Kat Stiennon
Tom Mattingly’s “Inflow” is part of Inside Out, the ballet’s January showcase.
It’s an artistic statement that also serves as a metaphor for the health of the organization. Madison Ballet opens Inside Out, its annual production of original works for intimate audiences, at the Bartell Theatre, Jan. 17-25.
The term “inside out” also reflects the degree to which the organization has remade itself in eight months, turning around perennially fitful fortunes. Fundraising in just the first quarter of its 2019-20 performance season totals more than the entire year before.
In May, the company fled the doomed Westgate Mall for a new, more visible, purpose-built facility on Odana Road. The company also hired its first-ever CEO last year, Jonathan Solari, who says he is building on a firm artistic foundation. “I think the essential piece of the puzzle is, first, you do good work,” says the veteran director/producer, who moved here from Brooklyn, New York.
The upcoming concert renews the company’s commitment to new work and new voices. Among the pieces will be “The Restless Hours,” choreographed by principal dancer Malachi Squires, based on Argentine tango. Artistic director Sara Stewart Schumann remounts last season’s “Spring” and bookends it with “Winter,” balancing ice with the fire of a lover’s triangle. “Continue,” by school director and ballet master Rachelle Butler, celebrates dancers of color.
“What’s neat is that the narrative in some of these, at least implied, is different,” says managing director Gretchen Bourg. “There’s women partnering women, men partnering men.” And opportunities to challenge other ballet stereotypes.
“Rachelle’s piece, in particular, is sort of an exploration of dancers of color trying to work within this very traditional Euro-centric framework,” she says. “How do they find a voice, and how do we celebrate their uniqueness?”
Dannika Rynes
CEO Jonathan Solari: “This city is hungry for more collaboration.”
In 2016, Madison Ballet cancelled much of its season. Although publicly embarrassing, it looks like it was a wise move. Faced with a shortage of $70,000-$80,000 in operating funds, ending the year early staved off another $100,000 in projected production debt.
So is the organization’s effort to widen its reach in Madison. “We see ourselves as part of the community, in a way that I think had for a number of reasons fallen by the wayside in recent history,” Solari says. “What this city, I think, is hungry for is more collaboration, not only between arts organizations but between nonprofits and schools and libraries and community centers and the arts organizations as well.”
Besides fundraising, enrollment numbers are spiking. “We’ve already increased our school enrollment by 25 percent,” says Bourg. “We are already having to turn families away — which is terrible — because our classes are full, which is awesome,” she says. “We’ve had to add classes to our schedule. We’ve had to add wait-lists for some of our classes now, which hasn’t happened in years.”
