Joshua Bodden

Joined KCB in 2014

Joshua Bodden began his ballet training at the age of 10 at the Miami City Ballet School under the direction of Edward and Linda Villella, he also attended The Harid Conservatory and Pittsburgh Ballet Theater’s year-round program on a full scholarship. He spent his summers training at the School of American Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and North Carolina School of the Arts. Mr. Bodden was a member of Miami City Ballet, Dance Theatre Of Harlem’s Ensemble & Cincinnati Ballet.

Mr. Bodden has the prestigious honor of being the first African American male to perform the role of a ballet boy in Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room with Cincinnati Ballet.

Mr. Bodden joined Kansas City Ballet in 2014, he has been featured in numerous roles Alice (in wonderland), Hilarion in Giselle, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker Prince in The Nutcracker, Principal Ballet Couple In The Upper Room, The Tin Man In Septime Webre’s The Wizard Of Oz, Melancholic in Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, Puck in Bruce Wells’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gaston in Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias, Quincy in Michael Pink’s Dracula and works by Mark Morris, Jiří Kylián, Edwaard Liang, Amy Seiwert, Yuri Possokhov, Adam Hougland, Jennifer Archibald, Stephanie Martinez, Gabrielle Lamb, Haley Kostas, Andi Abernathy and Stephanie Ruch.

In 2022 Mr. Bodden was invited to The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC to be a part of “Reframing The Narrative” project highlighting the contributions of dancers of color to classical ballet.

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