The Washington Ballet Celebrates its Metamorphosis
After years of lukewarm reviews, the critics of The Washington Ballet (TWB) now say the company “looks like a million bucks.” The “tornado” that hit TWB in 1999 still reverberates: Septime Webre became artistic director, and the troupe, founded in 1976 by dance pioneer Mary Day, has metamorphosed into a company of national stature. The annual budget has increased from $2.2 to $8 million, and the subscriber base has tripled.
Performance venues include the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC’s new Harman Center, The Washington Ballet’s England Studio Theater “cabaret,” and tours to Cuba and elsewhere.
Attracted to the unorthodox in ballet and in dancers, to traditional and lyrical ballets, to the sacred and profane, Webre boldly pushes boundaries. He considers his major achievement as growing TWB as an institution—the company, school and outreach programs plus “inserting TWB into the social fabric of the city as a firmly ensconced part of the landscape.”
Webre sees TWB as a “maverick” midsize ballet company in which everyone is committed to creativity, invention, freshness, community engagement and an ethos of excellence.
“It all begins in the studio with distinguished dancers dancing distinguished repertoire,” says Webre. “The dancers tackle a deluge of new works, seven to ten new ballets a year, and they bring a sense of the here-and-now, a sense of immediacy and adventure to classical ballets.” TWB repertoire stretches the dramatic, emotional and technical range of its strong, vibrant and versatile dancers, each with a distinct persona. Some dancers have boundless energy and electric stage presence. Webre looks for dancers with “excellent technique and not a cookie-cutter profile, dancers who are quick studies and like to have fun in the process of making art.” He adds, “The company style is quite an athletic one. I like dancers with a lot of attack. Because we are an ensemble company, everyone is a soloist.”
Elizabeth Gaither and Jared Nelson
Photo by Steve Vaccariello
Webre describes his choreography as contemporary rooted in the classical and after over 20 years of choreography, “it has become its own thing.” Studying with Stanley Hall, who danced with The Royal Ballet, Roland Petite and Jack Cole, gave Webre a technical foundation. The other big influence was viewing and reviewing the works of Balanchine and Cunningham. “Ballet choreographers are autodidacts; we learn by looking.”
Webre’s choreography embodies different cultures and styles, surely influenced by a Cuban mother, French-American father, family sojourns in Africa and the Caribbean, and participation in the hip underground culture of the University of Texas at Austin (frequenting clubs five nights a week).
Webre’s “Carmen” is a passion-filled portrayal of its feisty, gutsy title character set to Georges Bizet’s spirited score and Picasso-inspired designs. The "Noche Latina" program, a carnivalesque travelogue, exudes the essence of Latin social dances: Argentinean tango, Brazilian samba and bassa nova, Mexican folk music and the Cuban salsa. Webre’s work "Juanita y Alicia," is a reminiscent tribute to his family's Cuban heritage.
“My Cuban roots inform me. I want the audience to feel warm and welcome.” Webre wants viewers to sense the vibrancy of family life (he has eight siblings!) when they come to see TWB.
Paying homage to his American home, Webre’s “Nutcracker” rings in the holidays with a new tradition celebrating the nation’s capital and rich history. Set in 1882 in Washington, D.C., the Nutcracker resembles the heroic George Washington, the Rat King is the villainous George III, the skittering rats are British Army Red Coats, and the crisp marching toy soldiers are a regiment of the Continental Army. Act II takes place on the banks of the Potomac River with the cherry blossoms in full bloom. Divertissements reflect images of Americana including a duet for two Anacostia Indians, and Mother Ginger’s skirt reveals a working American carousel with children as circus clowns.
TWB has partnered with diverse local artists, from the 100-member Cathedral Choral Society to Sweet Honey in the Rock. When Webre staged “Carmina Burana” to Carl Orff’s driving score, the choral singers perched on a five-story scaffolding that enclosed the stage. The ballet embodies thirteenth-century poems and songs at first thought sacred. But it turned out to be, as Webre put it in brief pre-performance remarks, “dirty songs by wayward monks” celebrating springtime, love and sex.
