Recharging the company batteries.

There's renewed excitement about Hartford Ballet. The company is stirring and starring on several fronts. It is enriching the local cultural scene and becoming a respected national resource; it is a storehouse of the classics, a whirlwind of choreographic activity.

Founded in 1973 by Joffrey principal dancer Michael Uthoff, the company is an outgrowth of the School of the Hartford Ballet, which has from the start concerned itself with training at a professional level. The structure of the organization is unique; it has always been led by a triumvirate: the artistic director of the company; the school director, Enid Lynn, and the executive director, currently chief executive officer Pauline R. Kezer. In spite of the odds against it, the structure seems to work.

Under Uthoff, Hartford Ballet became one of Connecticut's leading cultural institutions, a company that first gained national recognition, then international repute from tours to the People's Republic of China in 1988 and nine Latin American countries in 1991. After Uthoff moved on to become director of Arizona Ballet, Hartford engaged in a careful, yearlong search which finally yielded the fortunate choice of current artistic director, Kirk Peterson.

Thoroughly qualified for the job, Peterson is a former principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, Harkness Ballet, London Festival Ballet, and National Ballet in Washington, D.C., and a Varna competition bronze medalist. He is also an accomplished choreographer and a much-sought-after teacher. Even during his days as a star performer, he cultivated his interests in choreography and teaching. For a time he was resident choreographer and then company teacher and assistant to the artistic director of San Francisco Ballet. He has also choreographed for Broadway and spent some time as resident teacher at David Howard's highly respected New York City school. Lila York, director of the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Offstage series, who commissioned Peterson's Amazed in Burning Dreams, says he has "a command of the language of classical ballet . . . a quick, disciplined method, and a cooperative spirit. Soft-spoken, articulate, decisive, and unpretentious, Peterson, I believed, could work amiably, professionally, and expeditiously with the company dancers and elicit their best performances. But I was unprepared for the extent of Peterson's creative facility . . . With Burning Dreams, Peterson has accomplished one of the most difficult tasks in choreography--to make classical ballet look new again."

That is exactly what Peterson aims to do with Hartford Ballet--make classical ballet look new again. "I wish to have Hartford Ballet recognized as a company and an organization rooted in the classical tradition yet on the cutting edge of ballet choreography, concepts, and fresh approaches to tradition. Our diversity of repertoire should primarily reflect and be an outgrowth of the technique of classical ballet. The full-length classics, although representative of ballet's tradition of grandly scaled story ballets, are only one example of the choreographic manifestations of classical ballet technique. We should also strive to balance the repertoire with the periodic addition of ballets from the great masters of the twentieth century [while becoming] a hotbed of creativity whose goal is to excite Hartford, the nation, and the world." This is a man whose thinking isn't small!

Thus far, Peterson is succeeding admirably. During his initial few seasons he has (of course) choreographed a new Nutcracker, this one set in the 1 840s California Gold Rush. He has mounted Giselle and restaged and newly created several shorter pieces for the company. In rehearsal for next season is Peterson's full-length Coppelia, which is chock-full of authentic vocabulary and the old French steps; he hopes at some point to add Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, perhaps cooperating with another company in order to have a full cast. Added to the repertoire have been works by twentieth-century masters George Balanchine and Antony Tudor, and a stream of newer works by Colin Conner. Choo-San Goh, Jean Grand-Maitre, Monica Levy, and Graham Lustig. This season will get off to a glorious start on September 26 with the program, "A Tribute to Russian Ballet," featuring Bronislava Nijinska's Les Biches, Balanchine's Apollo, Michel Fokine's Le Spectre de la Rose, and the world premiere of Peterson's new staging of the Diaghilev classic, The Firebird.

As if one new Nutcracker weren't enough, Peterson will choreograph yet another for Christmas 1997, with an even more ingenious twist. Entitled The American Nutcracker, it is being underwritten by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which has pledged $500,000 to cover the costs of mounting the ballet and providing all new sets and costumes. This new version will be set in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Giant Sequoia National Park. The Act I party scene will feature historic figures such as Mark Twain as guests; one of the Act II variations will include a Native American scene. After playing Hartford the work will be presented in ten performances over four years in the tribe's southeastern Connecticut reservation. Says tribal chairman Richard A. Hayward, "Dance is a significant part of tribal culture, and this agreement is a winning proposition for everyone."

