José Soares

José Soares began his training at 11 years old in Joinville, Santa Catarina in Brazil. He was one of 10 children who were selected to study ballet at Bolshoi School. He trained under Dmitry Afanasiev and Galina Kravchenko and was rehearsed by Vladimir Vasiliev for “Don Quixote”, “The Nutcracker” and the polovtsian dances in the Russian Opera, “Prince Igor”. After graduating from the Bolshoi School at age 18, he was accepted into the Trainee program at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. During his two year traineeship at Joffrey Ballet, he danced the Arabian and Russian roles in “The Nutcracker”, “Impulse Within” by Ma Cong, the Lion in “Carnival of the Animals” by Alexei Kremnev, and was also invited by the main company to dance in “The Nutcracker” and “Don Quixote”. Following his traineeship with Joffrey Ballet, he was accepted into Milwaukee Ballet’s second company. During his two years in Milwaukee, Mr. Soares had the opportunities to perform several leading roles for the second company, such as Basilio in “Don Quixote”, the principle couple in Timothy O’Donnell’s contemporary works “At World’s End” and “And Then It Rained”, principle couple in Nadia Thompson’s contemporary work “Next Step”, James in “La Sylphide” and the pas de trois from Paquita. He also had the opportunities to perform leading roles with the Milwaukee Ballet main company, such as a Jack in Michael Pink’s “The Nutcracker”, a Demon in Michael Pink’s “Mirror Mirror”, and he also danced in the pas de neuf in Michael Pink’s “Don Quixote”. Additionally, Mr. Soares served approximately 60,000 children in 250 outreach performances in the Milwaukee area during his two years with the Milwaukee Ballet second company. In 2015, José danced with Lake Erie Ballet in principal roles such as the Cavalier in the Nutcracker and Dracula and was given the opportunity to choreograph on the school. This is José’s fourth season with Mareck Center for Dance.