Albuquerque teen wins Jock Soto scholarship for dance training

A 16-year-old Albuquerque dancer is getting another lift in a training path that already has carried him far beyond Bernalillo County. Von Kronberg has been named the second-ever recipient of the IMOD Jock Soto Scholarship, a $2,500 award meant to help promising dancers keep advancing through the costly world of pre-professional training.

The scholarship links Kronberg to Jock Soto, the Gallup-born Diné and Puerto Rican dancer who became one of New Mexico’s most celebrated artists. Soto joined New York City Ballet in 1981, was promoted to soloist in 1984 and principal dancer in 1985, and retired in 2005 after 24 years with the company. For Albuquerque, the connection matters because the award is rooted in a local museum and a local dance culture that has long tried to keep young talent moving upward without forcing it out of state too early.

Kronberg’s rise has been fast. He began dancing at age 4 at Dance Theatre Southwest under Patricia Dickinson, whose school has served Albuquerque families since she founded it in 1995. At 14, Kronberg earned a full scholarship to the Louisville Ballet summer program in Kentucky. The following summer, he received another full scholarship, this time to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. This year, he is scheduled to train at the Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida.

That kind of pipeline can be expensive even for dancers who start with local instruction. Tuition, travel, audition fees, housing and summer intensives can pile up quickly, and scholarships often determine whether a student can keep building toward company-level work. Kronberg’s award is part of that broader reality: a single grant can help make the difference between staying in the field and being priced out of it.

The International Museum of Dance, based in Albuquerque, announced the Jock Soto Scholarship Fund during a Jock Soto celebration that also included a Navajo Nation honor and footage of Soto rehearsing with Ballet Taos dancers. The museum has described the scholarship as part of a larger effort to preserve and amplify underrepresented dance histories, with an annual award planned for at least one Indigenous dancer, inside or outside New Mexico. For now, Kronberg’s recognition stands as both a personal milestone and a sign that Albuquerque’s arts pipeline can produce dancers ready for the national stage.