Meet Houston Ballet Demi-Soloist and Choreographer Jack Wolff
Jack Wolff works double duty as an outstanding demi-soloist at Houston Ballet and a rising choreographer. Whether he’s dancing a lead in Stanton Welch’s Maninyas or making one of his own ballets, Wolff dazzles. It’s hard to separate the dancer from the dance as Wolff’s space-slicing precision and expansive movement quality also inform his dancemaking. His command of moving bodies across space, his inventively hybrid movement style—drawing on his training in contemporary dance and tap—and his ability to create an instant mood have made him an in-demand choreographer about town and beyond. So far, he’s created works for Houston Ballet II, Houston Ballet, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, Skylar Campbell Dance Collective, Philadelphia Ballet II, Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and Avid Dance.
Role: Independent choreographer, Houston Ballet demi-soloist
Age: 24
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Training: Precision Dance Academy, Houston Met Dance, Houston Ballet Summer Intensive, American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School
Accolades: 2024 Lauren Anderson Dance Residency at Ucross Foundation in partnership with Houston Ballet
First spark: Wolff’s early exposure to choreography came from Alicia McGee at Precision Dance Academy in Pearland, Texas. “There’s always a great arc to anything she creates,” he says. “That was my first experience of dynamic work.”
Mentorship: Educator and choreographer Spencer Gavin Hering, whom Wolff met at Met Dance when he was 12, “opened my eyes to the creative process and the possibilities in dancemaking,” says Wolff. “I remember my first experience with him as a teacher when he asked us to retrograde a phrase. That was mind-blowing. I call him my ‘dance dad.’ ”
Breakout ballet: For his first piece for Houston Ballet, Wolff leaned into his personal challenges with OCD to create a poignant solo on demi-soloist Syvert Lorenz Garcia. PIEL, which alternates between restless tangles and sweeping arcs of release, progressed from a workshop performance to the main stage at the company’s 2022 Jubilee of Dance. “PIEL explored the rituals of OCD behavior, such as repetition, reflecting on the obsession behind trying to do everyday actions correctly.”
Artistic challenges: Wolff excels in performing and choreographing contemporary pieces, while ballet, he admits “needs attention.” “I am focusing on importing more ballet lines into my choreography. I find myself guilty of over-choreographing, but I am trying to edit so the audience is not overwhelmed.”
Creative incubator: During his 10-day Ucross residency last summer in Wyoming, Wolff had uninterrupted time to create. “I got to think about big-time ideas—one of them is an Icarus ballet. I also changed up my process in that I started with the movement and then used my tap shoes to create the rhythm. I tried to be my own composer.”
What the director is saying: “Jack has so many ideas and is so disciplined that he was an obvious choice for our first Ucross residency,” says Houston Ballet co-artistic director Stanton Welch. “PIEL really caught my attention. It sold me that he was ready to create a longer work,” so Welch commissioned CATEGORY FOUR as part of the celebration of his 20th anniversary as director.
Houston by bicycle: When Wolff is not dancing, you can find him biking about town and taking photos along the way. “Someday I want to create a flipbook of all the places my bike has been,” he says.
Dream job: “I would like to be the resident choreographer of Houston Ballet someday. I know that’s a huge dream,” says Wolff. “I would like to be a resident choreographer anywhere.” As a performer, he’s eager to dive into more work by Aszure Barton, and Crystal Pite’s choreography is at the top of his wish list.
