Meet the two Black men now at the helm of Madison Ballet

Ja’ Malik, Michelle Ramos, Jacob Ashley, and Richard Walters (left to right) rehearse a piece for Turning Pointe.

“Madison Ballet’s 40th anniversary season closes this weekend and next with a program titled Turning Pointe, which, the company’s website says, ‘celebrates the company’s past, while it steps into a brilliant future.’

Leading the way into that future are two Black men: Jacob Ashley, who was named director of the company’s ballet school in January, and Ja’ Malik, the company’s incoming artistic director, who’ll take over for the outgoing Sarah Schumann, in July.

‘It shows that we are present,’ Ashley says of the historic hires. ‘It shows that we are part of this as well.’

The two men contrast in many ways; Ashley has been familiar to Madison audiences for 15 years, while Ja’ Malik had never set foot in Wisconsin before interviewing for this job. Ja ‘Malik started dancing at 4 or so; Ashley was a teenager before he took a ballet class. But both say they hope to build a more diverse company, broaden the audience’s horizons and create something truly special right here in Madison.”

Read the full article here.