2024 NFB Dino Light Playbill - Other - Page 10
2024-2025 NFB ARTISTIC STAFF
Todd Eric Allen, Artistic Director/CEO
Todd Eric Allen is the Artistic Director/CEO of the Northwest Florida Ballet. He grew
up in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and began his training in classical ballet at the age
of 14 with Bernadette Clements. One year later he received a scholarship to attend
the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City, where he studied for five consecutive
years; he attended Virginia Intermont College as a scholarship student and was
awarded a Dance Magazine Scholarship in 1985 to the Choreographer’s Conference in
Geneva, New York.
Mr. Allen has danced with the Louisville Ballet, Boston Ballet and Les Grands Ballets
Canadiens and has performed as a guest artist and teacher throughout the U.S.,
Canada and Europe. He has also had the honor of performing at the prestigious
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., on two separate
occasions, for Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton. Allen has an extensive
background in the classics and Balanchine ballets, and has performed featured roles
in ballets by Elisa Monte, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Nacho Duato, James Kudelka,
Hans Van Manen and Lucinda Hughey. In May of 2000 Mr. Allen was one of fourteen dancers asked to perform
in Ocean Dance 2000 featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project. In 2004 he was invited to
perform with the Broadway cast in the Tony Award winning Musical, Movin’ Out, choreographed and directed
by Twyla Tharp, music by Billy Joel.
He has choreographed 30 original works and classical ballets and 8 operas, has taught at The USA International
Ballet Competition and many master classes and workshops in the US and internationally and has served on
the jury of NBA Ballet’s Japanese National Ballet Competition in Tokyo, Japan.
In the summer of 1995 Todd returned to his hometown of Fort Walton Beach, Florida as Artistic Director/CEO of
the Northwest Florida Ballet. Over the past 20 years, he has committed himself to his community by developing
young minds and bodies through innovative dance education programs, creating an awareness of dance in
Northwest Florida and exposing his audiences to a variety of classical and contemporary works. In 2003 Mr.
Allen received the Cox Bravo Champion of the Arts Award in Northwest Florida for his work in establishing the
NFB Académie, a free academic and artistic education elementary and middle school. He has also received the
Elvie DeMarko Dance Achievement Award from The Arts Council of Northwest Florida and has served on various
grant panels in the state of Florida for the Division of Cultural Affairs and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation in
Baltimore, Maryland. His ground-breaking work in arts education was featured in Dance Teacher magazine
(Nov, 2004) and in Teacher Magazine, a Department of Education publication (May 2005). The Northwest
Florida Ballet is now one of the largest and most respected arts organizations in Northwest Florida and has
received national recognition for its innovative programs.
