by Jonathan Gramling

The eyes of Ja’Malik, the artistic director of Madison Ballet, light up when he talks about the art form. It is more than agile bodies gracefully gliding across a stage. It’s about artistic expression of our hopes and dreams. It is an expression of our humanity.

“The beauty of ballet is the beauty of the inevitable,” Ja’Malik said. “I just think it is amazing to see what these athletic, artistic human beings can do on stage, define what the body can naturally do, exploring emotions and storytelling that can’t be conveyed through words. It’s a deeper feeling, a deeper connection to humanity and to life. I think it is a complete reflection of what we would like the world to be as a unity and a unison, individuality with an ability to come together as one when needed and express beauty in that way. I think we show that.”

And ballet is as demanding — and requiring an exhaustive training schedule — as any sport.

“It’s never too late to take ballet lessons,” Ja’Malik said. “We do have ballet classes at the School of Madison Ballet for babies at least 12 months up to any age. We have many, 2-4, 70 year plus adults in our open classes. ballet builds a great amount of endurance, agility, longevity in movement, motor skills that start to deplete us as we get older. It keeps those things sharp and intact. It teaches the body how to move in quickness when necessary in a safe way.”

Madison Ballet iks a professional dance troupe that attracts talent from all over the world.

“There are 20 professional dancers who have moved to Madison,” Ja’Malik said. “They come from all over, places like Brazil, The Philippines, Texas, Ohio, East Coast and West Coast. We have a few from Wisconsin. They are from all over, but they have decided to come here to make Madison Ballet their home company and Madison, Wisconsin their home city. They aren’t just contributing to Madison Ballet. They are contributing to the community as well because a lot of them have outside jobs and outside businesses here in the city. They are active members of the community now. And that’s 20 dancers.

Being a professional dancer with Madison Ballet is central to their everyday lives.

“They work 40 hours per week,” Ja’Malik emphasized. “It’s not a hobby. It’s a full-time job. A lot of people think it is a hobby, just people in a room dancing around when it is so much more than that. This is their career, their chosen profession. We have rehearsal every day. We have a company class every morning. We have a company class every morning for 1-2 hours. It’s their training class where they exercise and do their rebuilding and strengthening of their muscles. And then they go into a full eight-hours of rehearsal a day with different choreographers. They are learning a lot of works and rehearsing a lot of different things at the same time. It’s a lot. It’s multitasking. It’s being aware of your physical and mental health at all times. It’s just making sure that you are staying as healthy as possible.”

Madison Ballet is in rehearsal for its first production for the 2025-2026 season called Rock the Ballet.

“When you hear the theme Rock the Ballet, I think people immediately think of rock and roll,” Ja’Malik said. “It’s not necessarily that it is rock and roll. I just want audiences to view the classical ballet through different musical mediums. It can be rock. It can be R&B. It can be pop. It can be jazz. It can be anything musical that the choreographer finds interest in.”

The show includes choreographed pieces of several choreographers.

“It’s an exciting program with two new world premiers, which they are rehearsing right now with guest choreographers Yury Yanowsky and Meredith Rainey.  These are two choreographers whose works I have seen over the years and I wanted to bring their voices and their experiences and their ballets to Madison. So they are here creating brand new ballets. There is a returning work, Rhapsody in Blue with a local band Mr. Chair who recomposed the Gershwin score for my choreography. And then we are redesigning a ballet Richard Walters did in 2022 called Parallax, which explores space themes and odysseys.”

Rock the Ballet is being performed at MYArts Starlight Theater October 10-12.

The next show is what many Americans visualize when the subject of ballet is broached, The Nutcracker.

“It’s a production that people’s holiday season has to start with,” Ja’Malik said. “For many people, it’s their annual tradition to bring their families and friends out to see The Nutcracker and enjoy the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra music as well as Madison Ballet. The dancers love Nutcracker. They love performing it. And the music is amazing as everyone knows. It’s just a fun time to bring everyone together and enjoy a moment of beauty.”

The Nutcracker has been part of Ja’Malik’s ballet tradition as well.

“I’ve been doing Nutcracker since I was a kid,” Ja’Malik said. “I started out at the Baby Mouse and worked my way up to a principal dancer. Professionally, I danced it for 30 years. And now as a director, this is my fourth year helping this version come alive on stage. It can get a bit redundant. But we find new ways to approach the material. Like I said, I am updating and going to change some of the choreography just to give it some spice and liven it up a little bit. So that will reengage audiences as well as the dancers because they have been doing it for a while. You have to keep them engaged as well. We enjoy it, but it can get a bit tiresome. We have to keep it fresh. We also have new dancers who will be exploring it for the first time. That will be exciting onstage as well.”