Co-Founder and Principal Instructor
William Starrett is a NANOE-certified Nonprofit Executive and serves as Chief Executive Officer and Artistic Director of South Carolina Ballet. The 2024–2025 season marks William’s 39th performance season with the company. He first appeared as a guest artist with South Carolina Ballet in 1977 and has since served the organization as Artist-in-Residence, Associate Director, Premier Danseur, Artistic Director, and Executive Director. Appointed Artistic Director in 1986, he is only the second Artistic Director in the company’s 65-year history and has now served longer than the founding Artistic Director, Ann Brodie.
Mr. Starrett’s professional dance career includes earning the bronze medal at the inaugural U.S. International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1979. Widely regarded as the equivalent of the Olympics in the dance world, the competition launched his international career. He went on to become one of the most active and respected guest artists of his generation. In 1984, Dance Magazine profiled Starrett as a freelance artist performing across the country and abroad, noting his extensive repertoire and demanding performance schedule.
Throughout his career, Starrett has performed in all 50 states and 29 countries, appearing on many of the world’s most notable stages, including Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Metropolitan Opera House, Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, and major opera houses in San Francisco, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City. In recognition of his experience and contribution to the field, the U.S. International Ballet Competition invited him to return as an adjudicator for the 2023 competition.
Since 1988, William has choreographed more than 25 full-length ballets for South Carolina Ballet, including audience favorites Dracula: Ballet with a Bite and Off the Wall & Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green. He is also the founder of the company’s Educational Outreach & Engagement Series and has created more than 24 original educational ballets. Over the past 34 years, the program has provided curriculum-based arts education to more than half a million students across South Carolina.
In addition to his professional and artistic work, William is a graduate of Leadership Columbia and a founding director and principal faculty member of the Columbia Conservatory of Dance. His commitment to arts education and community service has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Governor’s Award for the Arts, the Steve Morrison Visionary Award, a Jefferson Award, and the RICE Award from the Lowcountry Rice Culture Project. William also continues to support and promote the arts locally through his weekly ArtsWatch segment on WACH-TV, highlighting artists and cultural organizations throughout the Midlands.