New executive director at ABT. (News).

On October 15, American Ballet Theatre announced the appointment of Wallace Chappell to the position of executive director, replacing Louis Spisto, who resigned last July after a stormy two-year tenure that was marked by board and staff resignations. Chappell, 60, who left his position as director of the Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, has extensive experience in dance and a reputation for being able to negotiate the often tricky interplay between the administrative and creative sides of a performing arts body.

"I see myself as a producer who is happy also to work on the artistic side," says Chappell, a Texas native who has a master's degree in Asian dance and theater from the University of Hawaii and had a successful career as an artistic director at various locations, including Atlanta's Alliance Theatre and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, before taking up the position at Hancher in 1986. During his fifteen-year tenure at the University of Iowa, he commissioned more than eighty new works, including the Joffrey Ballet's productions of The Nutcracker and Billboards, and pieces by Ushio Amagatsu and Sankai Juku, Laura Dean, Bill T. Jones, Lar Lubovitch, Susan Marshall, Paul Taylor, and Twyla Tharp. His experience in commissioning new work, familiarity with the contemporary dance scene, and expertise at building audiences for dance--Hancher has drawn 700,000 audience members to dance performances alone since it opened in 1972--were important elements for ABT's artistic director, Kevin McKenzie: "Wallace knows the community, the creators, the presenters, and the funders," he says. "He's already part of the dance family."

Chappell's initial priorities at ABT will be strengthening the company's endowment as well as its cash reserves. The current endowment is a little over $4 million, and ideally Chappell would like to see that grow to $50 million. He'd also like to see the reserves increase from about $3 million to $30 million--the amount of ABT's annual budget. He also hopes to reinforce the company's educational programs, "an area that one cannot do enough in," he says. Chappell praises ABT's current programs, which include nationwide summer workshops and outreach into New York City public schools, but would like to do even more to bring in younger audiences. He's considering alternate curtain times that might be better for families and would like to make tickets more accessible to and affordable for the "K through 40-year-olds. It's so important to bring younger people to this art form," he says.

He also hopes to provide McKenzie with more time for creative work and to look for choreographers who will produce exciting new ballets. "Our seasons at City Center and the Metropolitan Opera and the nature of those stages govern many choices. It's important to keep doing the classics because it's our heritage. They pay the bills, and they serve as entry points into the art form. But we've already had a number of thoughtful, exciting sessions about new choreographers we hope to work with over the next five years. We want to move ahead, too."