In addition to infusing new life into the repertoire, Peterson has made many personnel changes. He inherited a company which originally had twenty-three dancers. The year without an artistic leader produced many defections and demoralized those who stayed. Much has changed since then. Currently there are twenty dancers on thirty-two-week contracts, plus ten apprentices and trainees; next year those numbers will increase to twenty-two dancers and thirty-six weeks. The company has the rare luck--or is it that Kirk Peterson has the rare magnetism?--to attract a healthy complement of especially fine male dancers. According to Peterson, there are twelve more men who have indicated their interest in joining the company when there is an opening. Hartford Ballet looks svelte and dances with passion.

In order to keep up with him, Peterson says that his dancers must be "workaholics. They must be flexible enough to do all styles and have a relationship with a number of different choreographers . . . They must be willing to participate." Dancers are recruited both from the School of the Hartford Ballet and through an annual audition tour. Peterson continues: "The dancers come from all over. They must be physically able to do the repertoire. Also I interview candidates to see how open they are and to see if they want to go in my direction."

Perhaps one of Peterson's canniest personnel coups was the hiring of Pauline R. Kezer. Her resume reads nothing like that of the typical business manager of a nonprofit company, which may, indeed, be her greatest strength. Kezer joined Hartford Ballet in September 1995, after serving four terms in the Connecticut House of Representatives and as secretary of state of Connecticut, as well as running for governor. Kezer has also served on the national board of directors of the Girl Scouts, was government chair of United Way of the Capitol Area Cabinet, chaired the Connecticut Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer for two years, was a Y.W.C.A. president--and on and on.

One gets the idea that she knows her way around in both the political and the fund-raising communities. Her approach to her job is refreshingly direct. She quickly dismisses the idea that she will muck around in Kirk Peterson's artistic domain. "The product is fabulous," says Kezer. "We need only to market ourselves to new constituencies and to have more earned income, without, of course, stepping on any artistic toes." (Was the pun intended?) To that end, home seasons have added Thursday night shows and an extra matinee to the traditional performance weekends.

The company also plans to establish a second home in Bridgeport, should a pending state grant come through; she had applied for help through a state economic development grant. Her plans for Bridgeport are bold: thirteen performances in the Klein auditorium, which seats 1,500. To accomplish her goal she has already established contact with the Bridgeport Y, the Junior League, and various organizations to recruit volunteers. She believes that Bridgeport has a compelling economic and social need to support these performances; she also intends to work out an interesting "not-for-profit deal" with these partnership organizations. If it all works as planned, something similar may be tried in Springfield, Massachusetts, in the future. Another of Kezer's schemes, changing all of the lighting fixtures in the building in which the school and company are housed, will save the company $5,000 annually in energy costs.

Kezer and Peterson inherited a deficit, of course. They have set themselves a goal of three years to get out of their half-million-dollar obligation. The plan is to reduce the outstanding balance to $250,000, then to $125,000, and finally to break even. So far they are well on their way with a $250,000 challenge gift which must be matched three to one in new money, either earned or by donation. They've achieved this challenge in year one and are striving to do the same in year two. And, they are doing it with at least one hand tied behind the back. Because of the terms of previous company bailouts, many corporations currently may not be approached.

Those of us who live in Connecticut and often feel deprived of a real richness of cultural offerings, particularly in dance, are looking forward to next year and the years to come. What we've seen so far has only whetted our appetites. To quote Peterson: "We stand at a new threshold of creative possibilities which is ours to embrace, and [we can] aggressively usher in a new time for ballet in America. Hartford Ballet should be one of the jewels in the crown of the arts institutions of this city. It should be one of the great attractions and drawing cards. There is no reason why we cannot be one of the highest caliber and quality ballet institutions in this country."

Muriel Topaz, a Dance Magazine associate editor, was director of the Juilliard School Dance Division (1985-92) and executive director of the Dance Notation Bureau (1978-85).