Répétiteurs representing
David Dawson • Jiří Kylián • Nacho Duato • William Forsythe • Crystal Pite
(Courtney Richardson, Glenn Edgerton, Jim Vincent, Jill Johnson, Cindy Welik-Salgado)
Choreographers
Omar Román De Jesús • Houston Thomas • Sidra Bell • Babatunji • Keerati Jinakunwiphat
About
A rare opportunity to engage in focused, process-driven work that deepens your artistry, guided by world-renowned stagers and choreographers — entirely free from the pressures of casting or performance. Phones and cameras are not permitted in the studio. Each session will culminate in an informal studio showing on the final day.
The Workshop, a series of 5, week-long summer intensives created for professional dancers seeking deeper artistic growth, expanded versatility, and meaningful creative process, giving you agency to drive the trajectory of your career. The Workshop is designed to provide the rare space of sustained, process-driven time centered on growth, without the stress of casting or a performance. You’ll work with internationally recognized choreographers and répétiteurs as you explore movement more deeply, refine your partnering and improvisation skills, and strengthen your artistic voice, particularly when approaching contemporary work or new creations.
Sessions
Houston Thomas – During this week-long intensive, dancers will have the opportunity to work closely with choreographer Houston Thomas, engaging with selected excerpts from his choreographic repertoire. Participants will explore movement material drawn from Thomas’s existing works and develop new ideas through guided movement workshops.
Sidra Bell – Dancers will work durationally and improvisationally. Rehearsals will unfold in a circular structure – with Bell moving among the dancers rather than directing from the front – encouraging artists to respond to one another and take creative ownership of the work. Improvisation is a central tool in her practice, helping dancers reconnect with play, spontaneity, and instinct while building complex movement ideas through experimentation and dialogue.
Daily sessions run 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Morning warm-up class, two workshop blocks with a lunch break. Optional Morning Pilates (8:30–9:15am) and Evening Yoga (6:15–7:30pm) available before and after.
Jim Vincent – NACHO DUATO Repertory – Nacho Duato is a renowned Spanish contemporary ballet choreographer, celebrated for an earthy, sensual, and deeply musical style that seamlessly fuses classical technique with contemporary fluidity. His work is marked by passionate emotional expression, featuring flowing movement, intense physicality, and grounded, often athletic partnering. Through his choreography, Duato frequently explores human relationships, love, and loss, with a profound sensitivity to musical nuance. His works dwell delicately on human vulnerability, revealing the full expressive potential of the dancer’s body. As we dig (literally) into Nacho’s work together, some of the main objectives will be to understand the how and why movement is shaped and ultimately delivered. Intention is critically important in his work; it needs to be expressed with definition and clarity. We will be focusing on what’s beyond the architecture and design of his movement.
Omar Román De Jesús – This workshop invites dancers to challenge their physical instincts and mental patterns through layered improvisational tasks. Each session is designed to heighten body awareness, shake off limiting thought, and unlock the infinite creative possibilities within every individual. These classes center technique as a living, responsive practice while inviting dancers to rediscover their bodies as sites of intuition, imagination, and play. The discoveries that emerge through these improvisational structures don’t stay in the realm of exploration — they directly inform how we build choreography. We investigate how spontaneous choices, unexpected pathways, and deeply felt physical impulses can be shaped into clear compositional tools. Participants are invited to explore how Omar’s movement language is rooted in sensation, emotional texture, and dynamic contrast, and how improvisation can become a bridge between personal expression and crafted performance.
Daily sessions run 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Morning warm-up class, two workshop blocks with a lunch break. Optional Morning Pilates (8:30–9:15am) and Evening Yoga (6:15–7:30pm) available before and after.
Courtney Richardson – DAVID DAWSON Repertory – Dancers will dive into repertoire by internationally acclaimed British choreographer David Dawson, whose work is celebrated for pushing classical ballet to its limits while rooting every movement in deep emotional truth. His choreography is atmospheric, layered, and intensely detailed — demanding both mental and physical agility from every dancer. Our process will reflect that same spirit: immersive and exploratory, moving intentionally through the material to find the why behind each phrase. This is not a week of simply learning steps — it is a week of learning how to inhabit a movement world.
