Patricia Wilde passes the torch.

When the curtain falls on Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's 199-97 season, Patricia Wilde's fifteen years as artistic director will also come to an end. After taking her final bow and gathering up the bouquets, however, Wilde plans to remain through the summer as an advisor with the company that she has guided since 1982. Her recently appointed successor, Terry Orr [see page 28], will asume full control in September. As Wilde explains, "I wouldn't leave until I was sure the company was in good hands."

Far from ready to discuss life after PBT, Wilde is developing new plans and preparing for the company's twenty-seventh season, which opened October 24 with Janek Schergen's adaptation of The Sleeping Beauty. The three act classic is a fitting tribute to the company; it had welcomed Wilde's arrival (and defined her ensuing mission) with an overly ambitious Aurora's Wedding.

Wilde gained considerable respect in Pittsburgh for the high standards she set and the way she molded PBT to match her aesthetic. She has added contemporary masterpieces, along with new works, to the existing classical repertoire; showcased the results in notable venues; and built the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School into a source of dancers for the company and other major troupes. Under her leadership, PBT rose from the second rung of regional companies to national status.

She demonstrates her confidence in her dancers' versatility by juxtaposing works of abstract imagery, such as Jiri Kylian's Return to the Strange Land, with rich characterizations, as seen in Eugene Loring's Billy the Kid Works by Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey, Kenneth MacMillan, and Choo-San Goh are now in the repertoire, which Wilde has enriched with approximately ninety ballets. Roughly one-quarter of the works represent her heritage as a New York City Ballet principal. "The dancers made strides with Ballet Imperial in 1993 and previous to that with Theme and Variations," says Wilde. She regularly schedules Balanchine staples such as Concerto Barocco; next season she is adding Jewels and Symphony in C.

All the while she has never hesitated to give young choreographers a chance. In 1991, for example, Wilde gave corps member Paul Abrahamson his first PBT main stage slot. Now a freelance contemporary choreographer, he directs the Pittsburgh-based Moose Project.

"There are good ballet choreographers out there," says Wilde, "and they do have to find their own voices, but it's the honesty in those voices that has meaning." She has extended commissions to many dancemakers, among them John Taras, Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, Andre Prokovsky, Daniel Levans, Lawrence Grandus, Val Caniparoli, David Allan, Ohad Naharin, and Peter Pucci, who will create a work for PBT in the spring.

Particularly sympathetic toward women choreographers, Wilde periodically showcases them on mixed bills. Last November she brought off a programming coup with an evening of such commissions--Monica Levy's American Dream, Lisa de Ribere's Amazing Grace, and Lynne Taylor-Corbett's The Ballad of You and Me (which repeats in May 1997).

"Occasionally, I receive letters from people who essentially say that they don't like to pay money to come to the theater and think," Wilde concedes, adding that the PBT "audience committed to new works has enlarged, but not enough to sell out houses." She would love to do more new works on a smaller scale at the Byham (formerly Fulton) Theatre: "It's a matter of funding, but we're looking for the opportunity to work it in. It would be so beneficial for the art form and for the dancers."

To encourage her company, Wilde has secured engagements far and wide--Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (1988); the National Theatre, Taipei, Taiwan (1992); Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College (1993); Wolf Trap Farm Park (1993); and the Center for the Performing Arts, San Jose, California (1994). "Each time we go to one of these venues," she says, "the dancers face audiences who have seen a lot of dance. The dancers come away with more confidence. I would love to see the company get to festivals in Europe." Appearing at the Kennedy Center is financially more feasible. "The company is ready," she says.

PT's most viable assets are its principal dancers (Steven Annegarn, Nanci rowley, Laura Desiree, Ying Li, Willy Shives, and Jiabin Pan) and soloists (Laurie Miller, Stanko Milov, Alexander Nagiba, Kristen Wenrick, and Kip Sturm), who display versatility, technical competence, and individuality. Within the ranks, Wilde has been nudging dancers forward. For example, corps member Erin Halloran, a seasoned Sugar Plum Fairy, danced the title role of Ben Stevenson's Cinderella last October. "What I'm trying to develop in the dancers is freedom, so that they show the joy of dancing that I think I always had . . . I stress the excitement Balanchine wanted to create with his choreography through tempo and through movement."

Similar goals have been set for the PBT school. Though it offers an eclectic syllabus, its training produces stylistically pure, artistically flexible dancers with the clean, secure classical technique that distinguished Wilde as a dancer. Currently, 30 percent of the company has ties to the school.

Wilde credited the new, higher level of confidence at PBT to former ballet master Ib Andersen, who worked with the company from 1994 until August of this year. (At present, Dana Arey is sole ballet master during the search for Andersen's replacement.) Andersen, with his careful attention to style, projection, and quality acquired during his career as a principal dancer with the Royal Danish Ballet and New York City Ballet, concentrated on making the dancers feel technique in their bodies and on challenging them through choreography. As a result, the homogeneous female ensemble, characterized by sleek lines and swift feet, is now matched by a male corps of growing capabilities, overall clarity, and improved presentation. As last season's unofficial resident choreographer (a vacancy open since Bruce Wells's departure last year), Andersen created his all-male XII Men which pushed the dancers to the limits of their technique and stamina. The work not only demonstrated how far the PBT men had progressed, but also set new artistic goals to be reached.

Wells's three-act The Great Gatsby was the fifth new work to premiere last season, the new Pucci work planned for spring is a burst of creativity that may become increasingly rare in the future. Last November's triple bill of premieres cost $386,O00; a typical mixed program of existing repertoire would require only $165,000 to $25O,000 to produce. PBT's managing director, Steven B. Libman, chairman of the Managers' Council for Dance/USA, predicts that rising expenses will generate more production rentals and collaborations with other companies on full-length ballets. (A joint project with Houston Ballet is currently under consideration for 1997 or 1998.)