Webre collaborated with author/illustrator Maurice Sendak on his children’s classic, “Where the Wild Things Are,” to create a magical storybook ballet. He has choreographed other family works, including “Peter Pan.” His “Cinderella” gives the classic children’s story a sense of humor – Cinderella’s stepsisters are played by men. “I like the comic,” Webre laughs.
Besides his own work for TWB, Webre brings in established and new choreographers and puts together smart programming. TWB features company and world premieres, ballet classics, family favorites and multiple cultures and styles. George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Christopher Wheeldon, Nacho Duato, Stephen Petronio, Karole Armitage, Cathy Marston, Brian Reeder, Trey McIntyre, Matjash Mrozewski and Matt Neenan are among the choreographers whose work has graced TWB stages.
The “7 x 7” series in the England Studio Theater brings audiences up close and personal to the creative process. Each year TWB commissions seven established and upcoming choreographers to create seven dances of seven-minutes duration on TWB dancers within a period of two weeks on a specific theme, e.g., Love, Duets and Shakespeare.
In the Studio Theater I saw TWB’s “break-a-leg” huddle ritual. “We start every performance with a circle of love and take a moment for everyone to focus on the collective. Some rituals and traditions have evolved. It usually begins with me saying some words about what we are going to tackle. It’s really an expression of what we’re experiencing together; we’re a family, a team. We join hands and say love in the language of every performer in the company; we’re very international. A kiss on the cheek is passed around the circle and a kind of good luck jig is danced at the end. With 90 performances a season, that’s a lot of kisses passed around,” Webre exclaimed. Not everyone can keep up with Webre. In 2005 TWB had a turbulent conflict between management and dancers, who complained about, among other issues, an overly demanding work schedule. A two-month impasse/strike/lockout labor dispute cost the company $1 million dollars and the dancers about $35 thousand dollars each. Difficulties were ironed out in agreement with the American Guild of Musical Artists(AGMA). But TWB has turned a page in its history and in 2008 in ratified a three-year successor agreement with AGMA after three days of negotiations. Webre says, “The toughest things are sometimes the things that allow you to grow the most.” TWB has an active outreach program supported by some of the hot events in town—Beer and Ballet, Bach/Beatles Ball and the Cinderella Ball. The Jeté Society, a group of energetic, hip, fun young professionals aged 21-45 eager to support the ballet and have a great time, enjoy unique and exclusive opportunities to meet one another and partake in special events. The Washington School of Ballet trains over 500 local, national and international students each year, with a curriculum ranging from pre-ballet for 5-year-olds to a pre-professional program for students 13 to 20 years old. The school also offers classes for adults from beginning to advanced levels.
Reaching out to low-income youngsters, The Washington Ballet @ Town Hall Education and Arts Recreation Center (TWB@THEARC) is a satellite campus in Southeast D.C. TWB has ongoing partnerships with various organizations. TWB and The Maryland Family Literacy Initiative of The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy jointly administered an essay contest in conjunction with TWB’s production of “Cinderella.” All second-grade D.C. public schools students in TWB’s dance program were invited to tell their Cinderella stories and to answer the question, “Have you ever made a dream come true?”
“Leaps and Bounds” heralds the 2008-09 season. It marks Webre’s tenth anniversary as TWB’s artistic director and crowns a decade of innovation with an exciting repertoire. “Genius2” (a sequel to TWB’s critically-acclaimed “Genius!” program) includes works by Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp and Christopher Wheeldon. The season will also present “Highland Fling,” new productions of “La Sylphide” and “Celts,” as well as Webre’s high-flying, swashbuckling “Peter Pan.” Closing the season will be Webre’s new “Rocketman,” set to the iconic music of Sir Elton John.
Webre wants to see TWB arrive at the next level of excellence.
*Judith Lynne Hanna has published many books and articles on dance. See www.judithhanna.com. She can be reached at jlhanna@hotmail.com.