Chautauqua Institution today announced the naming of the Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance in honor of longtime faculty Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. The naming follows significant gifts made by Chautauquans Jane Foster and Arthur S. Willson, and the redesignation of existing endowment gifts made by the Carnahan-Jackson Foundation, endowing the position in perpetuity. Sasha Janes becomes the inaugural Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance following his appointment as head of the school last year.

“With tremendous thanks to Jane, Arthur and the Carnahan-Jackson Foundation for their generous forethought, we are thrilled to recognize Patti and Jean-Pierre’s contributions to Chautauqua in this way and secure excellence in dance for years to come,” said Chautauqua Institution President Michael E. Hill, Ed.D. “Patti and Jean-Pierre have touched countless lives at Chautauqua through their work as Director of Ballet Studies and former Director of the School of Dance. Certainly, Chautauqua and the art form on the whole are better for their contributions.”

Widely regarded as two of the world’s foremost professional dancers, Bonnefoux and McBride first came to Chautauqua Institution in the early 1970s. Under their leadership, dance became a core component of the Chautauqua experience for patrons and School of Dance students alike. Today, the Chautauqua School of Dance welcomes more than 120 students each summer in a variety of workshop and preprofessional programs that range from four days to seven weeks in length. The dance curriculum at Chautauqua is designed for students who want to pursue careers as professional ballet dancers and affords students the opportunity to study with master teachers within a small studio environment.

Foster and Willson are the founders of the award-winning design/build construction company Foster-Willson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They began coming to Chautauqua in 1983 with friends, relishing the religious and artistic programs that are hallmarks of the experience. As they gained exposure to Chautauqua’s dance programming, they developed an increasing appreciation for the form. Willson currently serves as treasurer of the Chautauqua Dance Circle. Foster and Willson originally established an endowment fund in the Chautauqua Foundation to maintain dance and theater facilities. Showing their strong support of dance at Chautauqua, they doubled their existing endowment and combined it with the existing Carnahan-Jackson Foundation dance endowment to fund the directorship.

The Carnahan-Jackson Foundation of Jamestown, New York was founded by Katharine and Clyde L. Carnahan. Having been introduced to Chautauqua by her mother, Katharine served as an Institution trustee and on leadership committees for the Smith Memorial Library and the Institution’s Department of Religion. The Carnahan-Jackson Foundation was led for many years by their son, David Carnahan. David continued his parents’ long record of commitment and service to the Institution as Chairman of the Board of the Carnahan-Jackson Foundation, Inc., and served as a director of the Chautauqua Foundation and a trustee of Chautauqua Institution. David met his wife, Martha, at Chautauqua. He passed away in 2022. The family supported a wide range of programs, including dance, through gifts to the Chautauqua Foundation. The Carnahan-Jackson Dance Studios are named in their honor.

Bonnefoux joined the Paris Opera Ballet at age 14 and was named Danseur Etoile at 21. He has danced with the Bolshoi and Kirov Ballets, as well as New York City Ballet under the direction of George Balanchine. In 1977 Bonnefoux joined the School of American Ballet faculty and began to realize his lifelong ambition of training young dancers. Bonnefoux’s choreography includes works commissioned by New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center Institute, The Metropolitan Opera Ballet Company and the Pennsylvania Ballet (now known as the Philadelphia Ballet). He has served as choreographer and ballet master for the Pittsburgh Ballet, and as chairman and artistic director of the Ballet Department in the School of Music at Indiana University. He joined the Charlotte Ballet and School of Charlotte Ballet in 1996, where he served as the president and artistic director until 2016. Bonnefoux retired as director of the Chautauqua School of Dance in 2021.

McBride is a former distinguished prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet. She has been celebrated as the outstanding American ballerina of our time and is a star of international stature. In 2014 she received one of the Kennedy Center Honors for her lifetime contributions and achievements in dance. Her career with the New York City Ballet spanned more than three decades and provided audiences with dazzling performances of some of the greatest masterpieces in dance. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins created many of their master works for her. At Chautauqua, she is a teacher of technique and variations classes for both Festival and Workshop dancers, and stages a Balanchine work each summer.

In addition to his work at Chautauqua School of Dance, Janes has served as professor of music in ballet at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 2016. He has danced professionally with Australian Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Dayton Ballet and Hong Kong Ballet. At the invitation of Bonnefoux and McBride, Janes joined Charlotte Ballet in 2003. In 2006, he was commissioned to choreograph his first ballet and has since choreographed several works for the company. Janes was a principal dancer with Charlotte Ballet for eight seasons before being named rehearsal director in 2007, associate artistic director in 2012 and resident choreographer in 2013.

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA SCHOOL OF DANCE 
Chautauqua School of Dance was founded by Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux in 1989, who served as artistic director until 2022, as a premiere summer dance intensive. Since then, it has become well known for the unique opportunity it affords talented students to study with master teachers within a small studio environment. The dance curriculum at Chautauqua is designed for students who wish to pursue careers as professional ballet dancers. Intensive training in classical ballet continues in rehearsals leading to performances. Many alums of the program have gone on to dance for major national and international companies. Classes and rehearsals take place at Carnahan-Jackson Studios, comprising four large teaching and rehearsal studios, locker rooms, costume shop, administrative offices, and a beautiful lake view. 

In 2023, Sasha Janes was named Bonnefoux McBride Artistic Director of Chautauqua School of Dance, overseeing the artistic vision and focus of one of the most respected summer programs in the dance world, cultivating a robust professional company and guest artist presence on the Institution grounds throughout the traditional nine-week Chautauqua Summer Assembly, and year-round dance residency initiatives. 

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION    
Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week season, and a total of more than 100,000 attend scheduled public events and even more engage online via the streaming channel CHQ Assembly. Chautauqua is dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times; stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues; and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts. The Institution celebrates its sesquicentennial in 2024.