New York, NY – July 29, 2026 – The Joffrey Concert Group is proud to announce the selected choreographers for the fifth annual Creative Movers Choreographic Initiative (CMCI): Christian Denice and Duncan Lyle. This unique initiative reflects the company’s mission to nurture choreographic talent and provide access to valuable choreographic resources.

The Creative Movers Choreographic Initiative is a platform that supports the development of new dance work in contemporary, modern, and contemporary ballet styles. Through a competitive selection process, two choreographers are awarded a $2,500 stipend, 40 hours of rehearsal time over four weeks, and the opportunity to create a new piece with the Joffrey Concert Group dancers. Each resulting work, between 12 to 17 minutes in length, will premiere as part of a fully produced performance at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater.

The 2027 CMCI performance, In My Art, will feature new works by Christian Denice, Duncan Lyle, and Joffrey Concert Group Artistic Director and Resident Choreographer Bradley Shelver. Performances will take place February 19–20, 2027, at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater in New York City.

About the Joffrey Concert Group

The Joffrey Concert Group was founded in the early 1970s and incorporated as a not-for-profit in 1981, and is currently led by Artistic Director Bradley Shelver. As the resident dance company of the Joffrey Ballet School, this pre-professional performing ensemble provides young artists from the School’s year-round Trainee Program the opportunity to experience life as a professional dancer.

In the years since its inception, Concert Group dancers have toured domestically and internationally, performing some of the most celebrated classical and contemporary repertoire. This includes the works of Gerald Arpino (Birthday Variations, Light Rain), Robert Battle (Battlefield), George Balanchine (Serenade), August Bournonville (La Ventana), Dwight Rhoden (New Work), Africa Guzman (The Stolen Path), Bradley Shelver, Eric Trope, Lindsay Grimes, Vernard J. Gilmore, Eryn Renee Young, Thang Da, Tsai Hsi Hung, Omar Ramon de Jesus, and Ken Ossola.

The Concert Group has toured and performed at world-renowned theaters and festivals, including Bryant Park Summer Stage, Spring to Dance Festival St Louis, LAM Dance Festival, New York Live Arts, EJ Thomas Hall in Akron, “Lighten Up” Festival, ICONS Dance Festival, to name a few.

Learn more: www.joffreyconcertgroupnyc.com 

About the Choreographers

Bradley Shelver

(Artistic Director/ Resident Choreographer) received his training at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg and The Ailey School in New York. A prolific leader in the dance community, he currently serves as the Artistic Director of the Joffrey Concert Group and The Artistic Director of Contemporary Ballet Studies and the Pre- Professional Contemporary Summer Program and the Contemporary Ballet Winter Workshops at the Joffrey Ballet School. He is also the Director of Professional Career Development at Joffrey. From 2024-2026 he served as the Acting Artistic Director of the Joffrey Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Concentration. He currently sits on the Artistic Advisory Board of the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. He is also the Director of Dance for the annual Gunnison Orchestra and Vocal Academy summer program in Colorado.Now in his 17th season as a principal dancer with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Mr. Shelver has enjoyed an illustrious performing career. He has danced with Ailey II, Elisa Monte Dance, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Ballet Hispánico, The Francesca Harper Project, and the Limón Dance Company. His international credits include Phoenix Dance Theater (UK) and projects with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., Lar Lubovitch Dance, The Universal Ballet, Radio City Music Hall, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Between 2013 and 2016, he also served as the Artistic Director of the STEPS Repertory Ensemble and the Production Director for Steps on Broadway, following his six-year tenure as co-producer and curator for the REVERBdance Festival.As a choreographer, Mr. Shelver has created works for an array of prestigious companies and institutions, including vildwerk, Contemporary West Dance Theater,  Richmond Ballet, Ailey II, Ballet Austin, Graham 2, the St Louis Dance Theater, Royal Danish and Royal Swedish Ballet Schools, Boston Conservatory, The Ailey School, Cedar Lake 2 and The Cape Town Dance Company, His teaching expertise is recognized worldwide; he has served as a company teacher for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures, and The Lion King on Broadway.Mr. Shelver has served on the faculty of the ABT/JKO School, The Ailey School, and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Montclair State University. He is a certified teacher of the ABT® National Training Curriculum and an international adjudicator for competitions such as the Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition, Hit The Floor Canada and Global Dance Open and Universal Ballet Competition. A former contributing writer for Dance Spirit magazine, he is the author of the book Performance Through the Dance Technique of Lester Horton, which is available worldwide.