Glenn Edgerton – JIŘÍ KYLIÁN Repertory – The Kylián workshop will engage dancers in an immersive experience delving into the movement language of Jiří Kylián, guided by Glenn Edgerton, renowned coach and former director of both Nederlands Dans Theater 1 and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Edgerton’s career spanned dancing Kylian’s works while at The Joffrey Ballet and at NDT, then staging and rehearsing Kylian’s repertory while directing NDT 1 and HSDC. Kylián’s movement requires both classical clarity and grounded, expressive physicality often involving intricate partnering, and a deep sensitivity to musical structure. Throughout the week, dancers will explore nuanced details through intensive rehearsal and coaching, developing the control, musicality, and artistry that reveal the depth and humanity of Kylián’s choreography.
Daily sessions run 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Morning warm-up class, two workshop blocks with a lunch break. Optional Morning Pilates (8:30–9:15am) and Evening Yoga (6:15–7:30pm) available before and after. This is a 6-day session (Monday through Saturday).
Jill Johnson – FORSYTHE Improvisation Technologies – In an environment that aims to support creative process and experimentation with an equal curiosity about both success and failure, this workshop week seeks to cultivate invention and foster the courage of artistry. Participant artists will develop choreographic improvisation and composition skills, including artistic discernment, interpretive ability, musicality, counterpoint, critical analysis, and communication for creative practice and collaboration. The workshop offers the opportunity to gain experience with Forsythe repertory, improvisation technologies and compositional practice through guided, task-based and collaborative research with interdisciplinary reference points and multi-faceted perspectives guided by a long-time collaborator and primary source.
Keerati Jinakunwiphat – With the intention of preparing, organizing, and freeing our bodies, Keerati’s creative process begins with connecting to our sense of self. In this presence, we begin to explore phrase work that emphasizes tactility, circularity, directionality, and shifts of weight. As we begin to unpack and rearrange material to explore new patterns and pathways together, we discover the cause and effect of movement between one another. In this dance making, we are exploring autonomy while simultaneously building community. Diving into various compositional structures, we play with the communication of many moving parts, shape and form, and how we can stay present as we take up and share the space with each other.
Daily sessions run 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Morning warm-up class, two workshop blocks with a lunch break. Optional Morning Pilates (8:30–9:15am) and Evening Yoga (6:15–7:30pm) available before and after. This is a 6-day session (Monday through Saturday).
Cindy Welik-Salgado – CRYSTAL PITE “Dark Matters” – This week-long intensive is intended for professional dancers interested in learning both unison and group partnering repertoire from Crystal Pite’s “Dark Matters” taught by repetiteur and former Kidd Pivot member Cindy Welik-Salgado. Cindy will also be teaching warm-up classes that incorporate Kidd Pivot improvisation tools, leaning more heavily on partnering exercises. Dark Matters “emerg(ed) out of Pite’s curiosity and fascination with the unseen forces at work on mind and body.” The chosen excerpt requires teamwork, precision, and recklessness. This week will be an opportunity to play with the concepts of “being danced”, raising the stakes, and finding a balance between instinct and intellect which have shaped many of Pite’s creations.
Babatunji – We will explore floorwork techniques for dancers influenced by the dynamic movement language of breakdancing, alongside weight sharing and partnering inspired by the physical intelligence of wrestling. Complex movements will be broken down to their simplest elements, creating a clear and safe pathway toward executing larger, more daring movement.
Daily sessions run 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM. Morning warm-up class, two workshop blocks with a lunch break. Optional Morning Pilates (8:30–9:15am) and Evening Yoga (6:15–7:30pm) available before and after. This is a 6-day session (Monday through Saturday).
Artists
Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Houston embarked on his dance journey through the Joffrey Ballet Outreach Program under the tutelage of Pierre Locket. His passion for dance led him to further his education at the Joffrey Ballet Academy of Dance upon its inception in 2008, concurrently honing his skills at the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts) under Lisa Johnson-Willingham.
In the summer of 2011, Houston attended the School of American Ballet Summer Course, later inviting him to join as a full-time student for the subsequent winter term.
After graduating from SAB in 2013, Houston found his artistic home with the Dresden Semperoper Ballett, rising to second soloist by 2018. His repertoire boasts pivotal roles in acclaimed works by George Balanchine, Sir Frederick Ashton, William Forsythe, and David Dawson, among others. His performance in Justin Peck’s “Heatscape” earned him a “Best Male Performance” nomination at the 2018 Dance Europe’s Critic Choice Awards.
