The Joffrey Ballet:
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Welcome from the Executive Director

Welcome to another extraordinary season of dance and music at Northrop — a season we are proud to offer, inspired by your curiosity, energy and commitment to making the arts a central part of life.

Rooted in the belief that the arts are essential to the human experience, Northrop is committed to cultivating intersections between performing arts and education — for all participants, now and for generations to come. This season, those intersections will be more vibrant than ever. We have curated performances that stretch boundaries, inspire reflection and celebrate both innovation and tradition in equal measure.

You’ll see in this season’s lineup a range of world-class artists and ensembles — some of whom we know well, others who bring voices and perspectives new to our stage. Each program is selected not only for its artistic excellence, but also for its ability to provoke thought, open dialogue and offer learning opportunities beyond the stage: workshops, pre-show discussions, community gatherings and more. These elements are meant to deepen your experience, helping to illuminate context, process and the living, breathing nature of creative work.

As part of the University’s teaching, research and service mission, Northrop strives to be a catalyst — igniting transformation in each individual, inspiring positive change in our world. Through the rhythm of dance, the textures of music and the shared moments among us in the audience, we hope you will find something that moves you, surprises you and invites you to see the world just a little differently.

I invite you to join us not just as spectators, but as participants. Ask questions. Bring friends. Explore more. Share what you experience. We are honored to present this season, and even more honored to share it with a community that values what the arts offer — beauty, challenge, joy and connection.

Thank you for being here and supporting Northrop. Together, let us make Northrop’s 97th season remarkable.

With gratitude,
Kari Schloner
Executive Director

Welcome from the Advisory Board Chair

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Northrop Advisory Board, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to Northrop, the University of Minnesota’s historic home for the performing arts. For almost a century, Northrop has been a place where artistry, learning and community converge — a stage not only for extraordinary performances but also for dialogue, discovery and inspiration.

Each season, Northrop presents world-class dance, music and other performances, and serves as a gathering place for students, faculty and community members alike. These experiences enrich our campus and our state, fostering the creativity, curiosity and cultural understanding that are so vital in today’s world.

Your presence here affirms the importance of the arts in higher education and in civic life. We invite you to be more than an audience member — become an advocate for the arts. Share your experiences, bring new friends to Northrop and help us amplify the voices of artists and thinkers who inspire us to see the world anew.

We also ask you to consider a gift to Northrop. Your financial support ensures that future generations can access the transformative power of the arts, that students can encounter artists in their classrooms as well as on our stage and that our community can continue to gather here for moments that move and unite us.

Thank you for being part of Northrop’s story. Together, we can sustain this remarkable institution and secure its role as a cultural cornerstone for decades to come.

With gratitude,
Kelly McQueen, Chair, Northrop Advisory Board

About The Joffrey Ballet

The Joffrey Ballet History

In 1956, a time during which most touring companies performed only reduced versions of ballet classics, Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino formed a six-dancer ensemble that toured the country in an old station wagon pulling a U-Haul trailer.

Over the next 65 years, the Joffrey moved from city to city, stage to stage, brandishing a reputation as “America’s Company of Firsts.” The Joffrey Ballet was the first dance company to perform at the White House at Jacqueline Kennedy’s invitation, the first to appear on American television, the first classical dance company to use multimedia, the first to create a ballet set to rock music, the first to appear on the cover of TIME Magazine (“Astarte”), and the first company to have a major motion picture based on its origins (Robert Altman’s “The Company”).

In 1995, the company took up permanent residence in Chicago — the Joffrey’s home for the last quarter century — and blazed a path forward as a Chicago icon. In October 2007, following the retirement of former Artistic Director and Joffrey Co-Founder Gerald Arpino, former Joffrey artist Ashley Wheater became the third artistic director in the company’s storied history. Six years later, the Joffrey named longtime Chicago arts leader Greg Cameron as its new executive director, later appointing Cameron to president and chief executive officer in 2018. Wheater and Cameron’s tenure together has been marked by critical and box office success, raising the organization’s status among peer institutions across the globe.

During the 2021-22 season, the Joffrey ushered in a new era as resident dance company at Lyric Opera House. 

Today, The Joffrey Ballet ranks among the top dance companies in the world, presenting an annual home performance season in Chicago and touring performances nationally and internationally.

Ashley Wheater has dedicated his life to dance. He was born in Scotland and trained at The Royal Ballet School in England. He worked with Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan and Michael Somes in numerous ballets at Covent Garden, including “Swan Lake,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Giselle,” “Manon,” “Anastasia” and “The Dream.” Wheater danced with Rudolf Nureyev in “Nureyev and Friends” at the London Coliseum. 

