About
The Company

Meet The Artistic Director 

Jolene Konkel began her dance training in Milwaukee under ballet master William Reilly, a descendant of Jerome Robbin's Ballets: USA and at the Milwaukee High School of the Arts.  While in Milwaukee she performed with the Milwaukee Opera Company and Danceworks before relocating to Chicago to study jazz dance at Gus Giordano's and Lou Conte's. She went on to pursue a BFA in dance at the University of Minnesota and later completed her MFA in Performance and Choreography through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has studied under and performed works by Zoe Sealy, Cathy Young, Danny Buraczeski, Simone Ferro and Barbara Grubel among others.

As a choreographer Ms. Konkel's work spans both the musical theatre stage as well as jazz and modern concert dance. Her choreography has been presented at the UWM New Dancemakers series, the University of Minnesota’s Jazz Here, Jazz Now concert, Renovate Choreographers Evening at the Ritz Theatre, and Rhythmically Speaking in 2008, 2011, and 2018. Her work in music theatre has been showcased multiple times at the International Thespian Festival, KCACTF, and presented at the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. 

Jolene has been educating dancers for 20 years, teaching classes and workshops both throughout the Midwest as well as abroad through the University of the Nations where she has trained dancers from over 15 nations around the globe. Her work has been performed for student outreach tours in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Currently, Ms. Konkel serves as adjunct faculty in dance and Resident Choreographer in the Department of Music and Theater at the University of Northwestern St. Paul, where she oversees the dance minor, directs the UNW Dance Theatre performance company and choreographs all department productions.

Jolene is the founder and Artistic Director of Concerto Dance by Jolene Konkel.