joel hall
Cofounder, Artistic Director Emeritus
A native of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood, Joel Hall established and cofounded the Chicago City Theatre Company in 1974. This unique performing arts organization includes the professional company known as the Joel Hall Dancers, and training facility, The Center. Hall was the artistic director and primary choreographer for his dance company and chief instructor for the training studio. He has mentored dancers who direct the Joel Hall Dancers, Joel Hall Dancers II, the Joel Hall Dancers Youth Company, and numerous other dance organizations in Chicago.
During the past 48 years, Hall has achieved an international reputation for his Dance Company and acclaim as a choreographer whose work— in his own unique style known as Urban Jazz— is based in jazz and expresses a rich vocabulary embracing classical, modern, and street dance idioms. Mr. Hall also served as Mayor Harold Washington’s International ambassador for the arts. “Jazz dance at its best,” says Dance Magazine.
Over the years, Joel Hall has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including:
Induction into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.
“Lifetime Achievement for Service to the Field” award and “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Jazz Dance World Congress.
“Black and Hispanic Achiever of the Year Award” from the Metropolitan YMCA of Chicago, awarded for his contributions to the community.
The Northeastern Illinois “University Alumnus of the Year.”
Two “Awards of Merit” from the Black Theater Alliance.
“The Katherine Dunham Award”
“Black Excellence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance” from the African American Arts Alliance for In the Shadow of Nina Simone.
Guest Professorship at Northwestern University
“King/ Chavez/ Parks Visiting Scholar Award” from Western Michigan University
“New Business of the Year Award” from the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce.
“Lifetime Achievement Award” from the African American Arts Alliance.
Feature in The History Makers, with an interview officially archived by the Library of Congress.
November 21 is officially recognized as “Joel Hall Day” throughout Chicago, in a formal resolution adopted by the Chicago City Council and signed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
The corner of Clark Street and Thorndale Avenue in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood is officially designated “Honorary Joel Hall Way.” The historic distinction commemorates Joel Hall’s 40+ years of service to the Chicago community, and a lifetime of achievements and contributions to the dance world.
“Community Spirit Award” from Center on Halsted, awarded by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
“The Legacy Award” from See Chicago Dance.
“Chicago’s Best Choreographer 2020” from The Chicago Reader.
Cofounders Joel Hall and Joseph Ehrenberg with Mayor Harold Washington
In Chicago, Mr. Hall studied at the Chicago Dance Center with Nana Shineflug, Al Gossan, Harry Laird, Ed Parish, Denise Jefferson, Sarah Singleton, and Tom Baker. In New York he studied with Thelma Hill, Pepsi Bethel, Lynn Simonson, Nat Horn, Robert Christopher, Michelle Murray, June Lewis, and Finis Jhung.
Since the 1970s, Joel Hall has created more than seventy ballets for his own company and is noted in two major books on the contemporary dance arts; Black Dance by Edward Thorpe, dance critic for The London Standard, and The Black Tradition in American Dance by Richard Long. Additionally, Susan and Thomas D. Kuczmarski note him in the book Apples are Square: Thinking Differently about Leadership, and he is noted in Black Theater is Black Life by Harvey Young and Queen Meccasia Zabriskie.
Today, Joel Hall choreographs for the Joel Hall Dancers, and teaches the Joel Hall Breathing Floor Barre Method and Fierce Ballet at The Center.