With Webre’s Exit Washington Ballet Faces Challenges

Washington was abuzz this past weekend with the announcement Friday afternoon that The Washington Ballet’s longtime Artistic Director, Septime Webre, is leaving his post at the end of his current contract.

When asked to respond to the news, Webre’s former Board Chair and one-time Executive Director, Kay Kendall, wrote, “He put The Washington Ballet on the map, not only as a major player in the world of dance, but also as a household name in the world of performing arts entities in our town. One of his many gifts was introducing young people to the world of dance and that has been of immeasurable value. He will be greatly missed.”

Septime Webre (Photo: Dean Alexander)

Kay Kendall’s sentiment was echoed by Arthur Espinoza, recently Managing Director of The Washington Ballet and now Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Mr. Espinoza wrote, “Septime Webre was a longtime colleague of mine at The Washington Ballet, and The Washington Ballet has been a long-standing grantee of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

During his tenure, the Ballet saw a significant level of growth, contributing greatly to the artistic landscape of the District and to the careers of many artists. I wish the best of future successes for both Septime and the Ballet.”

Sarah Kauffman writing on Monday in the Washington Post about what the Ballet should look for in its next artistic director, wrote, “The ballet doesn’t need a radical change, but a firm hand to fine-tune, streamline, and aim for high points not yet reached.”

It’s hard to not agree with her, and the Ballet’s Board of Directors should also look back and consider the challenges Septime Webre faced, as some of the conditions a new Artistic Director will have to address may remain beyond his or her control.

For instance, in 2005 Washington went from being a “one ballet” town to a “two-ballet” town with the Kennedy Center’s underwriting of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Balanchine repertoire, which had been a strong part of The Washington Ballet’s offerings, nearly disappeared from their concerts in response as suddenly The Washington Ballet had to contend not only with the Ballet companies presented by the major local arts Center, but a Ballet company sponsored by the major local arts center.

The early 2000’s saw a building boom in dance academies competing for students with The Washington Ballet, most notably with the opening of the southern home of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the City Dance Center at Strathmore in Rockville. The Strathmore dance center was able to lure away one of the leaders of The Washington Ballet’s dance academy, and suddenly parents in upper northwest and Bethesda had a choice about where to send their children for high quality weekend and after-school classes. In addition to the Strathmore center, the dance academy at the American Dance Institute in Rockville (under the direction of retired Washington Ballet star Runqiao Du), and new dance centers in Arlington and Capitol Hill help explain why one studio (Maryland Youth Ballet) had to briefly close its doors before stabilizing in a large new suite of studios in downtown Silver Spring.

The Washington Ballet’s company and education facility on Wisconsin Ave in upper Northwest D.C. has been far from competitive for some time, and plans for a major upgrade and addition have languished for a decade. While Shakespeare Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Studio Theatre, and Arena Stage completed major new buildings, the Washington Ballet remains on an under-sized parcel in Tenleytown, and renting performance space. The school has acquired surrounding parcels but it will require policymaker facilitation (and some zoning exemptions) to get the ballet into the kind of facility able to attract the dancers appropriate for a touring company.

Septime was hired to run The Washington Ballet in part because he had taken a struggling little-known New Jersey-based dance company (the American Repertory Ballet) and turned it into a thriving institution. Taking over from Mary Day in D.C., Septime immediately faced intense competition from closer-in neighbors in an overall smaller market, and yet has done the same thing here. While Washington National Opera was absorbed by the Kennedy Center five years ago, there continues to be active competition between the Washington Ballet and the Kennedy Center. Can a Washington Ballet really thrive without a strong partnership at the largest local arts center?

Congratulations are due to Septime Webre not only for shepherding hundreds of beautiful performances, and educational opportunities, but for the creation of ballets for the Company by modern legends including Trey McIntyre, Christopher Wheeldon, and Edward Liang. It’s interesting to note that following multiple commissions from The Washington Ballet both McIntyre and Wheeldon launched full time touring and performing companies, neither of which made it to a fifth anniversary.

This article was published here on DCTheaterScene.

UpClose with the Stars of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale

The National Ballet of Canada returns to Washington D.C. with the U.S. premiere of The Winter’s Tale from January 19-24, 2016 in the Kennedy Center Opera House. Based on William Shakespeare’s play of the same name, the production is co-produced with The Royal Ballet and choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon.

A story of jealousy, tragedy, comedy, and redemption, the action begins when King Leontes wrongfully accuses his pregnant wife, Queen Hermione, and his best friend, King Polixenes, of an affair and decrees that Hermione’s child be abandoned in the wild.

I spoke recently with two of the ballet’s stars — Piotr Stanczyk and Hannah Fischer — about The Winter’s Tale and their roles in it. Born in Poland, Piotr Stanczyk (Principal) was trained at the State Ballet School of Poznan before joining The National Ballet of Canada where he’s performed principal roles in scores of ballets and premiered roles by John Neumeier, Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmanksy, Wayne McGregor and Kevin O’Day. Hannah Fischer (Second Soloist) was born in New York City and trained at Canada’s National Ballet School before joining company in 2012.

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Robert Bettman: The Winter’s Tale choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon, is an acknowledged genius. Last year he won a Tony Award for his American in Paris, and his choreography is in repertoire at most every major Ballet company – including The Washington Ballet. This isn’t the first time either of you have had the opportunity to premiere roles for him. Can you share with us a little bit about the process with Wheeldon, and what we as viewers should look for in this new Wheeldon ballet?

