Pennsylvania Ballet loses Chris D'Amboise - artistic director's retirement

Dance Magazine, July, 1994 by Robert Johnson

PHILADELPIA - Christopher d'Amboise, artistic director of Pennsylvania Ballet since 1990, announced in early May that he would leave the company at the end of the 1993-94 season. In an official statement PB's new executive director, Michael Gennaro, said that the company did not have the financial resources "to offer Christopher the support he needs to fulfill his artistic vision."

PB now has a budget of $5.7 million, down from $8.4 million in 1990. The troupe also has a million-dollar debt. D'Amboise suggests that this debt and the insistence of the company's board of directors that the budget continue to be cut led to a fundamental disagreement. "There have been very generous donations from the board," he says, "but a concrete fundraising plan has not been instituted, and their point of view is they cannot fund-raise with this deficit budget." The continuing cuts, he adds, made it impossible for him to realize his goal of keeping the company "alive and thriving."

Sources close to the company have suggested that d'Amboise lost a crucial teammate with the departure of PB's general manager Elien C. Moran in January. Moran, who joined PB together with d'Amboise, reportedly was the artistic director's chief liaison with the board of directors and was instrumental in obtaining the funding that he required to realize his projects. Moran's forceful personality is also credited in part with the success of the Save the Ballet campaign that averted a threatened company shutdown during d'Amboise's first season.

D'Amboise's tenure at PB was characterized by great creativity and artistic innovation: In four years he choreographed nine original works for the company and commissioned twelve other premieres. Some critics have suggested that d'Amboise neglected the classics in favor of new work, but he responds: "We've done more full-lengths than the company ever did. This is a company of thirty-two dancers and there's a very limited number of full-lengths you can do with thirty-two dancers. While I've been here we've exhausted the full-length possibilities."

D'Amboise intends to return to New York City now, and will also be part of a national task force studying the financial problems that are endemic in U.S. dance today.