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Ballet pays its way
by Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio
January 30, 2004

The Minnesota Ballet's new production of Cinderella is designed to keep children engaged. (Photo courtesy Minnesota Ballet)

At a time when many arts organizations are struggling financially, the Minnesota Ballet has found ways of going from strength to strength. The Duluth-based company is gradually trying to wean itself from foundation support.

Duluth, Minn. — The Minnesota Ballet practices in a sun-drenched room on the top floor of Duluth's old Board of Trade Building.

Allen Fields keeps an eye on rehearsals from his office. He's the company's artistic director and also its executive director. He decides what the dancers will do, but he also has to find the money to pay for it.

Fields came to Duluth in 1992. In those days, the troupe was called the Duluth Ballet. It had been around for decades, but it performed only in northeastern Minnesota. Allen Fields had bigger ideas.

He changed the name to the Minnesota Ballet.

	Rehearsal

"I knew we'd be more marketable nationally to change that name," Fields says. "We really gave ourselves the name we deserved. It wasn't just naming us that; it's who we were."

Fields has recruited dancers from all over the country. They have steady work, thirty weeks a year. That's unusual for dancers. And it's expensive. But still, Fields says it's possible to do some things more cheaply in Duluth. He says skilled painters and technicians are willing to work for less than in bigger cities.

"We can do things here that we couldn't do in larger environments, and that's part of the success of the Ballet," he says. "If we were in Chicago, Cinderella might have cost us $200,000. Here, people were happy with the money they made, and we did it for $58,000."

Most arts organizations get half their money from grants and donations. The Minnesota Ballet gets much less, about a quarter of its budget. Allen Fields doesn't want to rely on grants. Instead, he wants to earn steady money. So he's expanding his school, and he's built a busy touring schedule.

A couple of years ago they performed the Nutcracker at the State Theatre in Eau Claire Wisconsin. Peter Provost directs the theater. He says he'll bring them back as often as he can.

"Naturally people are going to come and see their nephews and nieces, and granddaughters and grandsons dance." - Peter Provost

"I trust what they do," Provost says. "They've got a really strong name in this region, and they give you a much larger show for the money than anybody else does."

When the company takes the Nutcracker on tour, the host community supplies student dancers for a couple of the scenes. Local teachers work with their students for weeks to get them ready for the show.

Peter Provost says it's a rare thing for kids in small cities to perform with a professional dance company.

But he says the dance company benefits too. They sell lots of tickets.

"Naturally people are going to come and see their nephews and nieces, and granddaughters and grandsons dance," he says.

Provost says the Nutcracker sells out in Eau Claire. He says with the Twin Cities suburbs expanding into Wisconsin, it's an ideal way for the Duluth-based company to break in to the metro market.

The Ballet sends a teacher to Eau Claire two days a week. Her name's Amanda Abrahamson. She works privately with a few advanced students, and also teaches at elementary schools in town.

	Allen Fields

"I have an hour with each third grade class, where I teach them how to dance and about ballet," she says. "And I have at least five kids that come up to me after class and want to know when they can start (lessons), and at least three of them are boys."

So the Ballet is expanding its school in Eau Claire. That means more money for the company. And Allen Fields says he'll use it to make the troupe even better. He says in a the next few years he'll be taking his company to New York.

"What we're doing is moving up in the marketplace," Fields says. "When we started, our market was low. Now we're moving into bigger venues. We're performing in series that have Bill Cosby and the Kirov Ballet, so now we're at the point where we're moving into bigger venues, because of the quality that we can manifest."

Right now, members of the Minnesota Ballet are on their way to South Carolina and Florida. This weekend they're stopping off in Eau Claire. They'll perform their new production of Cinderella at the State Theatre.

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