MYB’s Honorary Advisory Council is made up of individuals chosen for their professional experience and dedication to ballet and dance. They offer a unique and specialized expertise to the MYB Board of Directors in an advisory role. Due to the extremely high caliber of accomplishment of each of these individuals in the dance community, we envision Advisory Council members as also serving as ambassadors to the national and local ballet and dance communities, helping MYB build bridges to a broader constituency.

Declared by The New York Times as “America’s Quintessential American Ballerina,” Susan Jaffe enjoyed a career as a Principal Dancer at American Ballet Theatre for 22 years. She performed on the international stage with the Royal Ballet, the Kirov Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, La Scala Ballet, Vienna State Opera Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, and the English National Ballet. Her versatility as a dancer brought acclaimed interpretations to ballet classics, such as Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty, and dramatic works by Agnes de Mille, Antony Tudor, John Cranko, Ronald Hynd, and Kenneth MacMillan. She also worked with many prominent contemporary choreographers of her time, such as Twyla Tharp, Jerome Robbins, Merce Cunningham, Nacho Duato, Mark Morris, Ulysses Dove, and Jiří Kylián.

After retiring from the stage in 2002, Jaffe taught in the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School and served as an advisor to the chairman of the board of ABT until 2007. In 2010 she became a Director of Repertoire at ABT. Two years later, she was appointed Dean of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) in Winston-Salem, NC, a position she held for eight years. During her tenure at UNCSA, Jaffe and her faculty implemented a syllabus based on the ABT National Training Curriculum and established the Choreographic Institute of UNCSA. Additionally, she raised $3.5 million in endowed scholarships and other scholarships.

In 2020 Jaffe was appointed the Artistic Director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. She helped to lead the company through the pandemic with digital programs, outdoor performances, and performances in museums. As audiences began returning to theaters, Jaffe curated programs that included classic ballets and diverse, innovative voices of today.

Jaffe was appointed Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre in December 2022 where her vision for ABT includes expanding the company’s audience reach, exploring diverse choreographers and styles, and embracing the digital realm of dance. 

The longest serving Ballerina in American Ballet Theatre’s 84-year history, she danced a vast repertoire of classical and neo-classical roles from 1985-2015, working closely with choreographers John Neumeier, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch, Stanton Welch AM, Alexei Ratmansky, Mark Morris, Nacho Duato, James Kudelka, Jorma Elo, Kevin McKenzie and others.

Ms. Kent also danced as an international Guest Artist with the Mariinsky Theatre, New York City Ballet, Teatro alla Scala, Stuttgart Ballet, Berlin Staatsballett, Australian Ballet, Houston Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballett, Teatro Colon, Ballet de Santiago and Tokyo Ballet.

She won the Prix de Lausanne (1986), Erik Bruhn Prize (1993) and was the first American dancer ever to win the Prix Benois de la Danse (2000). In 2012, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from Dance Magazine and was conferred an Honorary Doctorate from American University’s College of Arts and Sciences in 2023. Ms. Kent also starred in the films Dancers (1987) and Centerstage (2000).

From 2016-2023, she was Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet where she brought important classical and contemporary masterworks into the repertoire, commissioning over 26 world premieres. Julie Kent joined Houston Ballet as Artistic Director in July of 2023.

She married Victor Barbee, former Associate Artistic Director and Principal Dancer at ABT and former Associate Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet, in 1996 and they have 2 children.

Elisa Clark is an award-winning artist, educator, and administrator who trained at the Maryland Youth Ballet prior to receiving a B.F.A. from The Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy, with guidance from Carolyn Adams. She was a founding member and the company manager for Robert Battle’s Battleworks Dance Company and has served as Mr. Battle’s artistic assistant for over two decades.  She has been a featured company member with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Mark Morris Dance Group and Monica Bill Barnes & Co, a guest artist for Buglisi Dance Theater, and has performed with Nederlands Dans Theater and the Metropolitan Opera in works by Jiri Kylian and Crystal Pite respectively, amongst others.  As an educator and mentor, she has been on faculty at the School at Jacob’s Pillow, Princeton University, University of the Arts, American Dance Festival, Move NYC, Steps on Broadway, Gibney and Marymount Manhattan College to name a few, and has taught company class for MMDG, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ailey II, Ballet Hispanico, Gibney Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.  She is currently on the ballet faculty at the Ailey School, the Paul Taylor School, and the Mark Morris Dance Center, and was appointed Rehearsal Director for the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2024.  Ms. Clark is a répétiteur for both Battle and Morris’ works, serves on the advisory panel for Ballet Championships of America, and is also a Princess Grace Award Winner and then subsequently a Princess Grace Foundation panelist for Dance and Choreography, and is a Certified Life Coach.

Dana Tai Soon Burgess is a leading American choreographer and cultural figure. The Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman writes of Burgess, “Not only a Washington prize, but a national dance treasure.” Burgess directs the preeminent modern dance company of Washington, DC now in its 32nd season. As the Company’s Artistic Director, he creates contemporary modern dance works that explore the joy, sorrow and beauty of the human experience. In 2016, the Smithsonian named him the first ever choreographer-in-residence. Three portraits of Burgess reside in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian as well as his family archive.  He is also the host of slantpodcast.com which explores the lives and creative processes of prominent Asian American artists. 

Burgess has served as a Cultural Ambassador for the U.S. State Department for over two decades, an appointment he uses to promote international cultural dialogue through “the global language of dance.” He has been awarded and completed two Fulbright Senior scholarships for dance. He has also recently received two prestigious awards – the Selma Jeanne Cohen Dance Lecture Award and the Aaron Stein Memorial Award. His new memoir, Chino and the Dance of the Butterfly, received a Silver Medal IPPY Award in 2023. Burgess is a professor emeritus of dance.

The award-winning educator, dancer and choreographer has taught dance at the University of Maryland for four decades, as well as at organizations across the state, influencing thousands of young dancers. Mayes studied math at the University of Michigan before pursuing his passion for dance. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1978 to teach at the University of Maryland and to perform with Maryland Dance Theater, and found his first dance home at Dance Place. His areas of expertise include modern dance, partnering, choreography, performance coaching, ballet, voice and music composition, and he has studied under esteemed dancers, including Elizabeth Bergmann, Jan Van Dyke, Gloria Newman and Antony Tudor.

During his years at UMD, Mayes has led the production of more than 150 works, a number of which have been performed internationally. He has taught regularly across the Washington, D.C., area, including at the Maryland Youth Ballet, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Rockville, Montgomery College, Northwestern High School Center for Visual and Performing Arts and the Maryland Council of Dance. 

Throughout his career, Mayes has won numerous grants and awards, including two Greenbaum Charitable Foundation Grants in dance film and education; “Best of 2014” and “Best of 2012” honors by DC Metro Theater Arts for “The Me Nobody Knows” and “IN THE RED AND BROWN WATER,” co-directed by Mayes and TDPS Professor Scot Reese; a 2012 Outstanding Service Award by Maryland Council of Dance; and the 2011 Pola Nirenska Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance by the Washington Performing Arts Society; the 2023 Living Legacy Award from the Maryland Dance Education Association (MDEA), recognizing an individual’s body of work and their significant contributions to the field of dance education in the state of Maryland.  

Recently Mayes was awarded the 2025 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Creative Activity. The award recognizes his accomplishments as a scholar, educator, mentor and leader in the local dance community and beyond.