The Lawrence Arts Center has announced that Hanan Misko will be its new dance school director, starting Wednesday.

Hanan studied at the Kansas City School of Ballet and received his bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Juilliard School, where he studied under director Lawrence Rhodes. Hanan recently has been a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company and Nimbus Dance works in New York City, and Storling Dance Company in Olathe. He has been a guest dancer or choreographer with the Metropolitan Opera, the Mark Morris Dance Group and Jessica Lang Dance.

Hanan has taught at the Kansas City Ballet School, the Wharton Music Center, New Jersey public schools after-school programs and the Julliard School’s elementary arts classes. He has collaborated with other artists in various community outreach efforts.

In addition to directing the dance school, Hanan will choreograph the Arts Center’s fall production of “Sweeney Todd” and dance the role of the Snow King in “A Kansas Nutcracker.” Hanan is returning to the Midwest with his wife, Kelly — who is playing French horn in the Arts Center’s Free State Liberation Orchestra — and their daughter and son.

Hanan replaces longtime Arts Center dance director Candi Baker, who founded the dance program 29 years ago and retired this spring.