The Joffrey Academy of Dance, Official School of The Joffrey Ballet, announced the recipients of the twelfth annual Winning Works Choreographic Competition: Audrey Ipapo Baran, Joffrey Company artist Edson Barbosa, Taylor Carrasco and Derick McKoy Jr.
This announcement follows a national call, which began in June, for ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab and Native American) artists to submit applications.
Baran is a Filipino-American dance performer, maker and educator based in Charlotte, North Carolina. She holds an MFA in dance from Hollins University and a BA in dance from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance.
Barbosa has been a company artist with the Joffrey Ballet since 2014. He was raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and began his training in ballet, jazz and tap at age 10 at Grupo Cultural de Danca, Ilha, with Patricia Marques. Barbosa has worked in the main company's productions of Ramyonda, Giselle, The Nutcracker, and Romeo & Juliet, as well as Serge Lifar's Suite en Blanc, John Cranko's Onegin, Christopher Wheeldon's Cinderella and Yuri Possokhov's Firebird.
Carrasco trained with the School of American Ballet and New Mexico Ballet Company and has taken summer intensives with Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Ballet Chicago.
McKoy, originally from Miami, is a graduate Glorya Kaufman BFA Scholar of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program in Dance. McKoy started his official training under Luctricia Welters and after a year, joined her dance company, Jubilee Dance Theater, as an apprentice. He furthered his training at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Arts Umbrella, BalletX, Ballet Hispanico, Springboard Danse Montreal as well as NW Dance Project's LAUNCH.
The choreographers' world-premiere works will be showcased by the dancers of the Joffrey Studio Company and the Joffrey Academy Trainee Program. Winning Works will be presented in four performances at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's Edlis Neeson Theater, 220 E. Chicago Ave., on Friday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, March 19, at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, March 20, at 2 p.m.
Tickets for Winning Works are $30 and currently on sale for purchase at joffrey.org/winningworks. The world-premiere works will be available to view digitally following the in-person performances. Streaming dates will be announced at a later date.