Chautauqua School of Dance – Wuthering Heights
Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater
Chautauqua, NY
July 29, 2026

By Steve Sucato

Given the nature of the Chautauqua School of Dance’s summer dance program, with its rotating student body and tight rehearsal constraints, it is rare for the School to present a full-length story ballet as part of its performance offerings. Equally rare was the ballet they chose to perform: School of Dance Artistic Director Sasha Janes’ Wuthering Heights, one of only a handful of known productions based on Emily Brontë’s 1847 Gothic novel.

Originally created for Charlotte Ballet in 2017, the ballet tells the story of Catherine Earnshaw and her adopted brother Heathcliff, inseparable as children, and the tragic toll that adulthood, their disconnection, and their deep-seated love for each other took on their lives. 

Jane’s two-act, two-hour ballet brought Brontë’s classic tale to life in all its joy, brutality, and heartache.

The ballet, lacking some of its original stage sets due to the size and configuration of the Chautauqua Institution’s Amphitheater stage, was danced by guest artists (many School of Dance alumni) in the lead roles and by current School of Dance students in the corps de ballet roles.

It was set to a classical music score curated by Janes, including works by Olafur Arnalds, Frédéric Chopin, Sir Edward Elgar, Philip Glass, Gustav Holst, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and more. It also included an ever-present sound effect of ominous howling wind that washed over the Amphitheater throughout the production.

It began with a prologue in which an emotionally tortured adult Heathcliff, portrayed by Aram Hengen of New Jersey Ballet, was being haunted by the veiled ghost of Catherine. The scene was a harbinger of the drama that was to come in the ballet.

Told in flashback, that establishing scene was soon replaced by student dancers in the roles of child versions of Heathcliff (Russell Abel) and Catherine (Harper Lamonte), flying an imaginary kite. The pair laughed and stole the kite strings from one another until Catherine’s malicious older brother Hindley began bullying Heathcliff and destroyed the kite.

Fast-forward to Heathcliff and Catherine as young adults, still inseparable and roughhousing together. Indiana University Jacobs School of Music senior Sejal Janaswamy as Catherine darted across the stage to launch herself onto the back of Hengen. There again to ruin the pair’s merriment, an older but no less abusive Hindley, portrayed brilliantly by Alberta Ballet’s Aaron Anker, amped up his physical abuse of Heathcliff with a gut punch. Later in the ballet, he even violently pushed Catherine and Housekeeper Nelly Dean (Rebecca Janes) to the floor when they stood between him and his abuse of Heathcliff.

The pace of the first act moved along nicely, with subsequent scenes of the elder Mr. Earnshaw banishing Hindley from the household for his behavior toward Heathcliff, Catherine and Heathcliff continuing to mock (as they had as children) their wealthy neighbors, the Lintons, only to have Catherine romantically fall for their son Edgar, portrayed by Ballet Austin’s Colin Canavan.

After the death of the elder Earnshaw later in the act, Hindley returned to take over as master of Wuthering Heights with his new bride Frances, danced by School of Dance student Anjuli Paul. Here, Anker, as Hindley, expertly revealed the complexity of his character, being patient and sweet with Frances while continuing to look down upon and abuse Heathcliff at every turn. The subsequent death of Frances after giving birth and Hindley’s spiraling into the depths of depression and alcoholism further cemented Anker’s astute performance in the role.

After some minor altercations between a jealous Heathcliff and Edgar, and Catherine choosing Edgar over Heathcliff, the first act concluded with Catherine and Edgar’s wedding ceremony, which included the first group dance in the ballet. In it, the corps de ballet of School of Dance students acquitted themselves nicely. Heathcliff, upset by Catherine’s betrothal, left Wuthering Heights to improve his station in life.

Walking a thin line between Victorian-era soap opera and Shakespearean tragedy, Brontë’s story of Heathcliff and Catherine came to a head in the ballet’s second act. 

In it, Hengen, as Heathcliff, returned to Wuthering Heights a wealthy and defiant man. He exacted revenge on a drunken Hindley for his past treatment of him, and confronted Catherine and Edgar, mistakenly believing that, because of his wealth, Catherine would no longer need Edgar. Rebuked once again by Catherine, Heathcliff embraced the romantic interest of Edgar’s sister Isabella, danced by Ballet Austin TWO dancer Emily Hain. 

Heathcliff’s tumultuous and ironically abusive relationship with and later marriage to Isabella sent Catherine emotionally off the deep end, wanting both Heathcliff and Edgar for herself. Here, Janaswamy showed her maturity and brilliance as an actress; in a section à la the ballet Giselle’s “Mad Scene,” she deftly portrayed a woman emotionally tormented, driven mad, and bedridden from her illness. 

Heathcliff, hearing of her illness, came to her bedside, lifting her spirits enough to dance a heartfelt pas de deux with her, filled with lifts, spins, and bursts of playful, youthful energy. It ended tragically when Edgar, seeing the pair together, forced Heathcliff to leave, with Catherine chasing after him and dying brokenhearted in the process. 

The ballet concluded with a poignant scene in which Heathcliff visited Catherine’s grave. Catherine, then rising from the dirt, danced another pas de deux with Heathcliff that morphed into one reminiscent of a scene from the ballet Romeo & Juliet, in which a devastated Romeo dragged Juliet’s lifeless body about. Disturbing and deeply moving, Heathcliff and Catherine’s pas de deux ended with him sobbing uncontrollably over the still body of Catherine.

Janaswamy, Hengen and the rest of the cast received a well-deserved standing ovation from the Amphitheater audience, many of whom wiped tears from their eyes as they clapped. Well-crafted and engaging, Janes’ Wuthering Heights proved a most memorable moment in the rich history of dance at the Chautauqua Institution.