David X. Thurmond

David X. Thurmond is the former Deputy Secretary of the Kentucky Education Arts and Humanities Cabinet and the Director of Strategic Planning and Government Relations with the Kentucky Department of Education.  A former Director of Statewide Education and Vice President for Programming at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, he is also the founding Director of Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts. He established both the Education Program of Louisville Ballet and the Dance Department at the Youth Performing Arts School (YPAS). He has served as a Director of Instructional Support for the Oldham County Schools. As Executive Director of the Sacred Heart School for the Arts he lead the school to a new standard of excellence, producing more than twenty-one main stage productions, forty eight music recitals, and a full schedule of community based classes in music, dance, drama and visual art.  He is also the former director of development for the Louisville Theatrical Association and the Louisville Area Salvation Army. Mr. Thurmond is also among the founding associates of MEETT ASSOCIATES, an international marketing, events and trade firm. He currently serves as consultant for Education, Development and Strategy for Kentucky to the World.

Mr. Thurmond graduated Cum Laude from Bellarmine University in Louisville. He received his M. Ed. from the University of Louisville and successfully completed the Kentucky Department of Education’s Kentucky Leadership Academy for school administrators as well as the Alternative Certification Program in School Administration at Eastern Kentucky University. He is a graduate of both Leadership Louisville and Leadership Louisville’s Bingham Fellows. He serves on the steering committee of Leadership Louisville’s Encore Louisville and as an advisor to Ignite Louisville.

His journey in the arts began in high school as the lead singer/dancer for his rock ‘n roll band, The Ravens! His illustrious artistic career took flight as a lead dancer with Louisville Ballet and quickly expanded to teaching, coaching and choreography. Over the span of his amazingly diverse career, he has performed, taught, and choreographed for performing arts organizations throughout the South and Midwest. For the 2009 – 2010 season, Louisville Ballet audiences were thrilled to witness Mr. Thurmond’s return to the stage in the title role of Don Quixote, and as the villainous Von Rothbart in Swan Lake. In the spring of 2013, he appeared again with Louisville Ballet as the Prince of Verona in Romeo and Juliet. 

As an actor, he last appeared on stage as John Clark in the Eve Theatre production of CALENDAR GIRLS.  He also recently appeared as Doctor Who #12 in All the Whos in Whoville for AFYL Productions. As a teaching artist, students in both public and independent schools across Kentucky have been “Dancing with David” for many years; attending his master classes, performing his choreography (representative productions include Pirates of Penzance, Oklahoma, Beauty and the Beast, South Pacific, Wizard of Oz, Sound of Music and Shrek); learning from his multimedia presentation in Kentucky Educational Television Dance Toolkit and participating in his life affirming dance classes for the Kentucky Center for the Arts’ Arts in Healing Program. Mr. Thurmond is a frequent artist in residence with various Louisville healthcare organizations, including Baptist Health, Kentucky One and Frazier Rehabilitation Institute. As a business consultant, he also presents his engaging team building program called “Dance With Your Team in Mind.”

To top it all off, Mr. Thurmond finds the time to lead jazz dance classes for The Louisville Ballet School.