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GRETTING to VALOIS FEST
of Susan Jaffe Artistic
Director of The American Ballet Theatre
Dear friends and colleagues,
I welcome participants, organizers, and guests of VALOIS FEST.
I hope that for many young dancers’ participation in VALOIS FEST will become an incentive for further professional growth. I wish them to successfully perform at the events of the Festival and continue to improve their skills in choreographic art.
As a woman, and a leader of one of the world’s major ballet companies, I take great inspiration in the extraordinary example of Ninette de Valois’s visionary leadership. I express my gratitude to the organizers and partners of the VALOIS FEST project for their desire to support young talents, as well as for their respect for outstanding figures of world culture and art, such as Ninette de Valois.
Susan Jaffe, American Ballet Theatre, Artistic Director
Honore guest and Partner of VALOIS FEST
SUSAN JAFFE is an American ballet dancer and arts administrator. Declared by The New York Times as "America’s Quintessential American Ballerina", Susan Jaffe enjoyed a career as a Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theatre for
22 years. She performed on the international stage with the Royal Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, and the English National Ballet. Her versatility as a dancer brought acclaimed interpretations to ballet classics, such as Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, and dramatic works by Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, John Cranko, Ronald Hynd, and Kenneth MacMillan. She also worked with many prominent contemporary choreographers of her time, such as Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins, Merce Cunningham, Nacho Duato, Mark Morris, Ulysses Dove, and Jiří Kylián.
After retiring from the stage in 2002, Jaffe taught in the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and served as an advisor to the chairman of the board of ABT until 2007. In 2010 she became a Director of Repertoire at ABT. Two years later, she was appointed Dean of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) in Winston-Salem, NC, a position she held for eight years. During her tenure at UNCSA, Jaffe and her faculty implemented a syllabus based on the ABT National Training Curriculum and established the Choreographic Institute of UNCSA. Additionally, she raised $3.5 million in endowed scholarships and other scholarships. In 2020 Jaffe was appointed the Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. She helped to lead the company through the pandemic with digital programs, outdoor performances, and performances in museums. As audiences began returning to theaters, Jaffe curated programs that included classic ballets and diverse, innovative voices of today.
Jaffe was appointed Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre in December 2022.
AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE (ABT)
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual eight-week season at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center) in the spring and a shorter season at the David H. Koch Theater in the fall; the company tours around the world the rest of the year. The company was scheduled to have a 5-week spring season at the MET preceded by a 2-week season at the Koch Theater beginning in 2020. ABT is the parent company of the American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, and was recognized as "America's National Ballet Company" in 2006 by the United States Congress.
Based on the materials of the websites:
www.abt.org/people/susan-jaffe, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Ballet_Theatre