New York City Ballet Appoints Ellen Bar Director of Media Projects

New York City Ballet Executive Director Katherine Brown announced today that NYCB Soloist Ellen Bar has been appointed the Company's new Director of Media Projects.

Bar, who has been a member of New York City Ballet since 1998, will give her final performance as a dancer with the Company in George Balanchine's Vienna Waltzes on Sunday, May 15, and will assume her new position on May 18.

In making the announcement, Brown said that as Director of Media Projects, Bar will provide project management and strategic planning for the production and distribution of media content for NYCB, including such areas as film, television, online media, and retail products. Bar, who began her ballet training at the age of seven at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, joined NYCB in June 1998, and was promoted to the rank of soloist in March 2006. During her career as a dancer with NYCB she has performed numerous roles in the Balanchine and Robbins repertory, and has also created roles in works by Peter Martins, Christopher Wheeldon, Benjamin Millepied, Melissa Barak, and Helgi Tomasson.

In 2005 Bar appeared in the NYCB premiere of Jerome Robbins' N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, and later, along with fellow NYCB Soloist Sean Suozzi, conceived and produced a feature film adaptation of the ballet, shot entirely on location in New York City. N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz, premiered at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival, where it won the Emerging Visions Audience Award, and in March of 2010 had its national broadcast premiere on PBS. The film has screened theatrically in 46 cities worldwide and has recently been acquired by BBC4.

"Ellen's background as both a dancer and a film producer make her uniquely suited to this position," Brown said. "She is the ideal person to lead the Company's efforts in the media realm."

In addition to her work with NYCB, Bar has been a Dean's List student at Columbia University's School of General Studies since 2006. She also serves on the Advisory Committee for Dance/NYC.