Directors & Staff
Ilona Copen / Eleanor D'Antuono / Igor Youskevitch
Board of Directors / Artistic Board / Staff
Ilona Copen
Founder/Executive Director
New York International Ballet Competition
Ilona Copen, founder and Executive Director of New York International Ballet Competition, Inc., is the U.S. Representative and President of the International Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute - UNESCO. Ms. Copen is a founding member of the World Dance Alliance and a member of its board. She has served as Director of Dance at the 92nd Street Y, President of Dance Magazine Foundation, and President of the U.S. Chapter of the Conseil International de la Danse. She attended Juilliard and received a B. de Rothschild scholarship for her training at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.
As a dancer, Ms. Copen performed with numerous modern dance companies and taught extensively throughout the United States and Europe. She has acted as director, stage manager, production manager, and rehearsal mistress. Ms. Copen currently serves on the board of various dance companies and as a jury member of international ballet and choreographic competitions. She is currently Chairperson of the International Relations Committee of WDA Americas.
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Eleanor D'Antuono
Artistic Director
New York International Ballet Competition
Eleanor D'Antuono was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and studied dance with Maria Papporello and E. Virginia Williams who later founded the Boston Ballet. At age 14, she began her professional career with Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. Within two years, she was performing solo roles in the Company's full repertoire and on a world tour. After dancing a season with the Robert Joffrey Ballet, Ms. D'Antuono joined American Ballet Theatre as a soloist in 1961. She was promoted to Principal Dancer in 1963. In 20 years as a professional dancer with ABT she received accolades from public and press alike. "Eleanor D'Antuono has long been one of the glories of American Ballet Theatre. She has a style and beauty that are all her own...her technique is stunning," said the New York Times. Her leading roles have included Coppelia, Giselle, Raymonda, the Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Les Sylphides, Tales Of Hoffman, and La Fille Mal Gardee. Inspired by her fiery virtuosity and her unique lyricism, many leading choreographers created original roles for Ms. D'Antuono in ballets such as Alvin Ailey's The River, Brahms Quartet, Elektra, Balladen de Lieber, Kinderzanen and Lorenzo Monreal's Romeo and Juliet. Other ballets in Ms. D'Antuono's repertoire included La Bayadere, Etudes, Jardin Aux Lilas, Corsaire, Diane and Acteon and Don Quixote. Ms. D'Antuono has been invited to perform all over the world. She appeared at the International Ballet Festival in Havana for several years. She was the first American ballerina to appear as a guest artist with legendary Kirov Ballet in Leningrad and the first American ballerina to appear as a guest artist with Chinese Companies. Since her retirement from active performing Ms. D'Antuono has been Artistic Director to Festival Dance Theatre and Artistic Advisor to New Jersey Ballet, also Resident Coach and Artistic Advisor for the Nutmeg Ballet. She is highly in demand to coach professional and regional ballet companies nationwide and has staged many classical ballets. Her affiliations include serving on the board for Harkness Ballet Foundation and the New York Council on the Arts.
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Igor Youskevitch (1912-1994)
Artistic Director (1983-1994)
New York International Ballet Competition
Igor Youskevitch, the first Artistic Director of New York International Ballet Competition, is remembered for his 60-year career as a world-renowned ballet performer and teacher. He has been universally recognized and acclaimed for his monumental contribution to classical dance and to the creation of a dance audience in the United States. Mr. Youskevitch started his performing career in 1934 with Les Ballets de Paris. In 1937, he joined the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo under the direction of Leonid Massine. He became one of the great premier danseurs with the Ballet Russe and subsequently with American Ballet Theatre. Mr. Youskevitch was a cherished partner of such legendary ballerinas as Alicia Markova, Mia Slavenska, Tamara Toumanova, Nathalie Krassovska and Alexandra Danilova. His legendary partnership with Alicia Alonso was one of the most celebrated partnerships in ballet history. After a brilliant international performing career, Mr. Youskevitch became a teacher, founding the Igor Youskevitch School of Ballet with his wife, Anna Scarpova, in New York City where, for many years he shared his wisdom and technique with new students. During that period, he and his wife also directed their own company, Ballet Romantique. He subsequently began teaching at the University of Texas where a dance scholarship has been established in his honor, and where he was Professor Emeritus. Mr. Youskevitch was a recipient of many awards, including the Dance Magazine Award in 1958, and the Capezio Award in 1990. He was the author of many articles on ballet, a choreographer, master teacher, and most important to us, he was the first Artistic Director of the New York International Ballet Competition. In that capacity he enriched the dance world by teaching and inspiring the New York International Ballet Competition dancers from all over the world, passing on the secrets of his art, acquired over many years.
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Board of Directors
Ian Archer-Watters
Brad Bousquet
Ilona Copen
James A. Goldstein
Karin Greene
Susan Jannetta
Samuel Myers
Katelin Teller
Barbara Ley Toffler
Reginald Van Lee
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Artistic Board
Frank Andersen
Fernando Bujones (1984-2005)
Lucia Chase (1983-1986)
Ilona Copen
Alexandra Danilova (1983-1994)
Eleanor D'Antuono
Frederick Franklin
Judith Fugate
Cynthia Gregory
Marilyn Hunt
Virginia Johnson
Sean Lavery
Robert Lindgren
Oliver Smith (1983-1996)
Ben Stevenson
Denise Jackson Sutherland
Violette Verdy
Igor Youskevitch (1983-1994)
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Staff
Ilona Copen, Executive Director [email]
Eleanor D'Antuono, Artistic Director
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