Josie Walsh is the Founder, Artistic Director, and Choreographer of BalletRED, a cutting-edge contemporary ballet company redefining the intersection of dance, music, and technology. She also serves as Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet School’s West Coast Summer Programs, JoffreyRED, Joffrey West, and Joffrey San Francisco.
Walsh danced professionally with The Joffrey Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and the Zurich Ballet, where she began her choreographic career. After extensive freelance work throughout Europe, she returned to Los Angeles, synthesizing her classical foundation with contemporary and commercial sensibilities. Dubbed the “Renegade Ballerina,” Walsh is known for her fearless hybrid style, edgy, classical and contemporay fusion utilizing acro and aerial to live original music by Paul Rivera creating Rock Operas and continually pushing boundaries and setting new trends.
She was named 25 to Watch by Dance Magazine, received the Outstanding Choreographer Award five times at Youth America Grand Prix, and was featured in the YAGP NYC Gala. Her work has appeared on NBC World of Dance (Season 2), America’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance, and NETFLIX Star Search reboot. The Los Angeles Times recognized her as a Face to Watch for her visionary leadership of BalletRED.
A globally sought-after master teacher, Walsh is celebrated for her progressive, injury-preventive methodology. Her signature 3 Point System, focusing on pelvic alignment, dynamic opposition, breathwork, and visualization, supports longevity, artistry, and technical excellence for dancers worldwide.
Walsh is the creator of BalletRED’s critically acclaimed rock opera ballets, including The Frequency Volumes, Shades of RED, Sirens, Royal Matrix, Texture of Time, Secret Garden, Urban Angels, Garden of Reason, Concrete Rose, Gone with the Whim, Avalon, Image-Nation, Carnivinyl, and Convergence. These immersive, genre-defying works fuse live music, vocals, dance, aerial arts, digital design, and robotics to explore consciousness, power, transformation, and the future of humanity.
Her choreographic credits span TV, film, fashion, and live performance, including Yahoo (national commercial), Walt Disney Company’s Tinker Bell, The Cleaner (A&E), Torchwood (STARZ), Bulletproof Monk (MGM), That’s Life (CBS), Red Bull Formula One, World of Dance (NBC), Star Search (Netflix), America’s Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance, the Vivienne Westwood fashion show, the Chanel/Jeremy Scott show, Aimer Fashion Show (Beijing), Paul Mitchell Hair Show, Zurich Opera, Pilgrim Rock Opera, LA Music Awards, Jealous Angel music videos (Get Ur Ballet On, OMG She’s a REAL Ballerina), Inappropriate Comedy (feature film), Queen Mary Live, Asia Entertainment, Project Angel Food, and Focus Fish Flying Circus.
Notable commissions include Dreams with Sammy Hagar for Gala de Danza; Invocation, Intertwined, Eternity, and Convergence (Gala de Danza); Texture of Time (Festival Ballet Theatre); Secret Garden (State Street Ballet, Festival Ballet Theatre, Industry Dance, and BalletRED); Bach to Rock (State Street Ballet); Sirens and Transmutation (Los Angeles Ballet); Taming of the Shrew (Aeolian Ballet); Deconstructed (Harvard Ballet); Found and Internal Affairs (Celebrate Dance); and Artemis (MyoKyo™/BalletRED).
With a visionary voice and fearless innovation, Josie Walsh continues to forge a new paradigm for contemporary ballet, where theatre, dance, music, and technology converge.