Terry Orr: master of the art of transition.

After three decades of service with the same outfit, many employees accept a gold watch and opt for retirement. Terry Orr, after thirty years at American Ballet Theatre, is not even thinking about slowing down and taking it easy. Having made the transition from performer to ballet master at ABT, Orr is now about to move on to a higher position at another company. Beginning in July 1997, Orr will replace the retiring Patricia Wilde as artistic director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

Young Terry never intended to be a dancer, but when the beginning acrobatics class he really wanted to take didn't materialize, he took ballet by default. This serendipitous turn of events led to further study at the San Francisco Ballet School and eventually to graduation into the company, where he met - and soon married - a young dancer named Cynthia Gregory.

Orr was an SFB principal in 1965 when he and Gregory came to New York City to audition for ABT, then under the directorship of Lucia Chase. He was accepted first - she had to wait several weeks for approval - and was quickly promoted to soloist and acclaimed for his interpretations in such Americana as Rodeo and Billy the Kid. ABT's extensive touring schedules of the 1970s and early 1980s, however, meant that versatility. not specialization, was the order of the day. Performing only one- or two-night stands was the norm, for he was traveling as many as 500 miles a day for four or five weeks at a stretch. seventeen or eighteen weeks a year. As a result, Orr believes that dancers grew up very differently then - perhaps more quickly than dancers today.

"You got off a bus after eight hours," he says, "and you needed to determine for yourself whether to eat, rest, or go directly to the theater, depending on what you were dancing that night. A corps role might allow you to go to the hotel first, then eat, and then go to the theater. Dancing a principal role meant eating first, after which you went to the theater to warm up and only returned to the hotel after the performance. We didn't have detailed tour books or the number of staff members handling the particulars - you were on your own. No one led you by the hand. telling, you where to o and what to do."

Despite having danced numerous leading roles, his promotion to principal in 1972 came as a complete surprise. "When I was made a principal, I didn't even know it," he recalls. "I signed the contract and started to walk out [of Chase's office]. Lucia called me back and said, `Aren't you going, to thank me? I just made you a principal.'" Seven years of hard work had not gone unnoticed.

The transition to ballet master was just as unplanned as the rest of his career. He never consciously made the decision to move away from performing. When he started on the uncertain path of dance, his parents had warned him about the limitations of a dancer's career and insisted he go to college. ABT's touring schedule, however, made completing college courses almost impossible. Disappearing for weeks at a time, he would return to class to find himself eliminated from the roster of students. Orr says jokingly, "I tried for three years and got kicked out every year because I was always traveling." He continues on a more serious note: "When I think back, I can remember a small, nagging voice saying, `You can only dance for so long and then what are you going to do with your life?'"

Again fate intervened. Having created roles in several of the ballets Eliot Feld had made when he was also dancing at ABT, Orr began taking over Feld's rehearsals when Feld was away starting up his own company. Chase liked what she saw and made him responsible for other ABT repertoire. He had an aptitude for the work, he enjoyed it, and he knew that he could extend his career in dance, so the inevitable transformation to ballet master began.

The shift to "management" did not happen immediately. Orr would be in the studio all day, first assigning daily schedules, then taking rehearsals and finding time to rehearse his own roles. Eventually, as demand for his expertise as a ballet master increased, he realized he could not maintain the high level he expected of himself as a performer. Chase insisted that he complete his contract as a dancer, but after that expired, Terry Orr, dancer, became Terry Off, ballet master - a role for which he is perfectly suited. At a rehearsal of Giselle, for instance, he misses nothing. Every detail, every nuance, whether performed by a principal or by a corps member, is criticized and evaluated.

Such expertise has been fostered under four different directors, with their own priorities and perspectives. Chase, whom Orr found the most conservative, preferred to acquire a ballet that was already a success and merge it into ABT's repertoire. If enough people in a staff meeting or a social situation recommended a ballet, then she would try to obtain that work for the company. In this way, ABT developed an enormous repertoire from some of the world's greatest choreographers; Tudor, de Mille, Limon, Robbins, and Balanchine were just a few whose works were added under Chase's regime.

