William Starrett is a NANOE-certified Nonprofit Executive and South Carolina Ballet’s Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director. This is William’s 38th performance season at South Carolina Ballet. First appearing as a guest artist with Columbia City Ballet in 1977, Starrett has served as Artist-in-Residence, Associate Director, Premiere Danseur, Artistic Director, and Executive Director over the intervening years. Named Artistic Director in 1986, he is only the 2nd Artistic Director in the Company’s 65-year history and has now served longer than the founding Artistic Director, Anne Brodie.
Mr. Starrett’s storied dancing career saw him win the bronze medal at the first US International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1979. Equivalent to the Olympics in the dance world, this bronze medal, the first awarded in the United States, effectively catapulted Starrett to Olympian status. Subsequently, he became one of the most prolific and proficient guest artists in the world. In 1984, Dance Magazine profiled William and described him as a “fully free-lance dancer jetting to a from cities like some people drive to the drugstore…. a man who has been whisked off the stage after a matinee in Detroit and flown to Atlanta for a performance that same night. Have repertoire, will travel.” And travel he did! Starrett has performed in 29 countries and all 50 states and graced the most notable stages in the world including Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the New York Met, State Theater, London’s Sadlers Wells Theater, and opera houses in San Francisco, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City. The US International Ballet Competition remains one of the world’s most prestigious ballet competitions, and they invited William to return as an Adjudicator for the 2023 competition.
Since 1988 William has choreographed more than 25 full-length ballets for the South Carolina Ballet repertoire. including audience favorites, Dracula: Ballet with a Bite, Off the Wall & Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green. He founded the company’s Educational Outreach & Engagement Series and over the past 34 years has created more than 24 educational outreach ballets. The Series has provided quality, curriculum-driven arts education to over half a million students since its inception.
In addition to being a NANOE-certified Nonprofit Executive, William is a graduate of Leadership Columbia, founder of the AIDS Benefit Foundation of SC, a member of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, Columbia Rotary Club Board Member, Columbia Executive & Owners Association, and Founding Director and principal faculty member of the Columbia Conservatory of Dance. He is a recipient of the Governor’s Award for the Arts, South Carolina’s most prestigious arts award, the Steve Morrison Visionary Award for One Columbia, a 2019 Jefferson Award for his tremendous contributions to the community, and the RICE Award presented by the Lowcountry Rice Culture Project in recognition of exemplifying the qualities of inclusion, culture, and excellence. William continues to serve the public through his weekly ArtsWach on WACHTV-57, which showcases artists and cultural events of every genre here in the capital city.