The Joffrey Ballet:
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Classically trained to the highest standards, The Joffrey Ballet expresses an inclusive perspective on dance that reflects the diversity of America through its company artists, extensive repertoire, academy and community engagement programs. 

Considered one of the premier companies performing today, the Joffrey plays a vital role in the dance community as one of the largest dance companies and dance education providers in Chicago and the greater Midwest region.

Gerald Arpino was born in Staten Island, New York in 1923 and died in Chicago in 2008. He co-founded The Joffrey Ballet with Robert Joffrey in 1956 and served as associate director. Upon Joffrey’s death in 1988, Arpino succeeded him as artistic director. Arpino choreographed his first work, “Ropes,” in 1961. Shortly thereafter, he became the company’s resident choreographer. He created more than one third of the company’s repertoire. His ballets are in the repertoires of companies around the world. Arpino was the first choreographer commissioned to create a ballet to honor the office of the American presidency; he was the first American commissioned by a city, San Antonio, to do a ballet. In 1993, he produced America’s first full-evening rock ballet, “Billboards,” set to the music of Prince. Arpino received numerous awards and honors over his long and prestigious career. In 1995, he moved The Joffrey Ballet to Chicago. Prior to that move, no ballet company had ever successfully been transplanted from one part of the country to another.

One of America's most distinguished lighting designers, Thomas Skelton (1928-1994), enjoyed a long career in which he created the lighting for many important Broadway productions, as well as landmark dance works. Skelton briefly studied dance technique with Martha Graham and José Limón, and composition with Doris Humphrey. Soon enough  Joffrey had invited Skelton to work as stage manager and lighting designer for his newly formed company. In addition to his work with The Joffrey Ballet, Skelton had successful professional associations with Martha Graham, José Limón, New York City Ballet and Paul Taylor. Dance pieces for which he designed the lighting include: the original productions of Paul Taylor's “Aureole” (1962), Joffrey's “Astarte” (1967) and Jerome Robbins' “Dances at a Gathering” (1969), as well as revivals of Kurt Jooss’ “The Green Table,” José Limón's “The Moor's Pavane” and Leonide Massine's “Parade.” Among his most notable Broadway productions were the revivals of “Brigadoon” (1980), “Death of a Salesman” (1975 and 1984 productions), “Guys and Dolls” (1976), “The King and I” (1977) and “Oklahoma!” (1979). Skelton received Tony Award nominations for the original production of “Indians” (1967) and the revival of “All God's Chillun Got Wings” (1975).

For over 30 years, critically-acclaimed, international award-winning theatrical lighting and scenery designer Jack Mehler has been creating unique performance environments for theatre, dance and related events. Mehler develops specific designs which support the intentions, needs and aspirations of each project which create environments that transport an audience. His work has been recognized by The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, New York Magazine and many others. In 2012 and 2013, he received the Korean Musical Theatre Award for Lighting Designer of the Year (the Korean version of the Tony).

Martha Graham was an influential American dancer, teacher and choreographer of modern dance whose ballet and other works were intended to “reveal the inner man.” Over more than 50 years, she created more than 180 works, from solos to large-scale works, most of which she herself danced. She gave modern dance new depth as a vehicle for the intense and forceful expression of primal emotions, creating a dance technique that became the first significant alternative to the idiom of classical ballet. As the dancer Alma Guillermoprieto pointed out, Graham was “the first creator of modern dance to devise a truly universal dance technique out of the movements she developed in her choreography.”

For her themes she almost always turned to human conflicts and emotions. Many of her creations were rooted in and inspired by classical Greek dramas, as well as biblical themes and religious figures. A few being “Clytemnestra” (1958), “Cave of the Heart” (1946), “Errand into the Maze” (1947), “Alcestis” (1960), “Phaedra” (1962), “Circe” (1963), “The Witch of Endor” (1965), “Cortege of Eagles” (1967), “The Archaic Hours” (1969), “Mendicants of Evening” (1973), “Lucifer” (1975), “The Owl and the Pussycat” (1978), “Frescoes” (1980) and many more. In the early 1980s, she created neoclassical dances, beginning with “Acts of Light” (1981). In 1970, she announced her retirement as a dancer, but she restructured her company into the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1973 and continued to create dances and to teach. Her autobiography, “Blood Memory,” was published in 1991.

