Meet the Female Trailblazers Who Shaped Boston Ballet

FOUNDING BOSTON BALLET | BEHIND THE SCENES | TEACHING FUTURE GENERATIONS | ON STAGE | CHOREOGRAPHERS

FOUNDING BOSTON BALLET

E. VIRGINIA WILLIAMS founded Boston Ballet in 1963, making it the first professional ballet company in New England. From the Company’s creation, Williams was involved in almost every task, no matter how mundane. She would teach classes for Company members and school students and then clean the studios. She chose the repertoire and choreographers for the Company, as well as choreographed, cast the performances, and sewed the costumes. She would even take tickets at the theater.

In the early 1950s, SYDNEY LEONARD worked with E. Virginia Williams as the devoted co-founder of Boston Ballet School. She played an integral part in shaping Boston Ballet. Miss Leonard was a revered teacher who trained thousands of students in the course of more than four decades in the studio. After retiring in 2006, she received the Boston Ballet School Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. THE BOSTON GLOBE wrote of Leonard, “The ballet mistress who guided generations of Greater Boston dancers through their first steps on stage, she taught well into her 80s, never losing the poise and posture of the teacher students knew as Miss Leonard.”

As a charter member of Boston Ballet and its predecessor New England Civic Ballet, Laura Young was one of the longest-serving female principal dancers at Boston Ballet. She started dancing with the Company in 1960 and retired from the stage in 1989. She toured throughout Europe and Asia with Boston Ballet, and partnered with ballet luminaries like Rudolf Nureyev and Fernando Bujones. While still dancing, and for the next 30 years, she served in many capacities for both the Company and the School, in her favorite role as a teacher. Young retired after nearly six decades with Boston Ballet in 2019.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Executive Director MING MIN HUI first joined Boston Ballet in 2015 as Chief of Staff through the Harvard Business School Leadership Fellows Program, leading significant capacity-building initiatives such as the upgrade of Boston Ballet’s website and technology infrastructure, and the relocation and expansion of Boston Ballet School’s state-of-the-art Newton Studio. As the Ballet’s Chief Financial Officer since 2019, Hui helped steward Boston Ballet’s financial and operational stability through the COVID-19 pandemic, while providing leadership in the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. She was named Executive Director in 2023.

Former Executive Director Max Hodges joined Boston Ballet in 2014. Her leadership has been recognized by the Boston Business Journal, naming Hodges a 40 Under 40 Honoree in 2019, and by the Commonwealth Institute and The Boston Globe, naming Boston Ballet one of the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts four years in a row.

ANNA-MARIE HOLMES was Boston Ballet’s Artistic Director from 1997–2000 and acted as Dean of Faculty of the Boston Ballet Center for Dance Education. During her time with Boston Ballet, Holmes created new stagings of many ballets including Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Swan Lake, and The Sleeping Beauty. She has appeared as a ballerina and has taught in more than 30 countries on five continents.

Theresa Ruth Howard began her professional dance career with the Philadelphia Civic Ballet Company at the age of 12. She later joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem where she had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa. In 2015, she founded MEMOIRS OF BLACKS IN BALLET (MoBBallet) which preserves, presents, and promotes the contributions and stories of Black artists in the field of Ballet, illustrating that they are an integral part of dance history at large. She has served as a diversity strategist and consultant to Boston Ballet in the Equity Project, the Cultural Competence and Equity Coalition (C²EC), and subsequent DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND BELONGING initiatives.

Deborah Moe helped transform Boston Ballet’s digital strategy from 2012–2015 and rejoined the organization in 2020 as Chief Marketing Officer. Her career spans 20 years of developing omnichannel experiences in the technology and luxury retail industries. In 2015 she helped found a digital startup focused on engineering high performing organizational cultures and is a committed leader of Boston Ballet’s diversity, equity, and inclusivity culture work.

