Josette Wiggan
Josette Wiggan (co-creator – The Nutcracker Suite, performer) has a love for performing that was fostered by Paul and Arlene Kennedy in Los Angeles. A graduate of UCLA, her career highlights include, the 2001 Spotlight Award in non-classical dance, the first national Broadway tour of 42nd Street, the films Idlewild and Princess and the Frog, and studying with Germaine Acogny at L’École les Sables in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal. Alongside her brother, Wiggan was a part of two original casts of Cirque du Soleil’s Banana Shpeel and Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour from 2009–2013. The duo has also been seen in Tireless, a curated show by Michelle Dorrance that had its debut at Jacob’s Pillow in 2017. In addition, Wiggan is a part of Michelle Dorrance’s all-woman quartet Until the Real Comes Along and All Good Things Must Come to an End and co-created, along with Dorrance and Hannah Heller, The Nutcracker Suite (2019). In the summer of 2021, Wiggan created her first evening-length work, Praise: The Inevitable Fruit of Gratitude, in collaboration with Grammy-nominated jazz trumpeter Keyon Harrold at Jacob’s Pillow. Most recently, she developed On Solid Ground: A Celebration of Black Joy and Freedom In Our America, featuring improvisation by the dancers and musicians of Josette Wiggan Presents…. She is a sought after educator, choreographer, and performer and has dedicated her life to the perpetuation of African American vernacular jazz dance. Wiggan is also on faculty at USC’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, teaching vernacular jazz and tap dance.