"Too often, arts organizations don't see the train coming and it hits them," says Libman. "Or they see it, but don't do anything. If the train comes, we'll see it and act accordingly." He joined PBT in 1987 as development director, when the $1.5-million deficit stood at half the budget. Thanks to good management, a capable staff, a devoted fifty-five-member board that was adept at development, and long-range planning, the deficit was retired in 1991. That year Libman was promoted to managing director. PBT has since instituted a $20-million Capital Campaign and Endowment Fund to ensure the company's future;With $11 million pledged, the campaign currently adds 22 percent to contributed income and facilitates repertoire expansion.

PBT closed the 1995-96 season with an accumulated operating surplus of approximately $330,000. Earned income accounts for 62 percent of PBT's total revenue--4 percent from touring, 15 percent from the PBT school (which has some 400 students), and 81 percent from ticket sales. The 1996-97 season is being launched with a budget of $6.9 million.

Extensive touring with full-length ballets built PBT's reputation, but with rising costs and proportionally declining engagements the company now appears more often in the 2,800-seat Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, PBT's home since 1987. Corporate sponsorship of Cinderella and The Nutcracker (by department store chains) has facilitated extended runs, but in general, single-ticket sales have leveled off, the result of heavy competition and corporate layoffs. Libman noted that Nutcracker sales last December lagged 20 percent behind 1994--a disappointing return for a production that measures its success by single-ticket sales and recruits new audiences for repeat purchases.

By late June PBT reported that overall sales were 4.8 percent behind 1994-95 but stood 9.8 percent ahead of 1995-96, excluding Nutcracker. It is thought that the historical significance of Wilde's farewell season had stimulated renewed interest in full-season subscriptions, which had been declining. Subscriptions for 1996-97 were expected to grow from 8,003 to 8,400--a 7 percent boost in revenue and a 5 percent increase in subscriptions.

Artistic transitions aside, succeeding in a saturated market demands creativity. Telemarketing and benefit performances are profitable but passe. Trendier tactics include varied-pricing packages and affinity programs-Libman has wryly suggested rock 'n' roll promotions, too.

Corporations and government sources account for 13 percent of PBT's contributed income, individuals and foundations 20 percent apiece. Cuts from the National Endowment for the Arts could affect state funding. Losing these sources, Libman says, would necessitate strategies "to generate new revenue and new increases." Eyeing those elusive corporations, he adds, "We remain vigilant."

On the other hand, Pittsburgh, boasting the nation's eleventh-largest downtown theater complex, maintains strong performing arts organizations, good creative leadership, and generous arts support. "We've been blessed with excellent, family-created foundations--the Howard Heinz Endowment, the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation--that have made an enormous commitment to the community," says Libman.

While curbing the "tendency to exaggerate potential with audiences and contributors," Libman also scrutinizes operational factors. The organization relies on an administrative staff of nearly thirty (up from nine in 1986) and a corps of volunteers. "If managed well, a company's overhead is small--and ours is," he says. "My aim is to preserve the financial integrity of the ballet."

To compensate for sluggish 1991 subscription sales and a grant cut, fifteen musicians were pared from the orchestra for the premiere of Wells's Romeo and Juliet. Taped music was contemplated for a March 1992 series. Libman says that "the funders applauded us for making a difficult business decision . . . The largest portion--$560,000--of our two-million-dollar direct production budget, which excludes dancers' salaries, goes to the orchestra. In the grand scheme of things, if I can't reduce the size of the company, I can look at live music. And, yes, I would consider it again."

Both Libman and Wilde agree that downsizing is always "the most painful" austerity move, yet the company has shrunk over the years. In 1986, PBT provided a forty-two-week contract for its thirty-four dancers; it currently offers a thirty-eight-week contract for up to thirty-three dancers. Negotiations to replace the collective bargaining agreement that expired in September 1995 brought the dancers, members of the American Guild of Musical Artists, close to a Nutcracker walkout. On the table were a salary dispute and a proposal initiated by PBT, to extend the length of the basic agreement with AGMA to four years. The unanimously approved package, valued at $4.5 million, is equivalent to 16 percent of PBT's annual budget. Wage increases will range from a freeze to a maximum of 4.5 percent. Apprentices, currency compensated per show, will earn weekly salaries in the last year of the pact.

A ten-member search committee of board members, key funders, and representatives from PBT's administration and company had conducted the search for "Wilde's successor. "I want to see a good transition," says Wilde, "a rarity in ballet." Libman, a committee member, says they had looked for someone who "clearly had a vision; could articulate that vision; was a gifted teacher and coach; had a great respect for ballet repertory; and was committed to the creation of new works." Terry Orr is expected to be settled in Pittsburgh by July, after fulfilling obligations to set ballets on other companies.

Wilde adds that what PBT needed in a director was someone who can "bring the dancers along gently," as she and her predecessors have done. Founding director Nicolas Petrov used The Nutcracker to create a company from a student ensemble; the late John Gilpin ushered in professionalism; and under Patrick Frantz, the troupe strove for credibility in such works as Harald Lander's Etudes.

"I think I've accomplished what I wanted," she says, reflecting on the high standards PBT has reached. "Except I'd hoped to have enlarged the company to thirty-eight or forty dancers. The biggest challenge has been to maintain fiscal responsibility--to do things I really want to do and then to do them as I feel they should be done. I wanted to give choreographers opportunities and to see dancers developed." She adds, "I want to be the director who brought in Symphony in C."

Karen Dacko is Dance Magazine correspondent in Pittsburgh and dance editor of Pittsburgh Magazine.