Martin Fredmann has just returned from Japan. Again.
The Colorado Ballet’s artistic director was there earlier this year to receive the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with RosetteÑone of Japan’s top honorsÑfor his work training and educating Japanese dancers.
Taken in tandem with the successful completion of the third Japan Grand Prix, a world-class summer youth ballet competition Fredmann helped launch, and nothing can douse his buoyant mood going into the Colorado Ballet’s 45th season.
“We have a wonderful season,” Fredmann said in August, two days after stepping off the airplane. “A spectacular ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ new ‘Nutcracker’ scenery and costumes, a wonderful triple bill (featuring) Jessica Lang, one of the most talented choreographers in America today, along with my ‘Cinderella,’ which is always popular.”
Forget last season’s financial woes, the disappearance of what would have been an extravagant “Alice in Wonderland,” the loss of a bid to buy the Temple Events Center and the subsequent departure of several key figures within the company. As excitement builds over the opening of the new Ellie Caulkins Opera House, in which the Colorado Ballet will be a major tenant, all that is water under the bridge.
The ballet squeezed its productions onto smaller stages for two years while the former Auditorium Theatre underwent a massive renovation. Later this month, the company jumps out of the gate and onto its new 60-by-40-foot stage with “The Sleeping Beauty,” featuring music by Tchaikovsky. Widely considered one of the most spectacular of all the classical ballets, “Beauty” promises a production that will be extra glitzy, with sets and costumes designed for the Royal Ballet of England.
“The Sleeping Beauty” runs Sept. 23 through Oct. 16.
“I think morale is 1,000 percent higher today than it was in April,” said James Ruh, the Colorado Ballet board’s co-chair. He was referring to a two-month span earlier this year when the company dealt with twin woes: A deal to have acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon create a $1 million “Alice in Wonder-land,” and its bid to buy and relocate to the Temple Events Center both collapsed as a result of a serious financial shortfall.
“The dance staff and the trustees can see that we’re getting a real business handle on how to run the ballet,” Ruh said. He lobbied to have Lisa Snider, a former co-treasurer of the board of trustees, step in as interim executive director after her predecessor, Rick Tallman, left in the shadow of the Colorado Ballet’s funding mishaps. Snider spent the previous nine years as a research analyst and coordinator with Wagner Investment Management.
“There have been some significant challenges,” Snider said. “There’s no two ways about it.”
She set out to streamline the ballet’s budget, going as far as ignoring building maintenance to cut costs. Another step to improve the ballet’s financial outlook: refocusing its effort to relocate out of a sagging old auto dealership at East 13th Avenue and Lincoln Street to a more spacious and potentially lower-cost facility the company would rent instead of buy.
Snider also wooed a handful of former board members back into the fold to replace those who left this spring. Other trustees have agreed to forgive some debt. “We win by moving forward,” she said.
While none of that means the Colorado Ballet is in the blackÑit still owes the city of Denver several hundred thousand dollars for “Dracula” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” productions at the Buell TheatreÑthe company is taking a “whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” approach to its new season.
“It never gets easier,” said Fredmann, who arrived in Denver in 1987 as part of an effort to merge what was the Colorado Concert Ballet, originally founded as a school in 1951, with the Tampa Ballet. “There are bright moments, and there are dark moments, but that’s simply the nature of the arts.”
He’s proud that when he arrived the ballet’s budget was about $750,000; it has since grown to more than $6 million. “We certainly did not have the roster of new and famous choreographers in our repertoire,” Fredmann said of the ballet’s 20-year growth.
One local dance expert watched the Colorado Ballet’s recent funding and staffing dilemmas unfold with little concern. University of Colorado senior ballet instructor Robin Haig said it would take much more than a slim fiscal year to undermine the Colorado Ballet’s reputation as one of the country’s leading regional performance companies.
“The name (Fredmann) has made among his peers is very strong,” she said.
Haig, a frequent lecturer on the history of ballet, added that the Colorado Ballet’s coming season is full of special performances. Haig deemed “The Sleeping Beauty” an appropriate choice to open the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, because the same ballet was the first to be mounted at England’s reopened Covent Garden after World War II.
“It’s such a glamorous and gorgeous piece to look at, and the music is wonderful,” she said.
Haig added that “Matthew Bourne’s ‘Swan Lake,’ ” which the Colorado Ballet will perform at the Buell Theatre in February, is one of her all-time favorites, in part because of its unusual all-male cast. The “Choreographer’s Showcase,” set for 2006 and featuring work by Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor and Jessica Lang, underscores Fredmann’s commitment to mount exceptional dance.
“I very much admire what Martin has tried to do with a regional company,” she said. “Very often companies just go after the things that sell, but Martin has always tried to educate his audiences.”
