New York State Summer School for the Arts

Damian Woetzel (born May 17, 1967) is a retired Principal Dancer, formerly with the New York City Ballet where he performed from 1985 until 2008. In addition to his work at NYCB, he frequently performed internationally as a guest star and visiting artist with numerous internationally recognized companies including the Kirov Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, until his retirement from the stage in 2008.

Woetzel currently serves as director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program, and was a Principal Dancer at New York City Ballet from 1989 until his retirement from the stage in 2008. At NYCB, he danced virtually the entire leading male dancer repertory, and had works created for him by Jerome Robbins, Eliot Feld, Twyla Tharp, Susan Stroman, and Christopher Wheeldon among others. Woetzel also frequently performed as a guest star with companies including the Kirov Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, and starred in numerous television broadcasts and as the Cavalier in the Time Warner movie version of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. Woetzel has also choreographed a number of ballets for NYCB and other companies.

Among his awards, in April 2015, Woetzel received the Harvard Arts Medal. In July 2012 Woetzel was honored with the inaugural Gene Kelly Legacy Award - an honor jointly created by the Dizzy Feet Foundation and the Estate of Gene Kelly in honor of the 100th anniversary of Kelly's birth. Woetzel serves on the artists committee of the Kennedy Center Honors, the Knight Foundation's National Arts Advisory Committee, and was a member of the Harvard University Task Force on the Arts. Woetzel holds an MPA degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. In the fall of 2010 he was a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School where he co-taught a course on performing arts and the law.

In November 2009, President Obama appointed Woetzel to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, where he has worked on creating the Turnaround Arts Program, which now brings arts education to some of the nation’s most challenged school districts. Woetzel serves on the board of directors of NY City Center, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and Sing for Hope, and on the advisory board of Define American.

In May 2017, Woetzel was named President of the Juilliard School, replacing Joseph W. Polisi.

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