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Giving Direction at the Crossroads of the West Interview with Adam Sklute, Artistic Director, Ballet West
April 2010 -- Salt Lake City, Utah In his third year at the artistic helm of Ballet West, we sat down with Artistic Director Adam Sklute over breakfast during the first week of Ballet West’s run of their spring “All Balanchine” bill. This is a summary of that lively conversation. Tell us your story – how did you get started in dancing and what was your path to The Valley? I didn’t start dancing until I was 17. My parents took me to see ballet all the time as a kid -- Nureyev and Fonteyn at the San Francisco Opera House remain indelible in my brain. I played piano and some sports as a kid but was lousy at all of it. Ballet was the first thing that totally clicked for me. We moved back to California from New York while I was in high school and I took up with the theatre crowd. I started with Afro-Cuban dance -- of all things -- but it seemed I had a talent for movement and my girlfriend suggested that I try classes at Oakland Ballet. I did, I loved it, and I decided then and there to become a professional ballet dancer. My parents, who were academics, were not completely supportive; they didn’t mind me dancing ballet, they just didn’t think it was a good career move. I took it as a challenge and became determined to succeed. I went to San Francisco Ballet School for one summer. I then went to New York where I was accepted on full scholarship at the Joffrey School [in New York]. I performed with the school performance group -- The Joffrey Concert Group, and Mr. Joffrey took notice and invited me to attend his workshop in San Antonio. He then offered me a contract with Joffrey II where I spent two years and then graduated to the main company. I’m very proud that I’m one of the last dancers Mr. Joffrey chose to be in his company. I was lucky to have joined during the ‘80s heyday. Mr. Joffrey was re-envisioning the company into a large-scale classical company with the introduction of Cranko’s “Romeo & Juliet” and “The Taming of the Shrew,” Ashton’s “La Fille Mal Gardée,” and his own “Nutcracker.” I feel fortunate to have been part of that expansion. This was followed by a difficult financial period in the early ‘90s, but major touring had built a base of support for The Joffrey and this inspired the move to Chicago. They brought us in thanks to the amazing generosity of a number of people -- primarily Barbara and David Kipper with whom I have remained close friends to this day. In 1995 I was the AGMA rep for the company, and the board chair, executive director, and Jerry Arpino -- the artistic director -- all began to ask me for assistance in the transition to Chicago. I started to work with them and I found myself stepping into more administrative and artistic leadership roles and discovered that I enjoyed doing these things. I realized I loved dance and making dance happen almost more than I loved dancing. This allowed my career to transition from performing into scheduling, casting, teaching, running rehearsals and programming.
We were aware of Mr. Arpino’s impending move to emeritus in 2007. I was told that I was a front runner in the search for a new Artistic Director for The Joffrey. I loved The Joffrey Ballet and never imagined leaving. But in October 2006, I received a one-line e-mail asking whether I would consider applying to be Artistic Director of Ballet West. Now, from my connections to the Bay Area, I had been constantly aware of Ballet West my entire career; I respected it a great deal. So, even though I never thought I’d ever leave The Joffrey, I threw my hat into the ring to see what my market value might be. This was followed by a succession of phone interviews and then a personal visit to Salt Lake. My first day here was an inauspicious one -- I’ll never forget it -- it was Super Bowl Sunday 2007 and Salt Lake was experiencing one of its worst air inversions in years and I thought, ugh -- how could I live here? But the next day, it cleared and I saw the beautiful mountains and saw that this was perhaps one of the most beautiful places in the world. Then I fell in love with the dancers, the staff and the community. I became fascinated by Mr. C’s legacy, and the contributions of the other subsequent artistic directors. I was amazed by the work of Pamela Robinson-Harris, the then Interim Artistic Director, and now my principal Ballet Mistress. I left knowing that this was a really good fit for me. This was a great company and I would be proud to be a part of it. I was offered the job a few weeks later. I wanted time to think and discuss, but I was told I had two weeks to make a decision. I had to talk with Mr. Arpino. He felt that this was a good move. He told me he’d miss me but he was proud of me. Whether he realized it or not, he was actually being extremely wise. Ballet West, The Joffrey and I needed change in order to go forward. It was a heart-wrenching decision but one I will never regret, and while I was angry with Jerry at the time I will always be grateful to him for pushing me out of the nest. I was also really lucky to have Joffrey’s Ballet Master, Mark Goldweber, come with me, and I made him Director of Ballet West II and company ballet master. Additionally, Joffrey’s former Production Manager has joined Ballet West as Director of Production, and next year, former Joffrey leading dancer Calvin Kitten will become part of Ballet West Academy’s faculty. I feel truly blessed to be able to have these great artists/professionals as part of my team, and they have melded so well with Ballet West’s brilliant longtime artistic staff and faculty. What is your vision for Ballet West? Where would you like to see it be in the future? What will your legacy at Ballet West look like? My vision for the company? Ballet West is an American company and over the years it has had many influences. I want to honor all those influences while strengthening and expanding our repertoire of new American works. It’s important to bring in new work and to build on and maintain our history. I’d like to be known as an agent of positive change -- melding the future of Ballet West with its past. Each one of my predecessors brought great things to the company and I want to bring that all together while moving it forward into the 21st Century. I also feel our school has the potential to become “the” major training facility in the Intermountain Region. And our new facility, which we begin construction on in 2012, will help tie it together. But to be one hundred percent honest, the question of my vision is always challenging. I’m still creating my vision. It is an ever evolving process. And while I have a clear dream of where I want Ballet West to go, I wonder if I will ever finish creating my vision. When it comes to ballet I have many, many loves and many, many influences and I want to celebrate all of them.
I love to cook. I started doing it when I was 13 and I’m pretty good at it. In fact, if I hadn’t become a dancer and then a ballet director, I would have tried to be a chef. I love to prepare meals which to me, is kind of like programming a ballet season or casting a ballet. It's important to get just the right balance of repertoire, dancers, music and art. That’s what makes a well-rounded meal. My partner and I have an Anatolian shepherd -- Zoe -- a rare breed in the U.S. who was rescued as a puppy from a farm that had to close down. She’s 110 pounds at 15 months and getting bigger! She’s a part of the family. She’s loving, cuddly, stubborn, challenging and a great watchdog. Actually I’d love three of them; they’re incredible animals! Any parting thoughts? It’s very important to get people together. I think of myself as a collaborator. The job [of an artistic director] is not to know everything, but to know where to go for everything that is needed. Who are the best people to get the job done. Along with building our company, artists and Academy, I’m interested in creating affiliate schools. Not necessarily satellites but affiliates which would allow schools to maintain their own autonomy but become connected to Ballet West. We would send teachers to local schools to coach teachers on adopting our syllabus, create perks such as free or discounted tickets for our productions, and being first choice, after our academy, for their students to be considered for our professional training division and to be part of our bigger productions including “The Nutcracker.” It's exciting to be a part of Ballet West right now. Salt Lake City is growing at an amazing rate -- not just in size and scope, but with an increasing degree of diversity in the population. People are realizing that this is a beautiful part of the world in which to live, and the possibilities for the future are endless!
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by Dean Speer and Francis Timlin
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