Caroline Miller appointed Interim CEO of Birmingham Royal Ballet

Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) has appointed Caroline Miller as Interim CEO as it embarks on delivery of a new strategy.

Returning to the UK after just over a year as Executive Director of Orlando Ballet, Florida, Miller took up the 12-month position this week.

“The organisation is one of my favourite places and the role made sense, given I had such fresh experience with ballet,” Miller told AP. “This couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I’ll be working across the organisation on strengthening the long-term plan and delivering the new strategy.”

Miller’s dance background makes a change from previous Chief Executive, Jan Teo, who led the organisation from August 2015. Teo took on the role after two years’ experience on the BRB board and joined from Deutsche Bank, where she had been Chief Operating Officer.

BRB will re-join Arts Council England’s national portfolio in April 2018 on standstill funding, as work begins to extend its Hippodrome campus home into the new Dance Hub Birmingham. Due to open in April 2019, the hub plans to become the “busiest venue for dance in the UK outside of London”.

Career

From 2006 to 2016, Miller was Director of Dance UK, then the national support organisation for professional dance. Whilst in the role she worked alongside Nick Allen at the BRB’s Jerwood Centre for Prevention and Treatment of Dancers’ injuries to set up the National Institute of Dance Medicine and Science.

DanceUK merged with the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora, the National Dance Teachers Association, and Youth Dance England in 2015 to form OneDanceUK. The new organisation, which will be funded by the arts council as a sector support organisation from April, is preparing to relocate to Birmingham.

Miller began her career as a box office assistant in 1994, then worked as a theatre marketing manager and a publicist for arts venues including the Southbank Centre, Sadler’s Wells and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Alongside paid work, Miller is also Vice Chair of Studio Wayne McGregor, and has been a trustee of Akademi South Asian Dance UK, Tilted Productions and the Live Arts Development Agency. In January 2017, she was awarded an OBE for services to the arts in the Queen's New Year's Honours.

Speaking about her new appointment, Miller added: “I’m thrilled to be joining Birmingham Royal Ballet and to be working alongside such great artistic and administrative talent. To join David Bintley and the entire company at this critical moment when Birmingham’s dance scene is rapidly developing with the new Dance Hub is a privilege.”

Read Caroline Miller writing about her career ‘gurus’ in AP in 2016.