Leadership Through Dance: Julie Kent, Artistic Director, The Washington Ballet (Episode #52)

With Julie Kent
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Show Notes

For 30 years, Julie Kent delighted and inspired audiences as the longest serving principal dancer in New York City’s legendary American Ballet Theater Company. She retired from performing on the stage at age 45. Today, she is tackling the role of Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet, a position she assumed in 2016, where she is leading (with the support of her husband and artistic partner Victor Barbee who is associate artistic director) and working to take the Company to the next level.

Julie talks about the importance of pushing yourself to do better and to improve every single day, the joy of serving something you love, the pain of saying goodbye to the stage and transitioning her expertise and experiences to serve her art in a different way, and the value in pushing yourself to take on new risks and challenges (especially when they scare you). She also talks about the impact taking on new challenges has on her children, her dancers, and the future of ballet.

Julie will inspire you with her passion, her approach, her perspective, and her views on leadership.