Feature Stories
Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson on Promotions and Variety
In the following interview, Mary Wood—a moderator for the Ballet’s Pointes of View Lectures and Meet the Artist Interviews—and Artistic Director and Choreographer Helgi Tomasson provide a behind-the-scenes look at the Company’s 2007 Repertory Season.
This is the first in a three-part series of audio interviews with Tomasson. Click here to listen to the audio interview.
Mary Wood One of the interesting things about the 2007 Season is the collaboration between you and Yuri Possokhov in creating Don Quixote. Yuri was a very valued principal dancer in the Company for many years—quite an audience favorite. It was with great dismay when he announced his retirement following the 2006 Season but there was a collective sigh of relief when we learned that you appointed him choreographer in residence. Can you say a few words about how Yuri will continue to be involved with the Company?
Helgi Tomasson: First of all I have to say that Yuri is not only a fantastic dancer but also a great artist. He felt that it was time for him to stop dancing and he had become much more interested in choreography and wanted to pursue that.
Choreographing is not an easy career to start so I felt that if I could be of any help to him I would make him choreographer in residence. That entails making one new work for us each season and providing him the opportunity to choreograph works for other companies. That’s what a choreographer needs—the opportunity and exposure to choreograph. So I was just trying to help him get started here.
At the same time, I knew that when the time allows, and when he’s not choreographing for other companies, that he might like to rehearse some of the ballets he’s danced in and pass this along to another dancer. Or maybe teaching in the Ballet School’s Trainee Program.
This season he’s choreographing a new production of The Firebird and I’m really looking forward to that and I’m glad that we still have Yuri!
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| Yuri Possokhov directs rehearsal of Possokhov's Firebird |
HT: She was with Birmingham Royal Ballet in England where she and her husband Tiit Helmits
(joined the Company in 2006) were dancing. The other promotion to principal was Ruben Martin. There are also three soloist promotions: Garrett Anderson, Jamie Garcia Castilla, and Rory Hohenstein.
MW: All three of these dancers have been featured from the corps and have been dancing feature roles for many years. I think the audience will be very pleased that they have been accorded the accolade of soloist.
When you are looking at your dancers, what are those few things that tell you that it’s time for a promotion?
HT: They’re dancing well on a certain level and then all of a sudden something happens. There is a growth, an understanding of themselves as an artist. They bring it to another level and I can see that. When that happens I say, “Okay, let’s talk.”
There’s also the factor that I can’t make an endless category of principal and soloist roles. There’s a certain financial strain on the organization. Sometimes I might have to make do until another dancer retires or leaves that I can promote a dancer. It’s not entirely that but sometimes that’s a real factor.
Most of the time when I see a dancer really excelling, if I can’t promote them immediately, I start to give them other parts and things to reward them so to speak. How do I know? I can’t explain it any other way. One dancer is different from another. Some take longer to get there and some can just jump into it. From the beginning some are soloist or principal material.
MW: We’ve been using the theme of variety to talk about the 2007 Season. We can also use the term when we’re talking about members of the Company.
HT: I like people. I like dancers to have their own individuality. They don’t all have to be the same height or have the same look. That’s not entirely important to me.
MW: Considering the wide variety of works we’ve been discussing—from the classics to the avant garde to the barefoot soft shoe modern works—we have a wide variety of dancers who can encompass all of those styles.
HT: Yes, there are some dancers who can dance all the styles. Then there are some dancers who do some style a little bit better than others. I try to use dancers accordingly.
Image credit top: Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson