Shulgold: Ballet's new direction leaves couple out of step

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Change breeds more change - Jocelyn Labsan and Andrew Thompson accept that fact.

The couple, veterans of 18 years with Colorado Ballet, had sensed their days were numbered when artistic director Martin Fredmann was fired last fall.

"I knew my turn was next after Martin was gone," said Labsan, who'd worked closely with Fredmann as associate director and rehearsal director. After his departure, she served as interim artistic director until the February hiring of Gil Boggs.

This week Labsan and her husband were dismissed as part of a wave of changes. That's often what happens when a new regime arrives, whether in the world of business, politics or the arts.

No fun for those sent packing, though. Thompson and Labsan still smart over what they call the "insulting" way they were let go, telling how the company had made half-hearted offers and then rescinded them.

Thompson will receive no severance, and the couple feel hurt that Labsan received no recognition for her work as interim director, including most of next season's planning.

"The company finished in the black," Thompson said after the news was made public. "Who do you think is responsible for that? Jocelyn should take the credit."

They're looking at the bright side, however: No Nutcracker stresses for once. "We'll all have Thanksgiving and Christmas together!" Labsan said, referring to the couple and their son, Drew.

Labsan said she learned little about her firing. "I asked Gil, and he said, 'I just have to figure out what I'm doing.' That was it - no specific reason."

After I received the official word of the Labsan-Thompson dismissals, I asked Boggs for his reasons. Uneasy about saying that anyone was fired ("I hate using that word," he said), Boggs made reference to "where I wanted the company to go," without elaborating.

Just where that is never has been expressed by the new regime. Which is understandable, really. Considering the chaos the company endured last season, simply surviving seems to have sufficed.

Executive director Rick Tallman and other officials left under a cloud of controversy, followed by Fredmann's firing and resignations from board members - including company co-founder Lillian Covillo. Ballet master Meelis Pakri left for England, along with his wife, Carol, who'd directed the Ballet's Highlands Ranch academy.

Money woes accumulated: There was the failure to complete the purchase of a new company headquarters, increasing debts to the city, a payoff to choreographer Christopher Wheeldon when his new ballet was canceled and the breaking of a 10-year contract with Paramount Theatre owner Stan Kroenke (a settlement is still in negotiation). New faces soon arrived on the board and in the company's Lincoln Street headquarters.

"Now, everything is business over there," said Thompson about the changes. "When they told me that Jocelyn and I were being let go, I told them, 'I understand the business decision.' But then I told them that they had ripped out the heart and soul of the company.

"The feeling there seems to be, 'That's the way they do it in the business world.' So, that makes it right. I understand the board has the responsibility of running a company. But I don't think they're used to dealing with the artistic temperament."

This isn't the first time this has happened locally. Consider the similarly traumatic leadership shift at Opera Colorado in 1998, when founder-artistic director Nat Merrill resigned (or was told to, depending on whom you ask). Executive director Steve Seifert stepped up and respectfully kept Merrill's vision alive, while subtly steering the ship in a new direction.

Then, in 2001, the leadership duo of Peter Russell and Jim Robinson took over and the company boldly sailed into new waters. Love it or hate it, Opera Colorado has lost little of its pep or its audience.

And then there was the transition of musical directorship at the Colorado Symphony. Replacing Marin Alsop was a big challenge, yet it was accomplished with professionalism, as Jeffrey Kahane was brought in. Helping smooth the changeover was the fact that Alsop remained in a laureate position, and that the two conductors shared similar artistic viewpoints.

During those crucial periods the financial status of the opera and symphony was far more secure than Colorado Ballet's. That company has been in crisis mode for the better part of a year.

Still, things could have been handled with greater care. The ballet's board might have better served the company by allowing Fredmann a more graceful exit. Covillo never should have been allowed to resign in angry protest - she's too valuable, too important to the company and its image in the community.

Today, life goes on at Colorado Ballet. Financially, it's looking good:

• The fiscal year just ended, and early reports are that the company is in the black.

• Attendance records were broken for the Nutcracker engagement and executive director Lisa Snider reports that the $3.5 million revenue for 2005-06 is "the highest ever."

• The drive to match a $450,000 challenge grant proposed by former board members Elisabeth and Bill Armstrong is in reach, with more than $400,000 already raised.

• The company has been keeping up with its payments to the city, the debt now standing at $591,000.

The company can now focus its attention on the future. The Gil Boggs Era is under way, commencing with that wave of staff changes. It will take time to assess his effectiveness. He's a good man, far more accessible and calm than the flamboyant and volatile Fredmann. Insiders report that Boggs already has gained the respect of company dancers.

His wife, Sandra (like her husband, a former member of American Ballet Theatre), has been named ballet mistress - no doubt serving to strengthen Boggs' artistic presence.

But questions remain, principally the worry that Colorado Ballet has supplanted the passions of the performing arts with the methodical coolness of a business operation.

No slight on the business world: We need number crunchers. But I've yet to hear the new regime speak about ballet with a catch in the throat and a tear in the eye.

As Thompson noted: "The whole point of art is to make people feel. It's making magic - and a lot of that magic has gone out of it."

Marc Shulgold is the music and dance writer. Shulgoldm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5296