Ashley Wheater

Ashley Wheater was born in Scotland and trained at The Royal Ballet School in England. He worked with dancers including Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, Michael Somes, and Rudolf Nureyev. Wheater joined the London Festival Ballet and was promoted to Principal Dancer at the age of 20. In 1982, Wheater joined the Australian Ballet where he continued dancing principal roles until 1985, when he left to join the Joffrey Ballet at the invitation of Gerald Arpino. Wheater retired from dancing in 1997; he was appointed Ballet Master then Assistant to the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Ballet. In 2007 he returned to the Joffrey, in Chicago, as Artistic Director, where he also serves as the Artistic Director of the Joffrey Academy of Dance, the Joffrey's official school. In 2013, the Chicago Tribune named Wheater “Chicagoan of the Year.”