Artistic Director
Last November Lynn Parkerson, Founder and Artistic Director of Brooklyn Ballet, was honored to be invited to present her latest work “Unnatural Surrounding” at the Brooklyn Academy of music (BAM). The piece, performed live with poet Jasmine Mans, celebrated the 1619 Project Book Launch of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. In 2018 Lynn was invited by the City of Munich for a 12-week artist residency at the Villa Waldberta including a culminating performance of “Kunst oder Unfall” (Art or Accident) at the Schamrock Women’s Poetry Festival, White Box Munich.
Lynn Parkerson began ballet studies as a child with Barbara Bounds in Chapel Hill, NC. She later danced with the Boston and Chicago Ballets, performing many Nutcrackers and Balanchine ballets. In New York City, she was a trainee at the Harkness House for Ballet Arts and on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham School, where she studied technique and learned repertory. Ms. Parkerson began to choreograph while living in Munich, Germany. Her work has been presented at many prominent international events and venues, including the Munich Theater Festival, Frankfurt’s Theatre am Turm, the Florence International Festival of Dance, Moers New Jazz Festival, Jazz Festival Baden-Baden and An Appalachian Summer Arts Festival in Boone, NC, among others. In New York City, she presented annual dance programs — notably the popular ballet series To the Pointe — as Director of Dance at Holy Trinity from 1991–2001. She was on the faculty at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center from 1989–1996 and then served as its Assistant Director from 1996–1999. In recognition of her exceptional leadership contributions to Brooklyn’s cultural community, Ms. Parkerson received the Betty Smith Arts Award as part of the Women’s “Herstory” Induction Ceremony in 2007 and in 2006 she received the Paul Robeson Award for Artistic Excellence and Community Service.
