Juilliard Appoints Alicia Graf Mack as New Director of the Dance Division

The search for the new director of Juilliard’s Dance Division has come to an end. Juilliard names Alicia Graf Mack, former leading dancer of Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, as director of the Juilliard Dance Division.

Photo of Alicia Graf Mack, courtesy of Webster University

Press Release from The Juilliard School:

Juilliard announced yesterday that Alicia Graf Mack, former leading dancer of Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, will become director of the Juilliard Dance Division on July 1, 2018. Juilliard Dance is widely recognized as one of the most prestigious training programs in the world, offering instruction in both ballet and modern techniques designed to create true contemporary dancers and choreographers.

Ms. Mack, a native of Columbia, Maryland, has also been principal dancer with Complexions Contemporary Ballet and a guest artist with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet. As a dance educator, she is on the faculty at the University of Houston and a visiting assistant professor of dance at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Ms. Mack is the co-founder of D(n)A Arts Collective, an initiative created to enrich the lives of young dancers through master classes and intensives.

Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi said of the appointment, “Alicia brings exceptional energy, creativity, and enthusiasm to the position of director of Juilliard’s Dance Division. She is an innovative thinker and role model, and I am delighted to know that she will be leading our dance students into the future.”

President Designate Damian Woetzel, a former principal dancer at New York City Ballet and co-chair of the steering committee of the search with Juilliard Provost and Dean Ara Guzelimian, remarked, “The excellence, intelligence, and versatility that have been hallmarks of Alicia’s distinguished career make her the ideal person to shape our dancers of tomorrow. I am honored to welcome this inspiring artist-educator to lead us forward into a new golden era at Juilliard dance.”

On accepting the position, Alicia Graf Mack said, “I am beyond thrilled to join The Juilliard School and community in this capacity. The opportunity to work with young artists who are on the precipice of achieving their dreams brings me a great sense of pride and responsibility. Looking forward, I see Juilliard’s Dance Division as a place that continues to embrace innovative ideas and new modalities of dance making, while holding steadfast to the legacy and incredible history of the institution.”

“We already know that Alicia is an incredible dancer with a brilliant mind,” said Judith Jamison, artistic director emerita of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “We all know how exquisitely she understands what dance is about in all its forms. But I also love who Alicia is as a person. Sometimes people in companies care only about themselves, but Alicia is the opposite of that. She understood her talent and how she could lift up whatever company she was with. That just emanates from her.”

Arthur Mitchell, co-founder and artistic director emeritus of Dance Theatre of Harlem, remarked, “Not only was Alicia a great dancer, but she’s a phenomenal administrator at the same time—a combination that is rarely found in one person.”

Ms. Mack succeeds longtime division head Lawrence Rhodes, who was artistic director of the Juilliard Dance Division from 2002 until 2017. Taryn Kaschock Russell has been acting artistic director for the current academic year.

About Alicia Graf Mack

Alicia Graf Mack enjoyed a distinguished career as a leading dancer of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. She has also been a principal dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem and Complexions Contemporary Ballet. Ms. Mack has danced as a guest performer with Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, Beyoncé, John Legend, Andre 3000, and Alicia Keys. In addition, she has performed as a featured dancer in many galas and festivals, including the Chicago Dancing Festival, Vail Dance Festival, Youth America Grand Prix Gala, and the International Stars of the 21st Century at the David H. Koch Theater. She has made numerous national television appearances, including at the 2017 Kennedy Center Honors celebrating Carmen de Lavallade and as a featured guest on The Tavis Smiley Show.

Ms. Mack graduated magna cum laude with honors in history from Columbia University and holds an MA in nonprofit management from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2007, Smithsonian magazine named her an American Innovator of the Arts and Sciences. She is a recipient of the Columbia University Medal of Excellence, an award given each year to one alumnus who has demonstrated excellence in their field of work. In 2008, she delivered the keynote address to the graduates of Columbia University’s School of General Studies.

