Jonathan Alsberry choreographing Dance for Life finale
Some in the dance community call Jonathan “Jojo” Alsberry the “Kevin Bacon of dance.”
There’s a theory that Kevin Bacon can be linked to any actor, to some degree, in Hollywood through his many films. In the dance world, Alsberry’s impressive resume links him to the Metropolitan Opera Ballet in New York City, where he was a solo dancer, and to Chicago’s Hubbard Street Dance; to the dance troupes for touring musicians Madonna and Cat Power, and to the online dance company Kontemporary Dance Theater, which he created.
Now Alsberry, who is senior rehearsal director at Hubbard Street, gets a major Chicago showcase: the job of choreographing the finale for the 2024 Dance for Life, an annual performance and benefit event that features a who’s who of local Chicago dance companies. For three decades, choreographer Randy Duncan has had the honor. This year, he recommended his former student, Alsberry, for the job.
Alsberry sat down with WBEZ’s "The Rundown" podcast to talk about his process for choreographing and about Dance For Life, which raises money for the nonprofit Chicago Dance Health Fund and helps support dancers’ health care and medical needs.
Q. How did you learn about the Health Fund and Dance for Life?
A: So my connection is directly through Randy Duncan. I'm actually from [Normal, Illinois]. I moved to Chicago to go to Chicago Academy for the Arts, where Randy Duncan, at the time, was teaching jazz and modern. When I went to high school there, of course, Randy had been choreographing the finale for years, and he would bring me in on weekends to research movement and build material for what he was creating. Then after I had graduated, he actually brought me in to be a part of the finale, which was such an incredible experience dancing with these professional dancers who I had looked up to, and they really took me under their wing.
For almost every year after that, even though I moved to New York to go to the Juilliard School and worked there for many years, I would come back to dance in the finale with Randy every single year. So we would get together and either create work that was going to then be staged for it, or I would help teach [the piece] and get it up and running before the performance.
Q. Tell me more about Randy Duncan.
A. Randy Duncan is a world renowned choreographer. Most people would know him immediately because he was one of the choreographers for the famous film, "Save the Last Dance." Randy is an incredible choreographer; the humanity that is in his work, the collective community, he's really able to work with any kind of dancer and build a work that really touches the soul of anyone who's watching, no matter what their background is.
And that is where I came from. My mother is a minister of our church and liturgical dance, and that's what I grew up in, from birth, really. It's always been about praise and celebration of humanity, and the love that we share. So, Randy was like second nature for me. It was so inspiring for me to see that Black man from that lens in high school growing up and keep that connection through all of these years. He's an incredible, incredible human being.
Q. Working together to create something beautiful and meaningful [for Dance for Life] ... your time and your energy is going toward something so great.
A. It's important. Visibility is important. Unity is important. Inclusion is incredibly important. And all of those things are present here. That was the reason we felt it was so important to do this health and wellness grant. During the pandemic, a lot of dancers were out of work, because there were no performances. People don't realize it, but a lot of the dancers don't have health insurance, or at least not health insurance [that] is provided by their company. So being able to offer them [healthcare funds] was really important to keep them healthy and active.