Robert Starer was an Austrian-born American composer, pianist and educator. His stage works include three operas with libretti by Gail Godwin and several ballets for Martha Graham. His orchestral works have been performed by major orchestras here and abroad under such conductors as Mitropoulos, Bernstein, Steinberg and Mehta. Interpreters of his music include Janos Starker, Jaime Laredo, Paula Robison and Leontyne Price. The recording of his violin concerto (Itzhak Perlman with the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa) was nominated for a Grammy. Excerpts from his book “Continuo: A Life in Music” have appeared in The New Yorker, Musical America and the London Times. In 1997, The Overlook Press published “The Music Teacher,” his first work of fiction. The opening chapter was excerpted in “The Keyboard Companion.” CD recordings of his music are available from CRI, VOX, Albany Records, Transcontinental and MMC.

For all his excellent artistry he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1994, awarded the Medal of Honor for Science and Art by the President of Austria in 1995, given an honorary doctorate by the State University of New York in 1996, as well as a Presidential Citation by the National Federation of Music Clubs in 1997.

Anne O'Donnell Passero is a freelance artist, celebrated performer and beloved teacher to the next generation of dancers around the world and at home in Chicago at The Joffrey Academy. During her 10 years spent as a soloist with the Martha Graham Company, she performed Martha Graham’s own roles in “Appalachian Spring,” “Dark Meadow Suite,” “El Penitente,” “Every Soul is a Circus” and solos in “Diversion of Angels,” “Embattled Garden” and “Cave of the Heart.” A great range of choreographers have created roles for her including Mats Ek, Hofesh Shechter, Bobbi Jene Smith, Pam Tanowitz, Annie-B Parson and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. She was awarded full scholarship at The Ailey School prior to an invitation into Ailey II. She danced for Buglisi Dance Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Program, Glimmerglass Opera Festival and Springboard Danse Montreal. O'Donnell Passero graced the cover of Dance Spirit’s February 2016 Issue “Young and Modern.”

Lorenzo Pagano is an international award-winning contemporary performer whose career has spanned across concert dance, theater and opera. He started his career by joining the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2012, becoming a principal guest artist and assistant rehearsal director in 2023. He has embodied the most iconic male roles of the repertory and originated starring roles for new works by Lucinda Childs, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Nacho Duato, Andonis Foniadakis, Pontus Lidberg and Hofesh Shechter, among others. In addition, Pagano is a regisseur for the Martha Graham Center and has restaged ballets for University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Rome Opera Ballet School and The Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Pagano was honored with the Italian International Dance Award as “Male Rising Star” in 2016 and the Premio Nazionale La Sfera d’Oro in 2022.

Robert Joffrey was an American dancer, choreographer and director, founder of The Joffrey Ballet in 1956. Early in life Joffrey began studying ballet with Mary Ann Wells, at whose school in Seattle he met Arpino, who would one day become his company’s co-director. Joffrey formed his first small company, the Robert Joffrey Ballet Concert, in 1954, and in 1956 he formed the Robert Joffrey Ballet with Arpino as chief choreographer. In 1966 the company became the City Center Joffrey Ballet and thereafter grew to international fame. Its name was later changed to simply The Joffrey Ballet. Joffrey’s works of note include “Pas des Déesses” (1954), “Gamelan” (1962), “Astarte” (1967), “Remembrances” (1973), and “Postcards” (1980). Joffrey commissioned many new ballets from new or untried choreographers. His company was noted for its eclectic repertoire that drew upon the classics, new works and fusions of modern dance and ballet. Joffrey was also noted for his choreographic work on operatic productions.

John David Ridge has designed for Broadway, ballet, opera and television. Amongst some of the highlights are “Ring ‘Round The Moon” for the Lincoln Center Theater, for which he received a Tony nomination, Robert Joffrey’s seminal “Nutcracker” and David Mamet’s “A Life in the Theatre,” both the original New York production and on television for PBS. Outside of New York, he designed, amongst many, for the Santa Fe Opera and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

In addition to costume design, Ridge has had an extensive career executing costumes in Los Angeles, New York and London for stage and film, and from 1993 at his own studio in Los Angeles. Amongst his film creations are the “Spiderman” costume for Toby Maguire and Uma Thurman’s costume for “Kill Bill.”

