Charting a New Course in 2000.

MILWAUKEE BALLET, UNDER THE ENERGETIC DIRECTION OF BASIL THOMPSON FOR THE PAST 20YEARS, IS CHARTING NEW DIRECTIONS FOR THE NEXT MILLENNIUM.

When the curtain rose on Milwaukee Ballet's new Nutcracker last December, audiences "oohed" and "aahed," and when it descended--along with a sprinkling of stage snow throughout the house--their response left no doubt that the show was a success. It was just the shot in the arm that the company needed. Like so many performing arts institutions nationwide, Milwaukee Ballet has seen some hard times over the years as it has struggled to bring the best it could to local audiences. Recently, after much soul-searching, the organization concluded that it needed to retool itself for the future, both artistically and financially. And The Nutcracker, choreographed by Lisa de Ribere and financed with a million-dollar gift from local philanthropists Joan, Jack, and Victor Stein, not only pleased balletgoers but also brought in more than a million dollars in ticket sales. The company was off to a good start. Then, three weeks after the final performance, artistic director Basil Thompson announced his resignation.

Speaking to Dance Magazine two days later, Thompson seemed weary. The flu had been working its way through the company's offices, leaving nearly everyone under the weather, but Thompson's tone seemed more indicative of stress than sickness, the sort of tension that often accompanies a major decision. "At the moment," says Thompson, "the company is going through a long-range planning phase, something that's going to take a long time and a lot of energy, and I can't spend another two or three years on a planning phase. My time has run out. The company has gotten rid of its debt, it's got a brand new Nutcracker, and I've gotten at least twenty-four new ballets into the repertory, so I can comfortably say, `Okay, my job is done.'"

What's more, adds Thompson, that job wasn't quite a perfect fit: "Everybody here knows I'm a hands-on man. I like to teach, I like to coach, I like the production end of things. Administration is not my strong suit, and that's what an artistic director has to do now--administrate. There's so much that has to be done behind a desk, and that's not really where my heart or interest lies."

Soloist Kim Marsh agrees with Thompson: "One of the things I like about him so much is the stories he can tell. When we're in rehearsal and he's setting Swan Lake or Giselle, he'll go off on some story from when he was with American Ballet Theatre or the Joffrey or the Royal Ballet, and you're just in awe--this guy really knows his stuff. Of course, everybody says, `Oh, God, we've got to do this again,' but then you realize he knows what he's talking about and you want to do this again. You want to make him proud of you. His coaching ability is just incredible. He really pulls it out of you, and when you don't think you can do any more, you do."

Thompson's departure may seem sudden to outsiders, but insiders knew that he'd been mulling the idea over for at least a year. According to board president Jodi Peck, replacing Thompson was not a goal of the strategic plan she and her colleagues have been formulating since last summer. Noting that that plan (aimed at better stabilizing the company's finances and raising its visibility with more effective programming and marketing) remains a work in progress, Peck says, "We weren't at that question yet. Now with the search for a new artistic director, maybe the light will shine. Maybe this somebody new will have a better perspective than we do."

Thompson's delaying his departure until March 2000 and giving the board such ample notice are in keeping with the loyalty he's shown the company over the years. A former member of the Royal Ballet and ABT, Thompson spent eleven years as the Joffrey's ballet master before assuming the same post in Milwaukee in 1981. Five years later, when artistic director Ted Kivitt departed, Thompson became an interim artistic director. In 1987 the company joined Pennsylvania Ballet to become PM Ballet, with Pennsylvania's Robert Weiss as artistic director. By most accounts, this venture was a disaster, and within two years the merger was canceled. Thompson became ballet master again until Nashville Ballet's Dane LaFontsee took over. When LaFontsee left in 1995, Thompson was asked to fill the top spot permanently. "Basil has been a Rock of Gibraltar for the company during all these really difficult times," observes Tom Strini, dance and music critic of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Basil was the one who saw through thick and thin that people were up there dancing their best, no matter what distractions were going on in terms of company finances, changes at the top, or anything else."

Milwaukee Ballet was founded in 1970 under the auspices of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Fine Arts, with Jury Gotschalks as artistic director. Its debut performance included Michel Fokine's Polovtsian Dances and the pas de deux from Le Corsaire, with guest stars Lupe Serrano and Kivitt, then an ABT principal. From 1974 to 1980, the company was directed by Jean-Paul Comelin, who not only created work for the troupe but also added its first Balanchine ballet to the repertory. When Kivitt took the reins in 1980, he brought along his wife, prima ballerina Michelle Lucci, and added works by Margo Sappington and John Butler. Then came the merger with Pennsylvania Ballet.

"It was done with good intentions," says Thompson, "but it wasn't a joint venture, in my mind. It was a takeover by Pennsylvania Ballet that left the Milwaukee public tremendously dissatisfied." During LaFontsee's subsequent tenure, Milwaukee Ballet performed Bruce Wells's Romeo and Juliet, Lew Christensen's Filling Station, and world premieres by de Ribere, Kathryn Posin, and Martine van Hamel.