Ms. Mack is a published writer, having contributed to Dance Magazine, Pointe, and Dance Spirit magazine. She wrote the cover story, “Beyond Role Models,” for Pointe’s June/July 2014 diversity issue featuring Ashley Murphy, Ebony Williams, and Misty Copeland. She also authored the foreword of American Dance: The Complete Illustrated History by Margaret Fuhrer. As a dance educator, Ms. Mack is on faculty at the University of Houston and is a visiting assistant professor of dance at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. She is a co-founder of D(n)A Arts Collective, an initiative created to enrich the lives of young dancers through master classes and intensives.

Juilliard Drama Division Appoints Evan Yionoulis as New Director

Evan Yionoulis becomes the Juilliard Drama Division’s sixth director and first ever female leader. She will begin on July 1st.

Evan Yionoulis (photo by Beowulf Sheehan)

Press Release from The Juilliard School:

Juilliard today announced that Obie-award winning director Evan Yionoulis, currently professor in the practice of acting and directing at Yale School of Drama and a resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre, will become the school’s Richard Rodgers Director of Drama at Juilliard starting with the 2018-19 academic and performance season. The Juilliard Drama Division, celebrating its 50th anniversary this season, offers a program that encompasses one of this country’s most respected conservatory educations for actors as well as highly successful pre-professional mentoring for playwrights.

Ms. Yionoulis has been on the faculty of Yale for the past 20 years and was Lloyd Richards Professor and Chair of Acting from 1998 to 2003.

In announcing the appointment, Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi said, “Evan’s impressive work at Yale and extensive directing credits make her the perfect person to develop our gifted actors and playwrights as she leads Juilliard’s Drama Division into the future. We were deeply impressed by her thoughtfulness and rich understanding of the educational process in both classic and contemporary work.”

On accepting the position, Ms. Yionoulis remarked, “I am honored and excited to lead Juilliard’s Drama Division into its second half-century, carrying on the school’s great tradition of excellence, and preparing the next generation of actors and playwrights to transform the future of our field through their passion and artistry.”

Joseph Haj, who studied with Ms. Yionoulis and is now artistic director of the Guthrie Theater, said, “Juilliard has made a brilliant choice. Evan is a significant artist and working professional; she has been teaching and mentoring students at the highest level for many years and, not least of all, the human being side is as fully developed as the artistic side. Juilliard could not have done better. I am thrilled for the school and for Evan.”

Ms. Yionoulis will succeed James Houghton, who was head of the division from 2006 until his death from cancer in 2016.

In addition to her Yale position, Ms. Yionoulis is an award-winning director; she has directed new plays and classics in New York and across the U.S. She has enjoyed collaborations with major American playwrights including Adrienne Kennedy and Richard Greenberg. She most recently directed the critically acclaimed world premiere of Kennedy’s He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box for Theatre for a New Audience, where she previously directed her Ohio State Murders (Lortel Award for Best Revival) and the Off-Broadway premiere of Howard Brenton’s Sore Throats.

Ms. Yionoulis opened Manhattan Theatre Club’s Biltmore Theatre (Broadway) with Greenberg’s The Violet Hour, directed his Everett Beekin at Lincoln Center Theater, and received an Obie Award for her direction of his Three Days of Rain at Manhattan Theatre Club, having directed the premieres of all three at South Coast Repertory.

At Yale Repertory Theatre, she has directed Cymbeline, Richard II, The Master Builder, George F. Walker’s Heaven, Brecht’s Galileo, Gozzi’s The King Stag (which she adapted with her brother, composer Mike Yionoulis, and Catherine Sheehy), Caryl Churchill’s Owners, and numerous other productions including the world premiere of Kirsten Greenidge’s Bossa Nova, and, upcoming, Kiss, by Guillermo Calderón.

Other credits include productions at the Mark Taper Forum, the Huntington, NY Shakespeare Festival, the Vineyard, Second Stage, Primary Stages, Dallas Theatre Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Denver Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and many others.

Ms. Yionoulis has directed Seven, a documentary theater piece about extraordinary women from across the globe who work for human rights in New York, Boston, Washington, Aspen, London, Deauville, and New Delhi.

