Dancing Joffrey’s Jane Eyre

by José Pablo

My name is José Pablo, aka JP, at least that’s what everyone calls me in the Company–and I love it. I’m writing this to tell a little bit about how I got to The Joffrey Ballet, what it’s like being in a professional company and about the process of putting together the ballet Jane Eyre; but first, some background.

I was born and raised in Queretaro, Mexico, and started my ballet training at the age of six. I came to Chicago for the first time when I was 14 years old when Ashley Wheater offered me a scholarship for the Joffrey’s Summer Intensive in YAGP Mexico in 2015. Once I was in the summer intensive, I auditioned for the Joffrey Academy and was offered a full scholarship for the full year as a Pre-Professional Level VI student; so I moved to Chicago all by myself to continue with my training. I got the incredible opportunity of being in the children’s cast of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Nutcracker. A year later I was offered another scholarship, this time for the Conservatory Program; another year passed and Raymond Rodriguez, Head of Trainee and Studio Company at Joffrey, promoted me to Studio Company where I got to take classes with the main Company various times as well as learn, rehearse and perform with them. It was very exciting to see all the dancers in the Company especially when I wanted to become one of them one day.

This is my first season with The Joffrey Ballet, and my first season as a professional dancer. After being a student, everything is very different in a company. In the Academy, I had all sorts of classes, from ballet to contemporary or character, modern, or variations. In the Company we take ballet class first thing in the morning and then rehearse all day long. The most challenging thing for me right now is that I’m 17 and I’m still in high school. I do online school and I think it’s a great way to finish my academic studies, but sometimes it can be really frustrating.

Learning Jane Eyre has been fun. At times it was a slow learning process which is nice for me because I’m still getting used to learning so much choreography in such little time–but it has definitely been a wonderful experience to learn a ballet with such a beautiful and dramatic story. My roles in the ballet are a D-Men and little John. As D-Men, we do a lot of dancing with the “Janes” (there is a young Jane and an adult Jane), and it’s very interesting because our job is to be all the negativities and insecurities that Jane has, so even though the audience can see us, we have to feel and make them feel like we aren’t really there–almost as if we were ghosts– except we’re in Jane’s head. As John (Mom’s favorite son), I get to dance with my sisters Georgina and Elizabeth which are very spoiled as well, and basically what we do is make young Jane’s life impossible. We fight her, we kick her and make fun of her until our Mother decides that she needs to go. She thinks Jane is the troublemaker even though she came to our house because she didn’t have anywhere else to go.

I hope everyone can come see Jane Eyre and enjoy it as much as we do when we are dancing it. Want to know a little bit more about me? Go to joffrey.org/cuevas to read my bio and follow me on Instagram as @jpcastro_1912.

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Joffrey’s Jane Eyre opens on October 16 and runs through the 27th. Tickets are still available.

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José Pablo Castro Cuevas joined The Joffrey Ballet in July 2019.

Mr. Castro was born in Queretaro, Mexico, and started dancing at the age of six. He participated for the first time in the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) Mexico in 2013 and received scholarships for the Escuela Superior de Musica y Danza de Monterrey and for PROVER Programa Profesional de Ballet en Córdoba, Veracruz, Córdoba, where he moved to continue his training under the direction of Martha Sahagun and Adria Velazquez. In 2015, he competed in the National Ballet Competition in Mexico City and got an invitation to the L’École Supérieure de Ballet du Québec and was mentioned as an honorific dancer. He attended YAGP Mexico once again in 2015 in which he received a scholarship for the Joffrey Academy of Dance in Chicago.

Mr. Castro moved to Chicago at the age of 14 to join the Joffrey Academy’s Pre-Professional Program Level VI, and then the Conservatory Program, both directed by Karin Ellis-Wentz. Shortly, Raymond Rodriguez, Joffrey’s Head of Trainee and Studio Company offered him a promotion to the Studio Company. During his time at the Joffrey Academy, he had the chance to perform with the main Company several times, including Christopher Wheeldon’s world premiere of The Nutcracker in 2016, as well as in the following two seasons, and Wayne McGregor’s INFRA. He performed as one of the lead dancers in Gerald Arpino’s Viva Vivaldi and as Franz in the ballet Coppélia, both during his time as a member of Joffrey’s Studio Company.