Campus & Community

Jill Johnson appointed dance director

2 min read

Former principal dancer of Frankfurt Ballet to lead program

The Office for the Arts at Harvard (OFA) and Harvard’s Music Department have announced the appointment of Jill Johnson as director of the OFA Dance Program and senior lecturer in the Department of Music. Johnson, a 23-year veteran of the dance field as a performer, choreographer, educator, and producer, succeeds Elizabeth Weil Bergmann, who retired from the post after 11 years of service. Johnson assumes her duties at Harvard beginning July 1.

“We are thrilled with the appointment of Jill Johnson as Harvard’s new dance director,” said Jack Megan, OFA director and co-chair of the dance director search committee. “Jill has distinguished herself as a performer on international stages, as a restager of William Forsythe’s works, as an innovative choreographer, and as a teacher who truly inspires and draws out the best from her students. Her energy and vision for dance at Harvard has excited all who have met her, and we can hardly wait to begin the next phase of Harvard dance under her leadership.”

Formerly on the faculties of Princeton University, Barnard College at Columbia University, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Johnson is a graduate of Canada’s National Ballet School. She was a dance soloist with the National Ballet of Canada and a principal dancer in choreographer William Forsythe’s company Frankfurt Ballet for 10 years. For the past two decades she has staged Forsythe’s work worldwide, including productions at the Paris Opera Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, Batsheva Dance Company in Israel, La Scala, the National Ballet of Canada, and American Ballet Theater.

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