Susan Jaffe American Ballet Theatre’s New Artistic Director
Ballerina’s Story
It was a nightmare—or a dream, depending on whom you ask. The year was 1980, and the setting the top ballet company in America, at a time when cultural news made front-page headlines. When the
top stars of American Ballet Theatre, Gelsey Kirkland and Patrick Bissell, failed to show up to a dress rehearsal, it was one time too many for ABT’s Artistic Director, Mikhail Baryshnikov.
They were fired, and replaced on a two-day notice by a promising young ballerina, who wasn’t even in the main company of ABT at the time.
Susan Jaffe made national news when she stunned the sophisticated New York audiences with her spectacular—and unexpected—debut in Pas D’Esclave from Le Corsaire, opposite the celebrated “Russian Adonis,” Alexander Godunov, at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. A star was born overnight.
ABT Ballet Master
For the next 22 years, this supernova would blaze across some of the world’s most prestigious stages, and would continue to reinvent herself again and again after retiring from her brilliant performing career. She has served as an Artistic Advisor to ABT’s Chair of the Board, trained fellow ABT dancers as their Ballet Master, headed her own ballet studio, served as the Dean of Dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and revitalized an American dance company as Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Ballet. Now, in a full-circle moment, she returns to her Alma Mater—American Ballet Theatre—as its next Artistic Director. If this all sounds like a dream, the beginning of it was anything but a fairy tale.
“It was really a shocking event, to be a nobody, and then a star. I spent the next 10 years trying to catch up to my name,” says Jaffe, now known as one of the most beloved and celebrated
American ballerinas.
Swan Lake & Sleeping Beauty
“I first tried to get the movement just right. I worked on my technique, on the style—the classics like Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, the style of Balanchine—but then I still felt I needed something more. And I started to dig deeper.” Digging deeper meant going beyond the steps. “It’s not just the pirouettes or the
jumping that makes dancing beautiful. It’s the humanity behind it—that’s what the audience comes to see; and it’s important to develop that humanity within oneself.”
To develop the humanity that audiences worldwide yearned to see, Jaffe went to the source of everything. To deepen her understanding of movement, she contacted Juliu Horvath, the founder of the Gyrotonic method for improving the body’s strength and movement efficiency. She asked him, “Where does movement originate from?” and worked diligently to incorporate these principles in her dancing. She worked with the legendary Russian Ballet Master Irina Kolpakova to dive deep into the classical ballet roles. She then sought out a dramaturg to learn about storytelling. “Because that’s what ballet is: it’s storytelling at its best. It’s very deep. And it’s not just emotional, it’s also quite an intellectual experience.”
Jaffe’s “Magic” Ingredients
If this sounds less-than-relatable for someone who is not a dancer, consider this: the key to this prima ballerina’s path to true, lasting success was something that could not be more
universally applicable to anyone aspiring to the top of their profession. Her “magic” ingredients?
Curiosity and work ethic.
“A lot of people have talent. But it’s what you do with it that matters. So, work ethic is the one thing that often separates a successful dancer from the others. And, if you approach everything like a student—‘I don’t know anything, teach me’—you can understand things in a way that you couldn’t if you approached it as if you were already an expert.”
Youth America Grand Prix
Learning, and teaching, have been very important to Jaffe throughout her entire career. That is why she says that one of her most important affiliations was with Youth America Grand Prix—the 
world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition. Since its founding in 1999, she has served as a YAGP student mentor, adjudicator, master teacher, scholarship presenter, and even as a board member, helping guide the development of the organization. “YAGP has done so much for the ballet world. It has brought dancers together from ballet schools across the globe. It is very important for students to see other students and for teachers to see other teachers—this improves the quality of their performing and their teaching. It brings together company directors from
around the world. And, of course, it’s the world’s largest pipeline of talent for dance companies, and I am definitely planning to continue my involvement with YAGP so that we can continue
to bring good talent to ABT.” Yagp.org
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Educating and mentoring the dancers and audiences of today and tomorrow is perhaps the most important focus for Jaffe as she now takes on the leadership of America’s national ballet company. After all, her own career was jump-started when Mikhail Baryshnikov took her “under his wing.” And so, it’s not surprising that she ends her interview with advice for young people: “I think the most important thing is to make sure that you maintain a good friendship with yourself. So that you are authentic. So that you are not trying to be anybody else but yourself.” Good advice, indeed. After all, as Oscar Wilde has famously said, “everyone else is taken.” ABT’s Fall season at Lincoln Center runs from October 20th to October 30th with a variety of performances taking the stage.
