In recent months, we’ve shared previews of our five-year strategic plan through program messages, emails, and other communications. Our commitment to shaping the future of ballet has been a consistent focus throughout these updates.
Now, following review and approval by our Board of Directors, the final plan is ready to launch. This post introduces the plan, and over the coming year we’ll provide additional updates designed to give you a closer look at the goals and initiatives we aim to achieve over the next five years. There is so much to look forward to at Grand Rapids Ballet, and we’re glad to have you on this journey with us!
Introducing Our Mission, Vision, Values, and Strategic Plan
As we created our plan for the future of Grand Rapids Ballet, we began by reflecting on who we are today—what sets us apart from other arts organizations and the positive impact we hope to make in our community and beyond. Our refreshed mission is to be Michigan’s home for world-class ballet experiences that enrich, educate, and inspire. Our vision is to engage and uplift the human spirit through dance, and our values—Excellence, Innovation, and Gratitude—shape who we are as an organization.
To position Grand Rapids Ballet as Michigan’s home for professional ballet, we’ve identified three strategic pillars:
Train the next generation by building GRB’s School into Michigan’s premier destination for ballet education.
Deliver artistic excellence by producing world-class ballet and establishing GRB as Michigan’s leading cultural force.
Strengthen our foundation and sustain our mission by expanding fundraising, board capacity, and infrastructure for the next 50 years.
Caring for and advancing ballet as an art form is not optional for our community—it is essential cultural work. At Grand Rapids Ballet, we are proud to help lead that work for our community and the entire state of Michigan.
Reflecting on the conclusion of our 25/26 season, I am so proud of our company, and the ability of our art form to remain powerful and relevant. I am truly excited about the momentum we have built this year, and we’re harnessing that energy moving into 26/27.
This season our subscriptions hit an all-time high, we sold out all performances of our world premiere of Sherlock (for which we received mention in the Washington Post), we broke ticket sales records for our world premiere of Swan Lake, and we brought New York City Ballet resident choreographer Justin Peck’s work to Grand Rapids for the first time ever, paired with music from Michigander Sufjan Stevens. We performed at Frederik Meijer Gardens, the new Acrisure Amphitheater, the Great Lakes Center for the Arts in Petoskey and the Econ Club’s 50th anniversary gala with keynote speakers Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. (Strikingly, both Presidents spoke about their renewed love for the arts in their retirement). The New York Times reported on Grand Rapids’ status as a “City on the Rise” and they felt it pertinent to mention that Grand Rapids is the home of “Michigan’s only professional ballet company.”
None of these accomplishments happen on their own. Each performance, each ballet, each event requires countless hours of organizing by our staff – including rehearsals, meetings, emails, and not least, fundraising. Thank you to Chris Jabin, our Senior Director of Advancement and Engagement, and our interim CEO Leah Voigt, for leading the way to increase our fundraising efforts in order to sustain our operations into the future.
In our current world dominated by technology, and increasingly AI, this season increased my optimism about the ability for art, and specifically ballet, to break through the digital hold that our devices have on us. We are uniquely poised to provide an experience that offers something more than anyone can get on a screen. Our dancers are full of life, and a performance at GRB, while meticulously rehearsed, is not edited or photoshopped. You cannot go back and watch it again, you must sit up and pay attention. We offer an antidote to a digital life that I think people, and especially young people, are craving.
Grand Rapids Ballet is 100% human and always will be! There are no AI dancers (and I don’t think we’re in danger of that any time soon)! Not that we don’t embrace technology, and use it to stimulate artistic innovation (think: our performances at Meijer Gardens Winter Nights), but we will always celebrate the best of human creativity and ability.
Our 26/27 season upholds that promise of creativity and ability, and I invite everyone to join us for what will certainly be a “Season of Wonder.” From the powerful imagery of Frida Kahlo in Broken Wings to the happy-go-lucky sailors in Fancy Free to the charming storybook characters in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, next season demonstrates our company’s range, and shows off our world-class dancers in challenging and engaging works of art. I hope you will consider renewing your subscription (if you haven’t already) to enjoy the best pricing, guaranteed seats, and flexible ticket options.
