Elena Marchetti
Artistic Director
Competitive dancer, classical student, professional performer, choreographer, educator, adjudicator and studio director. Leads ABA’s artistic and adjudication standard.
About American Ballet Awards
A new standard in ballet competition.
Distinguished in excellence, generous in opportunity, and devoted to the future of every dancer who takes our stage.
- People
- Ideas
- Performance
- Possibility
Our philosophy
“We believe excellence and opportunity should belong to every dancer.”
At American Ballet Awards, competition is not simply about placement. It is about growth, artistry, courage, and the confidence built by stepping onto a stage and allowing yourself to be seen.
Every dancer arrives with a different story, a different path, and a different dream. Our responsibility is to create an environment where each of them is treated with respect, challenged to rise to their potential, and given access to opportunities that can shape their future.
We hold our dancers to an exceptional standard while ensuring the experience remains encouraging, inspiring, and deeply rooted in the love of ballet. Because while awards recognize a moment of achievement, the confidence, discipline, and artistry developed along the way can last a lifetime.
Every dancer deserves their moment.
Every dancer deserves the opportunity to become more.
Artistic Director
Elena Marchetti
Artistic Director & Co-Founder
Elena’s career has been shaped by dance from nearly every side of it — as a nationally recognized competitive dancer, as a student in elite classical training, as a professional performer and choreographer, and for the last fifteen years as an educator, adjudicator and studio director.
She founded American Ballet Awards because she remembers what it felt like to be the young dancer standing in the wings — and because she believes a competition can be held to an exceptional standard while still being the most encouraging room a dancer enters all year.
She leads ABA’s adjudication standard, curates the master class programme, and personally selects the panel at every event.
“Where recognition was meaningful, education was integral, and opportunity extended beyond the dancers who stood at the top of the podium.”
Our founders
Founded by two women
whose lives were shaped by dance.
From nationally recognized competitive training and elite ballet education to professional performance, choreography, teaching, adjudication, and the development of generations of young dancers.
Katherine Reyes
Executive Director
University dance faculty, former company member and long-time programme director. Leads ABA’s scholarship fund, training partnerships and the national tour.
With experience spanning the competition stage, prestigious ballet institutions, professional companies, university education, and some of the country’s most respected dance training environments, our founders have experienced the dance world from nearly every perspective: as students, competitors, professionals, educators, mentors, judges, and studio leaders.
Most importantly, they remember what it felt like to be the young dancer standing in the wings. American Ballet Awards was created from that perspective.
Featured adjudicators
The panel behind the standard.
American Ballet Awards brings together accomplished professionals, respected educators and leading voices from today’s dance industry. Panels are curated per event — the adjudicators below appear across the 2026 season.
Nadia Volkonsky
Former Principal Dancer
Ballet Master
Nineteen seasons as a principal across two national companies, with a repertoire spanning the Petipa canon. Now coaches variations and repertoire at conservatory level and adjudicates internationally.
Marcus Aldridge
Artistic Director
Regional Ballet Company
Former soloist turned artistic director, and a frequent guest teacher at pre-professional programmes. Casts and hires from the student field every season, and adjudicates with an eye to readiness for company life.
Dr. Priya Raghunathan
Professor of Dance
Dance Science & Pedagogy
University dance faculty specialising in pointe readiness, adolescent training load and injury prevention. Advises ABA on its pointe and safety policy alongside her work on the panel.
Yuki Tanaka
Contemporary Choreographer
Répétiteur
Creates for companies and conservatories across three continents and stages her work on student ensembles each season. Adjudicates the contemporary and ensemble categories.
Camille Duforte
School Director
Classical Ballet Academy
Directs a classical academy of some three hundred students and has guided dancers into trainee and second-company programmes for two decades. Speaks for the training side of the panel.
Terrence Blake
Former Soloist
Partnering & Pas de Deux
A career built on partnering, now the coach studios call before a pas de deux goes on stage. Adjudicates the Pas de Deux and Duet categories and teaches the partnering master classes.
Sofía Herrera
Competitive Dance Educator
Multidisciplinary Training
Two decades inside high-level multidisciplinary studios, training dancers who compete across ballet, contemporary and jazz. Brings the Premiere Division’s training reality to the panel.
Julian Ostrowski
Ballet Master
Summer Intensive Director
Runs one of the country’s larger summer intensives and selects its scholarship cohort each year. Sits on the panel and carries training opportunities back from every event.
Adjudication panels are confirmed for each event and published ahead of the registration deadline. Not every adjudicator appears at every event.
Who we are
Where today’s stars open doors for the stars of tomorrow.
American Ballet Awards is a premier ballet competition and educational experience created to discover, celebrate, and develop the next generation of dancers.
We know the anticipation before the curtain rises. We know the discipline behind the performance, the disappointment that can follow a difficult day, and the confidence that can be born from one extraordinary opportunity. That perspective shapes everything we do.
ABA brings together accomplished professionals, respected educators, and leading voices from today’s dance industry to recognize emerging talent and invest in its future.
Our commitment
What we envisioned.
We envisioned a competition where exceptional standards and genuine encouragement could exist together. Where dancers from every background could enter the theater knowing they belonged there. Where recognition was meaningful, education was integral, and opportunity extended beyond the dancers who stood at the top of the podium.
Our commitment is to connect the experience and artistry of today’s accomplished professionals with the ambition and potential of tomorrow’s dancers — creating opportunities, opening doors, and helping young artists see just how far their training can take them.
A higher standard for a brighter stage.
Excellence inspires tomorrow.
American Ballet Awards represents a new standard in ballet competition. Bring your training to a stage built for what comes next.