Community Engagement Heads to the Joffrey Warehouse

For nearly 20 years, the Joffrey Community Engagement and After School Matters (ASM) have partnered to provide dance programming for Chicago teens. Through the Joffrey ASM program, teens learn career readiness skills through their dance classes, performances, and other program activities.

This fall our Joffrey Dance Exploration ASM program has partnered with Amundsen High School to provide programming for 15 teens. In addition to their weekly dance classes, teens were given the opportunity to attend the Joffrey’s performance of HOME and take a field trip to tour the Joffrey Warehouse. During the field trip to the Warehouse, Cody Chen, Director of Production, and the Joffrey Production team taught the teens all about what happens before and after the curtain rises during a production and what it takes to put on a performance. Through a hands-on experience teens were able to learn about lighting, sound, set design, and props. Here is what the Joffrey Dance Exploration teens had to say about the field trip:

“I really liked the field trip on Monday because I got to learn how things are made backstage and the hard work the people in charge of them put in. I especially liked the props part of it. I thought it was very cool and I’d maybe like to try something that it in the future.” —Stefanie

 “I liked how they invited us to their warehouse to show the things they do backstage. I love the creativity and hard work it takes for them to make a performance beautiful.“ —Hamna

“One thing I liked about the field trip was learning about the scenery and props. It was really cool and interesting.” —Ekaterini

“I really enjoyed the field trip we to on Monday. I especially enjoyed when they showed us the props that were created by hand.” —Asel

“I really like all the different jobs they had and what they have to with the props and lighting. I mostly liked the lighting because of the patterns they have and how they manage all the lights and where they must put the spotlight on the dancers.” — Theofania

“The field trip for ASM was an amazing experience. I love learning about what was being done backstage and the amazing people taking care of all that. I also loved learning about how things were made for the performance.”  —Efbeydy

A special thank you to Cody and his team for sharing this experience with our teens!