Ravinia 2024 Issue 6

The Joffrey Ballet has been acquainted with the inimitable piano jazz of the late Ramsey Lewis for nearly 20 years, courtesy of his original ballet score To Know Her , choreographed by Donald Byrd (inset, right) and commissioned and premiered at Ravinia in 2007. One of Lewis’s pieces in that score—“Watercolors,” originally written for Ravinia’s One Score, One Chicago project in 2006—was selected by Houston Thomas to feature in his new commissioned choreography receiving its premiere on September 13, For Mr. Ramsey Lewis . “The emphasis is on well-etched lines and sculptural combinations, all done with a coolly mannered, manicured feel,” a dance critic observed for the Chicago Sun-Times . The centerpiece of September 13, of course, is the constant (except by virtue of now bearing an official title)—a premiere by Houston Thomas that will be performed by the Joffrey Studio Company, a group of 10 preprofessional dancers, and other Joffrey Academy trainees. Thomas, a Chicago native, studied at the Joffrey Academy of Dance until he left at age 16 to attend the famed School of American Ballet in New York City. “When we first opened the school,” Wheater says of Joffrey’s Academy, “Houston was one of our first students. He was super talented.” Thomas, 29, who recently moved to New York, describes the early training at the Joffrey as “vital” because it allowed him to be around a top-level ballet company and see what it took to be a professional dancer. “Joffrey is really the reason why I am a dancer today,” he says. He went on to become a member of Dresden’s Semperoper Ballett and attained the rank of second soloist, completing his tenure with the German company in 2022–23. Being a choreographer has been Thomas’s lifelong dream since he was enraptured by Joffrey’s annual produc- tion of The Nutcracker at the Auditorium Theatre as a child. He made his debut in that capacity in 2018 at a Semperoper Ballett event for young choreographers and premiered a work in 2022 as part of the Young Emergent Choreographers Contest in Biarritz, France. He has cre- ated dance pieces for such companies as Op é ra National de Bordeaux, Cincinnati Ballet, and The Juilliard School. In February, Thomas was one of five choreographers chosen to take part in the Joffrey Academy’s 14th annual Winning Works Choreographic Com- petition, which supports new works by emerging ALAANA (African, Latine, Asian, Arab, and Native American) artists. Performances of the resulting creations took place in March at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Thomas’s success in that event led to this latest commission, which called on him to construct a work using the music of Ramsey Lewis (1935–2022), who served as Artistic Director of Jazz at Ravinia for 25 years and gave more than 40 performances at the festival. “When I got to learn who he was as a person and an artist, I was like, ‘Oh, definitely some- thing I want to do,’ ” Thomas says. Wheater is delighted that Thomas is back in the Joffrey fold, and he plans to have him create a piece for the main company when a scheduling slot opens up—something that would be a dream come true for the choreographer. “To be taking these steps even closer to that main goal of creating for the main com- pany is really exciting,” Thomas says. “I’m just happy to be able to come home RAVINIAMAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 18