After a decade of performing with Semperoper, Ballett culminated in Houston’s final performance during the 22/23 Season, marking the transition to focus exclusively on his choreographic career.
Houston’s choreographic journey came to the fore in 2018 with his debut piece, “Moonlit Variants,” presented at the Semperoper Ballett’s Young Choreographers event. Subsequently, he was commissioned to collaborate on “Alice—Eine Reise ins Wunderland” for the Semper Zwei.
Venturing into the digital realm, Houston collaborated with NYCB dancers Mimi Staker and Sebastian Villarini-Velez to create the film “An Afternoon of Angelic Voices,” entirely conducted over Zoom for the New York Choreographic Institute. Houston was later invited to the 2021 and 2023 Fall Sessions, creating his works “The Return Studies” and “001.3,” featuring dancers from the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet.
In July 2022, Houston premiered “Follow the White Rabbit” at the Young Emergent Choreographers Contest in Biarritz, France, receiving a commission to create “SKYWATCHER” for the Opéra National de Bordeaux.
Since then, Houston has created new works for schools and companies, including The Washington Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, The Juilliard School, ABT Studio Company, Ailey ll, BalletCollective, Dance Aspen, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Grainger Academy of The Joffrey Ballet, Ballet San Antonio, The School of American Ballet, Point Park University, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School, Palucca University of Dance Dresden, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and the Hamptons Dance Project. His works have been performed by The Ailey School, Ballet 22, and the Columbia Repertory Ballet.
In addition to his creative work, Houston has taught at Steps on Broadway, Youth American Grand Prix, The Juilliard School, Ailey 2, and The International City School of Ballet.
In recognition of his artistic achievements and emerging choreographic impact, Houston was named the recipient of the 2025 Princess Grace Award.
Jill Johnson is an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer, director, and educator. She has performed in over 60 tours across five continents, was a soloist with the National Ballet of Canada, and a principal dancer and key collaborator with William Forsythe and the Frankfurt Ballet, contributing for over thirty years to the creation and transmission of his choreographic work. “Astounding,” wrote The New York Times of her dancing in Forsythe’s recent production A Quiet Evening of Dance.
Johnson served for a decade as Director of Dance at Harvard University, where she founded the Harvard Dance Project and developed groundbreaking interdisciplinary programs across the arts, humanities, and sciences. She has served on the faculty and created work at Columbia University, The Juilliard School, NYU, Princeton University, and The New School, and has taught master classes at the Alvin Ailey School, Brown University, the Edinburgh Festival, and Yale University, among others.
Her work spans dance, theater, opera, film, and education, with collaborators including American Repertory Theater, The Getty Museum, L.A. Dance Project, La Scala, Netherlands Dance Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Rambert Dance, and The Louvre. Her critically acclaimed work ANALOGUE for Rambert was voted one of the Top 5 productions in the UK in 2024. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Swiss Institute for Advanced Study (Collegium Helveticum) and an artist-in-residence at Zurich University of the Arts, where she also collaborates with the Zurich Center for Creative Economies. She is based in Los Angeles. jilljohnson.dance
Details
Ballet Idaho Studios, 501 S 8th St, Boise, ID 83702. Located in downtown Boise, with a river running through the city center and easy access to the bikeable greenbelt and hiking trails.
The Workshop is intended for dancers who have been employed for 2+ years, either in a company or freelance experience. Advanced university dancers and second company / trainees will also be considered. All dancers must be 18 or older by the start of the session.
A rare opportunity to engage in focused, process-driven work that deepens your artistry, guided by world-renowned stagers and choreographers, entirely free from the pressures of casting or performance. Phones and cameras are not permitted in the studio. Dancers are encouraged to take notes by hand – pen to paper fosters deeper retention, reflection, and embodiment of the work. Each session will culminate in an informal studio showing on the final day. This policy honors the permissions granted by each choreographer and supports focus, presence, and the integrity of the creative process.
Tuition
$800 per week standard rate
FAQ
Register
Ready to register? Fill out the registration form and we’ll be in touch with next steps. Accepted dancers will receive a payment link via email.
You’ll need: your current or most recent company (or freelance experience), dance background, and a YouTube or Vimeo link (under 2 minutes, no password).