Marin Arts School Taps Renowned Dancer For Administrative Role

SAN ANSELMO, CA — A former New York City Ballet dancer is leaving the bright lights of the big city for small town life in Marin.

Wilhelmina Frankfurt has taken an administrative role with San Anselmo’s Stapleton School of the Performing Arts.

Frankfurt is leaving a city of 8.2 million for a town of 12,525 to serve as the distinguished school’s co- artistic director.

She has been appointed to succeed Virginia Stapleton, the school’s founder and artistic director, who plans to retire in June, the school said in a statement announcing Frankfurt’s hiring.

Frankfurt is best known for her roles in the ballets now known as “Balanchine Black and White.”

She worked at the NYCB under the direction of George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins.

Frankfurt will serve as Stapleton’s second artistic director since the school opened its doors in 1988.

She is a known quantity to the Stapleton community, having served as a guest artistic director for nearly a decade.

“It is an honor to welcome an artist and educator of Ms. Frankfurt’s caliber to Stapleton,” Stapleton said in a statement.

“I can think of no one more qualified to preserve and grow our commitment to inclusiveness and respect while providing top-quality performing arts training for the wonderful community we have built together with our faculty, staff, students, families, and supporters.”

Frankfurt was artist-in-residence at academic institutions including Sarah Lawrence College, Vassar College, and The Masters School.

She has held faculty positions with Talent Unlimited High School for the Performing Arts, where she created a Balanchine Curriculum for the New York City Department of Education approved by the George Balanchine Trust.

She has served as Artistic Director of Catskill Ballet Theater, Artistic Advisor for Ulster Ballet Company, Co-Director of Woodstock Children’s Theater, and Director of Dance and Musical Theater for South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures & the Arts.

She is a licensed teacher in both Dance and Work-based learning who has been choreographing and directing dance and theater for over twenty-eight years.

Frankfurt serves on the advisory boards of Rosie’s Theatre Kids and MindLeaps.

She is a member of the nominating committee for the Chita Rivera Awards and an advisor for I Can Still Do That, a branch of the Florence Belsky Charitable Foundation.

For more information about Stapleton School of the Performing Arts visit here.