BalletMet: a renaissance in Ohio - ballet company BalletMet Columbus

Dance Magazine, Jan, 1998 by Barbara Zuck

Nixon's impact on BalletMet was initially delayed because he had just signed a one-year contract to serve as ballet master with Deutsche Oper ballet in Berlin. Although BalletaMet appointed him director in the fall of 1994, he and his wife, former Joffrey Ballet and National Ballet of Canada ballerina Yoko Ichino, were unable to move to Columbus until the following April. Nixon made the intercontinental commute at whenever possible during the season to keep tabs on things via phone, but neither the company nor the community was able to get a real idea of his personality or style until just a little more than two years ago."David has a tremendous passion for what he is doing, and that is infectious," says Strause. "He asks so much of himself that it inspires others to do more."

A native of Windsor, Ontario, who trained at the National Ballet School of Canada, Nixon began his career in 1978 at the National Ballet and quickly moved up the ranks to principal. From 1985 to 1990, he danced with Deutsche Oper and made a series of guest appearances with London City Ballet, Bavarian State Ballet in Munich, and National Ballet of Canada.

Once he settled in at Columbus, Nixon threw himself into reviving BalletMet. His track record there would be hard for most people to match. By the end of next season, he will have choreographed six new full-length ballets for BalletMet, along with restaging McFall's Nutcracker production. For three of the new ballets -- Dangerous Liaisons, Butterfly, and Beauty and the Beast -- he had to assemble the music himself, since no appropriate scores existed. All the while, he was fulfilling the other responsibilities of running a company and its school.

Though she keeps a low profile, Ichino also plays a key role in Columbus. She dances the lead in Butterfly, a stunning, emotionally charged ballet version of Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly; directs the academy's preprofessional program, previously headed by Boft; and teaches two company classes a week. Nixon and Ichino's combined efforts, along with those of the very able artistic assistant Gerard Charles and ballet mistress Karen Brown, have brought the level of dancing up several notches in all areas.

"I would like us to be known as a classical company that has a superb ensemble," says Nixon. "I want to look, in a classical way, like a modern company." Rather than appealing to audiences through a startlingly avant-garde look, he is trying to bring back the glories of the nineteenth-century story ballets. By choosing easily identifiable subjects, maintaining the overall format of the tried-and-true repertory, and updating and reinvigorating content, he wants to reinforce the company's repertory with works that appeal to a cross section of the population, not just the die-hard dance crowd. He also hopes that BalletMet will ultimately be able to offer presenters outside the city a handful of works that can pack a house.

So far the artistic success of Nixon's new ballets has been mixed. One seasoned observer of the arts in central Ohio who declined to be named called the works "mawkish and sentimental, melodramatic rather than dramatic." Others wonder how often Nixon can go back to the same well -- that is, relying on popular stories and lavish productions to sell tickets rather than developing entirely new work or reviving the true classics. Nixon, however, is very conscious of what he is doing and why. He wants to give the community a company it can love, not just admire.