Dancer Turned Leader Aims To Make People Fall In Love With the Houston Ballet and the Bayou City’s Arts Power — Sonja Kostich Delves Into Her Ambitious Mission

One year ago, a new trailblazer arrived in Houston. Former ballerina Sonja Kostich, who later earned degrees in accounting and arts administration, took the reins of Houston Ballet as executive director, making her responsible for the storied ballet company’s strategic planning, marketing, development and fiscal health.

Meeting her — pretty, with the lovely posture of a dancer — you discover an unusual blend of seriousness about the task before her and the heart of an artist.

Topping Kostich’s ambitious list of goals is what she calls a “brand refresh” to reshape Houston Ballet’s public identity and how the company is perceived. At the core of it is both a question and a goal. “How do we make people fall in love with us?” is how Kotsich puts it.

Significantly, she doesn’t say “fall in love with ballet.” Her vision places Houston Ballet’s meaning beyond dance as an art form and the works audiences see on the Wortham Theater stage.

Sonja Kostich tells PaperCity more in a one-on-one interview that delves into the future of the company and its place in Houston and the performing arts world. 

PaperCity: How will the brand refresh unfold?

Kostich: When I first arrived, I went to the different departments and asked: “What’s our brand?” Everybody gave me a different answer. I thought, “OK, we need to work on a singular brand that brings the whole company together so that we speak with one voice.”

First, we have to implement it internally so everyone understands this is our brand, this is what is done consistently throughout the organization. We haven’t officially pushed that out publicly. A little is already coming through in our emails and social media. But it’s not an official launch. We’ll do an official brand refresh campaign in January.

PC: What do you want Houston Ballet to mean to people beyond the performances themselves?

Kostich: Great brands aren’t just products. They’re about what those products bring to your life. The question becomes: What does ballet bring to people’s lives?

School and community engagement work is a perfect example. When I first arrived, I went to one of our programs in a public school, and I was brought to tears by how beautiful it was.

You see these kids — fourth or fifth graders ‚ lined up in their Houston Ballet T-shirts, looking like a little company — executing these incredible steps, singing, and you can see how happy they are. Then you see the parents watching, so proud.

PC: Does Houston Ballet have a role in the business life of the city?

Kostich: We’re an incredible business partner. In May, Houston Ballet hosted the Youth America Grand Prix (the world’s largest international youth dance scholarship program). In nine days, it yielded $25 million for the city. That’s the kind of communication I want to get out.

Now that I’ve been here, I see Houston has amazing arts. Think how many people travel to New York or London or Paris for the arts. People from all over the world should be coming here for ours, but we have to tell them or they’re not going to know.

So what is our brand? Yes, it’s these glorious productions at the highest level. But it’s also everything else we do — the way we contribute economically, elevate the reputation of the city, and become part of people’s lives.

PC: What about star power? Does a ballet company need stars?

Kostich: That’s always been one strategy. Today, dancers can make themselves stars, build their own audiences and become influencers. I don’t think there’s only one right approach.

Historically, Houston Ballet has said: “We don’t want to elevate one dancer over another because all of our dancers are exceptional.” That’s a valid strategy, but we have to communicate that.

When I first came here, somebody asked: “How do the stars at New York City Ballet become stars?” And I said, “We do it. We make the stars, and we tell people who the stars are.” New York has always thrived on stars. It’s a very star-driven city, and that’s where you get a lot of funding, attention and following.

I don’t see Houston being as much like that. Houston celebrates so many people. For Houston Ballet, that can be part of our strategy. It’s not that we’re a great company because of four stars. We’re a great company because of everyone involved. But we have to tell the story.

PC: With costs rising, what are your revenue goals?

Kostich: We have to be very careful because we don’t want ballet to become inaccessible.

We need to grow philanthropic, corporate, institutional and individual support. We also have a very large board, a built-in group of supporters. We continue to expand that board, and there’s a real opportunity to engage them even more.

I’d like to see contributed income doubled in a couple of years — not including the Nutcracker Market.

There have been a lot of conversations. Now we have to prioritize, hone in. But we have a lot of really big dreams — really exciting, all doable. Some of them could be industry changing.

A Houston Ballet Opener

In a big Howdy! to Texas, Houston Ballet is set to opens its 2026-2027 season on Friday, September 11 with Pecos Bill. Based on the eponymous Wild West folk hero born in Texas (where else?), it was Stanton Welch’s 2004 inaugural ballet as the company’s artistic director. In a 1937 biography, James Cloyd Bowman called Pecos Bill “the greatest cowboy of all time.”

If Pecos Bill was “the greatest cowboy of all time,” Kostich likewise has great ambitions of her own — to raise the global profile of Houston Ballet and its stature in the cultural and economic life of the nation’s fourth largest city. 

Houston Ballet’s new season will open with the mixed repertory program Pecos Bill, which is set to run from Friday, September 11 through Sunday, September 20. It features works from choreographers Stanton Welch, Lar Lubovitch and George Balanchine. Manon, choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, is then set to run September 24 through October 4.

Performances are at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas Avenue. For more information, go here.