Damian Woetzel (born May 17, 1967) is an American choreographer. Woetzel was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, where he performed from 1985 until 2008. He also frequently performed with companies like the Kirov Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, until his retirement from the stage in 2008. Woetzel has also choreographed a number of ballets for NYCB and other companies. Among his awards, Woetzel has received the Harvard Arts Medal. and the inaugural Gene Kelly Legacy Award. In May 2017, Woetzel was named President of the Juilliard School, replacing Joseph W. Polisi. Early life and education Woetzel was originally trained in Boston at E. Virginia Williams ballet school, studying with Williams and Violette Verdy, and then moved to Los Angeles at 15 where he studied with Irina Kosmovska at the Los Angeles Ballet School. He then joined John Clifford’s Los Angeles Ballet and toured nationally with this company including to New York City where he made his debut at the Joyce Theater. At 17, Woetzel moved to New York City to attend the School of American Ballet and study with Stanley Williams and Andrei Kramarevsky. He performed in the school's annual workshop in 1985 and then joined the New York City Ballet, where he rose through the ranks and became a principal dancer in 1989. In 2007, he earned an MPA degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Career as director and producer Aspen Institute Woetzel was the Director of Arts Programs at the Aspen Institute from 2011 to 2018. Under Woetzel's direction events curated by the Aspen Institute Arts Program include: the inaugural US-China Forum on the Arts and Culture in Beijing, in partnership with Asia Society and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. American and Chinese artists and cultural representatives engaged in the forum included Joel Coen, Meryl Streep, Yo-Yo Ma, Alice Waters, Liu Ye, and Ge You. In June 2012, the Arts Program curated multiple sessions, film screenings and cultural exchanges at the Aspen Ideas Festival. In October 2012, the Arts Program hosted the inaugural Aspen Arts Strategy Group, convening over 30 arts leaders from around the nation in New York City. In December 2012, Woetzel and cellist Yo-Yo Ma organized a participatory visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD, where musician Arthur Bloom and his MusiCorps program help wounded warriors