Christian Denice

Christian Denice is a Los Angeles–born dancer, choreographer, and educator whose career bridges classical ballet and contemporary dance with a distinctly human-centered voice. As a performer, he has danced with an array of internationally recognized companies including Odyssey Dance Theatre, River North Dance Chicago, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal, and Andonis Foniadakis Dance Company in Athens, Greece. His artistry has been widely recognized: he was named one of Time Out Chicago’s Top Ten Male Dancers and was honored as a Chicago Tribune Notable Dancer in 2010. As a choreographer, Christian has built an extensive body of work for professional dance companies across the United States and abroad. His choreographic credits include Cincinnati Ballet, Nevada Ballet Theatre, BalletX, Chamber Dance Project, Ballet22, DanceWorks Chicago, Marigny Opera Ballet, Odyssey Dance Theatre, Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company, Missouri Contemporary Ballet, MADCO, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, Kit Modus, Dance Lab New York, and Wylliams Henry Contemporary Dance Company, among many others. His work has also been commissioned by universities and training programs nationwide, and he continues to teach, create, and stage choreography internationally. Christian’s choreographic voice is rooted in an exploration of the complexities of the human experience. His work often balances physical rigor with emotional accessibility, using movement as a vehicle for reflection, sensation, and connection. He is the recipient of the 2015 University of South Florida Echo Choreographic Competition award and was selected as a choreographer for the Joffrey Academy’s Winning Works program in 2016. He also served as a Choreographic Fellow with BalletX, where he premiered a new work featuring an original score by composer Philip Daniel. Most recently, Christian created his first full-length, original narrative ballet for Marigny Opera Ballet, which premiered in December. His residencies include Kennesaw State University, Keshet Center for the Arts, Georgetown University, the University of Missouri–Kansas City, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Interlochen, and Western Michigan University. In addition to his choreographic career, Christian continues to perform as a dancer with acclaimed Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis and frequently stages Foniadakis’s work throughout the United States and Europe. He has also served as a répétiteur and rehearsal director for ISHIDA Dance.

Duncan Lyle

Duncan Lyle was born in Melbourne, Australia, and began his ballet training at Camberwell District Ballet. In 2007, he was accepted into The Royal Ballet School, where he graduated in 2010 before joining Boston Ballet later that same year.In 2012, Duncan joined American Ballet Theatre, where his repertoire has included roles such as Tybalt in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Kaschei in Alexei Ratmansky’s Firebird, a Stepsister in Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, and Gamache in Don Quixote, among others. In 2018, Duncan founded Duncan Lyle Dance, a Manhattan-based dance company focused on classical ballet technique and musical excellence. The company presented its first performances at the Martha Graham Center for Contemporary Dance. In addition to creating works for Duncan Lyle Dance, Duncan has choreographed for the American Ballet Theatre Incubator, New York Theatre Ballet, CoLab Dance, Intermezzo Dance Company, The Royal Ballet School, and Columbia Ballet Collaborative. GCDANCEVENTS proudly represents Duncan worldwide, promoting his choreographic works and artistic creations.

Contact:
Joffrey Concert Group
Email: info@joffreyconcertgroupnyc.com

Publicity Contact:
Audrey Ross Publicity
Email: audreyrosspub@aol.com
Phone: +1 (929) 222-3973