Jonathan Stafford

Career Stafford became an apprentice at New York City Ballet in October 1998, and joined the corps de ballet in February 1999. He became a soloist in 2006, and taught in the School of American Ballet as a guest faculty. The following year, he was promoted to principal dancer, and joined SAB's permanent faculty. He had danced lead roles in works by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Christopher Wheeldon. Stafford's younger-sister, Abi, was also a principal dancer at NYCB. However, they were rarely paired together.

In 2014, Stafford retired from dancing after a performance of Jewels. Abi Stafford and Sara Mearns danced with him in the "Emeralds" and "Diamonds" respectively. After that, he became a ballet master at NYCB. He brought in retired dancers who worked with Balanchine, such as Patricia McBride and Edward Villella, to coach the current dancers. In February 2019, Stafford was appointed artistic director of the NYCB and SAB, with Wendy Whelan as associate artistic director. The two said they intended to work as partners, Stafford would be in charge of artistic operations while Whelan supervises programming. This is the first NYCB leadership that had never worked with Balanchine.

Personal life In 2014, Stafford married Brittany Pollack, a soloist at NYCB. They have one child.

Stafford graduated summa cum laude from the Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies with a B.A. in Organizational Leadership.