Until then, our building is full this summer with aspiring students who visit from all over for our School’s annual 5-week Summer Intensive with renowned guest faculty. We also offer two Adult Summer Intensives, and new summer dancer camps (ages 3-10) in Ada, MI as well as at our downtown location. Research shows that art and movement is beneficial for our happiness and well-being, whether you are experiencing it, or participating!
For all these reasons, the case for ballet is strong. Our organization strives to promote the best of humanity: beauty, joy, and creativity. I hope you agree that these are concepts worth fighting for. As artists, we have the power to change the world for the better!
Thank you for reading, and I wish you a wonderful West Michigan summer!
Sincerely,
James Sofranko
Artistic Director
In the words of the late Steven Hawking, “We are all time-travelers, journeying together into the future, but let us work together to make that future a place we want to visit.”
We’d like to share with you several GRB team updates.
First, we’re excited to share the creation of the Advancement & Engagement Department. This new Department is responsible for GRB’s community-facing and revenue-generating functions. This change integrates four functions that already operate closely together: Development & Fundraising; Marketing & Communications; Box Office & Patron Experience; and Community Engagement & Events.
This new Department will be led by our Senior Director, Chris Jabin. Chris will foster a collaborative, high-performing team focused on building and sustaining the external relationships that enable GRB to thrive — with donors, audiences, school families, community partners, and the public. Chris will also continue to be responsible for the planning and implementation of our fundraising and development program.
Reporting to Chris will be Christopher Klapwijk, Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications and Melissa Anderson, Manager of Box Office and Patron Experience. Also part of the Advancement & Engagement team will be a new position: Manager of Community Engagement & Events. Recruitment for this new position will begin in the coming weeks.
Next, we have two retirements to share with you. While we will deeply miss these incredible colleagues, we are so excited for them and their next life’s adventure!
John Ferraro, Company & Facilities Manager will retire at the end of 2026, after almost 19 years with the Grand Rapids Ballet. John has been GRB’s heart and soul—he supports everyone here in ways that we couldn’t even begin to enumerate. John is undeniably irreplaceable, so plans are being made to transition John’s areas of responsibility to several other team members.
Chris Jabin will also be retiring at the end of 2026, after a stellar career in fundraising and development for nonprofit arts and culture organizations. Chris joined the Grand Rapids Ballet in 2024 and has elevated our fundraising and development efforts in just two years. Over the next several months, Chris will continue to help us plan for our future – while he’s shaping our new Advancement & Engagement team, he will also advise on the skills, attributes and experiences we should consider when choosing his successor.
We are looking forward to celebrating these two incredible individuals as they embark on their next adventures. We will be sure to share more information about retirement celebrations, as those plans take shape.
Next, we’re excited to share a promotion as well as the addition of two familiar faces to our administrative team.
Shanikqua Spears has been promoted to the role of Manager of Operations and Facilities. Shanikqua joined the GRB team in 2025 as Executive Administrator and she has quickly become an integral part of our organization. In her new role, Shanikqua will develop, maintain and improve internal administrative systems, processes, and workflows to support both the company and school. She will also serve as the primary point of contact for all facility-related matters across studio, performance, and administrative spaces.
This summer, Nathan Young – company dancer and GRBS teacher – joins our administrative team as an Advancement & Engagement Associate. Nathan will support a range of donor and patron relations activities and will also help guide our marketing and branding efforts, providing insight on what it means to be a professional dancer at Grand Rapids Ballet.
Last but not least, we are excited to announce that Jimmy Cunningham – also a company dancer and GRBS teacher – will serve as our inaugural Professional Development (PD) Program Coordinator. Earlier this year, GRB received funding from the Pamella and Dan DeVos Foundation to create a professional development program for our dancers. This program aims to provide our dancers with additional experiences and skills they can rely on during the professional dance career and beyond. The program will allow dancers to select internship opportunities at GRB and to participate in a seminar series ranging from nutrition and injury prevention to public speaking. Jimmy will create the infrastructure and lead the implementation of this program, which will support our company dancers today and into the future.
Welcome to Spring at Grand Rapids Ballet! It is always busy around here, but especially during these last few months of the season. From our full-length company production of Swan Lake, right into Jumpstart and In the Countenance of Kings, our Junior Company performances of the Butterfly Ballet at Meijer Gardens and Wizard of Oz, our Spring Break for Kids performances of The Emperor and the Swan performed by our apprentices and trainees, and our school’s Spring Showcase, it feels like a sprint to the end of the season!