Her short film Lost and Found, made with Mike Yionoulis, premiered at Cleveland International Film Festival. Their most recent collaborations are the multiplatform project Redhand Guitar, about five generations of musicians across an American century, and The Dread Pirate Project, about the malleability of identity between the digital and natural worlds.

Ms. Yionoulis has received a Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship, Works-in-Progress Grant, and the Foundation’s prestigious Statuette. She serves on the executive board of SDC, the labor union representing stage directors and choreographers, as secretary.

This 2017-18 season Juilliard Drama presented fully staged productions featuring Juilliard’s Group 47 acting students in their fourth and final year in the drama program. The fall season’s productions included Suzan-Lori Parks’s Father Comes Home From the Wars, directed by LA Williams; alumnus Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s Everybody, co-directed by Danya Taymor and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; and Pierre de Marivaux’s Triumph of Love, translated, adapted, and directed by Stephen Wadsworth. In February, Juilliard Drama presented three plays in repertory: Euripides’s Trojan Women, directed by faculty member Ellen Lauren; alumna Katori Hall’s Hoodoo Love, directed by Kym Moore; and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, directed by faculty member Moni Yakim. All performances took place in the Stephanie P. McClelland Drama Theater at Juilliard.

Robberson & Surgener Voted New Editors-in-Chief of The Citizen-Penguin

After a vote of current student contributors, Fiona Robberson ’21 & Alaina Surgener ’21 have been named the incoming Editors-in-Chief of The Citizen-Penguin. To our knowledge, every current student who had contributed to The Citizen-Penguin was offered a ballot to vote among several very qualified candidates.

After a vote of current student contributors, Fiona Robberson ’21 & Alaina Surgener ’21 have been named the incoming Editors-in-Chief of The Citizen-Penguin. To our knowledge, every current student who had contributed to The Citizen-Penguin was offered a ballot to vote among several very qualified candidates. Votes were emailed to and tallied by the current editor (me, Scout James), and by Shereen Pimentel, the Managing Editor of The Citizen-Penguin. The will assume command of the open student platform on February 21, 2018.

Listen to Janice & Mish’s podcast episode interviewing the incoming editors-in-chief:


Mish and Janice have a happy surprise in Episode 9. Meet the new co-editors in chief of the Citizen Penguin, Fiona Robberson (MFA ’21) and Alaina Surgener (BFA ’21)! Get the inside scoop on the future of the student-run newspaper, the drama audition process, and Lady Bird.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) — Free ARTReach Lunch and Service Trip Brainstorming Session

RSVP before the end of the day! (And just email the OSA if you don’t RSVP in time but still want to come.)
From the OSA: 

We’d like to invite you to an ARTReach Collaborative Lunch on Wednesday, December 13 from 1:00 – 2:00pm in Room 529. Lunch will be provided for you. All you need to bring is a willingness to engage in thoughtful conversation about how best to organize.

RSVP before the end of the day! (And just email the OSA if you don’t RSVP in time but still want to come.)
From the OSA:

We’d like to invite you to an ARTReach Collaborative Lunch on Wednesday, December 13 from 1:00 – 2:00pm in Room 529. Lunch will be provided for you. All you need to bring is a willingness to engage in thoughtful conversation about how best to organize.

Please RSVP here, so we can get an approximate headcount: https://goo.gl/forms/W6WvkhEQRgGuquuv2

Levine Concert Appearance Cancelled; President Polisi and Dean Guzelimian Issue Statement

The School responds to the recent news regarding James Levine

To the Members of the Juilliard Community,

The Juilliard Orchestra has a scheduled collaborative concert with the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program on February 23, 2018, which was to be conducted by James Levine. In light of recent reports, Mr. Levine will no longer be conducting the concert. We are now actively searching for a conductor to take over the concert.

The Juilliard School is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for all members of the community. Sexual misconduct is a violation of trust that can never be tolerated. Our hearts go out to the individuals who have physically and psychologically suffered from acts of sexual misconduct.

