Toby Ansin Archives | Miami City Ballet

MCB Celebrates 30th Anniversary

As Miami City Ballet celebrates its new season – and 30th anniversary – founder Toby Lerner Ansin keeps dancers on their toes

Miami City Ballet founder Toby Lerner Ansin was thrilled to win the prestigious Dance/USA Champion Award earlier this year at Pérez Art Museum Miami. But she got an even bigger kick out of her daughter Stephanie’s introductory speech.

“It was really phenomenal,” says Lerner, 74, a cultural pioneer whose MCB launched 30 years ago. “Everyone was complimenting me on what a beautiful job she’d done.”

For Ansin, ballet and family are intertwined. Stephanie Ansin is following in her mother’s cultural footsteps as founder/artistic director of the Miami Theater Center, and Ansin’s granddaughter studies ballet at the Miami Conservatory – the same place Toby did.

MCB Founder Toby Lerner Ansin to be Honored by Dance/USA

Washington, DC – Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, is pleased to announce the 2015 Dance/USA Honorees:

Trisha Brown, founding artistic director and choreographer, Trisha Brown Dance Company, will receive the Dance/USA Honor Award in absentia.
Linda Shelton, executive director, The Joyce Theater Foundation, will receive the Dance/USA Ernie Award.
Raven Wilkinson, whose talent and skill enabled her to become the first African American woman to break the color line and dance with a major classical ballet company, will receive the Dance/USA Trustees Award.
Toby Lerner Ansin, founder, Miami City Ballet, will receive the Dance/USA Champion Award.

The awards will be given on Wednesday, June 17, 2015 at the Opening Night Celebration, which kicks off the 2015 Dance/USA Annual Conference being held June 17-20, 2015 in Miami, Florida. The Dance/USA Annual Conference is the country’s broadest gathering of dance professionals, offering expertise from industry leaders, enriching professional development, and the tools to move the dance field forward. Early Bird Rates for the 2015 Annual Conference are available until April 17, 2015.