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!
January invites us into a different rhythm. Outside, the world slows; The snow softens the landscape, the days are shorter, and growth feels paused. Winter can look like stillness, even dormancy. But we know better. This season is not about stopping entirely; it is about attending to the deeper, more intentional work that allows what comes next to flourish.
As we return to the office after the holidays, I feel that tension clearly. My instinct is always to rush back in, to pick up exactly where I left off, to move quickly, to check boxes and gain momentum. Yet I know that when I am more paced, focused and deliberate, my work feels more purposeful and I end up feeling caught up without feeling frazzled.
At Grand Rapids Ballet, we are using this time to think carefully about strategy, about who we are, who we want to become, and how we want this company to grow. That kind of thinking cannot be rushed. It requires space. It requires listening. It requires patience.
Winter reminds me of the seeds that are started indoors long before spring arrives. They don’t burst through the soil overnight. They are nurtured quietly, tended with care, given exactly what they need to develop strong roots. Their success depends not on speed, but on intention. The work is subtle, but it is essential. That is where we are right now.
Behind the scenes, we are asking meaningful questions about our future: How do we best support our artists? How do we deepen our connection to our community? How do we honor our legacy while continuing to evolve? How do we ensure that Grand Rapids Ballet remains strong, relevant, and vibrant for generations to come?
These conversations, thoughtful, sometimes challenging, always hopeful, are the seeds we are planting this winter.
January gives us permission to slow down just enough to do this work well. Not to pause progress, but to strengthen it. It is a reminder that growth does not always look like motion; sometimes it looks like focus.
As we move through the winter months, I am filled with optimism. The future for Grand Rapids Ballet is bright. The care, patience, and intentionality we are investing now will give our ideas, our plans, and our aspirations the best possible chance to thrive and realize their full potential.
Spring will come. And when it does, the work we are doing now, quietly, deliberately, beneath the surface, will begin to show itself in powerful and beautiful ways.
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
Creating A New Swan Lake
The Work Beneath the Surface
By Mary Jennings, Executive Director
January invites us into a different rhythm. Outside, the world slows; The snow softens the landscape, the days are shorter, and growth feels paused. Winter can look like stillness, even dormancy. But we know better. This season is not about stopping entirely; it is about attending to the deeper, more intentional work that allows what comes next to flourish.
As we return to the office after the holidays, I feel that tension clearly. My instinct is always to rush back in, to pick up exactly where I left off, to move quickly, to check boxes and gain momentum. Yet I know that when I am more paced, focused and deliberate, my work feels more purposeful and I end up feeling caught up without feeling frazzled.
At Grand Rapids Ballet, we are using this time to think carefully about strategy, about who we are, who we want to become, and how we want this company to grow. That kind of thinking cannot be rushed. It requires space. It requires listening. It requires patience.
Winter reminds me of the seeds that are started indoors long before spring arrives. They don’t burst through the soil overnight. They are nurtured quietly, tended with care, given exactly what they need to develop strong roots. Their success depends not on speed, but on intention. The work is subtle, but it is essential. That is where we are right now.
Behind the scenes, we are asking meaningful questions about our future: How do we best support our artists? How do we deepen our connection to our community? How do we honor our legacy while continuing to evolve? How do we ensure that Grand Rapids Ballet remains strong, relevant, and vibrant for generations to come?
These conversations, thoughtful, sometimes challenging, always hopeful, are the seeds we are planting this winter.
January gives us permission to slow down just enough to do this work well. Not to pause progress, but to strengthen it. It is a reminder that growth does not always look like motion; sometimes it looks like focus.
As we move through the winter months, I am filled with optimism. The future for Grand Rapids Ballet is bright. The care, patience, and intentionality we are investing now will give our ideas, our plans, and our aspirations the best possible chance to thrive and realize their full potential.
Spring will come. And when it does, the work we are doing now, quietly, deliberately, beneath the surface, will begin to show itself in powerful and beautiful ways.
Thank you for being part of this season with us,
Mary
How The Nutcracker Became My Holiday Tradition