Tragedy in three acts: the Miami City Ballet has nearly as many season ticket holders as the Dolphins, but it's so strapped for cash that it has even cut live music - The Arts

South Florida CEO, June, 2002 by Siobhan Morrissey

IN NEW YORK, RESIDENTS HUNTING for real estate bargains turn to the obituary sections of the local newspapers. In Miami, one fundraiser for the Miami City Ballet turned the New York custom on its head: She scoured the real estate sections for people with expensive homes who cash to spare for a renown cultural enterprise.

"That's not a completely bad approach," says Mark Rosenblum, general manager for the Miami City Ballet. "You are looking at the people who have the income, and you certainly look at the type of home they have."

While the fundraising technique helped the ballet raise enough money two years ago to move to a new 63,000-square-foot headquarters in Miami Beach, it was not enough to ensure its future. In spite of an increase in ticket sales and prices, the ballet is $2.1 million in debt, and contributions are down, says ballet president Mike Eidson. The dance company slashed 15 percent from its annual budget for the year that began May 1, dropping it to $8.6 million from $10.2 million. "The New York City Ballet's budget is in excess of $40 million," bemoans artistic director Edward Villella. "And I don't even have $10 million."

While its new $8.5 million facility gives the company an outward image of prosperity, the ballet will have to come up with more fundraising strategies. Patrons may not notice the effect of the cutbacks, but the performers must cope with less rehearsal time, a lack of live music, and, on occasion, costumes that come from thrift stores. The 2003 season will also see the troupe shrink from 45 to 40 dancers, Eidson says. The company has developed such a reputation for penury, says Villella, that it has become known in national artistic circles as "the Miami Miracle" because it produces excellence with so little money.

The situation is especially frustrating for Villella, who joined the ballet as founding artistic director in 1985, bringing a storied background -- he danced at President Kennedy's inauguration and later for Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Ford. "It's maddening to operate this way," says Villella, who received the National Medal of Arts from Bill Clinton in 1997, at least partly for building the Miami City Ballet into a company that stages performances on par with those of the New York City Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre.

As much as Villella is determined to produce excellence, Eidson is determined to do so without losing money. "I had to cut the budget because we have to start paying off the debt and we have to have a line of credit," Eidson says. "We can't borrow any more money. The banks have loaned us all they are going to loan us." When Eidson became president two years ago, the ballet had overspent its 1999 budget by $500,000. He cut 30 jobs, roughly one-third of the administrative staff. Among the cuts was the ballet's development director, responsible for fundraising. Eidson says he expects to hire a new director in the near future.

Even with a new development director in place, Villella worries that the company will be unable to raise sufficient funds. "There is no political support for art and culture here," Villella says.

That is not entirely true. Last year ground was broken for the downtown Miami Performing Arts Center, a $255 million complex for which $48 million was raised from private sources. "I think the very fact that the Foundation raised $48 million before a shovel was even in the ground was unprecedented nationally," says Nancy Herstand, executive director of the Performing Arts Center Foundation of Greater Miami. "We never could have done that if there wasn't that base of support."

Concern for the arts as a major draw for new businesses relocating to Miami has made it a priority for both Greater Miami's Chamber of Commerce and its Convention and Visitor's Bureau. The ballet itself has numerous supporters among business leaders, including Vector Group chairman Bennett Lebow, TV magnate Edmund Ansin and several local banks.

Business leaders recognize, says Herstand, that "You can't be a major city without offering the services of a cosmopolitan working environment ... and Miami really has not had that." Why, then, is the Ballet struggling? "The facilities here ... were not adequate for developing companies," Herstand says. "That's very essential."

Major arts facilities have apparently made a difference, to date, in both Broward and Palm Beach counties. Indeed, the further north the ballet goes, the more popular it is. This season, Villella will stage three performances of each ballet in Miami, four at the Broward Performing Arts Center in Fort Lauderdale and five in Palm Beach County.

"There are 13,000 subscribers in the tri-county area -- that's bigger than anybody except maybe the Dolphins," Eidson says. With its impressive new home, hopefully the Miami City Ballet will find new support.