Maryhelen Mayfield

Maryhelen Mayfield (née Hanson; January 28, 1946 — November 22, 2024) was an American ballet dancer, choreographer, and artistic director. She was a dancer with Kansas City Ballet before moving to North Carolina to serve as both artistic and executive director of Greensboro Ballet. She served as the director of the ballet from 1980 until 2019, choreographing and staging over twenty-five original works.

Biography Mayfield grew up in Des Moines, Iowa. She began training in ballet when she was seven years old. There, she trained under Russian ballet mistress Tatiana Dokoudovska. In 1980, she danced in James DeBolt's The House of the Rising Sun, Mystic Journey, choreographed by Ronald M. Sequoio. While dancing in the ballet, she also worked as an arts administrator for the city of Kansas City, Kansas, across the Missouri River. Within her first month as a director, Mayfield choreographed a short ballet to premier as part of the ballet's inaugural season. In 1992 she was honored as an "outstanding North Carolina dance teacher" by the North Carolina School of the Arts. Mayfield choreographed and staged over twenty-five original works for Greensboro Ballet.

In June 2002 Mayfield spoke out in opposition to the Greensboro Cultural Center requiring fees to non-profit arts organizations. In 2015 Mayfield graduated from the Guilford Nonprofit Consortium's Executive Director Academy. She was a recipient of the Betty Cone Medal of the Arts Award in 2007.

In November 2019 Mayfield and Dennis left Greensboro Ballet. Mayfield was succeeded by ballet mistress and company member Jessica Fry McAlister as artistic director and by Jennifer Savage Gentry as executive director.