Lords of the Dance (the Artistic Directors)

Today I offer an excursion into artistic authority – Who gets to decide how the resources of American dance companies are applied? (I use “lords” advisedly – it’s mostly men at this scale, more on that later).

The Biggest Companies

Limiting myself to the largest non-profit dance companies in the United States (because my sanity requires some limits), and using pre-pandemic budgets (because nothing newer makes any sense yet…). There are just 41 companies operate in the $5+ million annual budget range (there’s some wiggle room – some of these are not just dance companies). Those companies had a combined FY2019 budget of just over $660 million, and more than a third of that is with New York City Ballet and the Baby Balanchines.

The average age of these companies is 57.6 years (with some room for interpretation). Average age of the artistic directors is just about the same – 57.9 (also missing a few data points here…).

Btw, start planning to celebrate Martha Graham Dance Company’s 100th in 2026…

Captains of the Ballet Stations

Artistic directors tend to stick around a long time, sometimes a very long time, and this makes perfect sense. Once you’ve got a “fully armed and operational ballet station” at your disposal (apologies to both Emperor Palpatine and the few not-“ballet” companies below…), there aren’t many reasons to give that up (especially if the company has your name on it).

Companies	Years with Current AD
ODC Dance	52
Mark Morris Dance Group Richmond Ballet	43
Alonzo King LINES Ballet	41
Gibney Dance	32
Tulsa Ballet	28
Nashville Ballet*	25
Ballet Arizona Ballet Austin	23
Boston Ballet	22
Milwaukee Ballet	21
Houston Ballet	20
Martha Graham Dance Company Pacific Northwest Ballet	18
Colorado Ballet	17
Ballet West Joffrey Ballet Sarasota Ballet	16
Ballet Hispanico Dance Theatre of Harlem†	14
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Dayton Ballet‡	12
Miami City Ballet	11
Ballet Metropolitan (Columbus) Kansas City Ballet	10
Philadelphia Ballet	9
Atlanta Ballet Washington Ballet	7
Nevada Ballet Theatre	6
Paul Taylor Dance Company	5
Carolina Ballet New York City Ballet	4
Hubbard Street Dance Orlando Ballet	2
American Ballet Theater Charlotte Ballet Cincinnati Ballet San Francisco Ballet Texas Ballet Theater	1
Oregon Ballet Theatre Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre	0

* Nick Mullikin will replace Paul Vasterling in June 2023. 
† Robert Garland will replace Virginia Johnson in July 2023.
‡ Dayton Ballet is advertising the position of artistic director.

Change Has Come

Since the pandemic, the rate-of-AD-change seems to have picked up significantly – two new ADs in 2021 seems fairly normal, but there were five in 2022, and we’re not even halfway through 2023, and there are already two, with at least two more coming…

This isn’t just the pandemic (that does make a convenient point-of-reference) – there are tectonic social, economic, and political forces at work in this early-21st Century world. We live in interesting times.

Interesting times are ripe with confusion and drama. Also, opportunities.

Are You Next?

If you’re interested in being one of these artistic directors, the search is on to replace Karen Russo Burke at the Dayton Ballet.