For our professional company, In The Countenance of Kings is a fitting finale to our record-breaking season. It exemplifies our world-class attitude and future-forward posture towards the art of ballet. In the first half of the program we have four shorter contemporary ballets: a work created last year for GRB (Plume by Penny Saunders), an intimate duet (For Pixie by Dani Rowe), a contemporary classic (Concerto 622 by Lar Lubovitch), and a world premiere (title TBA by myself). The second half of the program is Justin Peck and Sufjan Stevens’ In The Countenance of Kings, a ballet made by and for a new generation of dancers and audiences. Every ballet is unique, and pushes our art form forward into the future. We do ballets like Swan Lake very well, but we also evolve with relevance in a program like this.
Speaking of my new work specifically, after choreographing Swan Lake this February, this new piece is so very different! Musically, I am going from Tchaikovsky’s orchestral melodies to the guitar and raw vocals of singer songwriter Ray LaMontagne. The women will be in flat shoes instead of pointe shoes and the movement is much more contemporary than Swan Lake. I was always a dancer that enjoyed both classical and contemporary works, and I guess my choreographic desires have followed suit! It has been fun to shift gears like this, although I am remembering that choreographing outside of the classical canon can be more time consuming, because you are not utilizing a known vocabulary, but taking the time to discover new movements, shapes, and partnering. I thank the dancers for their trust in me to try new things, and I hope that you enjoy what we have “discovered” together.
So much happens behind the scenes to bring our productions to life, and I want to take this opportunity to thank those individuals and organizations who have shown us support not just this season, but through many seasons. The fact is that they allow us to exist as Michigan’s home for professional ballet. I was so pleased to speak about our dear friend Mary Nelson at our annual Gala last October, and to be able to present her with our first ever Réverance Award. This award honors Mary’s exemplary generosity and commitment to the ballet over many years. Mary and her husband Jim are our 25/26 season sponsors, along with The Wege Foundation, and we could not do what we do without their love for the Grand Rapids Ballet. Jim and Mary are passionate supporters of the arts and the city of Grand Rapids, and their leadership has paved the way for others to follow. I will be forever grateful.
As I look to the future, I see a growing city around us (literally growing in our neighborhood) and I am excited about our role in that growth. Together with interim CEO Leah Voigt, our staff and board, and in partnership with the DeVos Capacity Building Initiative led by arts management expert Michael Kaiser, we are creating a strategic plan that puts the ballet at the forefront of the culture our city has to offer. We are looking at ways to increase our presence across the state, and we have plans to produce our beloved Nutcracker in Detroit this coming holiday season. We are exploring ways to increase our school’s reach, beginning this summer with dance camps at a new satellite location in Ada. Our subscriber and ticket sales have reached record levels and our dancers and productions have been mentioned in national publications such as The Washington Post and Pointe Magazine.
Even with all of these exciting initiatives, we still must depend on the support of our community members. Next season, to bring ballets such as Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Broken Wings (about painter Frida Kahlo), Jerome Robbins’ iconic Fancy Free, and Ben Stevenson’s Alice in Wonderland, we must raise at least 50% of our budget through philanthropy. Thank you to everyone who contributes to our success, we literally would not be here without your support.
I hope you have been inspired by our 25/26 season and you will consider making a donation today, to help us grow and accomplish our ambitious goals for the future. Please know that every dollar matters, and no donor support is ever “too small.” Your support truly makes a difference.
In ballet, tradition and innovation have always gone hand in hand. And, at the Grand Rapids Ballet, we have our own way of celebrating history and looking ahead to the future.
We’re basking in the glow of our world premiere of Swan Lake, and at the same time we’re turning our energy to this year’s Jumpstart, a program that is all about trying new things, taking risks, and pushing the boundaries of what we’ve experienced before. For us, the iconic white tutus and pointe shoes of our swan corps are as much about our identity as our innovative use of music, space, and motion while wearing sneakers.
