Linda Shelton is the executive director and a trustee of The Joyce Theater Foundation, a position she has held since 1993. Prior to this, she served as general manager of The Joffrey Ballet. Before The Joffrey, she managed tours for the Bolshoi Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, Moscow Virtuosi, Sankai Juku, and worked with Philip Glass productions. From 1982 – 1988, she held various management positions at The Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation.
Shelton began her work in the dance field as an intern at the New York State Council on the Arts, Dance Program. She holds a B.A. in dance from New York University where she has also completed work towards her M.A. in arts administration. Shelton currently sits on two prominent dance boards, Dance/NYC and Dance/USA. Since joining Dance/USA as a trustee (1996-2006), she chaired the National Roundtable, served as Chair of the Board from 2000-2002, and was reelected as a trustee in 2013.
In 1999, Shelton was appointed Chevalier of France’s Order of Arts and Letters for her contribution to furthering the arts. In 2004, she was the recipient of The Documents of Dance Award given by The Dance Library of Israel. With her leadership, The Joyce Theater received the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Liberty Award in 2011. Shelton received the 2015 “Ernie” Award for her work behind the scenes within the infrastructure of the dance field whose achievements have significantly empowered artists and supported their creativity individually or as a community. Most recently, Shelton was highlighted in “The Most Influential People in Dance Today” in the July 2017 issue of Dance Magazine.
Shelton is an adjunct professor in the graduate program of Performing Arts Administration at New York University and has taught at Marymount Manhattan College. She has served on panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, American Masters: Dance, Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Toyota Choreography Award in Tokyo, and twice served on the jury for the Benois de le danse in Moscow. In 2013, Shelton was appointed by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League to serve a three-year term as a Tony Award nominator.
back to Board of Trustees
