In early 2023, Susan Jaffe will take over as creative director of American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in New York City. With a background as a principal with the corporate, the Dean on the School of Dance for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), and creative director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT), her expertise factors towards a way forward for development throughout the firm. She’ll be a part of Lourdes Lopez (Miami City Ballet) and Tamara Rojo (San Francisco Ballet, as of late 2022) as one in every of three feminine creative administrators throughout the high 10 ballet firms within the United States.
Jaffe has quite a lot of concepts for ABT and plans to make use of her background as a dancer as a information to navigate a world of male dominated leaders.
“Women are far more bold and adventurous than they used to be, and feel that they can accomplish things in the ballet world,” she tells Dance Informa. “I think that’s a reason why more women are starting to take those roles, as opposed to men. I’ve never been a man, so I don’t know if people push on men’s boundaries as people push on my boundary. But I’ll just put a line in the sand, with kindness and compassion but firmness. That helps me be able to lead people in a way that’s positive.”
It’s additionally essential to Jaffe to extend the varied voices presenting work, as she had beforehand accomplished at UNCSA and PBT.
“For me, to go into an audience where the audience is diverse because of what’s being offered, it’s such a celebration,” Jaffe says. “It’s so fun! I want to do more of this.”
Jaffe’s aim is to diversify the choreographic voices in brief ballets, plotless ballets, up to date ballets, in addition to full-length story ballets. Audience constructing is at all times a priority for any dance firm, and Jaffe hopes to make ballet accessible and welcoming to extra audiences. Part of that philosophy stems from working in a collegiate dance program and recognizing the deep worth of a dance schooling, whether or not or not college students find yourself as dancers.
‘There’s a lot information about how dance develops the mind in very important methods,” Jaffe notes. “Dancers have some of the highest stats in critical thinking. I think it’s because of the unbelievable amount of multi-tasking, proprioception, balance, coordination, spatial awareness, music, rhythm, velocity. There are so many things that are required of a dancer. You develop a really deep understanding, just by movement, in so many areas like critical thinking.”
Jaffe arrives again to NYC from her present dwelling in Pennsylvania, in early winter 2022, to shadow departing Artistic Director of 30 years Kevin McKenzie earlier than taking the reins within the new yr. She’s excited to go to the Met, store at (the final remaining) Fairway and nurture the dancers in one of the simplest ways she is aware of how.
“The tenacity that is developed as a result of dancing and doing nearly impossible things (beautifully, I might add) really develops a human being from the inside out,” Jaffe says. “I always say, ballet taught me how to be a human.”
By Emily Sarkissian of Dance Informa.