What makes this year’s Jumpstart even more exciting for us is that we are getting ready to embark on a new five-year strategic plan. We’re focused on expanding our reach and brand recognition – as Michigan’s home for professional ballet – while continuing to present world-class performances and expanding the breadth and depth of our school and our educational mission. We’re leveraging social media to tell our stories and we’re connecting with our partners in the community to energize and elevate our artform. We’re creating an inclusive culture which embraces people within and outside our organization. We’re providing world-class ballet experiences that enrich, educate and inspire.
And we’re thrilled you are here with us, helping to create the future of ballet!
A Bold New Vision for Grand Rapids Ballet
The Case for Ballet
By James Sofranko, Artistic Director
Reflecting on the conclusion of our 25/26 season, I am so proud of our company, and the ability of our art form to remain powerful and relevant. I am truly excited about the momentum we have built this year, and we’re harnessing that energy moving into 26/27.
This season our subscriptions hit an all-time high, we sold out all performances of our world premiere of Sherlock (for which we received mention in the Washington Post), we broke ticket sales records for our world premiere of Swan Lake, and we brought New York City Ballet resident choreographer Justin Peck’s work to Grand Rapids for the first time ever, paired with music from Michigander Sufjan Stevens. We performed at Frederik Meijer Gardens, the new Acrisure Amphitheater, the Great Lakes Center for the Arts in Petoskey and the Econ Club’s 50th anniversary gala with keynote speakers Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. (Strikingly, both Presidents spoke about their renewed love for the arts in their retirement). The New York Times reported on Grand Rapids’ status as a “City on the Rise” and they felt it pertinent to mention that Grand Rapids is the home of “Michigan’s only professional ballet company.”
None of these accomplishments happen on their own. Each performance, each ballet, each event requires countless hours of organizing by our staff – including rehearsals, meetings, emails, and not least, fundraising. Thank you to Chris Jabin, our Senior Director of Advancement and Engagement, and our interim CEO Leah Voigt, for leading the way to increase our fundraising efforts in order to sustain our operations into the future.
In our current world dominated by technology, and increasingly AI, this season increased my optimism about the ability for art, and specifically ballet, to break through the digital hold that our devices have on us. We are uniquely poised to provide an experience that offers something more than anyone can get on a screen. Our dancers are full of life, and a performance at GRB, while meticulously rehearsed, is not edited or photoshopped. You cannot go back and watch it again, you must sit up and pay attention. We offer an antidote to a digital life that I think people, and especially young people, are craving.
Grand Rapids Ballet is 100% human and always will be! There are no AI dancers (and I don’t think we’re in danger of that any time soon)! Not that we don’t embrace technology, and use it to stimulate artistic innovation (think: our performances at Meijer Gardens Winter Nights), but we will always celebrate the best of human creativity and ability.
Our 26/27 season upholds that promise of creativity and ability, and I invite everyone to join us for what will certainly be a “Season of Wonder.” From the powerful imagery of Frida Kahlo in Broken Wings to the happy-go-lucky sailors in Fancy Free to the charming storybook characters in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, next season demonstrates our company’s range, and shows off our world-class dancers in challenging and engaging works of art. I hope you will consider renewing your subscription (if you haven’t already) to enjoy the best pricing, guaranteed seats, and flexible ticket options.
Until then, our building is full this summer with aspiring students who visit from all over for our School’s annual 5-week Summer Intensive with renowned guest faculty. We also offer two Adult Summer Intensives, and new summer dancer camps (ages 3-10) in Ada, MI as well as at our downtown location. Research shows that art and movement is beneficial for our happiness and well-being, whether you are experiencing it, or participating!
For all these reasons, the case for ballet is strong. Our organization strives to promote the best of humanity: beauty, joy, and creativity. I hope you agree that these are concepts worth fighting for. As artists, we have the power to change the world for the better!
Thank you for reading, and I wish you a wonderful West Michigan summer!
Sincerely,
James Sofranko
Artistic Director
In the words of the late Steven Hawking, “We are all time-travelers, journeying together into the future, but let us work together to make that future a place we want to visit.”
Dancer Spotlight: Emily Reed
Building Forward
By Leah Voigt, Interim CEO
We’d like to share with you several GRB team updates.
