Position: Director of Education

Affiliation with organization: 2019 – Present

Years active at YAGP: 2016 – Present

CHRISTOPHER HIRD is from England and studied at The Royal Ballet School. He toured Europe as part of a company headlined by the internationally acclaimed ballerina, Sylvie Guillem. After retiring from the stage, Hird worked as the Assistant to the Director of the British Ballet Organization, and later as Assistant to the Development Manager at The Royal Ballet School. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from the University of Roehampton and a Diploma from Canada’s National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program.

Hird was appointed Director of Education for The Sarasota Ballet in July 2016. During his tenure he has enhanced the education and engagement programming including developing a new Trainee Program, introducing an International Intensive and overseeing the opening of a new studio location. Prior to joining The Sarasota Ballet, Hird was Artistic Manager and Head of Adult Programming for Boston Ballet School for 13 years. Hird led the artistic vision for the redesign of the Adult Dance Program as well as developed and enhanced the adult students’ engagement with Boston Ballet. Hird has staged ballets for The Sarasota Ballet’s Margaret Barbieri Conservatory and Boston Ballet School including Marius Petipa’s Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadère and Sir Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs, Les Rendezvous and La Fille mal Gardée. Hird was also a Children’s Ballet Master for Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker and La Sylphide. Hird has served on many international juries including the ADC International Ballet Competition, Seminario International de Dança de Brasilia (Brazil), Goiania Dance Festival (Brazil), Japan Grand Prix, and Surrey Festival of Dance (Canada). He has been a guest teacher for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Canada’s National Ballet School, Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre, Cecchetti Council of America and Harvard University.