AN EXTENDED PAS DE DEUX FOR ASPEN, SANTA FE.

AFTER FOUR successful seasons in its home town, and the production of the now-annual Aspen Dance Festival, the Aspen Ballet Company has taken on its biggest project yet. ABC co-directors Tom Mossbrucker and Jean-Philippe Malaty have announced a co-venture between ABC and the Santa Fe Festival Ballet. By this fall, and the beginning of the new fiscal year, the combined companies will become known officially as the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.

The move is not without its risks. In taking over the Santa Fe Festival Ballet, Mossbrucker and Malaty inherit a non-professional company known for its annual summer performances of original chamber ballets set to live music. The challenge is to change the company's character while hanging onto its audience. At the end of 1999, the SFFB board, looking at a possible deficit of $40,000, decided not to renew the contracts of SFFB's current administrator and choreographer/ballet master. Says Mary Larsen, co-chair of the SFFB board, "We have approved Aspen's letter of intent in principle and will approve it by vote soon. It's delightful and we're very excited."

With full details pending, Malaty said each organization will be responsible for local fund raising, and the books will remain separate. An Official start date of September 1, 2000, will allow both companies to organize their books and begin a new fiscal year together. Through the co-venture, ABC hopes to offer its dancers an extended contract and maintain a consistent, year-round presence in Santa Fe, although the company's primary residence will remain in Aspen.

Larsen added, "Our board feels that the one missing piece in Santa Fe has been a strong, year-round dance presence. This whole venture is one of those rare, serendipitous moments where a lot of good things come together for everyone concerned."

ABC has been trying to expand its audience base and offer its dancers longer yearly contracts. "It's a new century, and the arts are not easy for anyone," said Malaty. "We think this is a creative solution." Aspen and Santa Fe, both small resort towns, are geographically close and similar in size and character. Both have long histories of supporting the arts, and both have established schools--the Aspen Ballet School in Colorado and the Santa Fe Dance Foundation in New Mexico. Top students at each school will have opportunities to apprentice with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. The board of Santa Fe Festival Ballet purchased the Santa Fe Dance Foundation school from Gisela Genschow, who has owned it since 1992. Genschow will remain on board to direct the SFDF, now the official dance school in New Mexico for ASFB.

Relinquishing ownership was an easy decision for Genschow. She said that she, Mossbrucker, and Malaty "hit it off" from their first meeting. "We have the same artistic vision, the same ideas about how we like to see dancers move," she said. "They've done a terrific job running their company, and they treat their dancers very well. If I were still dancing, it's the kind of company I'd like to belong to." From now on, Genschow will focus exclusively on training her students for professional dance careers, something she believes the co-venture will facilitate. "These days, it's very difficult to place dancers in the professional world," she said. "Many schools train dancers to place in their [affiliated] companies. For aspiring dancers in Santa Fe, it's hard, because we are so isolated here. Although I've had one of my students get into School of American Ballet and then New York City Ballet, many students are not ready to leave their families at age 15 or 16. Now with ASFB, they will have a local possibility to see the company performances, get a picture of what it's like to be a professional dancer, perhaps even apprentice with the company."

Santa Fe audiences are familiar with the Aspen dancers from their annual tours throughout the Southwest; Genschow believes their permanent presence will add a great deal to the city's artistic environment. "Santa Fe audiences see a lot of modern dance coming through here: the Martha Graham Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Parsons Dance Company," she said. "What is good is that ABC brings the nowaday pieces, what's going on now in dance, with more accessible music, [showing] the athletic side of dance too."

Zippora Karz, a former New York City Ballet principal who recently staged Balanchine's Sonatine on ABC, said she thoroughly enjoyed the experience: "I have loved working with Tom and Jean-Philippe, both in teaching for them and staging the ballet. I think so highly of them and the company. What they've done for Aspen is amazing, and I think they can do the same for Santa Fe."

ASFB begins its first season in August, with four weeks of mixed repertory performances in Santa Fe. The ten-member company will dance Balanchine's Sonatine, Paul Taylor's Aureole, Like a Samba by Trey McIntyre, and Gerald Arpino's Light Rain. Throughout the 2000-01 season, ASFB will also dance the evening-length Rainforest, by Colorado choreographer David Taylor, their own Nutcracker, and their intime version of Romeo and Juliet. ABC's hallmark has been its repertory of works by acclaimed and emerging choreographers. They've performed Balanchine's Valse Fantaisie, Who Cares? and now Sonatine; Taylor's Aureole premiered in March, and Dwight Rhoden has given them three works: the duet from Black & White, and Ear Candy and Spectral Signatures, the latter two choreographed especially for ABC. The acquisition of dances like these is good news for the audiences--and the young dancers--of Santa Fe, which now welcomes the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet as the only professional dance company in New Mexico.