First, we’re excited to share the creation of the Advancement & Engagement Department. This new Department is responsible for GRB’s community-facing and revenue-generating functions. This change integrates four functions that already operate closely together: Development & Fundraising; Marketing & Communications; Box Office & Patron Experience; and Community Engagement & Events.
This new Department will be led by our Senior Director, Chris Jabin. Chris will foster a collaborative, high-performing team focused on building and sustaining the external relationships that enable GRB to thrive — with donors, audiences, school families, community partners, and the public. Chris will also continue to be responsible for the planning and implementation of our fundraising and development program.
Reporting to Chris will be Christopher Klapwijk, Senior Manager of Marketing and Communications and Melissa Anderson, Manager of Box Office and Patron Experience. Also part of the Advancement & Engagement team will be a new position: Manager of Community Engagement & Events. Recruitment for this new position will begin in the coming weeks.
Next, we have two retirements to share with you. While we will deeply miss these incredible colleagues, we are so excited for them and their next life’s adventure!
John Ferraro, Company & Facilities Manager will retire at the end of 2026, after almost 19 years with the Grand Rapids Ballet. John has been GRB’s heart and soul—he supports everyone here in ways that we couldn’t even begin to enumerate. John is undeniably irreplaceable, so plans are being made to transition John’s areas of responsibility to several other team members.
Chris Jabin will also be retiring at the end of 2026, after a stellar career in fundraising and development for nonprofit arts and culture organizations. Chris joined the Grand Rapids Ballet in 2024 and has elevated our fundraising and development efforts in just two years. Over the next several months, Chris will continue to help us plan for our future – while he’s shaping our new Advancement & Engagement team, he will also advise on the skills, attributes and experiences we should consider when choosing his successor.
We are looking forward to celebrating these two incredible individuals as they embark on their next adventures. We will be sure to share more information about retirement celebrations, as those plans take shape.
Next, we’re excited to share a promotion as well as the addition of two familiar faces to our administrative team.
Shanikqua Spears has been promoted to the role of Manager of Operations and Facilities. Shanikqua joined the GRB team in 2025 as Executive Administrator and she has quickly become an integral part of our organization. In her new role, Shanikqua will develop, maintain and improve internal administrative systems, processes, and workflows to support both the company and school. She will also serve as the primary point of contact for all facility-related matters across studio, performance, and administrative spaces.
This summer, Nathan Young – company dancer and GRBS teacher – joins our administrative team as an Advancement & Engagement Associate. Nathan will support a range of donor and patron relations activities and will also help guide our marketing and branding efforts, providing insight on what it means to be a professional dancer at Grand Rapids Ballet.
Last but not least, we are excited to announce that Jimmy Cunningham – also a company dancer and GRBS teacher – will serve as our inaugural Professional Development (PD) Program Coordinator. Earlier this year, GRB received funding from the Pamella and Dan DeVos Foundation to create a professional development program for our dancers. This program aims to provide our dancers with additional experiences and skills they can rely on during the professional dance career and beyond. The program will allow dancers to select internship opportunities at GRB and to participate in a seminar series ranging from nutrition and injury prevention to public speaking. Jimmy will create the infrastructure and lead the implementation of this program, which will support our company dancers today and into the future.
With gratitude,
Leah
Dancer Spotlight: Julian Gan
Dancer Spotlight: Josué Justiz
Growing Season
By James Sofranko, Artistic Director
Welcome to Spring at Grand Rapids Ballet! It is always busy around here, but especially during these last few months of the season. From our full-length company production of Swan Lake, right into Jumpstart and In the Countenance of Kings, our Junior Company performances of the Butterfly Ballet at Meijer Gardens and Wizard of Oz, our Spring Break for Kids performances of The Emperor and the Swan performed by our apprentices and trainees, and our school’s Spring Showcase, it feels like a sprint to the end of the season!
For our professional company, In The Countenance of Kings is a fitting finale to our record-breaking season. It exemplifies our world-class attitude and future-forward posture towards the art of ballet. In the first half of the program we have four shorter contemporary ballets: a work created last year for GRB (Plume by Penny Saunders), an intimate duet (For Pixie by Dani Rowe), a contemporary classic (Concerto 622 by Lar Lubovitch), and a world premiere (title TBA by myself). The second half of the program is Justin Peck and Sufjan Stevens’ In The Countenance of Kings, a ballet made by and for a new generation of dancers and audiences. Every ballet is unique, and pushes our art form forward into the future. We do ballets like Swan Lake very well, but we also evolve with relevance in a program like this.
