Damian Woetzel

Damian Woetzel is President of Juilliard. He is also the artistic director of the Vail Dance Festival. Since retiring from a 20-year career as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, Woetzel has taken on roles in arts leadership, including Director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program among other projects. 

Woetzel is Founding Director of the Jerome Robbins Foundation’s New Essential Works (NEW) Program which initiated grants to support new dance works during the financial crisis and, in response to the COVID pandemic, he advised the Alphadyne Foundation on grants to support artists. He served on President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and is a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School. Recipient of the 2015 Harvard Arts Medal, Woetzel is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the boards of New York City Center, Sing for Hope, and Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Alliance.