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 just over three years, Sklute has presented Ballet West audiences with twelve Utah premieres by such renowned choreographers as George Balanchine, Ulysses Dove, Jiri Kylian, Mark Morris, Bronislava Nijinska, Andre Prokovsky, Michael Smuin, Ben Stevenson, Twyla Tharp and Stanton Welch. He has revived seven great works from Ballet West’s past by Sir Frederick Ashton, Balanchine, James Canfield, Val Caniporoli, Mikael Fokine, and Bruce Marks. He has reintroduced lost elements of Willam Christensen’s beloved production of The Nutcracker and conceived and produced a brand new production 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. To date Innovations has introduced an unprecedented thirteen World premieres by noted choreographers Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Nicolo Fonte, Helen Pickett, and Susan Shields and seven different Ballet West Artists.
Under Sklute’s leadership Ballet West has garnered increased national and international exposure and touring. In 2008 Ballet West appeared at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of its 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 among other international publications. 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. In 2009 Ballet West also performed at California’s Laguna Dance Festival and this Fall 2010 the company will appear at the Chicago Dancing Festival and in Las Vegas on a program in conjunction with Nevada Ballet Theatre.
Sklute conceived Ballet West’s Viewpointe panel discussion series, its Shoe-in project (a collaboration with Utah local artists) and its Fusion and Couture in Motion fashion show fundraisers. 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. He currently serves on the Board of the Gerald Arpino Foundation. A finalist judge for the Youth America Grand Prix, The World ballet Competition 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 Ballet Academy of Texas and the Utah Regional Ballet.
