David Gray
Executive Director
David Gray was raised in Princeton, NJ, and attended Johns Hopkins University. Following graduation, he moved to New York. He worked in the Publicity Department of Doubleday Publishing before joining the Press Office of New York City Ballet, where he soon became Press Director. He also met and married New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Kyra Nichols.
Upon the birth of their first child, Gray became a full-time parent so that his wife could return to her performing career. He also pursued his passion for writing and published Escape From Verona: Romeo and Juliet Part Two, a novel that required years of research, including visits to Italy.
After they moved to the town where he grew up, Gray became the Executive Director of American Repertory Ballet and their Princeton Ballet School.
Gray then opened a consulting firm, Finance Arts LLC, where he combined his interests in finance and nonprofit management. He served as an itinerant Interim Executive Director for several nonprofits, including the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault, The New Brunswick Cultural Center (where he was landlord for three theaters), and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to teaching nonprofit management and finance classes, he wrote the Finance Arts Guide to Nonprofit Cash Flow, published in 2010.
What began as an interim position with the Pennsylvania Ballet (now Philadelphia Ballet) became permanent until his wife was offered a tenured faculty position at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Gray returned to full-time parenting as a trailing spouse when they moved to Indiana in 2017. He and his youngest son built a batting cage, and Gray spent many hours throwing baseballs for batting practice (sometimes even hitting the strike zone).
During covid lockdowns, Gray wrote screenplays, two of which were optioned, and a third, Chelsea and Charles, sold and is in production for release in 2023.
Now empty-nesters, Gray returns to the energy and excitement of the ballet world and is overjoyed to have been chosen for his role at Kansas City Ballet.