Adam Sklute - Ballet West Artistic Director

ADAM SKLUTE
Artistic Director, Ballet West

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.

During his time with Ballet West, Sklute has presented audiences with fifteen Utah premieres by such renowned choreographers as George Balanchine, Ulysses Dove, Nicolo Fonte, Jiri Kylian, Mark Morris, Bronislava Nijinska, Andre Prokovsky, Michael Smuin, Ben Stevenson, Twyla Tharp and Stanton Welch. He has revived nine great works from Ballet West’s past by Sir Frederick Ashton, Balanchine, John Butler, 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 new productions of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. Notably, Sklute developed Ballet West’s wildly successful Innovations program, designed to nurture and present new creations by Company Artists and emerging Utah, national, and international choreographers. To date Innovations has introduced an unprecedented eighteen World premieres by choreographers such as Charlotte Boye-Christensen, Fonte, Helen Pickett, Avichai Scher, and Susan Shields as well as ten 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. Over the past few years, Ballet West has also performed at California’s Laguna Dance Festival, Wolftrap National Park for the Performing Arts outside of DC, in Las Vegas as part of a program hosted by Nevada Ballet Theater celebrating Robert Joffrey, and have been invited and performed twice at the Chicago Dancing Festival.

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 boards of Chicago’s Dance for Life, Salt lake Community College, School of the Arts Advisory Board; and the Salt Lake County Cultural Facilities Master Plan Advisory Board. He currently serves on the Board of the Gerald Arpino/ Robert Joffrey Foundation. A finalist judge and international representative 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.

Passionate about dance education and the development of young dancers, 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 worldwide, including Brigham Young University, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, The Ballet Academy of Texas, The Berlin State Ballet School, The Joffrey Ballet School in New York, The Southwest Regional Ballet Festival, The University of Cincinnati, and the Utah Regional Ballet. He also acts as adjunct professor for the University of Utah’s Ballet Department. 

A native of Berkeley, California, Sklute began dancing at the age of 16. 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’ 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. This season he appears in The Joffrey Ballet: Mavericks of Dance, a major motion picture documentary chronicling the history of The Joffrey Ballet, premiering in January 2012.