Laguna Dance Festival

MANAGEMENT

CEO/Executive Director

Jodie Gates

CEO/Executive Director Experience

Jodie Gates has established a significant career in the dance field. For decades she has contributed to the profession as a visionary leader, artistic director, educator, curator, stager, choreographer, and principal dancer. She is a former principal ballerina with the Joffrey Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet,and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. She is Founder and Executive & Creative Director of Laguna Dance based in Laguna Beach California, Founding Director and Professor of the University of Southern California’s Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, and most recently Jodie served as a consultant and Artistic Director of Cincinnati Ballet and the Cincinnati Ballet Academy. She is an independent choreographer and an artistic collaborator withWilliam Forsythe, staging ballets internationally for Forsythe Productions. She was awarded the distinguished 2021/2022 Residency Fellowship from The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. Where her Fellowship acknowledged her most recent work addressing systemic and culturalinequities within the culture of ballet. Since 2005, Ms. Gates’ vision for the Laguna Dance has fostered young talented dancers and professional dancers alike.

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