Arantxa Ochoa with students at the School of Pennsylvania Ballet
After retiring from Pennsylvania Ballet as a principal dancer in 2012, Arantxa Ochoa became principal instructor at the newly reopened School of Pennsylvania Ballet (full story in DT November 2012). This fall, she takes over as director.
The promotion comes from Pennsylvania Ballet’s new artistic director, former American Ballet Theatre principal Ángel Corella. He stepped into his new role last month, following longtime director Roy Kaiser’s resignation.
Corella is making some major changes at the company, namely hiring relatively young dancers to the staff (which meant letting go of some established employees). Julia Diana—who retired last spring as a principal dancer with the company—and her husband Zachary Hench—still a principal, for now—will take over as ballet mistress and master. “We have to look into the future and try to do things a bit more edgy,” Corella told KYW Newsradio, “things that will attract new audiences.”
Photo by Matthew Murphy for Dance Teacher