Damian Woetzel

Damian Woetzel is a former principal dancer at the New York City Ballet and the current president of the world’s most prestigious performing arts conservatory, The Juilliard School. After an illustrious career as one of the world’s foremost male dancers, Woetzel went on to earn a degree from Harvard, serve on Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and direct a series of major arts programmes, including at The Aspen Institute. As president of Juilliard since 2018, he hopes to one day make the school tuition-free. Woetzel spoke with Monocle’s Emma Nelson about discovering his passion young, his jeté-like rise in ballet and the role of art as a public good.