Sally Bliss

Sally Bliss
Executive Director Emeritus of Dance St Louis and Trustee at the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust

Sally Bliss is the Executive Director Emeritus of Dance St Louis, serving from 1995 to June 30, 2006. She currently serves as a Trustee at the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust and is the worldwide executor and administrator of rights to Tudor Ballets which has more than 120 companies of national and international stature that currently maintains Tudor works in their active repertories. It includes American Ballet Theatre, The Kirov Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, San Francisco Ballet, The Royal Ballet.

Bliss was cofounder and Artistic Director of the Jofferey II Dancers which developed into a major component for the Joffery Ballet.

Bliss has produced annual New York seasons at the Joyce Theatre, Brooklyn Center for Performing Arts, Brooklyn College and Hancher Auditorium and the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. She also developed long-term residency programs with University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin, Dance St Louis, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (Los Angeles) and short-term residencies throughout the United States and Canada

She was appointed to a six-year term on the National Council on the Arts from 1987 to 1994 by President Reagan. The Council makes final recommendations on all National Endowment for the Arts Grant recipients. She was also a member of the 1997 Millennium Leadership Initiative Panel.Her professional commitments include working as a soloist and guest artist with the National Ballet of Canada, The Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, New York City Opera, Summer Stock, television -- CBC, Toronto, Montreal, Canada and ABC New York. She also is a Lecturer of Performing Arts at Washington University, St Louis, Missouri.

Bliss is a member of the following:

Board of Trustees, Paul Taylor Dance Company
Advisory Council member of the School of Dance in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Member of the National Society of Arts and Letters St. Louis Chapter
Advisory Board member, Regional Dance America
Board of Directors and Artistic Advisor, San Diego Academy of Ballet and Ballet Theatre
Advisory Council member of Lotte Goslar’s Pantomine Circus
Advisor to the Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company,
Honorary Advisory Board, Opera New Brunswick (Canada).

She has also served on the Boards of Dance U.S.A, Washington/New York; New England College, Heineker, New Hampshire; Foundation for the Joffrey Ballet New York; Board of Visitors North Carolina School of the Arts; Advisory Board Member, The Kathryn and Gilbert Miller Health Care Institute for Performing Artists St Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital Center (New York)

Among her honors and awards are:

1988 -- The Woman of the Year, Canadian Women’s Club of New York
1992 -- The 10th Annual Service Award, Dance Notation Bureau N.Y.
2000 -- YWCA Academy of Leaders--Arts-St Louis, Missouri
2001 -- Arts and Education Council, Excellence in the Arts, given to Dance St.Louis
2001 -- Missouri Citizens for the Arts 2001, MO Arts Advocacy Award to Dance St Louis.

Bliss was married to the late Anthony A. Bliss, former General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera. She has two sons, Mark and Timothy and two granddaughters, McKenna and Parker. On August 29, 1998 she married Jim Connett, program director and broadcaster KFUO FM Classic 99, radio station, St Louis Missouri.

She loves mentoring talent in all art forms. In her “spare” time she enjoys reading, is an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan and especially loves her cats Fleury and Tudor.