Educator Moves: What You Might Have Missed in Summer 2025

From director shifts to faculty appointments, here are the major dance educator moves you should know about from summer 2025.

Alberto Blanco has been appointed principal of The Sarasota Ballet School, succeeding Jennifer Welch Cudnik, who departs to join Kansas City Ballet School as principal of its daytime program.

Harald Uwe Kern has been named director of the School of Ballet San Antonio.

Sarah Lane and Marie Zvosec have been named co-directors of the School of Nimbus. Lane will lead the ballet program and direct the school’s new studio in Summit, New Jersey, while Zvosec will lead the modern and contemporary programs and direct the school’s Jersey City studio.

Antonio Douthit-Boyd has been named chair of Patel Conservatory Dance Department and artistic director of Next Generation Ballet, succeeding Philip Neal, who is joining Boston Ballet as assistant artistic director this fall.

Lauri-Michelle Houk has joined Pacific Northwest Ballet School as its managing director. Marisa Albee has been promoted to school principal, and Deborah Kenner to assistant principal.

Kristina Windom has been named trainee manager at The Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy, succeeding James Payne, who departed to lead the School of Ballet Arizona.

Greta Hodgkinson has been appointed Apprentice Programme Director at the National Ballet of Canada.

François Petit has been named the next head of the Royal Conservatoire Dance at the University of the Arts The Hague. He will succeed Jan Linkens and Catharina Boon in January.

Francisco Nevarez-Burgueño, director of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s Folklórico program, will retire at the end of this year, at which time the program will shutter.

Ashley Bouder has been named executive director of Eastern Connecticut Ballet.

Susan McGreevy-Nichols retired as executive director of the National Dance Education Organization at the end of June. Melissa Greenblatt has been named interim executive director.

Diane Partington joined the faculty of The Sarasota Ballet School, following the closure of her Diane Partington Studio of Classical Ballet.

Itziar Mendizabal will join The Royal Ballet School’s Upper School as faculty in September, having retired from The Royal Ballet, where she was a first soloist, at the end of the 2024–25 season.

Meredith Monk will join Folkwang University of the Arts as its Pina Bausch Professor for the winter 2025–26 semester.

Kate Jewett has joined University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ faculty as a contemporary dance adjunct.