Hannah Fischer and Piotr Stanczyk in The Winter’s Tale. (Photo: Karolina Kuras, courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada.

Hannah Fischer and Piotr Stanczyk in The Winter’s Tale. (Photo: Karolina Kuras, courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada.)

Hannah Fischer:  This ballet tells such a strong story, which is very Wheeldon-like. His style is big, dynamic, and intensely musical. And it always serves a purpose to bring the story to life. That’s what audiences are going to see I think, and be taken with.

Piotr Stanczyk:  Christopher is exceptionally professional, demanding, and he’s very particular with his ballets, the ways he wants to show it, to speak to the audience. He has a very generous approach that’s all about the audience. It’s a different way of working. As a dancer you have to be really concentrated in projecting what Christopher wants. This ballet, because it’s a story ballet, as performers we project the drama and jealousy of our characters… one of the challenges is telling the story, not just the steps, but the acting.

RB: Would you tell us a little bit about your characters?

HF: I play Queen Hermione. And she’s fantastic… innocent and kind, and in love with her husband and children even after she’s wrongfully accused of adultery. She maintains throughout a sense of dignity. She is the queen, and not matter what she will remain dignified and true, and that just shines.  She loves her husband and can’t understand why he’s accused her.

PS: Leontes is King of Sicily, and going through his story, he’s raised with his friends and they’re very close friends. And like us all as we go through life, he gets completely consumed with jealousy. And then the tragedy that he creates for himself from that. And many of us can relate to that at times in our own lives. We create stories. And Leontes doesn’t know if they are true or not but he cannot see through the rage and the jealousy and through that creates for himself a greater tragedy. The first act especially is very dark, and it’s about these very negative human emotions.

RB: Do you have a favorite part of this ballet that viewers can look out for?

HF: There are moments I’ve never experienced before in a ballet. For instance, dancing so closely and so personally with a child. And that’s magical. He’s such a sweet young boy, young in nature, and looking. After the nursery pas de deux, where Hermione is so initially confused by what her husband is accusing her of, and he calls the guards and she’s thrown about and eventually thrown to the floor clutching her child. And that would hurt! Being pregnant and being thrown around. And she stands up and looks at him but she doesn’t lower her head or give in. And she understands what must happen, what will happen, that she’ll be put on trial and will probably be found guilty. But nothing will break her and she’ll be queen forever. That moment shines for me.

PS: There are four solos in Act One through which you can see the progression of the man Leontes. And these show a very wide range of emotions, from being consumed with jealousy, to rage, and then doubt, and ending in complete depression and despair.

RB: For this production, your performances will be accompanied live by the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra.  How long have you been preparing in DC, and are there any moments we should look for with the dance and music together?

PS: We’ve done the ballet five weeks ago, and we started preparation in Washington last week. That’s not much time. But when it comes to the music I find it’s a very good floor, good ground. The first act is mostly bass and follows the character progression – pretty dark. And then in the second act it moves toward a folky theme, lots of dancing, brighter. In addition to the orchestra we have a band onstage, which is great and very unique. There’s a very wide range of music, and the conclusion is very different, very unusual.

HF:  The music really is fantastic, and it brings the location to life. It’s exotic and interesting, and as Piotr said, there’s live music on stage and hearing it – the second act is off the charts for me. Christopher Wheeldon is so musical too. The music and dance really go hand in hand together. They bring you down, they bring you up. Dance wouldn’t be much without the two. I would say it’s a very uplifting score.

This article was published here on DCTheatreScene.com.

Hey Parents: Free Books for Your Kids!

D.C. is an expensive city, making it a hard place for young families to thrive. Just last week MarketWatch reported that Washington is the most expensive city for a family of four in the entire United States. The city’s free Pre-K-3 is a boon for local families and while a new program from the DC Public Library won’t have the same impact as free child care, it’s a pretty great perk for families making it work in the District.

Launching in February, you can sign up now to receive one free children’s book a month from the DC Public Library. The Books from Birth program is open to all children 4 years and 11 months old or younger, and the offer is per child in your household.

The Books from Birth program is designed to encourage reading among, and to, DC’s youngest residents. Research shows that children that live in households where they are read to on a daily basis show up to Kindergarten with more advanced vocabularies. As described in an article by Tina Rosenberg, a landmark 1995 study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley found that, “Children whose families were on welfare heard about 600 words per hour. Working-class children heard 1,200 words per hour, and children from professional families heard 2,100 words.” It’s not entirely clear why the word gap exists, but research has shown that access to books in the home affects the likelihood that parents will read to their children. The Books from Birth program will allow all children in-home access to high-quality, age-appropriate books.

DC’s book donation program may draw inspiration from a related policy initiative in Providence, Rhode Island. Providence Talks was the 2014 winner of Bloomberg Philanthropies $5 million dollar Mayors Challenge, and a recent article summarized, “After decades of failed educational reforms, few policymakers are naïve enough to believe that a single social intervention could fully transform disadvantaged children’s lives. The growing economic inequality in America is too entrenched, too structural. But that’s hardly an argument for doing nothing.”

Kudos are due to Ward 6 Council member Charles Allen for putting this initiative on the agenda, and the Mayor and members of the DC City Council for supporting it.

Over time we’ll see what impact the program has on school readiness and student achievement. In the meantime: hey parents — free books for your kids! Don’t forget to sign up here.

This post was published here on UrbanScrawl.