13 Facts About Stoner Winslett

Stoner Winslett was born on 1958 and is an American former ballet dancer and the artistic director of the Richmond Ballet.

Stoner Winslett began dancing at the age of four, and operated her own ballet studio out of her parents' basement as a teenager.

Shortly after her college graduation, Stoner Winslett was hired as the assistant artistic director for the Richmond Ballet, a modest student company.

Stoner Winslett had been recommended the position by the mother of a classmate at Smith.

The artistic director resigned three months later, and Stoner Winslett took over her position at the age of 22.

In 1984, Stoner Winslett helped to found the Richmond Ballet's professional troupe, the first professional ballet company in the state of Virginia, consisting at the time of 12 dancers and a budget of $164,000.

Stoner Winslett thus created the Studio Series, a series of black box theater repertory performances to supplement the revenue of the main ballet.

Stoner Winslett began working on the piece, a four-movement work that attempts to trace over 200 years of ballet in the French, Russian, modern, and postmodern era, as part of an independent study project at Smith.

Stoner Winslett is known for her arrangement of The Nutcracker.

Stoner Winslett received a grant in 1999 to finish the piece and commemorate her 20th season with the Richmond Ballet.

Stoner Winslett used the grant to commission composer Jonathan Romeo to update Paganini's The Four Temperaments score for a contemporary audience.

That same year, Stoner Winslett was added to the Richmond Times-Dispatch Person of the Year Hall of Fame.

Stoner Winslett has four children, Alex, Caroline, Louise and Elizabeth, as well as four grandchildren.