Ballet West rediscovered: holding onto its Utah roots while looking toward the future.

Artistic Director Jonas Kage is revitalizing Ballet West's image and outlook while maintaining legacy of the Salt Lake City company's founder, the late Willam Christensen. While honoring the ballet classics, Kage is devoted to presenting the best of today's choreographers as well as the modern masterworks he once danced with a succession of top-rank companies. "I sometimes say, `It should not always be safe to go to the ballet,'" he says. * In this way, Kage follows the lead of Christensen, who shaped and guided Ballet West for fifteen years before he retired in 1978 (see Transitions, page 74). The artistic directorship passed from him to Bruce Marks, John Hart, and most recently to Kage. * Each director made his own contributions. Marks expanded the company's breadth by introducing new works, including the re-creation of August Bournonville's Abdallah in 1985. Though Ballet West had only forty members and limited rehearsal space at the city's Capitol Theatre, Marks directed the company's first full-length production of Swan Lake in 1984. When Hart succeeded Marks in 1985 he supported a strong sense of classicism, focusing on the full-length classics. Hart applied his years as assistant director and, later, administrator of England's Royal Ballet to help Ballet West mn smoothly. * Kage, 51, a native of Stockholm, Sweden, danced during his seventeen-year career with the Royal Swedish Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Stuttgart Ballet (under Glen Tetley), Geneva Ballet (under George Balanchine and Patricia Neary), and Zurich Ballet. He was a guest artist with the London Festival Ballet (now the English National Ballet), Royal Swedish Ballet (after leaving its full-time roster), and Munich Opera Ballet. Kage then returned to Sweden, where he was the artistic director of the Malmo Opera Ballet from 1988 to 1995. Thereafter he worked as a visiting artist and master teacher before taking charge of Ballet West in 1997. * Kage embraced the opportunity to build a relationship with Christensen--"Mr. C.," as he was fondly called. "Connecting with Mr. C. has been very rewarding," Kage says. "He always wanted to know what was going on and he was always asking, `How can I help?'

"Projection [onstage] and artistic communication were always big for him," Kage remembers. "We totally agreed on that." Christensen's death, Kage admits, "leaves a big void." On the other hand, he feels honored to lead the founder's company into the twenty-first century. "It's certainly inspiring. It's up to me now. I feel like I'm starting to shape the company in the direction I want it to go," Kage says. "It takes time to establish a company that's well structured for the goals we have. Ballet West is on the threshold of a renaissance, ready to be discovered again."

Ballet West produces two mixed-repertoire programs and two evening-length ballets each season with its forty-six dancers. Kage says he's committed to reevaluating the approach to the classics. Utah audiences, accustomed to the traditional and classical interpretations of ballet, need to see how the art form continues to evolve, he stresses.

"Yes, we need harmony and beauty, but we need to be challenged and reminded. [Ballet] should stimulate us both emotionally and intellectually," Kage says. He has expanded the repertoire with more Balanchine works as well as dances by such contemporary choreographers as William Forsythe, Hans van Manen, Christopher Bruce, and Val Caniparoli, while searching constantly for new and emerging choreographers. "This is where my responsibility to Mr. C. comes in," Kage explains. While waiting for the new generation of choreographers, he says, "I am tapping the resources of a great era of dance that I was fortunate to be a part of. I want the company to dance it as clearly and as well as possible."

Christensen was an avid dance educator. He established the ballet program at the University of Utah in 1951 after starting a program for dance instruction through the university's division of continuing education. After retiring from Ballet West, he started the Christensen Academy of dance off campus. Ballet West has carried on his commitment to education since its inception. "Even though we've been around for thirty-eight years, it feels like a new company. We have not lost touch with our past," says Peter Christie, a former Ballet West soloist and now the company's director of educational programs. "Mr. C.'s vision for the company is just as much an influence today as when he founded the company, just with new tools, new blood, and a constant reexamination of what we are and what we will become."

Christie has fond memories of participating in lecture-demonstrations at area elementary schools while he was dancing with Ballet West, a tradition the company has maintained. Under Kage's direction, "we realized we needed a more hands-on relationship with the schools," Christie says. Inspired by Jacques d'Amboise and the success of the National Dance Institute he established in New York City for inner-city schoolchildren, Kage sent Christie to work with d'Amboise for six months. Upon returning to Utah, Christie established the I CAN DO (Inspiring Children About Not Dropping Out) Program. I CAN DO provides nearly 700 fifth-graders from eight elementary schools with an hour of free dance instruction each week that prepares them for a year-end performance. For children who want to stick with their dance studies, I CAN DO also provides free ballet technique training through ninth grade. Forty-one children in the latter program will dance at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. I CAN DO's $178,000 budget is funded by the state of Utah and private donors.

In 1989, under Hart's tenure, the Ballet West Conservatory for students ages 12 through 18 was formed as a joint project of Ballet West, the University of Utah, and the university's division of continuing education program. Under Kage, the conservatory left the university campus in 2000 and was renamed the Ballet West Academy, now with about 150 students. Kage appointed Bene Arnold as director of the Ballet West Academy shortly after her retirement from twenty-six years of teaching ballet at the University of Utah (see Presstime News, Dance Magazine, June 2001, page 44). Arnold, a former student of Christensen's at San Francisco Ballet School, came to Utah in 1962. Christensen made her ballet mistress of the Utah Civic Ballet, a role she filled for twelve years before joining the university's ballet department full-time.

"[Kage] is very artistically active in the community in general and more visible than anyone I've seen for a very long time," Arnold says. "He sees the academy as a vital part of the growth of the company, [and] is taking a strong personal interest in the development of this school. He wants to see a curriculum and syllabus developed that will create a major school in this area that will have national and international recognition." Kage's wife, Deborah Dobson, formerly an ABT soloist and principal with Zurich Ballet and English National Ballet, is the academy's principal teacher. Its eight other instructors include Kage and Arnold. Under Kage's influence, the academy has gone from three upper-division technique levels to six technique levels, ranging from early to advanced instruction.

Kage will continue to oversee big plans for the company's future. The company occupies a meager one and a half studios in Salt Lake City's Capitol Theatre, while the Ballet West Academy works from two downtown studios. A new building for the company is clearly a high priority, says Executive Director Johann Jacobs, who joined the administrative staff in 1998. "One of my tasks was to create a long-term plan for the company," Jacobs says. Ballet West has leased 2.1 acres of land in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake City. The new building will be 110,000 square feet in size, with seven studios (some of which will be dedicated to the Ballet West Academy), a costume shop, warehouse, and administrative offices. "The goal is to consolidate all operations under one roof. We're looking at breaking ground in May 2002 and moving in [around] July or August 2003," Jacobs says.

Ballet West will participate in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad on February 23. Its "Gala Celebration of Twentieth-Century Masterworks" will feature the company premiere of Jerome Robbins's Afternoon of a Faun, as well as van Manen's Solo and Polish Pieces and Balanchine's Theme and Variations and Who Cares?

Jessica Romine Peterson earned a BFA in ballet from the University of Utah. She writes a column on fine and performing arts for The Park Record in Park City, Utah.