Spring 2025 Performance
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Jane Mok Photography
Emi Horkan (CC '28)
Choreographers
Gerald Arpino
Gerald Arpino co-founded The Joffrey Ballet with Robert Joffrey in 1956 and served as Associate Director. Upon Joffrey’s death in 1988, Mr. Arpino succeeded him as Artistic Director. Mr. Arpino choreographed his first work, Ropes, in 1961. Shortly thereafter, he became the company’s resident choreographer. He created more than 1/3 of the company’s repertoire. Mr. 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. Mr. 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. (Joffery.org)
Kendall Bottjer
Kendall Bottjer is a graduate of Barnard College, where she earned a degree in Dance and Anthropology. She currently serves as the Associate for Creative Enterprise in the Office of the President at Juilliard, where she produces interdisciplinary programming that fosters artistic collaboration across disciplines. Kendall is also the founder of Supper Club Dance, an innovative arts collective that pairs fine dining with original choreography, creating immersive experiences that blend movement and cuisine.
Nicole Duffy
Nicole Duffy is a director and educator from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She danced with the Joffrey Ballet both in New York and in Chicago, touring and performing on some of the world’s foremost stages. As a repetiteur for the Gerald Arpino Foundation, she teaches the ballets and methodology of Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino, and has staged works for ABT Studio Company, Ballet Hispanico, Barnard College, Boston Conservatory, Chattanooga Ballet, Cincinnati Conservatory, and Marymount Manhattan College, to name a few. She holds a BA in Art History from Columbia University’s School of General Studies, and earned an MA in Dance and Art History from New York University’s Gallatin School, where she researched intersections between dance and visual art.
Durante Verzola
Durante Verzola is a Filipino-American dance maker. He has choreographed works for Miami City Ballet, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, Pennsylvania Ballet II, Ballet Arizona's Studio Company, Collage Dance Collective, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Ballet Chicago, Columbia Ballet Collaborative, School of Pennsylvania Ballet, Ballet22, and more. He is a winner of Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works and has been selected for the New York Choreographic Institute, where he choreographed with dancers of the New York City Ballet. Verzola has also had his work featured at Guggenheim's Works & Process, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami in collaboration with artist Angela Lyn as well as the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, and has led Miami City Ballet School’s Choreographic Intensive since its inception.