In fashion, Ridge designed HALSTON for six years after Halston retired in 1984. He has also been head of the costume department at the Juilliard School at Lincoln Center and costume supervisor for the National Theatre in London.

Jennifer Tipton is an internationally recognized lighting designer whose distinctive designs have redefined the relationship between lighting and performance. Tipton has been an important presence throughout her prolific career in dance, drama and opera productions of all scales, and she is regarded as one of the most versatile designers working today. Best known for her work in dance, Tipton’s painterly lighting evokes mood and defines and sculpts movement. Preferring a small but powerful palette of colors, she pioneered the use of white light in theater and dance. Many of her designs have brought to life pieces such as Twyla Tharp’s “In the Upper Room” (1986) and “Fait Accompli” (1983), and Eugene O’Neill’s “A Moon for the Misbegotten” (2005).

Chris Maravich is a Chicago-based lighting designer for opera, theater and dance. Maravich has spent most of his career on the West Coast where he served as lighting director of San Francisco Opera as well as designed lighting for various companies in California. During his 14 years with the San Francisco Opera, he worked on over 150 different productions. His design work has included “Cyrano de Bergerac” directed by Petrika Ionesco, “Idomeneo” with John Copley, “Don Giovanni,” “Il Trittico,” “Simon Boccanegro” and many others. Worldwide credits include “Tannhauser” for the Greek National Opera in Athens and “The Makropolus Case” for the Finnish National Opera. Other credits include designs of “Salome” for San Diego Opera and “Tosca,” “Madama Butterfly” and “Cenerentola” all for Opera Colorado.

Brainard’s visual art, which ranges from painting to collage to drawing, is often situated in the ephemeral; he engaged popular culture with wit as well as a classical attention to light. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Brainard has published more than a dozen books, including the lyrical prose-poem memoir series “I Remember” (1975) and “The Nancy Book” (2008), which contains 15 years’ worth of his artworks and collaborations incorporating Ernie Bushmiller’s classic comic strip character, Nancy.

Herbert Migdoll was an installation artist, painter and world-renowned photographer serving as the company photographer for The Joffrey Ballet since 1968. In 1973 he orchestrated a seminal moment in New York graffiti by connecting members of UGA — the first graffiti-writing collective — to dancer/choreographer Twyla Tharp, leading them to paint live onstage in a performance with her troupe in The Joffrey Ballet. Migdoll’s photographs and videos of this time period serve as rare documents of the birth of American graffiti. He studied at Pratt Institute, Cooper Union, the University of California, Berkeley and on a Fulbright scholarship to Denmark before documenting numerous pioneers of New York’s avante-garde movement.

Christine Rocas was born in San Diego, California, and grew up in the Philippines. She performed with Ballet Manilla from 1998 to 2005, dancing principal (or lead, leading) roles in ballet including “The Nutcracker,” “Le Corsaire,” “La Bayadère,” “Swan Lake,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” and “Don Quixote.” In 2005, she was a silver medalist at the New York International Ballet Competition where she received the Arpino Award, garnering her a one-year contract with The Joffrey Ballet.

During her Joffrey career, Christine danced leading roles in ballets by Gerald Arpino ("Light Rain," "Reflections," "Round of Angels," "Sea Shadow," "The Nutcracker"); Sir Frederick Ashton ("Cinderella," "The Dream"); George Balanchine ("Apollo," "Prodigal Son," "The Four Temperaments," "Stravinsky Violin Concerto"); William Forsythe ("In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated"); Ronald Hynd ("The Merry Widow"); Kurt Jooss ("The Green Table"); Cathy Marston ("Jane Eyre"); Wayne McGregor ("INFRA"); Krzysztof Pastor ("Romeo & Juliet"); John Neumeier ("Sylvia"); Marius Petipa, staged by Lola D’Avila ("Giselle"); Justin Peck ("In Creases," "The Times Are Racing," "Year of the Rabbit"); and Jerome Robbins ("In the Night," "Interplay").

