Tapas Das in Blogs

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. Photo courtesy Straz Center.

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.

Tapas Das: Tapas Das, a young entrepreneur of our times started TWIST N TURNS in 2005. A person who is kind, generous, creative and down to earth wanted to start his own one of a kind dance academy. According to him, Dance is a language of movements that involves space, time and the human body. He was born and grew up in Kolkata, the cultural hub of India. Being appreciated in the field of dance all his life, he is extremely talented. He has been dancing since the age of four. Once he finished his high school, he learned jazz/modern and contemporary dance. His horizons were broadened even more when he started dancing Bollywood with Beat Busters for 4 years, which then was the most upcoming dance crew in Kolkata. After that exposure, he studied how to be a dance teacher, which later started helping him impart his knowledge about dance. Thus, in 2005, with the help of family and friends, he started TWIST N TURNS. Starting with a mere number of 40 students, today TWIST N TURNS currently has over 500 students. Over the time Tapas has taught and performed all over the country. He has performed in cities such as Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Jhansi, Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur etc. He has been an active participant in the Salsa India Congress in the cities of Bangalore and Bombay, and he has also visited various International Salsa Congresses in Europe, namely in Berlin ,Singapore, Hong Kong,Dubai. He is been also trained recently at Broadway Dance Center (New York), Alvin Alley (New York) and Steps on Broadway (New York). He is not only a dancer or teacher. He is a successful choreographer and has coordinated various shows without difficulty in our country. His leadership skills are exceptional, thus he is where he stands today. His aim in life would be to become a dance educator. He wants to share his tremendous knowledge in the right way to the right people. He is also, simultaneously running other brands like Zumba Kolkata, Bollywood Studio ArtistWala.com and India International Dance Institute.