NEW YORK (May 9, 2022) – With the selection of Susan Jaffe as the new artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre, Jaffe’s career with the prestigious company has come full circle.

We’re just glad eight years of that circle were spent as Dean of the School of Dance at the UNC School of the Arts.

When she was 18 years old, Jaffe was hand-chosen by Mikhail Baryshnikov to dance a pas de deux at the Kennedy Center for ABT with star Alexander Godunov. Three years later, Baryshnikov made her principal dancer for the company.¹

“She had it all,” New York Times writer Anna Kisselgoff wrote upon Jaffe’s retirement as a dancer in 2002, praising both her energy and her range of styles.²  

As a dancer, Jaffe worked with choreographers that included George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp, and The Times dubbed her “America’s Quintessential American Ballerina.”

Starting as a student and later a teacher, Jaffe noted that she’s held seven positions at ABT. 

“To come back home is truly a dream come true!” she said.³

From 2012 to 2020, Jaffe was Dean of the School of Dance at the UNC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, where she learned lessons in leadership and administration and raised $3.5 million for scholarships.⁴ She left to become Artistic Director at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

Jaffe takes over at ABT at a challenging time, as ballet tries to recover from curtailed performances and fundraising during the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s important to be out there,” she told The Washington Post. “We are America’s national ballet company.”⁵

She says she wants to make ballet more inclusive and introduce a broader range of choreographers at American Ballet Theatre.

“I’m going to preserve the beauty and the depth of classical ballet,” Jaffe told ABC News, “but with an eye toward where we are today in in the ballet world. And we want to be mindful of making sure that we are inclusive and doing everything we can to try to make ballet accessible and loved by everyone — because I love ballet and I want everyone to love it.”⁶

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¹ https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/ballerina-susan-jaffe-lead-american-ballet-theatre-84596656. 
² https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/24/arts/critic-s-notebook-an-american-mix-of-flair-and-form.html. 
³ https://www.abt.org/susan-jaffe-named-artistic-director/. 
⁴ https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/arts/dance/susan-jaffe-artistic-director-ballet-theater.html. 
⁵ https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/05/09/susan-jaffe-abt-new-director/.
⁶ https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/ballerina-susan-jaffe-lead-american-ballet-theatre-84596656.