Edwaard Liang
Artistic Director
A former dancer with New York City Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater, Edwaard Liang has built an international reputation as a choreographer. Over the last decade, he has created work for the Bolshoi Ballet, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Kirov Ballet, New York City Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Shanghai Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre and Washington Ballet.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan and raised in Marin County, California, Mr. Liang began his dance training at age five with Marin Ballet. After studying at the School of American Ballet, he joined New York City Ballet in 1993. That same year, he was a medal winner at the Prix de Lausanne International Ballet Competition and won the Mae L. Wien Award. By 1998, he was promoted to Soloist. In 2001, Mr. Liang joined the Tony Award® winning Broadway cast of Fosse. His performance in Fosse was later televised nationally on PBS’ Great Performances series – “Dance in America: From Broadway: Fosse,” and subsequently released on DVD. By 2002, Mr. Liang was invited by Jiri Kylian to become a member of the acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater 1.
While dancing with NDT 1, Mr. Liang discovered his passion and love for choreography. Since establishing himself as a choreographer, his works have been performed by dance companies around the world and he has won numerous awards for his choreography including the 2006 National Choreographic Competition.
In 2013, Mr. Liang was named Artistic Director at BalletMet where he continues to choreograph new works for companies both domestically and abroad. In 2017, he received an Emmy® Award for his short dance film, “Vaulted.” In 2018, he created a new ballet with Roberto Bolle for the opening of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Sue Porter
Executive Director
Sue Porter was named BalletMet’s Executive Director in August 2015. Sue is an attorney who started her legal career as an associate attorney and later a partner specializing in labor and employment law with Schottenstein, Zox & Dunn LPA (now Ice Miller LLP). In her over 30 years as an attorney, she has been recognized as a Leading Lawyer for Business in Chambers USA, as a Best Lawyer in America, an Ohio Super Lawyer, a Top 50 Women Lawyer in Ohio and a Top 25 Women Lawyer in Columbus. She also received a 40 under Forty Award and a Top Executive Women award from Business First. In 2018, she was recognized as a Smart Woman Award Honoree in the Progressive Woman category. Sue was a long time Board member with BalletMet and a number of other not-for-profit organizations including Dance/USA where she chaired the mid-size company Manager’s Council. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, Ohio Citizens for the Arts and the Columbus Bar Foundation. Sue and her husband, Mike Sayre, have three children and live in New Albany.
Susan Drominsky
Rehearsal Director
Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada, Susan Dromisky is a graduate of the National Ballet School of Canada and began her professional career shortly after graduation. She became a soloist in 1985 and was also a soloist dancer with the English National Ballet in 1985 – 1986. Some of her leading roles included Sugar Plum and Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Swanhilda in Erik Bruhn’s Coppelia, Teresina in Peter Schaufuss’ Napoli and Olga in John Cranko’s Onegin. Susan has worked directly with Rudolph Nureyev, Erik Bruhn, Sir Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, James Kudelka, Peter Schaufuss, Glen Tetley, Natalia Makarova, Brian MacDonald, David Allen, John Alleyne, Michael Clark and John McFall. Ms. Dromisky was a recipient of the Peter Dwyer Scholarship for High Excellence in Dance in 1978. She was also awarded a Canada Council Grant for the Arts in 1979. Upon retiring from the stage, she was a full-time artistic faculty member with the National Ballet School of Canada before coming to BalletMet in 1998. She was the director of the Trainee Program and the Senior Performance Ensemble.
Jonathan Jordan
Rehearsal Director
Jonathan Jordan was raised in Arizona, and began his ballet training at the age of 12 at the Academy Ballet of Tucson and the Phoenix School of Ballet. Three years later, he moved to Washington, DC, to attend The Kirov Academy of Ballet. Then Artistic Director, Mary Day, invited him to guest perform with The Washington Ballet, marking the beginning of his professional career.