26 replies to this topic

[Helene]

Former Principal Dancer and current OBT Director of Artistic Operations, Anne Mueller, has been named the Interim Artistic Director, per the company's Facebook page:

We are delighted to report that Anne Mueller, former Principal Dancer and currently the Director of Artistic Operations at OBT, has accepted the position of Interim Artistic Director at Oregon Ballet Theatre. As we look forward to a wonderful 2nd half of the 2012-2013 season, please join is in congratulating Anne on her appointment.

https://www.facebook...67106099&type=1

Best of luck to Mueller

[sandik]

This could be a good thing (and it's absolutely better than several other scenarios...)

[Mme. Hermine]

you mean while they hire an executive search firm and pay too much money for it that could have been better used elsewhere? i am an incurable cynic.  and i don't know christopher, i'm just a cynic.

[Helene]

Surely the company was not going to hold the top job empty when they have a season to finish.

[Mme. Hermine]

but remember, helene, i'm a cynic.not much directing to do at the top when the season is half finished,repertoryalready set etc  a little like joe girardi getting tossed from a game in the 9th inning and tony pena finishing managing until the end of the game.

[sandik]

I don't know the sports analogies, but in a smaller company like OBT, the artistic director is fully involved in daily life.  Even if they do nothing to plan for the next season, they will give company class, stage and rehearse repertory, oversee the other crafts (sets, costumes, lights), work with staff on marketing and promotion, and generally act as a connection point for the organization.  This spring they've got Swan Lake on the schedule, which they've done a couple times before, but is still a big undertaking.  Stowell staged it the last time, and I don't know what the status of his works for the company might be without him as director.  After that they've got an American music program with two premieres he's arranged for and a third work new to the company, and then an all-Balanchine program that I imagine he would have staged part of (not to mention that his mother has staged a great deal of the Balanchine the company has performed -- if they'd made arrangements for her to work on that program she most certainly will, but the relationship must certainly be different).

And that's just for the spring season on stage.  I'm sure that Stowell has been making plans for the 13-14 season, especially if there are new commissions in play (and without him as the director, those projects are in limbo as well), but companies are already starting to make commitments to those schedules, thinking about dancer contracts, lining up partnerships with other organizations, writing and overseeing long-term fundraising applications, and on and on and on.  Being without a leader for the next however many months, while a new board figures out what they want from the company and therefore from a new director, and then preparing and running a search for that director, would be a miserable way to try and run a dance company.  Mueller, who was a lovely dancer and had a great career at OBT, is well-known and well-liked by the company and the community.  She's taking on a difficult task, but I think she's up to the challenge.

[Mme. Hermine]

i'm sure she's both intelligent and capable,but i'm so fed up with company press releases and the latest choice of how to spin things that i've added
dyed-in-the-wool to the word cynic, i'm afraid.

[sandik]

I don't doubt your point of view in the least -- while I like Mueller, and think she can pull this off if the gods are kind, I am frustrated with the short-sightedness of the board's decisions that puts all this in play.  I've been very impressed with Stowell's work at OBT, and am frankly worried for the future of the company.  I don't give a fig for how the board chooses to present their policies -- I think they've made a big mistake.

[SandyMcKean]

sandik,

What a terrific concise description of the typical Artistic Director's responsibilities!  (I'm saving it.)

[Mme. Hermine]

i certainly agree with the above two of you!

[bart]

This sounds like an echo of what happened in Miami last spring-summer, though the departure of Stowell comes early in the season.  Since the company may be headed towards a seriously different configuration and repertoire, you have to wonder who will be doing the planning for next season.  And how they can do it, since interim AD's rarely have that kind of power.

Good luck to all.  

[Helene]

A big difference in Miami is that Villella's successor was already chosen.  An interim director is also in a different position than one appointed to the job.