One of the leading ballerinas of the 20th century VIOLETTE VERDY was Boston Ballet’s Artistic Director from 1980–1984. Before leading Boston Ballet, Verdy was the first female director of the Paris Opera Ballet. She danced with New York City Ballet for nearly 20 years, where George Balanchine created roles for her in a dozen ballets, including Emeralds in his Jewels, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.

Boston Ballet Rehearsal Director SHANNON PARSLEY joined the Artistic staff in 2006 in her third role with Boston Ballet. She previously performed as a dancer in the Company and then went on to teach as a full-time faculty member and Children’s Ballet Mistress in Boston Ballet School. She began her dancing career with the Fort Worth Ballet, followed by Miami City Ballet where she was promoted to soloist in 2001. Parsley joined Boston Ballet in 2002 while continuing to dance as a soloist with The Suzanne Farrell Ballet.

TEACHING FUTURE GENERATIONS

An accomplished educator, performing artist, and museum professional, ALICIA GREENE is the Assistant Director of Community Partnerships. She is a noted speaker and facilitator on issues of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, as well as a committed advocate for social justice. Greene was a teaching artist for 10 years for BBS’s EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY INITIATIVE program, which works with more than 3,000 individuals in Boston and surrounding communities to cultivate a love of dance and arts through education programs, community events, workshops, and performances.

ANDREA LONG-NAIDU joined Boston Ballet School as a full-time faculty member in 2020. She began her training at age seven at the Pennsylvania Ballet School. Long-Naidu also attended the Dance Theatre of Harlem School and American Ballet Theatre School. At 14, she became an apprentice with the Pennsylvania Ballet company. She later joined the School of American Ballet (SAB) and after two years there, she joined the New York City Ballet. Long-Naidu began teaching in 2008 and has served on the faculty of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Sandonato School of Ballet, Collage Dance Collective, CityDance, and Dance Institute of Washington. She served as the first Ford Foundation Guest Faculty Chair at SAB, and most recently was part of the permanent faculty at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.

KATHLEEN MITCHELL joined Boston Ballet School in 2003. Prior to Boston Ballet, her career spanned 20 years at San Francisco Ballet as a dancer, faculty member, and Children’s Ballet Mistress. At Boston Ballet, she choreographs original pieces every year and stages repertoire for BBS’s NEXT GENERATION performances. Mitchell has taught for Harvard University’s Dance Department and is a guest teacher for Cecchetti Council of America. In addition to her position as Post Graduate Rehearsal Director, she serves as Boston Ballet’s Shoe Manager.

TAMARA KING became Principal of Boston Ballet School in 2020 after serving as Principal of the Newton Studio and Summer Dance Program Newton since 2004. During her tenure, Newton has become the hub of the Classical Ballet Program, which offers a carefully constructed ten-level curriculum. Her association with Boston Ballet School began in 1981 when she studied with Violette Verdy, Helgi Tomasson, and Ivan Nagy as a Summer Dance Program Scholarship recipient. She was named Associate Director of Boston Ballet School in 2023.

Former Boston Ballet School Director Margaret Tracey joined the faculty in 2005 and was appointed Director in 2007. Tracey had a 16-year career with New York City Ballet and was a principal dancer from 1991–2002. Since retiring from NYCB in 2002, Tracey has become one of the country’s most admired and dedicated teachers and arts education advocates. Profiled in a 2009 issue of Dance Teacher Magazine and recognized by the Jerome Robbins Foundation in 2011, she was instrumental in designing a curriculum that emphasizes comprehensive ballet training and overall excellence along with a well-rounded approach to dance study.

ALLA NIKITINA joined Boston Ballet School as a full-time faculty member in 2008. She began her dance training at the Donetsk School of Ballet and was later invited to attend St. Petersburg State Academy of the Arts in Russia where she studied the Vaganova method of classical ballet. She graduated from the Academy in 1979 and then embarked on a successful career with a number of Russian dance companies.