New Executive, School Leadership and Dancer Promotions at ABT

American Ballet Theatre is starting 2016 with a bang, with a slew of new leadership announcements and exciting promotions among the lower ranks. Yesterday, ABT officially named Kara Medoff Barnett as its new executive director—and while she’s only 37, the company looks like it will be in very skilled hands. Barnett, who grew up studying ballet before college, not only has a Harvard MBA, but she also won a 2003 Tony award as associate producer of Broadway’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. She joins ABT after serving as managing director of Lincoln Center International.

Barnett isn’t the only woman on top. Last week, the company announced that former ABT principal Cynthia Harvey will succeed Franco De Vita in May as artistic director of ABT’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. For those of us who grew up in the `80s and `90s, Harvey was one of two formidable “Cynthias” in ABT’s star ranks (the other being Cynthia Gregory). My dance studio had a well-worn and well-loved VHS recording of her and Mikhail Baryshnikov in Don Quixote, and I feel compelled to share a snippet here:

Harvey spent the last several years teaching and coaching overseas, and formed the En Avant Foundation (a nonprofit foundation for mentoring and coaching gifted ballet dancers) in 2014. Luckily, De Vita, who retires in April, is not going far—he told The New York Times he will likely continue teaching at the school.

And finally, the company just promoted five young women we should all keep an eye on. Hanna Bass and Wan Yue Qiao have been promoted from apprentice to the corps de ballet, while Studio Company members Remy Young, Erica Lall and Gisele Bethea (who we featured in our October/November 2014 issue) have received apprentice contracts. Congratulations, everyone!