Adam Sklute - Ballet West Artistic Director
Adam Sklute was named Artistic Director of Ballet West in March of 2007. Prior to that time he was Associate Artistic Director of The Joffrey Ballet where he began as a dancer in the mid 1980’s.
In less than three years, Sklute has introduced Ballet West to such renowned contemporary choreographers as Ulysses Dove, Nicolo Fonte, Jiri Kylian, Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp and Stanton Welch while expanding the company’s Balanchine and Smuin repertoire and adding historical masterpieces by Michael Fokine and Bronislava Nijinska. He has reintroduced lost elements of Willam Christensen’s beloved production of The Nutcracker, and this season he is remounting Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream and producing a new classic version of Swan Lake. Most notably, Sklute developed Ballet West’s wildly successful Innovations program, designed to nurture and present new creations by emerging Utah, national, and international choreographers.
Under Sklute’s leadership Ballet West appeared at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the 2008 Ballet Across America Festival. In February 2009 the company graced the cover of Dance Magazine for the first time in 24 years and Sklute’s production of The Treasures of the Ballets Russes garnered rave reviews from The New York Times. On the strength of that review, the company was invited to appear at New York City’s City Center as part of their 2009 Fall for Dance Festival, Ballet West’s first return to New York since 1981.
Sklute conceived Ballet West’s Viewpointe panel discussion series, its Shoe-in project (a collaboration with Utah local artists) and its Fusion fashion show fundraiser. He has lectured at the Chicago Art Institute, and has served on the board of Chicago’s Dance for Life and on Utah’s Salt Lake County Cultural Facilities Master Plan Advisory Board. A finalist judge for the Youth America Grand Prix, and an adjudicator for the American College Dance Festival Association, Sklute was listed as one of the 25 Movers and Shakers of the Utah Arts Scene in 2007.
An Adjunct Professor of dance at the University of Utah, Sklute actively oversees Ballet West’s Academy, teaching regularly and developing and focusing its syllabus with the Academy faculty. Sklute is also a guest teacher and coach for dance programs and workshops nationwide, including The Southwest Regional Ballet Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Brigham Young University, The University of Cincinnati, The Joffrey Ballet School in New York, The Joffrey Workshop Texas in San Antonio, and the Utah Regional Ballet.
A native of Berkeley, California, Sklute began dancing at the age of 15. His early training was at the Oakland Ballet and San Francisco Ballet schools. After only two years of formal study he joined The Joffrey II Dancers (The Joffrey’s apprentice company). Two years later he was asked to join The Joffrey Ballet. Sklute was one of the last two artists personally chosen by Robert Joffrey.
Throughout his dancing career Sklute performed leading roles by such choreographers as Gerald Arpino, Sir Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, John Cranko, Agnes DeMille, Robert Joffrey, Jiri Kylian, James Kudelka, Leonide Massine, Jerome Robbins, and Paul Taylor. He has performed with New York’s Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Dallas Metropolitan Ballet and California’s Diablo Ballet. Sklute’s television credits include The Joffrey Ballet’s Dance in America filmings of Vaslav Nijinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps and Gerald Arpino’s production of Billboards, the role of The Old Soldier in WTTW’s filming of Kurt Jooss’s The Green Table and Herr Drosselmeyer in the WTTW one-hour special of Robert Joffrey’s The Nutcracker. In 2003 he assisted with and appeared in Robert Altman’s feature film The Company, based on The Joffrey Ballet.
