CriticalDance Forum

Ethan Stiefel has been appointed Dean of Dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts. He will also continue his performing career with American Ballet Theatre. Ken Keuffel reports in the Winston-Salem Journal:

Winston-Salem Journal

Well, I'm interested in how this works out. Obviously, someone else will have to handle those areas which require knowledge of pedagogy -- which is most of what a dean does.

Will there be anything left for Steifel to do besides just being a figurehead?

Yeah, I'm puzzled by this. His last teaching gig ended disastrously so why would NCSA do this to themselves. And why would they choose someone who's still performing? It devided the focus too much and means both jobs are done on a sub-par level.

Either that, or they don't expect him to do much in Carolina except lend his name.

When I worked at a Major Conservatory of Dance near NYC -- I won't mention the name -- a faculty position for a ballet teacher opened up. There were two options. One was an excellent teacher; the other was a former ABT principal and former Artistic Director of a regional ballet company.

Guess which one got the gig.

As I said, I won't name the institution; I'll just point out that they were trying to...er...purchase...respectability.