DANCE DATA PROJECT® RELEASES 6TH ANNUAL LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONS DATA BYTE, FINDING U.S. AHEAD OF GLOBAL PEERS IN FEMALE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR APPOINTMENTS
Northfield, IL | December 23, 2025 | Dance Data Project® (DDP) today announced the release of its 6th annual Leadership Transitions Data Byte, documenting leadership changes across the dance field, occurring in 2025 or announced for 2026 and beyond. The analysis examines appointments, departures, and transitions among key leadership roles, including Artistic Directors, Executive Directors, Resident Choreographers, Associate Artistic Directors, Rehearsal Directors, and School Directors.
The Data Byte spans international and U.S.-based ballet and contemporary/modern companies, as well as prominent schools and conservatories, offering a comprehensive view of how leadership structures are evolving across the field. In addition to tracking appointments, DDP evaluates and compares the tenure length of departing Artistic and Executive Directors, providing insight into leadership stability, turnover, and institutional continuity.
“Leadership transitions are moments of both vulnerability and possibility for dance organizations,” said Bailey Walker, Report Lead and DDP’s Archivist. She expanded, “By examining who is appointed, how frequently leadership changes occur, and how long directors remain in their roles, this Data Byte helps contextualize individual announcements within broader structural patterns shaping the field.”
Overall, the 2025 findings reveal a notable contraction in leadership movement compared with the previous year. Appointments to leadership positions declined significantly from 2024 to 2025 across multiple roles. Artistic Director appointments decreased from 55 to 48, Executive Director appointments fell from 36 to 24, and School Director appointments declined from 24 to 17, signaling a slowdown in leadership turnover across the sector.
The Data Byte also highlights shifting gender dynamics among artistic director appointments. In 2025, 29 male Artistic Directors and 18 female Artistic Directors were announced, compared with 38 male and 14 female appointments in 2024. Taken together, male Artistic Director appointments declined by 23 percent year over year, while female Artistic Director appointments increased by 28.57 percent. However, progress remains uneven across roles: female School Director appointments continued to decline in 2025, reinforcing a trend first identified in last year’s Leadership Transitions Data Byte.
This year’s findings also identify stark geographic differences in gender representation among Artistic Director appointments. In 2025, international Artistic Director appointments skewed heavily male, with 21 male Artistic Directors appointed compared with just 4 female Artistic Directors. In contrast, U.S.-based companies announced 12 female Artistic Director appointments and 8 male appointments. These findings highlight how gender dynamics in leadership vary significantly by region, even as overall appointment numbers decline.
As in prior editions, the 2025 Data Byte highlights directors who began their tenures in interim or acting roles and were subsequently promoted to permanent leadership positions between 2025 and 2026. DDP notes that leadership announcements vary widely in the amount of publicly available information. In instances where a successor has not been announced, roles are marked as “Unknown,” with an asterisk (*) used to indicate whether a national or international search is currently underway.
“Tracking leadership transitions over time allows us to see beyond individual headlines and better understand how power, opportunity, and stability are distributed across the dance field,” said Liza Yntema, Founder and President of Dance Data Project®. She continued, “This research underscores where meaningful progress is being made, where momentum has stalled, and where deeper structural barriers continue to shape who leads—and who is positioned to lead—our cultural institutions.”
The full 6th annual Leadership Transitions Data Byte is available at dancedataproject.com/research.
