municipal identity -- Ballet Internationale

[sandik]

I've been mulling over the news that Ballet Internationale is hoping to move from Indianapolis to LA, to become a resident company at the Music Center. Aside from the generally bad history of ballet companies in LA, what about the relationship with their current home? What kind of connections will they be severing if they move across the continent?

(I bring this up knowing very little about BI's institutional history -- can anyone here speak to their recent development and their current relationship with their city)

I know that ballet companies are almost exclusively made up of people who come from somewhere else, who move to a city in order to take a job, and often will pick up and move to another city for another job. But does the institution itself have the same kind of mobility?

Some companies have managed to do this successfully (more or less), the Joffrey being the first that comes to mind (though they themselves tried the LA idea and failed), but the ground is littered with groups that have not been able to transplant themselves.

Is ballet like baseball, where teams pick up sticks and move around, or is it more like something else?

[bart]

Sandik, thanks for bringing this up. The article mentions that the annual budget for Ballet Internationale is $3.5 million. Usually, in smaller or provincial cities, local patriotism plays a big role in fund-raising, but in this case the Director seems to be flogging an company without roots, and making its rootlessness one of its major selling points. What will this do to the donor base in Indianapolis, I wonder?

[Marga]

I've been mulling over the news that Ballet Internationale is hoping to move from Indianapolis to LA, to become a resident company at the Music Center.  .....is ballet like baseball, where teams pick up sticks and move around, or is it more like something else?

sandik, I've been mulling over this news for a part of this afternoon as well, and discussing it with my hubby. I have more than a casual interest, in that a young dancer friend of my daughter's has just been given a corps contract with Ballet Internationale and is moving to Indianapolis to begin her professional career there at the beginning of August.

Despite the fact that many in the ballet world know who Eldar Aliev is, and that the legendary Irina Kolpakova works with the company, the Los Angeles public, ballet as well as otherwise, probably doesn't know, and the general public probably doesn't care. I foresee a big, fat failure for Aliev. After all, if John Clifford couldn't make it -- twice! -- with his connection to Balanchine, how can an unknown Russian, no matter how well-trained and coached his ready-to-roll company, do any better?

Add in the immediate competition presented by the other two companies -- Ballet Pacifica and the new Los Angeles Ballet -- that are set to plant, water, and grow themselves into the L.A. cultural landscape, and you have a mixture where only one company, IF THAT, can take root and flourish. The other seedlings can't help but be choked out.

Okay, enough gardening metaphors. (It's the beginning of planting season where I live )

Besides, Aliev's idea is still mostly a grandiose dream -- an ideal fantasy -- in his own head, despite the proposal that he commissioned someone to write using plenty of superlatives to describe what he would bring to the table. The problem is, there is no table, unless Aliev brings his own portable, folding one and sets it up in the Music Center's offices (an idea which makes a good metaphor for his intentions with his troupe ).

The Music Center has responded to his proposal that it is not looking for a resident ballet company, that the cultural community it serves couldn't support a classical ballet company, no matter how young, energetic and enthusiastic its dancers are, and that if they were to be in the market for a dance group, they might not necessarily choose a ballet company.

My money's on Stiefel, although I wish Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen a heap of good luck. In today's celebrity oriented culture, Stiefel is the only one with name recognition and huge celebrity in the ballet world, with some minor fame in the outside-of-ballet world as well, all because of THE MOVIE. If Stiefel can't revive Ballet Pacifica into something really wonderful that will attract all sorts of audiences for more than one or two weeks a year, then I guess LA is not ready for a substantial resident ballet company yet.

That Aliev has been able to sustain his company outside of the ballet-savvy and critical environments of New York, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, San Francisco, Stuttgart, and London is quite a feat.

Ballet, regretfully, is not baseball, which everyone is aware of whether they follow it or not. The team names all have recognition factor with anyone who watches the news or reads a newspaper or hears people in conversation. I felt betrayed when "my" team, the Brooklyn Dodgers moved across country and became the Los Angeles Dodgers, yet I had never been to a single game and never watched baseball on TV or even went to any of my high school's games. Still, I identified with the team and knew who some of the players were. I'm sure Los Angeles knew what they were getting, too.

Trying to move a ballet company in the same fashion just won't work. No one in LA is going to know -- or care (as in style of training, what kind of ballets performed, what luminaries are involved with the company) -- what they're getting. So, Aliev's contention that the City of Angels would be getting a ready-made troupe set to perform at the "pinnacle of excellence" (! pinnacle? -- no one challenged that statement in the proposal?) means nothing.

Good grief, "the only company in the world that can move to LA, change its name and give itself over to Los Angeles..." !!?? -- this is not the way to win friends and influence people, to burn bridges or sever ties -- and especially not the way to leave your lover, the city of Indianapolis.

[Helene]

I guess Indiannapolis' karma for "stealing" the Baltimore Colts has come full circle.

[Welsh Canary]

It is interesting to note that since the initial article first appeared about the possibility of a Ballet Internationale move to LA, there has been barely a blip on the hometown radar screen about this. My guess is that this is probably due to the fact that most hoosiers remain unaware that this company even exists. And that speaks volumes about the company's commitment to the community. BI has been on the local scene for more than 30 years. In its early years, it had a significant and highly successful education and outreach program that reached thousands of school children and adults annually. However, in the last 10 years, the company's commitment to education and outreach has been significantly eroded under the leadership of the current Artistic Director. Not surprisingly, a revived fledgling education and outreach program was eliminated recently due to "budgetary cutbacks." One can't help wondering if the lack of commitment by this company toward community oriented programming will lead to its demise on the local scene. Claims of being a "world class company" to the contrary, communities expect and deserve more from non-profits than the ability to purchase tickets to performances. With BI's kind of track record, one is also left to wonder why in the world LA would ever be willing to take a risk on this company.

[atm711]

Ballet Internationale is hardly a 'world class company', although their artistic directors have been associated with a world class company. I saw the company last April at Brooklyn College and it attracted the Russian community of Brooklyn (not unlike Eifman!). The Company was a bit 'rag-tag'. The best part for me was seeing a dancer I did not know anything about---Karen Scalzitti-Kennedy, who I understand is semi-retired. It is a far cry from being an "internationally acclaimed ensemble" as Mr. Aliev states in the program.

[Hans]

Will BI move its school, too?

[academyvp]

Will BI move its school, too?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Clara R. Noyes Academy of Ballet Internationale will not be moving out of Indianapolis.

[lthomass]

As a parent who has a student at the Academy, I am glad to hear that it will be staying in town. The academy gives an excellent dance education and my child really likes the instructors. They are very patient and kind, but run disciplined classes where everyone is given an opportunity to learn. The instructors are very dedicated to their art and are good about passing on their dedication to the children. My child does not want to take dance lessons anywhere else, so I hope that the academy will be around for a very long time.

[lthomass]

Well we don't have to worry about the company moving to LA or anywhere else as they have ceased operations as of today. It was very disheartening to open my e-mails today and see that the doors were closed. It was even harder to have to tell my young son that there would be no dance class tonight and no Nutcracker either. Needless to say he was very upset and there were quite a few tears all around. My thoughts and prayers go out to the dancers and staff of the company who had no idea that this step was even being considered and are now unemployed.