Booking Info
Booking Now for the 2024-2025 Season and beyond
To book JSB in your venue or community, contact Eve Schulte - eve@jsballet.org or 612.672.0480 x2.
Featured Works
UNFASHIONED CREATURE
COMPOSER: Timothy C. Takach
CHOREOGRAPHER: Penelope Freeh
Run time: 43 minutes. Option to pair with an intermission and other rep.
Recorded music, or live musicians including: 12 singers, one percussionist, one cellist, and conductor. 6 Dancers
Ideal booking window:October/November 2024
"Frankenstein" hooks people around Halloween, but the approach and themes are relevant year-round!
Unfashioned Creature takes inspiration from Mary Shelley's timeless 1818 novel Frankenstein. Fracturing her text for our libretto, we weave together contemporary social themes: rejection, self-discovery, and love, and forward a complex character who seeks to find belonging.
We hope to inspire audiences to reflect on their own lives through the lens of our art. While Frankenstein is a classic horror story, its themes are more relevant than ever. We imagine the Creature as a beautiful creation who, through no fault of its own, is rejected by Dr. Frankenstein and the world at large. With no parental guidance, the Creature embarks on a search for love and equality, only to be shunned as an outcast by society. Just as each of us holds multitudes inside ourselves, the Creature in this production is cast as three dancers, working together to express many facets of one being.
Sharing a passion for creating unconventional and thought-provoking work, together we shaped this piece into being. Unfashioned Creature aims to be a poignant reminder of the importance of accepting and embracing difference in all its forms.
"JSB is trying out a new model for pulling a show together, one that is particularly artist-driven."
READ the preview in the Star Tribune, Oct 26, 2023
AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS
WORDS AND MUSIC BY Gian Carlo Menotti
CHOREOGRAPHY by James Sewell
Run time: 55 minutes. Option to pair with an intermission and other rep.
Thanksgiving through DecemberIdeal booking window:
Inspired by the one-act opera by Gian Carlo Menotti, this delightful ballet tells the story of a little boy with a disability and his widowed mother, and their life-changing encounter with three kings following a star to Bethlehem. Its themes of faith, forgiveness, healing and compassion celebrate the spirit of Christmas. Conceived and choreographed by James Sewell, the 50-minute production uses several movement styles, including the visual/gestural style of American Sign Language. The choreographic combination of ASL with traditional ballet provides a visually compelling experience that holds special appeal and meaning for hearing and hearing impaired audiences. The Shepherd’s Dance section invites the participation of several additional cast members from the presenting community.
Mixed Repertoire
We having a rotating selection of works at the ready. Let's start a conversation.
Ideal booking windows:late September through mid-November 2024;
late January through April 2025;
And beyond!
Example of a recent repertoire show:
JSB presents Pointed Humor
ON TOUR
March 16, 2024 | 7:30pm | Big Sky, MT
March 20, 2024 | 7:00pm | Sun Valley, ID
March 23, 2024 | 8:00pm | Hamilton, MT
In MINNESOTA
Saturday, April 13, 2024 | 7:30pm
Sunday, April 14, 2024 | 2:00pm
James Sewell Ballet leaps onto the stage with bold new works. Featured is the highly-anticipated choreographies of two guest choreographers and old friends of the company. Shohei Iwahama (former JSB dancer and current member of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo) brings an expansive group work that emanates curiosity, play, and kinship. And Michael Walters returns with his fourth choreographic commission with a passionate duet, at moments both gritty and gentle. This remarkable evening includes two Sewell works: a new sextet that blends classical and contemporary ballet within Bach's 'Concerto for Violin & Oboe'; and a remount of 'Doo-Be-Doo', which combines high-energy playful antics with stunning technical feats.
The approximate run time of the event is 105 minutes with a fifteen minute intermission.
"The performance included unimaginable jumps and elegance."
READ the review in the Star Tribune, April 15, 2024