BALLET ARIZONA NARROWLY ESCAPES SHUTDOWN.

For one harrowing week, it all seemed over but the weeping. Ballet Arizona, the only fully professional classical dance company in a state of nearly five million, spent September 15 to September 22 in jeopardy of closing its doors forever.

"We are out of money. It is as simple as that," announced Gwen Hillis, chairwoman of the Ballet Arizona board, at a news conference heavy with the air of defeat. It was a Friday, and unless the ballet could raise $60,000 by the following Wednesday, she said, it wouldn't have enough to make payroll. And that was only the beginning. Even if the $60,000 could be found, another $300,000 would be required to keep the doors open through the fall until Nutcracker single tickets started generating significant earned revenues. The mood was grave, eyes were red. The brief history of ballet in Arizona seemed to be nearing an end.

The 13-year-old company had been on the financial edge since the spring of 1999, when a story in The Arizona Republic revealed it had missed payroll and owed the Internal Revenue Service back-withholding taxes. Despite a financially secure face put forth by executive director Gray Montague, the company was floundering in $800,000 of accumulated red ink. Before the end of the year, both Montague and Artistic Director Michael Uthoff had resigned.

The ballet's public image brightened somewhat with the selection of Ib Andersen as its new artistic director in May 2000. Though the former New York City and Royal Danish principal had never headed a company, his pedigree was stellar and his eagerness palpable. A further boost came over the summer, when Ballet Arizona hired Sherry New away from Phoenix's Desert Botanical Gardens, where as development director she had helped create one of the most stable nonprofits in the region. New became Ballet Arizona's executive director.

But as of September 15, the good news dimmed in the shadow of fiscal reality. One week later, the lights came back up, as Hillis announced at a second press conference that the $360,000 had indeed been raised. A madcap campaign--students at the company's affiliated Arizona Ballet School sold toys and donated allowance money, dancers washed cars, ballet spokesmen pleaded on TV, Patrick Swayze hosted an impromptu benefit--means the company will stay in business, for now.

Even so, executive director New is wary of projecting optimism: "Ballet Arizona has a reprieve, and as touched and humbled as we are by the depth and breadth of the state's response, much must be done to assure the financial stability of the organization." Was the "state's response" a true measurement of public support? Of the money raised, $160,000 came from two sources familiar to Arizona arts philanthropy: Carol Whiteside and Katherine K. Herberger. Another $70,000 was raised at the benefit. Yet the many smaller gifts have encouraged New to believe that there is a significant population in Arizona that needs and wants ballet. The company opened its season in October with a program comprising George Balanchine's Serenade, Paul Taylor's Company B and a premiere by Andersen to music of Prokofiev, called Amoroso.