Two key appointments at National Youth Ballet of Great Britain

Barbara Palczynski becomes Chief Executive and Vanessa Vince-Pang joins the board of trustees

Barbara Palczynski has been announced as the new Chief Executive of National Youth Ballet (NYB). In this new role she will work with the Creative Director and board of trustees to lead NYB in providing empowering and transformational opportunities for young people to learn about dance and ballet and experience creating and performing new work.

Barbara has worked for over 25 years with classical music organisations including London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Philharmonia Orchestra delivering large-scale projects ranging from orchestral to opera, cross-arts, multi-media and digital. Always committed to talent development, she set up and managed the International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation to model a professional development programme for emerging conductors including Gustavo Dudamel, and as Producer at Sound and Music she commissioned and supported emerging composers. Since 2016 Barbara has been the Managing Director of Creative Society, an arts employment charity that supports fair access for young people to develop their creative talents and careers.

Barbara said of her new position:
“I believe passionately in the power of the arts to transform lives and I bring with me a firm commitment to equality of opportunity and to the importance of wellbeing. I look forward to leading National Youth Ballet and forging dynamic partnerships across the UK that will place young people centre stage in our collective journey towards culture recovery. I will work with arts organisations across the sector to ensure that we are nurturing potential from within all our communities and building an ecosystem around dance which invests in a diverse talent pipeline of future dancers, choreographers, musicians, composers, directors and cultural leaders.”

NYB is also pleased to announce that celebrated dancer Vanessa Vince-Pang will join the board of trustees. Vanessa is an alumna of NYB and recently led a masterclass during NYB’s 2021 online Easter Masterclass Series and was an ambassador for the 2020 Choreographic Challenge. She is a dancer with the Akram Khan Company, following a decade as leading dancer with Phoenix Dance Theatre. In August 2018 Vanessa was Dancing Times, Dancer of the Month and later that year nominated at the acclaimed National Dance Awards, Critics’ Circle.

Chair of NYB, Patricia Castanha, said of the appointments:
“At this pivotal moment in NYB’s history we are delighted to welcome both Barbara and Vanessa to the team. These appointments come after NYB has continued to deliver high quality opportunities for young dancers during the Covid crisis. We look forward to working with Barbara and Vanessa to further build on these achievements, making NYB a truly national company that continues to increase equality, diversity and inclusion.”