On Nureyev’s advice, Wheater joined the London Festival Ballet and danced in his “Romeo and Juliet” and “Sleeping Beauty.” He danced in Glen Tetley’s “Sphinx” and “Greening” and in Festival Ballet’s large repertoire of classics and new creations. Under the artistic direction of John Field, he was promoted to principal dancer at the age of 20. 

In 1982, he joined the Australian Ballet where he continued dancing principal roles in both classical and contemporary work, especially in the John Cranko full-length ballets.

In 1985, at the invitation of Gerald Arpino, Wheater joined The Joffrey Ballet. For the next four years, he performed various works by American choreographers including William Forsythe, Gerald Arpino, Mark Morris, Paul Taylor and Laura Dean, as well as repertoire by Ashton and Cranko. 

Joining the San Francisco Ballet in 1989, he continued his creative career working under Helgi Tomasson and with choreographers James Kudelka, David Bintley and many more. In 1997, he retired from dancing and was appointed ballet master and, later, assistant to the artistic director at the San Francisco Ballet.

Since his appointment in 2007 as artistic director of The Joffrey Ballet, his passion and commitment to the Joffrey have been evident in the quality that he has brought to the dancing and to the repertoire. He has invited world-renowned choreographers, as well as fresh young talent, to create new work for the company. Wheater has added new full-length works to the Joffrey’s repertoire, including Lar Lubovitch's groundbreaking “Othello,” Ronald Hynd’s “The Merry Widow” and Yuri Possokhov’s “Don Quixote.” 

In 2008, Wheater was the recipient of the Boeing Game-Changer Award in recognition of his commitment to community engagement in Chicago and to the celebration of diversity through dance. He sits on the advisory board for Dance Magazine, serves as the artistic advisor for ChiArts and is the advisor to the arts for the Lincoln Academy of Illinois. In 2010, Wheater, representing The Joffrey Ballet, was named Lincoln Academy Laureate, the highest honor presented by the state of Illinois, and in 2013 the Chicago Tribune named him "Chicagoan of the Year.” In 2015, Wheater received the University of Chicago Rosenberger Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Creative and Performing Arts. In December 2019, he was appointed to be a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Driven by his lifelong love for the arts, for his hometown and for connecting with people from every background, Greg Cameron leads The Joffrey Ballet as president and CEO, responsible for organization-wide administration and strategy. Under Cameron’s partnership with The Mary B. Galvin Artistic Director Ashley Wheater MBE, the Joffrey has set new records at the box office and built the strongest financial foundation in its history.

His 2013 appointment was the culmination of three decades of work in arts administration and philanthropy. “I always loved art, but I wasn’t a great artist,” he says. “I could paint by numbers, or I could connect the dots. I realized early on I was a good dot connector. I could connect people to each other and help them get involved with the things they believe in.”

As a child in suburban Chicago, Cameron ran a makeshift theater out of his garage and sold more mints than anyone else for his local YMCA. And as an adult, he turned those passions into a career raising funds for the cultural organizations he loves. At the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, where he rose to the role of deputy director and chief development officer; and WTTW/WFMT, where he served as chief operating officer, Cameron dedicated himself to supporting art and artists and to creating meaningful experiences for others.

“The Joffrey brings it all together for me,” he says. “It’s about collaboration, partnership with the community, honoring and supporting artists and telling stories that truly move people.”

Today, Cameron leads the Joffrey’s efforts to support unforgettable productions and new commissions, reach out to organizations and communities across Chicago and open up world-class ballet for audiences from all backgrounds. Throughout the span of his 40-year career as an arts administrator in Chicago, Cameron has volunteered for a wide range of nonprofit organizations and civic committees. He currently serves on the Facing History and Ourselves Chicago Advisory Board and the State Street SSA Commission. Cameron was recently honored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Chicago Chapter with their Benjamin Franklin Award in recognition of the significant achievements throughout his long career, serving as a role model for his profession.

Meet the Artists
 

Suzanne Lopez was born and raised in Summit, New Jersey, to Cuban parents. She first began training at the Garden State Ballet School under Fred Danieli and later studied at the New Jersey School of Ballet. Her introduction to The Joffrey Ballet started at age 12 when she attended her first summer intensive audition taught by Joffrey. From that moment on, her training was steeped in his founding traditions and methodology taught to her by Joffrey himself and his team of former Joffrey dancers, who became his protégés and her mentors.

After starting her professional career for a year and a half with the Joffrey II Dancers, Lopez joined the Joffrey as a company artist in 1991 and moved to Chicago with the company in 1995. During her 19-year career, Lopez danced principal roles in ballets by such choreographers as Robert Joffrey, Gerald Arpino, George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Alonzo King, John Cranko, José Limón, Antony Tudor, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch and Sir Frederick Ashton. She was featured on the cover of Pointe Magazine as the Sugarplum Fairy in Joffrey's “The Nutcracker.” In addition to dancing, Lopez assisted Arpino in rehearsals for his ballets. She taught classes for the Arpino Apprentice Program and was one of the first instructors to begin teaching at the inception of the Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet.

