"Washington Ballet" Julie Kent Hand Signed Envelope Dated 2013 Todd Mueller COA

Description

Up for auction the
"Washington Ballet" Julie Kent Hand Signed Envelope Dated 2013.
This item is authenticated By Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity.
ES-0794
Julie Kent
(born
Julie Cox
, 1969) is an American
ballet dancer
; she was a principal dancer with the
American Ballet Theatre
from 1993 to June 2015. In 2016, she was named the artistic director of
The Washington Ballet
.
She was born Julie Cox in
Bethesda, Maryland
. Her father was a nuclear physicist and her mother, who is from New Zealand, was a ballet dancer and later flight attendant. She started ballet at age eight. She trained with Hortensia Fonseca at the Academy of the Maryland Youth Ballet. She also spent summers attending intensives at
American Ballet Theatre II
and
School of American Ballet
. She took the stage name Julie Kent at the suggestion of
Mikhail Baryshnikov
. Kent joined the
American Ballet Theatre
in 1985, as an apprentice. The following year, she competed at the
Prix de Lausanne
, and was the only American to win any medal that year. Later that year, she became a member of the corps de ballet. In 1990, Kent was promoted to soloist. In 1993, she was named principal dancer, she also became the first American to win the
Erik Bruhn Prize
that year. In 2000, she received the
Prix Benois de la Danse
, and is the first American to win the prize.
Through out her dance career, she has danced works by
Marius Petipa
,
George Balanchine
,
Jerome Robbins
,
Frederick Ashton
,
Kenneth MacMillan
and
John Cranko
. She has created roles in works by
John Neumeier
,
Twyla Tharp
,
Alexei Ratmansky
,
Nacho Duato
and
Stanton Welch
. She has made guest appearances in Russia, Italy, Germany, Australia, Argentina and Chile.
[4]
Kent was one of
José Manuel Carreño
's partners in
Swan Lake
, his farewell performance, with Kent as Odette and
Gillian Murphy
as Odile.
In 2015, Kent retired from dancing. Her farewell performance was
Romeo and Juliet
, with
Roberto Bolle
as her Romeo. Having danced with ABT for 29 years, she is the longest-serving principal dancer in the company's history.
Following her retirement, she became the artistic director of ABT's summer program, with over 1,000 students training in various locations across the country.
In March 2016,
The Washington Ballet
announced Kent would assume the role of artistic director, succeeding Septime Webre. During her tenure, she has commissioned works by
Gemma Bond
and
Ethan Stiefel
. She also staged
The Sleeping Beauty
alongside Victor Barbee.