Speaking of my new work specifically, after choreographing Swan Lake this February, this new piece is so very different! Musically, I am going from Tchaikovsky’s orchestral melodies to the guitar and raw vocals of singer songwriter Ray LaMontagne. The women will be in flat shoes instead of pointe shoes and the movement is much more contemporary than Swan Lake. I was always a dancer that enjoyed both classical and contemporary works, and I guess my choreographic desires have followed suit! It has been fun to shift gears like this, although I am remembering that choreographing outside of the classical canon can be more time consuming, because you are not utilizing a known vocabulary, but taking the time to discover new movements, shapes, and partnering. I thank the dancers for their trust in me to try new things, and I hope that you enjoy what we have “discovered” together.
So much happens behind the scenes to bring our productions to life, and I want to take this opportunity to thank those individuals and organizations who have shown us support not just this season, but through many seasons. The fact is that they allow us to exist as Michigan’s home for professional ballet. I was so pleased to speak about our dear friend Mary Nelson at our annual Gala last October, and to be able to present her with our first ever Réverance Award. This award honors Mary’s exemplary generosity and commitment to the ballet over many years. Mary and her husband Jim are our 25/26 season sponsors, along with The Wege Foundation, and we could not do what we do without their love for the Grand Rapids Ballet. Jim and Mary are passionate supporters of the arts and the city of Grand Rapids, and their leadership has paved the way for others to follow. I will be forever grateful.
As I look to the future, I see a growing city around us (literally growing in our neighborhood) and I am excited about our role in that growth. Together with interim CEO Leah Voigt, our staff and board, and in partnership with the DeVos Capacity Building Initiative led by arts management expert Michael Kaiser, we are creating a strategic plan that puts the ballet at the forefront of the culture our city has to offer. We are looking at ways to increase our presence across the state, and we have plans to produce our beloved Nutcracker in Detroit this coming holiday season. We are exploring ways to increase our school’s reach, beginning this summer with dance camps at a new satellite location in Ada. Our subscriber and ticket sales have reached record levels and our dancers and productions have been mentioned in national publications such as The Washington Post and Pointe Magazine.
Even with all of these exciting initiatives, we still must depend on the support of our community members. Next season, to bring ballets such as Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Broken Wings (about painter Frida Kahlo), Jerome Robbins’ iconic Fancy Free, and Ben Stevenson’s Alice in Wonderland, we must raise at least 50% of our budget through philanthropy. Thank you to everyone who contributes to our success, we literally would not be here without your support.
I hope you have been inspired by our 25/26 season and you will consider making a donation today, to help us grow and accomplish our ambitious goals for the future. Please know that every dollar matters, and no donor support is ever “too small.” Your support truly makes a difference.
James Sofranko
Dancer Spotlight: Ahna Lipchik
Tradition and Innovation
By Leah Voigt, Interim CEO
In ballet, tradition and innovation have always gone hand in hand. And, at the Grand Rapids Ballet, we have our own way of celebrating history and looking ahead to the future.
We’re basking in the glow of our world premiere of Swan Lake, and at the same time we’re turning our energy to this year’s Jumpstart, a program that is all about trying new things, taking risks, and pushing the boundaries of what we’ve experienced before. For us, the iconic white tutus and pointe shoes of our swan corps are as much about our identity as our innovative use of music, space, and motion while wearing sneakers.
What makes this year’s Jumpstart even more exciting for us is that we are getting ready to embark on a new five-year strategic plan. We’re focused on expanding our reach and brand recognition – as Michigan’s home for professional ballet – while continuing to present world-class performances and expanding the breadth and depth of our school and our educational mission. We’re leveraging social media to tell our stories and we’re connecting with our partners in the community to energize and elevate our artform. We’re creating an inclusive culture which embraces people within and outside our organization. We’re providing world-class ballet experiences that enrich, educate and inspire.
And we’re thrilled you are here with us, helping to create the future of ballet!
With gratitude,
Leah
Dancer Spotlight: Rena Takahashi