After retiring from dancing in 2010, Lopez continued teaching and coaching at the Grainger Academy, among other Chicago-area schools. In 2016, she was thrilled to return to the Joffrey as a rehearsal director, where she worked on a diverse repertoire, including new creations with John Neumeier, Yuri Possokhov and Christopher Wheeldon. She has also been a guest teacher, répétiteur and coach at schools and companies worldwide. As the Abbott Academy director, Lopez embraces all her experiences as a student, dancer, educator and rehearsal director and imbues Joffrey's vision into every facet of the Grainger Academy's specialized curriculum. With her unique lineage and perspective, Lopez sets a firm foundation for the next generations of dancers.

A sculptor, interior designer and lighting designer, Marion Kinsella (Mickey) worked on many Broadway shows with her partner Jean Rosenthal, including “West Side Story,” “Cabaret,” “Hello Dolly” and “Barefoot in the Park.” Following Rosenthal’s death in 1968, Kinsella’s work took her to the Metropolitan Opera and American Ballet Theatre with partner Nananne Porcher.

Her art — driftwood assemblies and sculptures — has been shown at Vineyard galleries (Old Sculpin, The Flea Market and Red Barn Emporium), Capricorn Gallery in New York, the New Britain Museum of American Art, Bushnell Museum and a one-woman show at Bucknell University. In a Vineyard Gazette article in 1971, Kinsella told reporter Phyllis Meras, "That pile of wood is my alphabet, and I have to string the pieces together to make my statement. They’re something by themselves, of course, but making them work as language is a fascinating problem." Her bronzes are exquisite studies of the grace and power of the human form.

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).

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.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

Supported by PNC Band and RBC Wealth Management. Sponsored by hospitality partner, the Graduate Hotel Minneapolis

Thank you for supporting Northrop! You make legendary performances possible!

At Northrop, we believe in connecting great artists and ideas with our community and to a new generation of audiences. Your gift helps make memorable arts experiences possible by supporting extraordinary performances and new arts commissions, and helping ensure accessibility to everyone through live-streamed programming, outreach to diverse communities and subsidized student tickets. Our Friends are at the center of Northrop’s biggest ideas and brightest moments on stage.

Become a Friend of Northrop today! 

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To learn more about supporting Northrop please contact:
Cynthia Betz
betzx011@umn.edu or 612-626-7554 

The Northrop Advisory Board is committed to the growth and awareness of Northrop’s mission, vision, and the continued future of presenting world-class dance and music in our community. If you would like more information about the advisory board and its work, please contact Cynthia Betz, Director of Development, at 612-626-7554 or betzx011@umn.edu.

With the restoration and reinstallation of Northrop’s Aeolian-Skinner Opus 892 organ, a group of dedicated volunteers now partner with Northrop for the awareness, success, and growth of organ programming and education. The Northrop Organ Committee features volunteers who are help with advocacy, network building, relationship development, and fundraising to help sustain and build Northrop’s Pipe Organ Music Series and other community events.

The Northrop Campus & Community Council acts as a resource for Northrop’s future success and growth, ensuring that Northrop builds relationships with and engages the communities where we live, learn, and work. This group of committed volunteers helps Northrop connect with new audiences and advises on programming that reflects the diverse communities we serve.

 Friends of Northrop

A special thank you to our patrons whose generous support makes Northrop's transformative arts experiences possible. Make your mark on Northrop's future by becoming a Friend today, learn more by visiting Northrop's Give page.

We gratefully acknowledge the support from the Anna M Heilmaier Charitable Foundation, Americans for the Arts/National Relief Fund, Curtis L. Carlson Family Foundation, City of Minneapolis, Minnesota State Arts Board, New England Foundation for the Arts, United States Artists, hospitality partner the Graduate Hotel Minneapolis, and event sponsors PNC Bank and RBC Wealth Management.

The Heritage Society Members

The Heritage Society honors and celebrates donors who have made estate and other planned gifts for Northrop at the University of Minnesota. 

• Nancy Allen*
• Jerry Artz
• John Follows*
• Stephen Gordon and Pat Gavan-Gordon
• Gail and Stuart Hanson
• Charlie Johnson
• Peter Lund
• Darlene M. Sholtis

*Deceased

Northrop's Aeolian-Skinner Organ

Thank you to the generous donors who continue to support programming for Northrop’s beloved Aeolian-Skinner Organ. It is because of you that this magnificent instrument’s voice will be enjoyed by many for years to come.

This season’s listing is current as of 2/2/26

Please contact Matthew Keefe at keefe175@umn.edu if you have any corrections or questions.