Back in the artistic director's chair for good, Thompson strove to achieve just the right mix of full-length productions and mixed repertory programs. He explains, "I'd like to see Milwaukee Ballet become very eclectic for two reasons: To challenge our audiences and broaden our appeal to a younger audience, and to challenge our dancers and give them a chance to present themselves. When you perform an evening-length classic, that whole evening revolves around two people, with everybody else in a supporting capacity. When you do a mixed-rep program, the whole ensemble has an opportunity to shine. Yes, we are a ballet company, but that doesn't mean only Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. There's a tremendous amount of choreography out there, and I think we are obligated to present as much of it as possible. It's educating our audience to know the difference between Ashton and Cranko, Kylian and Robbins. It's like tasting food: Each one has a different flavor, and audiences should be gourmets."

Over the years Thompson has treated Milwaukee to a feast of fine work, adding David Parsons's Bachiana, Choo-San Goh's Unknown Territory, and Posin's Bach's Lunch to an increasingly impressive repertory. But satisfying the public's taste was never easy. "I presented an all-Tudor evening," he recalls. "I'd love to do an all-Ashton evening. I think it's very important to do those sorts of programs. But the Tudor program, which was absolutely wonderful artistically--it even got a write-up in New York--was a box-office disaster and a marketing nightmare. People don't know the work, but it seems that they won't go to something unless they know they're going to like it. Well, how do you know if you're going to like it until you see it? The audience has to experiment."

"We're certainly not attracting the kind of audience that's going to Riverdance, Tap Dogs--those kinds of things," admits Peck. "How do you get those people into your seats to be exposed to ballet, to be exposed to more contemporary dance?" One tactic she and her colleagues are employing is adding a few nonballet offerings to the scheduling. The company's February engagement featured Balanchine's Serenade, Goh's In the Glow of the Night, and an appearance by the wildly popular Trinity Irish Dance Company doing two numbers, one of which included the ballet company's men. "It's like a teaser," says Peck. "We're getting their audience to come sit in our seats so that we can show them what we do."

Having eliminated one of its dates this year in a cost-cutting measure, the company recently teamed up with the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts to present the Milwaukee appearance of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, just to keep its name visible and perhaps pick up a few more ticket buyers for its own performances. "It's a risk," admits Peck, "but that's another audience we don't have."

Musing over the difficulty of balancing artistry with the bottom line, Thompson says, "When Michael Smuin took over as artistic director of San Francisco Ballet, those dancers were out in the streets, in costumes, with tin cups. It was that bad. He turned that company around. Same thing happened in Boston. In the sixties, Boston Ballet was nothing. Look what Bruce Marks did with that company. It can be done. How is it done? That I can't answer."

In the meantime, people are looking to the company's executive director, Christine Harris, for guidance. Last year, she steered the ballet through the successful elimination of nearly $1 million in debt to a year-end cash surplus of $93,000. Encouraged by the success of The Nutcracker and advance sales for last February's season, Harris comments, "Things are tracking very well. Originally, we were forecasting a budget surplus of about $90,000, and it looks like it could be closer to $150,000 this year." And armed with the accolades that The Nutcracker rightly earned, she's hoping to get other funders interested in seeing their money spent so well onstage.

Gerald Arpino, who's been "very impressed with the stature of the company under Basil's direction" (and immediately offered Thompson a place at the Joffrey, should he want it when the time comes), cautions, "It's so important that the community realizes that if it loses the product it has now, it will not be able to build it ever again, because costs have escalated. I would say to Milwaukee, Revere what you have; trim your costs wherever you can that will not reflect on the product. Hang in there; hold on to your company. Because if you let it go and try to recoup, that's a big mistake. You have to know how to program it to respect the fiscal responsibilities of your board and still keep the standards high. And know how the city perceives you. You have to appeal to it."

"I'm really curious how they're going to work this thing out," says the Journal Sentinel's Strini. "If they do pull this off, if they manage to come up with the new model of the provincial American ballet, it's going to be very influential on the way dance turns in this country over the next twenty-five years. Do I think they can do it? Well, I think they have a chance because they're thinking that way. They're not thinking, Oh, we need to raise another ten million dollars so we can do flashy productions. They're thinking, We have to have something basically different. That's very bold thinking--even if they're a little vague on where they're going."

As for Thompson, he continues to make his mark on Milwaukee Ballet. For the 1999-2000 season, he's scheduled an all-Balanchine evening, Les Sylphides, and mixed-rep programs featuring pieces by Robert Joffrey, de Ribere, Robert North, and a world premiere from Posin. After that?

"I don't know," says Thompson. "I've been down in the engine room of this ship so long, I need to come up on deck and take a look and see where the horizon is."

Thomas Connors writes regularly about the fine arts scene in the Midwest.