joffrey Music Director Scott Speck, during every performance. "Bold Moves" is presented in 10 performances only at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Parkway, February 10-21, 2016.

The Joffrey Ballet celebrates the 28th annual, and final, presentation of Robert Joffrey's THE NUTCRACKER, Chicago's most popular holiday tradition, in a 24-performance engagement at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University, 50 E. Congress Parkway, tonight, December 4 - 27, 2015. Tony winner Christopher Wheeldon, who directed Broadway's AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, is working on a new version for next year.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts welcomes The Joffrey Ballet (#JoffreyKenCen) for seven performances of Robert Joffrey's THE NUTCRACKER in the Kennedy Center Opera House, this weekend, November 25-29, 2015. The Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra will accompany all performances.