Stepping into Leadership
- Raising Leaders
Julia Rowe’s Raising Leaders Journey
For the past two seasons, in addition to their work as full-time Company members, Soloist Julia Rowe and Principal Dancer Sasha De Sola have been inaugural Raising Leaders fellows—SF Ballet’s leadership development initiative. This May marks the culmination of Julia’s fellowship, a milestone moment for her and the Company.
Raising Leaders is a tailored professional and personal development program designed for SF Ballet dancers who aspire to make a meaningful impact within the dance world and the wider arts sector. Conceived by Artistic Director Tamara Rojo and Program Lead Kerry Nicholls, it offers a rare opportunity for artists to step beyond the stage, deepen their self-awareness, and cultivate the skills, confidence, and vision needed to shape their futures.
Over two seasons, fellows are supported through an adaptive and highly personalized framework that is experiential, reflective, and grounded in contemporary leadership practices. The bespoke curriculum combines mentorship, executive coaching, tailored leadership training, and immersive experiences that expand participants’ understanding of both organizational and artistic leadership at the highest levels. While continuing to perform, fellows engage in one-on-one coaching, observational opportunities, and cross-sector dialogue that broadens their perspective as artists, collaborators, and emerging leaders.
As a member of the inaugural cohort, Julia focused her Raising Leaders journey on Operations, gaining insight into the structures and systems that sustain a world-class ballet company. To deepen her experience, she attended the Positioning Ballet leadership conference in Amsterdam, worked closely alongside SF Ballet staff in a hands-on, behind-the-scenes exploration of strategic planning and organizational management, and connected with mentors at Stanford University and LinkedIn.
Principal Dancer Sasha De Sola’s fellowship concluded last summer and followed her own bespoke track with a focus on Artistic Leadership, pursuing executive coaching research at Stanford and undertaking residencies with the Royal Swedish Ballet and Dutch National Ballet. Their parallel yet distinct trajectories underscore the program’s individualized design and its commitment to empowering artists to define leadership on their own terms.
Reflecting on her time in the program, Julia shares: “The Raising Leaders program educates, nurtures, and inspires the next generation of leaders in our industry. It has expanded my understanding of leadership and enabled me to put ideas into action.” Through the fellowship, she strengthened her creative problem-solving skills, explored ways to elevate diverse voices in the arts, and built meaningful connections that will continue to shape her path.
Her capstone project, developed as the culmination of her two-year journey, provides an opportunity to put her focus on Operations into practice. She took the lead in producing the Orchestra’s Chamber Concert at the Legion of Honor on April 18.
As Julia’s fellowship draws to a close, Raising Leaders stands as a testament to San Francisco Ballet’s investment in the holistic development of its artists—onstage and beyond—and to the thoughtful, forward-looking leadership Julia brings to the next chapter of her career.
