Natalie Rouland

Dr. Natalie Rouland serves as Scholar in Residence at The Washington Ballet and Global Fellow at the Kennan Institute in Washington, D.C. She has taught Russian literature, language, and film courses at Wellesley College, Miami University, and Stanford University. She has held the Billington Fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the Fellowship for the Study of Russia and Ballet at New York University’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, the Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress, the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship in St. Petersburg, the Geballe Fellowship at the Stanford Humanities Center, and the IIE Fulbright Fellowship in Moscow. She is the author of numerous articles for academic and mainstream media and is currently completing her first book, Power on Pointe: Unmasking Russia’s Ballet Empire.

An internationally-recognized speaker, Rouland has presented her research at the Kennedy Center, the Russian Cultural Centre, the World Affairs Council, the Wilson Center, the Library of Congress, New York University, Stanford University, Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, the French and German embassies in Washington, D.C., the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Canada’s National Ballet School, and the Norwegian National Ballet. In recognition of her work with The Washington Ballet, Rouland was featured in Dance Magazine. Rouland has led a popular lecture series for The Washington Ballet in addition to co-hosting a digital dance program, Barre Talk, with Artistic Director Julie Kent. Drawing on her archival research and knowledge of the Stepanov choreographic notation, Rouland has advised on The Washington Ballet’s productions of The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and Giselle. She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.