Joseph W. Polisi, President

Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean

Fill out this quick Spring Break Service Trip / ARTreach form

ARTreach was a Juilliard-based service organization that, among other things, planned a trip to New Orleans every year in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Want to help organize and get involved with other service efforts at Juilliard?

ARTreach was a Juilliard-based service organization that, among other things, planned a trip to New Orleans every year in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Want to help organize and get involved with other service efforts at Juilliard?

Fill out this form (open in a new window)! Your contact info will be shared with other Juilliard students with similar wishes, and with the OSA. NOTE: although the end goal is to have an official student organization and project, this form and post are not associated with Juilliard or the OSA. And, your information will only be used for the purposes mentioned above.

Run The Citizen-Penguin

(if you want it)
Apply to be the next editor-in-chief of the student-run press at Juilliard by December 13

Position: Editor-in-Chief

Deadline: December 13, 2017, at midnight

Salary: Glory and low-level anxiety

To apply, write to editor AT citizenpenguin DOT com. The new editor-in-chief will be selected by electronic vote of all current students who have contributed material or assistance to The Citizen-Penguin. After that, the managing editor will be selected by the incoming and outgoing editors-in-chief (in the case of no consensus, the managing director will be selected by electronic vote of the aforementioned contributors). Together, the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor will delegate job functions of these positions: Social Media Editor, Events Editor, Contributing Editors, Media Editors.

What’s in the application?

Your name, division, and graduation year. (The only requirement: you must be a current Juilliard student.) Your application can be whatever you want—a photo essay, a paragraph, a sentence, a video, a novel, a dance, a snapchat. You can refer to the duties below, or not. (And regarding the duties below, they’re really just what I’ve done or attempted to do while Editor-in-Chief. You might do it differently.) Please make your application brief. We don’t have a lot of time, you know.

Editor-in-Chief job duties

  • Recruit your replacement (the most important part of your job)
  • Encourage peers to read, engage with and write articles & editorials on The Citizen-Penguin
  • Coordinate follow-through and deadlines with Managing Director
  • Stay informed of student and institutional issues
  • Recruit student editors and Coordinate contributors and editors
  • Connect students with similar concerns and investigate areas of concern outside your own
  • WordPress author on-boarding and final article preparation (contributors get final say in article content)
  • Stay informed of first amendment issues
  • Enforce libel/plagiarism requirements
  • Serve as liaison between The Citizen-Penguin and Juilliard’s legal and communications offices
  • Advocate for free speech at Juilliard

Wednesday at 6:30pm — Spring Break Service Trip Brainstorm

New Orleans? Puerto Rico? Houston? Fundraising? Teaching? Habitat for Humanity? ARTreach? All of the above?
SERVICE BRAINSTORM, OCTOBER 11
WEDNESDAY 6:30PM, ROOM 304
Can’t go, but wanna help? Email Scout

New Orleans? Puerto Rico? Houston? Fundraising? Teaching? Habitat for Humanity? ARTreach? All of the above?
SERVICE BRAINSTORM, OCTOBER 11
WEDNESDAY 6:30PM, ROOM 304
Can’t go, but wanna help? EMAIL editor AT citizenpenguin DOT com

This isn’t an official OSA brainstorm, but the idea is that we come up with a plan or dream which we then bring to the OSA. Maybe this would be result in re-starting ARTreach, or something else entirely.

Photo: Daniel Davila. (Jasminn Johnson on a previous service trip to New Orleans.

RELATED: Save ARTreach and the NOLA Trip

“Our Stomping Ground, Our Juilliard”

Brittany Bradford ’18 and Brandon Homer ’19 invite black Juilliard drama alumni and black current students to an August 24–27 reunion and intensive at Juilliard. It will consist of classes, panels, breakfasts and celebrations. Watch the full video below!

Brittany Bradford ’18 and Brandon Homer ’19 invite black Juilliard drama alumni and black current students to an August 24–27 reunion and intensive at Juilliard. It will consist of classes, panels, breakfasts and celebrations. Watch the full video below!