This past year has been a major time of reflection and hope for Joel Hall, the Chicago choreographer and co-founder of Joel Hall Dancers & Center. Not only did his namesake dance company and training studio celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024, Hall also reached a personal milestone.
“I’m 75 years old,” Hall said. “And that’s a major feat in itself as an openly gay Black man.”
As the artistic director emeritus of Joel Hall Dancers & Center, an institution celebrated for its devotion to diversity, Hall is hopeful that the dance company and center that bear his name will be on more secure footing for its 51st season.
Several difficulties arose with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Joel Hall Dancers & Center had to vacate their previous long-time home of more than a dozen years at 5965 N. Clark St. The company and studio were itinerant, until Black Ensemble Theater founder and CEO Jackie Taylor came to the rescue in late 2023.
In recent years, Black Ensemble Theater has been acquiring and leasing spaces around its Uptown home at 4450 N. Clark St. This includes part of the ground-floor space of the new five-story Harmony Apartments at 4513 N. Clark St.
It’s all meant to be as part of Taylor’s ambitious and developing “Free To BE Village.” It’s a plan of artistic incubation, collaboration and inspiration.
“Joel and I have been friends for over 50 years—he needed a home base—Black Ensemble had the resources, and we used them to start building our Free To BE Village, creating cultural inclusiveness by supporting Joel Hall,” said Taylor in a statement.
Subleasing from and in partnership with Black Ensemble Theater, Joel Hall Dancers & Center now has a custom-built 1140 square-foot main dance studio—featuring a Proforma III sprung dance floor by Connor Dance—at 4511 N. Clark St. Open since October 2024, the venue features floor-to-ceiling windows, administrative space plus three adjoining classrooms.
The same month that the new Joel Hall Dancers & Center opened, the nonprofit organization made official a change in leadership. Former Joel Hall student, company dancer and Chicago native William Gill was named as artistic director, while Joseph Pindelski became executive director.
“The most important thing about my new stewardship as artistic director is that I want to continue Joel’s legacy, but in my voice,” Gill said. “The legacy and the mission stays the same, in being open and being a safe place for Black and Brown dancers and LGBT dancers who can come have a safe place, but also keeping a legacy of the standard in which we work.”
Gill is forever grateful to have matriculated through Joel Hall Dancers & Center, beginning as a student in 1992 to learn Hall’s urban jazz dance technique. Gill then became a full-time professional company member with Joel Hall Dancers dancer several years later.
Gill also credits Joel Hall for instilling the confidence to further his dance career by auditioning to become a member of the Dallas Black Dance Theatre. There, Gill was able to learn Lester Horton dance technique, and he prized the chance to work one-on-one with such esteemed choreographers like Donald Byrd, Alonzo King, Chuck Davis and Milton Myers.
“I gained all of that training and brought it back,” Gill said. “I came back in 2008 and Joel was the first person to offer me a teaching job.”
Gill and Pindelski are tasked with breathing new life into the company, which features a core of eight professional dancers who are aiming to do a two-show repertory season. Pindelski hopes that choreographers with other companies will be able to not only come in to set new dance pieces on the company, but also to possibly to lead a series of master classes.
“We’re only about five months into the space,” Pindelski said. “So, we’re still kicking the tires and learning what we can do in here in terms of logistics.”
Pindelski said they are in talks with Chicago-based and Black-owned iJ Design Studio to do an architectural refresh of the space so Joel Hall Dancers & Center will have more of a visual identity behind the Black Ensemble Theatre logo-etched street front windows. Pindelski said they’re also considering some soundproofing to adjust the acoustic of the new studio.
“Classes are going to be foundation for the strength of the company. We’re known as a training studio with an exquisite performing company,” Pindelski said. “We have to balance our books, but we’re working so it’s not exclusively on the backs of our students.”
Pindelski and Gill also stressed that Joel Hall Dancers & Center will be open for other organizations. For example, they cited an upcoming collaboration with YEPP, the Youth Empowerment Performance Program for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing housing and food insecurity.
Gill and Pindelski are also hoping Joel Hall Dancers & Center can take Free to BE Village’s inspiration from nearby institutions like Black Ensemble Theater and the Haitian American Museum of Chicago at 4410 N. Clark St. For example, they floated the idea of adding theater classes to utilize the classrooms, or to create dance for actors’ classes.
“We’re going to maintain our own separate entities,” Gill said. “But we are still going to leave room for collaboration, because we would love to do something.”
Gill and Pindelski also stress that Joel Hall himself will still be involved with his namesake dance company and studio. They said you can still expect Hall to teach classes, and to have an ongoing advisory say in the running of the company.
“There are many, many, many children who have come through Joel Hall Dance Center, including other dance companies in Chicago. So, they started training with us and went out and developed their own companies,” Hall said. “We are very fortunate because we know what it is we do is good.”
And in terms of legacy in passing down dance knowledge through the generations, Hall is also hopefully ambitious.
“My vision is that the organization will be able to continue for 200 years.” Hall said. “I’m serious.”
Dance classes are under way at the recently opened Joel Hall Dancers & Center studio at 4511 N. Clark St. in Chicago. For more information on classes and future performances, call 773-888-0477 or visit joelhall.org.