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Mixed nuts

Dance

Balancing act

If money were no object . . .
We would have a ballet season in Boston that would go throughout the year. I would have 10 programs, and then I would finish the whole year with a festival where you see a different program every night, everything you saw that year, and top it off with another big gala, a year-end gala. I would like to have a full evening without an intermission with some artist like Björk doing music and pair that with a choreographer or two and have an incredible evening in the theater. And do project where we would have maybe six shows here and four in New York and kill the project. And have David Bowie and Brian Eno do a minimalist score and do a great piece of art that is not intended to have any commercialism in the work itself. I would love to do some Robbins, I would to continue the collaboration with Mark Morris, bring some of the lesser-known Forsythe works in and continue trying to find new choreographers and give them opportunities. I would love to do a symposium around some program and invite the dance critics from around the world and have lectures, demonstrations, mini film festivals related to that. I’d love to bring [Quebec choreographer] Marie Chouinard to Boston. I have a wish list!

Boston Ballet is one of America’s leading dance companies despite having a very small endowment and performing in a smallish town. How much longer can this go on?
That’s a very good question. But you can always go for the size. I would rather have the quality than the quantity. I think we live in a jewel of a city. But yes, our endowment is $9 million. No, it is not enough; yes, it needs to be much bigger. And I’m working on it right now. It cannot continue like this. Right now we are in the middle of a bridge initiative where we’re trying to address the move to the Opera House, fixing the pit, the debt issue, the cash-flow issue. But we’ve raised $5.3 million in the past three months. This is a response from the community to the company, our decision to move to the Opera House. In my days here, I’ve never seen a bigger momentum, and at the same time painful times. People say, “Oh you are having such a hard time.” No, actually, we had the hard time. Despite the fact that the company will be smaller for a year or two, I see this as a very good time.

We do have to broaden our support base. We have the largest ballet school in North America. We are doing tremendous community work. Our outreach programs are unparalleled in our industry, and in the city. So I think we bring a lot to this community. That message just has to get out. But I also value the beauty of individual philanthropy. People in America know that the government doesn’t support the arts. So they take it on themselves. I think that’s absolutely beautiful. I’m very touched by that.

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