When Mikhail Baryshnikov became the artistic director, the difference was immediately felt. "Misha was a hands-on director," says Orr. "He taught some of the best classes I've ever seen - combinations that were inventive, musical; he taught people how to dance, and did it at a very young age." During his tenure the ever-present financial problems diminished somewhat, but not everything was perfect. While Baryshnikov scrapped the guest-star system preferred by Chase in favor of building a solid corps of in-house talent, spending still exceeded income, and by the end of his tenure, a tremendous deficit loomed. His departure was accompanied by a barrage of publicity and predictions of doom.

"Jane Hermann arrived at a very tough time, assigned the daunting task of trying to keep ABT afloat," says Orr. In his opinion she did this admirably and deserves credit for putting ABT back on the road to recovery. Present artistic director Kevin McKenzie has benefited from her labors. As a former principal, McKenzie is well aware of the strengths of ABT and agrees with Orr that the company should mount the classics, hire the best dancers in the world, develop the younger dancers within the company, and - last but definitely not least - obtain new works from a variety of choreographers.

"Kevin knows what Ballet Theatre is worth artistically and intends to continue the tradition," says Orr. He feels that McKenzie possesses the necessary characteristics that were inherent in all of his predecessors: he keeps his eyes open for new ballets to add to the repertoire as Chase did; he works in the studio the way Baryshnikov did; and he keeps a sharp eye on the bottom line as Hermann did. Orr quickly adds that McKenzie, having been in the job for less than four years, learns his lesson the first time and never makes the same mistake twice.

When the call came in January 1996 from Pat Wilde asking him to consider the directorship of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Orr's first reaction was, "Why me?" He was content with his life onstage and off (he has been married since 1980 to recently retired ABT ballerina Marianna Tcherkassky). "My job at Ballet Theatre enabled me to do what I love, with a company I love," he says. "With a thirty-week schedule, the rest of the year was free for me to stage ballets for other companies." But Orr has never been one to resist a challenge. Having worked with PBT several times in the past, he knew the company and its outstanding reputation. According to Orr, "The city of Pittsburgh spends more per capita on the arts than anywhere else in the U.S. It's a very exciting city." After meetings with the board of directors as well as careful thought, the decision was made to make this latest transition.

Orr's world travels have enabled him to pass on the traditions that were instilled in him. Now, however, he will limit his globe-trotting. "I'm very excited about my new job. I hope to broaden the company's repertoire not only with the works of Tudor and Robbins but also with new contemporary choreographers who will do new pieces on the company. There are a lot of avenues to consider. It's very stimulating." A connection between the generations must be established, he insists, so that the ballets remain alive onstage. If not, they will fade from memory or be performed incorrectly.

Using what he has learned from various directors, he concentrates on everything about a production - lights, makeup, costumes, choreography, demeanor - just as a motion picture director would. This fall he took his expertise to France, where he staged Fall River Legend for Paris Opera Ballet and then traveled to Toulouse to stage Rodeo for the Ballet du Capitole (coincidentally, his company is now directed by another former ABT dancer, Nanette Glushak). The lessons and experience garnered in France will now be added to his prodigious knowledge and passed on to yet another group of dancers of yet another generation.

As if all this were not enough to keep Orr busy, he has become involved with and will continue to work with the Agnes de Mille Dance Theatre Foundation, which funds and supports choreographers. "There is a distinct lack of funding available for choreographers today," he says. "It's something Agnes wanted very much - the development of ballets, particularly in the Americana style. It's a lot of work, but we're going to do it out of respect for Agnes."

His relationship with de Mille has been one of the constants in his career. As a dancer, he was acclaimed for his performances as the Champion Roper in her Rodeo. As ballet master, he worked with her as she choreographed in the studio. Now he is working to preserve her work as she would have wished.

Orr is able to instill de Mille's unique style in young dancers, teaching them what the role has to say, enabling them to present the role to the public in their own way. Helping bring a ballet alive in this manner is one of the most rewarding aspects of his work, he feels. With his dual abilities as coach and ballet master, he is able to look at a ballet and determine "what's wrong with this picture" and then correct it.

This honest, effective approach - a hallmark of Orr's work - makes him the perfect choice for artistic director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. "Ballet is a hand-me-down experience," he says. "Ballet Theatre is the greatest college of dance in the world." Having graduated as a dancer, Orr has gone on to become a professor, and now leaves his former college to take on the role of dean, continuing to make the transitions smoothly and effortlessly thanks to the education he received from his colleagues and predecessors.