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Cynthia Erivo to be honored at American Ballet Theatre’s 2026 Fall Gala

Cynthia Erivo attends the “Wicked: For Good!” New York Premiere at David Geffen Hall on November 17, 2025, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Cynthia Erivo’s talent will be honored at the American Ballet Theatre’s 2026 Fall Gala: Angels and Demons.

The theatre will recognize “her extraordinary contributions to the performing arts” and “her ability to inspire audiences through storytelling that transcends disciplines,” according to a press release.

“Few artists possess Cynthia Erivo’s extraordinary ability to transform themselves through performance,” Susan Jaffe, artistic director of American Ballet Theatre, said in a statement. “Whether through music, theater, or film, she brings an uncommon combination of artistry, emotional honesty, and fearless imagination to every role. Those are qualities we deeply value in ballet and strive to cultivate in every artist who takes our stage. Cynthia’s commitment to her craft and her ability to forge profound connections with audiences make her an inspiring artist and an especially meaningful honoree for American Ballet Theatre.”

The American Ballet Theatre’s 2026 Fall Gala is set to take place Oct. 29 at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Erivo previously appeared in the American Ballet Theatre’s first digital gala in May 2020, performing “America the Beautiful” alongside a video of their dancers.

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He spied for the U.S. in the war on terror. Now ICE wants to deport him.

The Trump administration is trying to deport a self-described CIA spy who infiltrated al Qaeda after 9/11 and won his permission to live in the U.S. by helping convict terrorists.Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Blerim Skoro, a Kosovo-born father of three, outside an immigration office in New Jersey where he was renewing his paperwork earlier this month.His lawyers have filed in federal court to halt his deportation, saying Skoro, 55, was promised residency after years of significant work as a "CIA agent."Skoro, a Staten Island, New York, cab driver who has an American wife and children, was granted a deferral of removal in 2022 due to the risk of his capture and torture by terrorists if he were deported.The ruling was due in part to Skoro's help securing the arrests of al Qaeda, al Shabaab and Hezbollah members, his lawyers claim.Now he fears that the government, for which he claims to have put his life on the line, is going to send him back to Kosovo — he says into the hands of those who want him dead.Blerim Skoro, in a recent video call from ICE detention. Susan Skoro "I never thought they were going to betray me like this," he told CBS News in a phone interview from Elizabeth Detention Center, in New Jersey. "Please, if I die, I should die in this country so my kids can bury me."Skoro's relationship with U.S. intelligence officials began when he was jailed for trafficking drugs in 2000, FBI documents show.He says he was struggling to make ends meet supporting his children and refugee parents after the family fled the Kosovo conflict in the 1990s. He got caught transporting heroin overseas for an Albanian criminal gang.Raised a Muslim, he was welcomed by a group of Islamic radicals in a Manhattan prison where he began serving his drug trafficking sentence, FBI files that list him as a confidential informant show. After 9/11, he says the CIA approached him to exploit the connection.While incarcerated at FCI Allenwood, a federal prison in Pennsylvania, between 2002 and 2006, Skoro says he gleaned intelligence for the FBI on terrorists including Faysal Galab of the Lackawanna Six, which federal agents described as America's first homegrown terrorist sleeper cell; Randall "Ismail" Royer of the Virginia jihad network, convicted of organizing violence against U.S. troops overseas; and Hezbollah member Junuz Fuaz.Blerim Skoro, center, with fellow inmates in prison in the early 2000s. He says he gleaned intelligence for the FBI on several who were later convicted in terrorism-related cases.
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