Darren Lee
Madison Ballet’s Nutcracker includes 150 dancers and a live score played by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.
This holiday season Madison Ballet looks forward to a new home, new leaders and a new Nutcracker.
Oh — and $1 million, too.
Lots of changes are underway, the most visible of which will be the work of interim artistic director Sara Schumann, whose credits include serving as choreographer, solo dancer and ballet master with Chicago’s Lyric Opera from 1990 to 2006. Madison Ballet’s longtime artistic director W. Earle Smith announced his retirement earlier this year.
“I think one of the things that I like to bring to any dance project is to get the dancers invested in what their artistic choices are,” says Schumann, who lives in Chicago. “I really like to let the dancers have some say in what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.” While most productions of The Nutcracker hew closely to George Balanchine’s 1954 choreography, Schumann emphasizes acting.
“There are a lot of ways you can shade or contrast what you’re doing,” says Schumann, “and the better your dancers, the more able they are to put their own stamp on things.”
Coincident with the production’s opening, Madison Ballet will publicly launch a $1 million capital campaign, $600,000 of which has already been secured. Funds will be used in part to secure a new home on the near west side. The company currently rents at aging Westgate Mall.
Lease negotiation for the new space is underway. “We just visited on Wednesday [Nov. 21] to look at some final layout options and consider some build-out,” says Gretchen Bourg, the company’s managing director. “We’re pretty far along, with the hope that we can move somewhere within quarter one of 2019.”
The ballet will soon begin national searches for a permanent artistic director — Schumann is not applying — and for a new position, that of chief executive officer. From an organizational standpoint, this is the biggest change of all. The company has never before had a CEO.
“It’s definitely needed,” says Schumann. “It’s the key. You need somebody at the helm of the ship that’s going to be able to put the strategic planning in place for a few years — and years down the road.”
In spring, the company will be collaborating with Capital City Theatre in a production of On the Town, opening May 30 at Overture.Madison Ballet will again present a spring program of new, edgier works in a more intimate setting, at the Bartell Theatre.
Meanwhile, The Nutcracker, which opens Dec. 8 at Overture Hall, provides entree to audiences who otherwise would never think of attending ballet. The city’s expanding millennial population, with its desire for experiences over products, would seem a prime market.
Bourg says people often buy season tickets as holiday gifts and then learn about the full range of what Madison Ballet offers: “We hear so often they had no idea there were so many opportunities to get up close and personal with our dancers, or that we debut original and provocative works.”
