A new era is dawning at the Joffrey Ballet. The company has a new artistic director, Ashley Wheater, as well as a new executive director, Christopher Clinton Conway. And the company is about to move into new, glass-sheathed, state-of-the-art administrative and rehearsal facilities in the heart of the Loop.

On top of all that, the famed ballet troupe is changing the look of its advertising with the help of Spark/Chicago. The new glam look is very visible in the ad campaign for Joffrey's "American Moderns" program that commences at the Auditorium Theatre this week.

Most dance company advertising features images of dancers in various ballet poses that tend to emphasize dynamic movement and athleticism. But the Joffrey's Conway said the Chicago-based ballet troupe is trying to move away from the stereotypical approach and convey a more fashionable, sexy image in its new ads. That goes for the latest "American Moderns" ad, which has Joffrey dancer Thomas Nicholas crouching in somewhat animalistic, ominous fashion, next to another dancer (and his wife) Emily Patterson, dressed in a form-fitting metallic gown accessorized with an ample amount of glittery jewelry.

Conway said the shift in the Joffrey's style of advertising is being done, in part, to give the company a more distinctive image that people can identify more readily. But it also wants to make the company's advertising dovetail more effectively with the interests of several of the dance's company's principal sponsors, including chi-chi jeweler Harry Winston, the tony Park Hyatt Hotel and society magazine CS.

"Our partners might want to display our ads, and our print ad for the 'American Moderns' program is the kind of image they can use," explained Conway.