News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in June 2025
Here are the latest promotions, appointments, departures, and notable awards, as well as a new funding opportunity for New York City–based freelance dancers, from June 2025.
Comings & Goings
Misty Copeland will retire from American Ballet Theatre this fall. Her farewell performance is set to take place at the company’s fall gala on October 22.
San Francisco Ballet principal Misa Kuranaga will join Sarasota Ballet as a resident guest principal for the 2025–26 season. Former Sarasota Ballet principals Macarena Giménez, Jennifer Hackbarth, and Maximiliano Iglesias, first soloist Daniel Pratt, and soloists Evan Gorbell, Yuki Nonaka, Lauren Ostrander, and Ivan Spitale have departed the company.
At National Ballet of Canada, Larkin Miller has been promoted to principal, Peng-Fei Jiang to first soloist, and Monika Haczkiewicz, Isabella Kinch, Erica Lall, and David Preciado to second soloist.
At English National Ballet, Gareth Haw has been promoted to lead principal, Rentaro Nakaaki, Anna Nevzorova, Haruhi Otani, Emily Suzuki, and Angela Wood to first soloist, and Swanice Luong and Miguel Angel Maidana to soloist. Houston Ballet’s Rodrigo Pinto, The Joffrey Ballet’s Paulo Rodrigues, and Finnish National Ballet’s Hatice Çağla Ertürk and Elvis Nudo join as soloists.
Edvinas Jakonis has joined Lithuanian National Ballet as a soloist.
At The Royal Ballet, Isabel Lubach, Viola Pantuso, Julia Roscoe, Amelia Townsend, and Harris Bell have been promoted to soloist. First soloist Itziar Mendizabal will retire at the end of the season and join the faculty of The Royal Ballet School. Soloist Romany Pajdak will leave the company at the conclusion of the season; soloist Benjamin Ella will retire in December.
Houston Ballet principal Soo Youn Cho has retired.
Gonzalo Garcia will become the next artistic director of Miami City Ballet on August 11, succeeding Lourdes Lopez, who stepped down in February.
Eric Trope has been appointed artistic director of Ballet Des Moines, succeeding Tom Mattingly, who will shift to the role of resident choreographer for a three-year term.
Demis Volpi has resigned from his post as artistic director of Hamburg Ballet after taking the helm in August 2024.
Leslie Kraus has been named artistic director of Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, succeeding Daniel Charon on July 1.
Nicholas Cendese and Lynne Larson have been named executive/artistic co-directors of Salt Lake City’s Repertory Dance Theatre, succeeding artistic and executive director Linda C. Smith, who is now RDT director emerita.
Irma Suárez Ruiz has been named the Dame Libby Komaiko Legacy artistic director at Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater. She will continue to serve as artistic director for day-to-day operations while the search for her successor is underway. Rehearsal director José Torres has been named associate artistic director.
Peggy Piacenza, co-founder and interim co-director of Seattle rehearsal and performance space Base, has stepped down from the organization. Co-founder and former interim co-director Dayna Hanson has been named executive director.
Dana McCrory has been named executive director of Oklahoma City Ballet, succeeding Jo Lynne Jones.
Adriana Ray has been appointed executive director of Dorrance Dance, effective July 15.
Akram Khan Company will wind down operations as a touring company in 2027. Co-founders Akram Khan and Farooq Chaudhry will continue with their respective companies, Akram Khan Productions and Fengling Productions.
Awards & Honors
Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck won the Tony Award for Best Choreography for Buena Vista Social Club. Sam Pinkleton won Best Direction of a Play for Oh, Mary!
Winners at the UK National Dance Awards included Dame Siobhan Davies (De Valois Award for Outstanding Achievement), Tommy Franzen (Outstanding Male Modern Performance, for The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and Minotaur, and joint winner, Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer), Aakash Odedra (Outstanding Male Classical Performance, for Mehek, and joint winner, Dancing Times Award for Best Male Dancer), Erina Takahashi (Best Female Dancer), The Royal Ballet (Stef Stefanou Award for Outstanding Company), Acosta Danza (Best Mid-Scale Company), London City Ballet (Best Independent Company), Crystal Pite (Best Classical Choreography, for Angels’ Atlas), Kyle Abraham (Best Modern Choreography, for Love Letter (on shuffle)), Caspar Lench (Emerging Artist Award), Hannah Shepherd (Outstanding Female Modern Performance, for Ruination), Beatrice Parma (Outstanding Female Classical Performance, for La Fille mal gardée), lighting designer Tom Visser (Outstanding Creative Contribution), The Principles of Classical Ballet (Best Dance Film), and Burn from the Inside (Best Short Dance Film).
Rebecca King Ferraro and Michael Sean Breeden received the inaugural Clive Barnes Award for Journalism & Media Achievement for their work on Conversations On Dance.
The American Tap Dance Foundation’s Tap City Awards, set for September 11, will honor 2024 Hoofer Award winners Bril Barrett and Josh Hilberman; 2025 Hoofer Award winners Germaine Goodson, Tap and Tray (Kurt Albert and Klaus Bleis), and Lisa La Touche; 2024 Tap Preservation Award recipient Gene Medler; and 2025 Tap Preservation Award recipients Kurt Albert and Klaus Bleis. Inductees into the International Tap Dance Hall of Fame for 2024 and 2025 will be Billy Strayhorn, Joe Stirling, Skip Cunningham, Tommy Tune, and Dick Van Dyke.
Debbie Allen will receive an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in November.
New Funding Opportunity
Dance/NYC’s Dance Workforce Resilience Fund‘s pilot program, which aims to supplement freelance dancers’ wages, is now accepting applications on a rolling basis. It will award one-time $1,000 grants to freelance dance artists in the New York metropolitan area for dance work completed between January 1, 2025–April 30, 2026. The application portal will remain open through March 3, 2026. More information available here.