Tetley was an American dancer, choreographer and ballet director whose performances and compositions integrated elements of modern dance and classical ballet. Between 1946 and 1962 he danced in musical productions on Broadway — including “Kiss Me, Kate” (1948) and “Juno” (1959) — and performed for television, as well as with dance companies such as The Joffrey Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company and American Ballet Theatre.

Having achieved critical acclaim as a performer, Tetley shifted his attention to choreography. In 1962 he formed his own company and created “Pierrot Lunaire,” a piece that launched Tetley’s choreographic career. In addition to serving as the director of the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany, he often worked as a freelance choreographer, staging several innovative works for most of the major dance companies in the world.

Poulenc was a composer who made an important contribution to French music and whose songs are considered among the best composed during the 20th century. His early compositions, “Rapsodie Nègre” (1917), “Trois Mouvements Perpétuels” and “Sonata for Piano Duet” (1918), as well as his later works in life, “Les Mamelles de Tirésias” (1947), all maintained important characteristics of humor and wit.

Rouben Ter-Arutunian (1920-1992) was a scenic and costume designer for ballet, dance, opera, theater, film and television productions, though he is widely known for his long association with the New York City Ballet.

In 1952, he was commissioned to create scenery for a double bill of “Bluebeard's Castle” and “L'heure Espagnole” at the New York City Opera. This collaboration led him to work with ballet choreographer George Balanchine. Ter-Arutunian became most famous for the set design and lighting for Balanchine's “The Nutcracker” with costumes by Barbara Karinska, which are still used today. Among the many other ballets he designed were “Seven Deadly Sins,” “Swan Lake,” “Souvenir,” “Harlequinade,” “Coppélia,” “Union Jack,” Robert Schumann's “Davidsbündlertänze,” “Ballet Imperial” and “Mozartiana.”

Aside from ballet, Ter-Arutunian also worked extensively with modern choreographers in the mid-20th century. He designed sets and costumes for Graham's “Visionary Recital” in 1961 and Tetley's “Pierrot Lunaire” (1962), “Sargasso” (1965) and “Ricercare” (1966), among other productions.

John B. Read is considered as one of the most outstanding lighting designers working internationally in dance, opera, theater and music. From 1992 to 2005 he was consultant lighting designer to The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and BRB. He has worked with many major choreographers such as Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Antony Tudor, Glen Tetley, Jerome Robbins, Rudolf Nureyev, Anthony Dowell and David Bintley. Some of his most notable designs have been for productions such as “Papillon,” “The Sleeping Beauty,” “Swan Lake,” “Median” and “The Snow Queen” for The Royal Ballet, “Field Figures,” “Laborintus,” “Voluntaries,” “Isadora,” “The Tempest,” “The Nutcracker,” “Beauty and the Beast” and the televised ballet tribute to H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, “Fanfare for Elizabeth.”

Ottmann is a Canadian dancer, teacher and choreographer who studied at Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto. He later joined The National Ballet of Canada, quickly ascending to first soloist in 1983. Ottman performed roles such as Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet,” The Prince in “The Sleeping Beauty,” Albrecht and Hilarion in “Giselle” and James and Gurn in “La Sylphide.” He also created key roles in ballets by Glen Tetley, William Forsythe and James Kudelka. He was eventually appointed senior répétiteur at The National Ballet of Canada, though he has recently retired after 48 years with the company.

Praised as “extraordinary in the classical music world” (Jon Hornbacher, PBS Wisconsin Life) and a “musical star” (Bill Wineke, Channel 3000), Greg Zelek was appointed Northrop Organist in August 2024. For the 2025-26 Northrop Music Series, Zelek arranged three unconventional organ pairings for a joyful trilogy of concerts featuring Northrop’s historic pipe organ, the next being An Evening of Organ & Choir: Featuring University Singers and Northrop Organist Greg Zelek. 

Additionally, Zelek is the principal organist of the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) and curator of the Overture Concert Organ. In this role, Zelek performs and oversees all of the MSO’s organ programming. The MSO Organ Series regularly attracts more than 1,000 ticketed audience members for each of his creatively curated and performed concerts. Since September 2017, he has proudly held the Elaine and Nicholas Mischler Curatorship. In addition to his unique position in Madison, Wisconsin, Zelek is the curator of the Organ Series for the Jacksonville Symphony.