Miami City Ballet Appoints Monica Stephenson, Director Community Engagement

Miami City Ballet, one of the nation's leading ballet companies, today announced the appointment of Monica Stephenson as its new Director of Community Engagement, who will join in January 2022.

Stephenson comes to the organization with a lifelong dedication to the artform and vast experience as a former professional dancer, a leading arts educator, and arts administrator. After an extensive international search led by Arts Consulting Group, MCB is pleased to welcome Stephenson into the organization to lead the company's transformational community engagement programs.

MCB's community engagement programs promote access to ballet for all people, with a focus on communities that are systematically disenfranchised. As Director of Community Engagement, Stephenson will be a crucial member of MCB's senior leadership team. In her role, she will build upon and restore MCB's and MCB School's core community engagement initiatives and establish inclusive new programs in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, including virtual programs. As an advocate for the importance and relevance of community arts and education programs, she will work to advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and access initiatives that address systemic inequalities within the artform while promoting MCB's values and mission.

Executive Director Tania Castroverde Moskalenko shares, "I am delighted to welcome Monica to Miami City Ballet's Senior Leadership team as our next Director of Community Engagement. Monica possesses the vision and professional experience to restore and expand our programs across all the communities we serve. Her focus on access and opportunities for under-resourced communities will strengthen Miami City Ballet's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Monica's career as a dancer, educator, and administrator makes her the ideal candidate to lead our Community Engagement programs into the future."

"I am tremendously excited to join the Miami City Ballet as Director of Community Engagement. Seeing the depth of the existing community engagement programming and the investment they have by the Board of Directors, Executive Leadership, and Staff, gives me great confidence that I can contribute to work that is making a lasting impact throughout the tri-county area," adds Stephenson. "Leading community engagement at MCB encompasses all that I have learned as a student, professional ballet dancer, teacher, scholar, and most significantly as an administrator that seeks to cultivate the highest level of access and opportunity in the art form. I am excited to both uphold and build upon MCB's commitment to its communities and the power of dance education."

Stephenson joins MCB from The Washington Ballet where, as a member of the senior staff, she held the position of Head of School, SE Campus located in Washington, D.C.'s Ward 8. She also served as a member of the organization's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group, and a member of the Community Engagement Committee.

Stephenson holds a Master of Arts Dance Education and is a current Doctoral student at Texas Women's University Low-Residency PhD Program in Dance. As a dancer, she has performed with esteemed companies such as Dance Theatre of Harlem, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Los Angeles Ballet.

Community Engagement programs include MCB's signature 10-year scholarship program Ballet Bus, providing underserved children with comprehensive dance training, and access to fully subsidized transportation; Explore Dance, which offers 350 children arts-in-education initiatives delivered in schools; STEAM+, a program that encourages children to explore dance while retaining practical, creative, and academic knowledge; Behind the Ballet, a pre-performance lecture series featuring various arts leaders that takes place prior to repertory performances; Open Barre, an intimate, in-depth performance series held at MCB's Miami Beach studios; Touch Tours, an accessible program for patrons with visual impairments; and the Palm Beach Summer Dance Camp, a free, three-week dance study intensive program for students from Title I schools.

ABOUT MIAMI CITY BALLET

Miami City Ballet has a diverse roster of 54 dancers and a repertoire of more than 130 works. As one of the most renowned ballet companies in the country, Miami City Ballet performs for nearly 125,000 patrons annually during its South Florida home season in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West

Palm Beach and tours to major cities domestically and internationally, including recent visits to New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris.

Miami City Ballet School, the official school of Miami City Ballet, is one of the most respected ballet training academies in America. The School trains students, ages 3-18 year-round, and grants more than $650,000 in scholarships annually.

Miami City Ballet's Community Engagement programs, serving more than 12,000 people annually in schools and communities; our free programs use the power of dance to uplift, teach and bring joy.

Executive Director Tania Castroverde Moskalenko and Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez lead the company. Lopez was recently awarded the prestigious Dance Magazine Award in 2018 and was

named one of "The Most Influential People in Dance Today." She is on the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees, the first artist to ever serve on its Board.

Miami City Ballet was founded in 1985 by Miami philanthropist Toby Lerner Ansin and Founding Artistic Director Edward Villella. It is headquartered in Miami Beach, FL, at the Ophelia & Juan Js. Roca Center, a facility designed by renowned architectural firm, Arquitectonica.

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