By Paul Horsley

Jodie Gates has danced, choreographed, staged ballets, created festivals, served as mentor for young dancers. But few things excite the California native more than creating new choreography, not only for its invitation to creative expression but for its potential for passing on the huge amount of knowledge she’s gained over a 30-year career. “I was bred not to be afraid,” says the dancer-choreographer, who was principal ballerina with Joffrey Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet and William Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet. “I come to the plate with so much information.” Jodie, who has created some 50 choreographic works, makes her first appearance here with the world premiere of Keep Me Wishing in the Dark October 11th-20th, performed as part of the Kansas City Ballet’s fall program, with works by Balanchine and Robbins and world premieres by KCB artistic directors past (William Whitener) and present (Devon Carney).

Jodie’s work has been described as “visually compelling, powerful and beautiful” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “striking in its sensuous clarity” (New York Times). Choreographing to the music of Bach, a partita and the G-minor Keyboard Concerto, she has created for KCB a 22-minute ballet that she says reflects “a sort of participatory feeling of wanting more.” (The music will be performed live by an onstage pianist and the KC Symphony in the pit.) “I love Bach,” she says.  “There’s a lot of room for choreographic invention.” Her movement is abstract, she adds, but her title reflects partly the idea that “you really don’t know what’s going to happen next.” She has found great joy in working with KCB dancers. “They’ve been open and hungry and collaborative, hungry for new information. It was just a delight, and for me a breath of fresh air, to come here and feel good about all the elements coming together. … They’re very well trained: They have a strong sensibility of classicism but they’re also very versatile.”

Jodie joined Joffrey’s company as a teenager and had an unusually long career as a dancer. With Joffrey she danced the enormous variety for which that choreographer was known, “from Tudor to De Mille to Balanchine to Petitpa to Cranko to Kylián to Forsythe,” she says, adding that she has retained much of Robert Joffrey’s vision, “his commitment to the art form … his ability to look at the arts and bring everything that we know about art into the dance studio.” With Pennsylvania Ballet experienced the full-length ballets, “Giselle and Coppélia and Sleeping Beauty and Serenade.” With the innovative William Forsythe she was able to “explore improvisational technologies” in a process that “gave me tools as a choreographer.” She says she “is who she is,” an individual voice with influences from a wide variety of major-league dance figures. “I’m inspired by everybody I worked with,” she says.

She founded the Laguna Dance Festival and built it into a major West Coast dance force, and she has choreographed for a range of major companies including Ballet West, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, ABT II, Washington Ballet and others. In her new role as director of USC’s new Kaufman School of Dance, which opens in fall 2015, she hopes to “drive the field forward” by instilling in students a sense of how they fit into society, “to make sure they make a difference in the community whatever they end up doing.”

The Kansas City Ballet’s performances of Fancy Free, Allegro Brillante and three world premieres runs October 11th-20th at the Kauffman Center. Call 816-931-2232 or go to kcballet.org.

To reach Paul Horsley, email him at phorsley@sbcglobal.net or find him on Facebook (paul.horsley.501).

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