Ballet master in chief: Peter Martins is firmly in command as New York City Ballet begins its fiftieth-anniversary season - Cover Story

Dance Magazine, Nov, 1998 by Valerie Gladstone

Peter Martins is firmly in command as New York City Ballet begins its fiftieth-anniversary season.

Peter Martins, ballet master in chief of New York City Ballet, bounds up the stairs to the lounge of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the company's summer home. At fifty-two, wearing a white T-shirt, tan Bermuda shorts, and sneakers, he may be a little less dashing than he was when he first assumed the role of Apollo in 1967, but on this July afternoon he retains a commanding presence. The gray that tinges his blond hair cannot obliterate one's memory of him as ballet's answer to Robert Redford.

Today Martins appears at ease, not his usual preoccupied self. Taking a seat on a worn leather couch, he stretches out his long legs and responds emphatically, when asked to sum up his life, "I am happy with my career." His Danish accent remains intact after more than thirty years away from his homeland. Considering the last fifteen difficult years as director of one of the world's most prestigious and creative performing arts institutions, his statement would seem to need qualifying. But with the fiftieth-anniversary celebration of NYCB beginning in November, he shows great certainty that he is in the right place.

On November 24, the winter season opens with a gala all-Balanchine program to re-create the first NYCB performance, at City Center, on October 11, 1948--Concerto Barocco, Symphony in C, and Orpheus. By the time the spring season ends on June 27, 1999, the company will have offered an unprecedented 100 ballets, including world premieres, revivals, and special festivals in its 1998-99 seasons. The Public Broadcasting System on Live From Lincoln Center will air Martins's full-length Swan Lake, which has its local premiere on April 29, 1999. In addition, the New-York Historical Society in New York City and the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs are holding major exhibitions chronicling the company's history. Although Martins wasn't involved in planning every event, he did oversee them all.

Many people presume that being the CEO of IBM or Time Warner would be more demanding than holding down a similar position in the arts. That assumption is false. Since 1983, when Martins began to share command of NYCB with the late Jerome Robbins as co-ballet master in chief after the death of Balanchine, his duties have matched those of any other top executive. In addition to being the company's administrator and chief fund-raiser, he has the emotionally complex responsibility of carrying on a legacy.

From the start, Martins has been compared--usually unfavorably--with Balanchine, both as a leader and as a choreographer. To many dance commentators, he became something of a stepmother who could do nothing right. Although this charge was unfair, he never became openly defensive--although he would have to be made of steel not to be hurt by such criticism. Instead, he lets the facts speak in his favor. The company, unlike most others, is heavily endowed; the School of American Ballet is thriving; and the ninety-member troupe includes many of today's best dancers. If anyone was going to be disappointed with Martins's leadership, it would have been Barbara Horgan, executor of Balanchine's estate and head of the Balanchine Trust. However, she calls herself his champion. "He is the best possible leader we could have had" she says.

When the fiftieth-anniversary celebration gets under way, he will be in the spotlight more than ever. Does such glaring attention sometimes blind him? Yes. Two years ago he considered leaving NYCB and accepting the position of artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet, where he began his career and still commands respect. He felt tempted to leave for several reasons. "As I turned fifty, I reevaluated my life" he says. "I thought, I'm old now. So what's left? I've been in this position thirteen years--that's three presidential terms. Maybe it's time for change."

Other considerations played a part. He and Darci Kistler, the principal dancer whom he married in 1991, now have a daughter, Talicia, and he thought his native Denmark might be a better place to raise a child than New York City. He could also play savior at the Danish company, which was undergoing a difficult time. But loyalty to NYCB won out--at least for a while. "I have unfinished business," he explains.

That unfinished business is daunting. Martins's paternal feelings run almost as deep for his dance family as for his own, especially since he has hired nearly everyone now in the company. "How can I leave them now?" he wonders. "It would be like abandoning a twelve-year-old child." Corps member Alexandra Ansanelli, who joined the company two years ago, confirms his importance to his dancers. "Peter makes you feel you are not completely alone," she says. "He's always aware of everything that's happening. When he choreographs, he knows exactly what he wants but he also gives us artistic freedom."

While Martins and I talk, members of his troupe pass through the lounge on their way from their dressing rooms backstage to quick dinners before the evening performance. The matinee had drawn a record crowd. Little girls with their mothers await dancers at the stage door, their playbills ready for autographing. The Saratoga Performing Arts Center is set in a park in which visitors can rest under the trees and either dine at an elegant restaurant or buy food from colorful kiosks. Since 1966 the company has spent at least a month here every summer. For the dancers, escaping the pressures of the big city for the leisurely pace of a small town is like a working vacation.