Damian Woetzel
President, The Juilliard School; Artistic Director, Vail Dance Festival
Damian Woetzel is president of The Juilliard School and artistic director of the Vail Dance Festival. After retiring in 2008 from a 20-year career as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, he directed the Aspen Institute Arts Program from 2011 to 2018, the DEMO series at the Kennedy Center and the White House Dance Series hosted by Michelle Obama. Woetzel also was founding director of the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s New Essential Works grants program and advised the Alphadyne Foundation on grants to support artists during the COVID pandemic. A visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School, he received the 2015 Harvard Arts Medal. Woetzel is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Previously
In a world on fire, many of us feel starved for hope. Join the president of Juilliard, America’s leading soprano, an Oscar-winning director and composer, and the former mayor...
Science is confirming what artists have long known—the arts change the body, brain, and behavior. An interdisciplinary new field known as neuroarts is building that evidence a...
For Kate Levin of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mayor Melvin Carter of St. Paul Minnesota, and Karen Brunwasser of FeelBeit (a community center that bridges divides between East...
Why is there resistance to the idea that public funds should be used for art? What does it mean for the stewardship of cultural and educational organizations and the support o...
For more than three decades, artist Carrie Mae Weems has created a body of work — including photographs, fabric, text, audio, and video — that probes the fault lines of race,...
Join Damian Woetzel, incoming president of the Juilliard School, for an interactive breakfast interview led by Eric Liu, founder and CEO of Citizen University. Drawing on his...
The Poetry Jam Session brings together some of the nation’s leading young poets for a spirited 80-minutes of cross-disciplinary performance, collaboration, and discussion. Lyr...
Are you woke? The Afternoon Jam Session brings together some of the nation’s leading young poets, Jookin’ innovator Lil Buck, writer/activist Yosimar Reyes, and more special g...
“Truth,” wrote Frederick Douglass, “belongs, like the earth, to all the earth’s inhabitants.” In the search for truth, how do storytellers of all types “pay honor to the full...
Journalists Michele Norris, Jose Antonio Vargas, and Amar Bakshi have all worked to create global megaphones for sharing experiences and stories that too often go unnoticed. N...
Clint Smith and Reginald Dwayne Betts work at the crossroads of multiple disciplines. Both men have pursued graduate degrees in the Ivy League: Smith is working toward his PhD...
Memphis Jookin’ dancer and 2014 Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence Charles “Lil Buck” Riley and ballet dancer and director Damian Woetzel in a conversation of words and movemen...
Arts Strike is a dialogue between artists, schools and communities first piloted by Yo-Yo Ma and Damian Woetzel in 2010. This special discussion and demonstration for the Aspe...
World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, 2013 Harman-Eisner artist in residence, discusses his far-reaching vision for how artists can practice their citizenship, as individuals and t...
How can Music Directors contribute solutions to challenges facing their communities today? Join a group of distinguished conductors who are artists, community leaders and cult...