School of American Ballet Appoints New Leaders

The School of American Ballet announced on Thursday that Darla Hoover would become its next chair of faculty following Kay Mazzo, who will retire from the position in June. In addition, Aesha Ash has been appointed to a new role, associate chair of faculty. Both will assume their duties at the start of the school’s summer session.

The New York City Ballet-affiliated training academy, which was founded by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein in 1934, is arguably the nation’s most important classical school. Both Hoover and Ash trained there and went on to dance with City Ballet.

Hoover, who was hired to join City Ballet under Balanchine and also worked with him while still a student at the school, is currently the artistic director of both Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, in Carlisle, Pa., and Ballet Academy East in New York City.

“Balanchine is an important figure in my life,” Hoover, 60, said in an interview. To carry on his legacy, she added, is a huge responsibility: “I don’t take it lightly, but I take it enthusiastically. I would say it’s equal measure thrilling, exhilarating, and terrifying. I think that’s a good combination to have.”

Jonathan Stafford, the artistic director of the school and of City Ballet, received his early training at Youth Ballet and has known Hoover for years. At his invitation, she has been teaching company class at City Ballet; she also stages Balanchine ballets for other companies and schools. Those experiences, he said, along with “her work running two really top-notch dance schools,” gave her the experience necessary for the job at the School of American Ballet, or S.A.B.

And, he added, “She’s kind, she’s empathetic, she’s caring.”

Hoover plans on spending a month or so at the school before her official start date so that she can meet with faculty one on one — and work with Mazzo, a former principal dancer at City Ballet who began teaching at the school in 1981 at Balanchine’s invitation and became a permanent faculty member in 1983. (Mazzo, 75, plans to continue teaching advanced classes at the school.) “Even with her experience, she’s going to have a lot to learn about S.A.B. and about the rest of the team here and taking this institution forward,” Stafford said of Hoover. “Having someone come in who spent time in other organizations actually just brings a fresh set of eyes.”

Times have changed — and the school has changed, too. For Stafford, it needs to focus not only on training dancers in the Balanchine aesthetic but also in improving the overall student experience and creating an equitable and inclusive environment for all.

“Ballet used to be pretty cold and heartless and brutal, and people would leave their time in a classical ballet studio with some scars,” Stafford said. “We don’t want that to happen at S.A.B. We are desperately working to find a way so that students feel seen, they feel heard, they have some agency in their experience at our school. And we need to make sure that each student has the support they need to be able to thrive.”

While the original plan was to hire just one person, it became evident during the hiring process that a structural shift was necessary. For the new position — a liaison between the artistic staff and the administrative teams that support the students — Stafford said he immediately thought of Ash.

Ash, who made news when she became the first Black female member of the permanent faculty at the school last year, has been increasingly vocal about issues involving student life. Before she was hired, starting in 2015, she was a founding member of the school’s alumni advisory committee on diversity and inclusion; she has also played an instrumental role in what the school calls its transformation team, a group of staff, faculty and pianists dedicated to racial equity and systemic change.

“There’s so much more focus that we need to give to the overall student wellness,” she said. “And it really goes beyond the classroom so that there’s this realization that while we’re putting out these phenomenal dancers, we also want to put out phenomenal human beings. It’s seeing the whole child beyond the technique. And that requires a lot.”

Ash, who grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and danced with City Ballet, Maurice Béjart in Switzerland and Alonzo King’s company, Lines, in San Francisco, among others, has faced her own periods of isolation and self-doubt. “I think beyond just being a woman of color, I’m also someone who comes from a very different background,” she said. “I’m from an inner-city community, from a lower-income family. I come from an environment that didn’t have a lot of access. I have that underdog experience, and that crosses all cultures and races.”

One issue Ash is serious about is mentoring. As Stafford said, “She’s going to have a voice in shaping our policies and practices, which honestly she already has,” he said.

And, as both Ash and Hoover know, ballet is ballet — it’s hard for everyone. As chair, Hoover hopes to adopt the same high standards under which she was trained in a positive, nurturing way. “I would hope that I have a way of bringing out the best in whoever I’m teaching,” she said. “And an openness to continue learning.”

Hoover didn’t spend as much time with Balanchine as she would have liked — she joined the corps de ballet in 1980, and he died in 1983. But she said she has a solid base of what he was seeking in his training and aesthetic, which, in part, melds classical technique with space-devouring speed. After her own training with Marcia Dale Weary at Youth Ballet, she credits Suki Schorer — still a faculty member at the school — for providing her with a bridge into the world of Balanchine. “I cannot wait to continue my education with Suki,” she said.

Her new position reminds her of a moment when she was dancing in Balanchine’s “Serenade.” At the start, rows of dancers stand with an arm raised and a flexed wrist; she was placed downstage right so that in that opening position the only person she could see was Balanchine standing in the wing. “I’ll never forget the first time,” she said. “I was like, I’ve got to make my hand stop shaking. To be doing that masterpiece with the master standing in front of you? I will never forget that feeling. It was sort of the way I feel right now. Half exhilarated and half terrified.”