Joni Tuttle McDonald

 

 

Joni Tuttle began her ballet training under the direction of Jacqueline Colledge, and later received her B.F.A. from Utah Valley University. During that time, Joni joined Utah Regional Ballet and danced professionally for five seasons performing principal roles. She then joined Northwest Dance Project and performed original works by Sarah Slipper, Ihsan Rustem, Patrick Delcroix, Wen Wei Wang, Loni Landon, and Lucas Crandall. Following NWDP, she had the experience to work with Michael Nunn and Billy Trevit from the Ballet Boyz on Ovation’s “A Chance to Dance”. She won the opportunity to tour with “So You Think You Can Dance”. Joni has participated in many workshops such as Nederlands Dans Theater, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She has studied Jirí Kylián works with Fionna Lumis, William Forsythe Improvisation Technologies with Alessio Sylvestri and Ohad Naharin's "gaga" technique and repertoire with Bobby Smith. Joni currently teaches at Brigham Young University, and is the assistant director for BYU’s Contemporary Dance Theatre. Her new quest is choreography. Joni just won Choreography Design Project Professional division, and is excited to explore choreography in the future. In addition, Joni is dancing professionally with a new company in Utah called Salt Contemporary Dance. She is excited to have so many different opportunities, and to further art in Utah.