North Carolina People; Robert Weiss, Artistic Director, Carolina Ballet

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. North Carolina is known as the State of the arts and that's an earned reputation with all that's been done with the outdoor drama. The North Carolina Symphony Museum of Art the school of the arts and so many regional center these productions the newest member of that family is the Carolina ballet and we're going to meet and talk with Robert Weiss a very talented executive who heads this wonderful new program for all of us. We'll talk with him in just a few seconds. North Carolina people is brought to you by walkover banking investments and financial services for individuals businesses and corporations. Kovio we're here let's get started. Robert we know that you've had a very successful season just closed and I'm sorry we haven't been able to get you on here before but welcome and welcome to our state. Thank you very much. And you know I'm one of those people who

ran into ballet by watching The Nutcracker and being somewhat familiar with Swan Lake and seeing that on television. But the art form where did originate as a part of the culture of our times. Well it started really in the Italian city states the medic she's in this forces and all of that and it moved quickly to France. And it was developed by Louis the Fourteenth and then the big romantic period in the early part of the 19th century. Just on those kind of valleys in Paris and from there the ballet masters the French ballet master spread out around the world and someone went to Denmark and one went went to Russia the most famous Marius Patty went to Russia and did Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty et cetera and then the Russians really developed it big time. And to George Balanchine who was Russian came to to first France with the great impresario diag left and then to America Lincoln Kirstein brought him

to America and he really changed the face of ballet and became an American art form as well. When he came to America the rest is history. The rest is history. Yeah but you were. You were chosen by him yourself the dancer. What kind of choreographer was or what tough a task master. Well he was actually very understanding in the studio. He was so confident in what he could do that he didn't. He brought it out of each dancer what they could do and all the other choreographers with less confidence. I had a lot of banks to overcome the creative process. Balanchine sort of most of the time I would say 90 percent of the time he went in there he did it like he was falling off a log and it was really a pleasure to work with him and he he was terrific because he brought something out of each individual dancer and mate made them become. More of an artist themselves even a superficial observation

like mine and it seems to me to be a really accomplished dancer requires an enormous personal discipline. You have to work that hard. It's pretty hard it's at least seven hours a day seven and a half hours a day and you start off every day even if you're the most accomplished dancer in the world with a class. It's like going back to school just to just start your day off and you do the exercises to refine your technique. You get your your whole body in line for the day before you have the rehearsals and then there's usually six hours of rehearsal and often then there's a performance at night so it's all it's a lot of stamina that's required and a lot of intellect that's required to a lot of people don't realize how much how much intellect goes into becoming a great dancer and all the great ballets are really stories to be told in a way through dance right. Yes. Well now you in North Carolina where did this happy union occur and what have you been able to do this last since 1997.

Well I got down here two years ago and it was really the vision board Pearlington who got a group of other people interested and said it's time it's time for the triangle area to have a ballet company and. They had it first class symphony they had our museum and there was a lot of theatre but no ballet. So they put an ad in Dance magazine and they got Robert lingering who was the dean of the school the arts and the founder of the North Carolina dance theater and they got him on board and he had a search committee. They put an ad in Dance Magazine. And I responded to it. I think there were 90 90 applicants. And it's very very exciting to start something from the beginning. I was going to ask isn't it in the marvelous to have the experience of actually

creating something as a way you're doing here. And you know I sort of feel like I'm just one of the one of the entrepreneurs in the Research Triangle. I mean we we then spent a year you know raising a good amount of money. We always can use money. It's a very expensive art form and we're doing it we're doing it actually very inexpensively compared to a lot of other people. But I spent a year raising money when I went on a 10 city national audition tour and found dancers from all over the country. Top top dancers and I also recruited my wife to be one of the ballerinas and she she was a principal with the with the Pennsylvania Ballet in Philadelphia which I formally directed. And I found another another man from there and I found another man from the Miami City Ballet principal dancer. And next year we're going have another. Another man who's a principal from Miami so we've we've really found wonderful dancers. And we had great choreographers Lynn Taylor Corbett our

first season we had a whole season of George Balanchine we had. William Forsyth the director of the Frankfurt ballet did a piece for us and we basically basically. I think put on first class ballet. People said from our very first performance which was was really exciting. SOLD OUT EVERY NIGHT us pretty eloquent I think about all sold out five performances. Wonderful. Well now you've moved from being a performer yourself to a choreographer and now you are the musical director dance director everything. How difficult was it to move from being a performer to being a choreographer. Well I think that the main thing about the main difference between being a performer and being being a director is that as a performer you spend your entire day worrying about yourself how your body feels where your technique is how you emotionally can relate to the music. You know what you've eaten did you eat too much or

your stomach to fall asleep and you worry about all those things because your body has to be as an athlete and in top physical form so that you can accomplish then and move into the artistry as a director it's just the opposite you have to think about everybody else from the stage crew to the musicians to the design team to the dancers. And you're constantly worrying about everybody else's well-being and that's the main difference I think. You took on such personalities as Baryshnikov and Heather Watson Peter barking. It's a very different people aren't they. Yeah every dancer is really. You know I mean just like every individual people people are unique and when they're artistic I think that they develop they try to develop that uniqueness even even more so sometimes they can be difficult. You have to sort of have a give and take in a collaboration with famous people. But on the other hand usually the more accomplished someone is in the majority of cases

I've found that they are more cooperative actually because they know what it takes. Well having been a lead dancer yourself that you know I knew that you knew what you were doing. It's hard work to go to get a show together that a production like Swan Lake for example there's so many scenes so much activity does that take months in rehearsal to bring it to the stage. Well we just finished our season with Romeo and Juliet and Romeo and Juliet took about eight weeks. To actually choreograph in the studio there was another few months of preparation with the designer and the lighting person and all. All of those things that go into it as well and working with the North Carolina Symphony and and churches who who directed the symphony for us and for our Romeo that that also also took time but really the preparation the majority of preparation has been done when you go verbally like that.

I've been thinking about it for 10 years and it just every once in a while it comes up in your mind again you think well I could do that there I could do this and you you sort of plan it out. I think the best ballets Balanchine sometimes said he. It took him 20 years but before the first time you listen to a piece of music until he finally went to the studio and put it on choreographed and put it on the stage. But a fascinating experience to have the now. You and your creativeness you have woven a way to get to the public schools and the children of the state to teach them about ballet and that's proper it's proper recognition. What particular productions will the children get to see next season. Well we see TV films our innovations program which is our program of contemporary works done by living choreographers. And we had Dylan Taylor Corbett who was the grad for the Titanic on Broadway and did for the movie Footloose.

And she came down she did several pieces for us but the one that's going to be on MTV is called triptych and it's a wonderful piece of music and actually uses that wonderful dance and it uses what is this music that everybody knows in this music. It's for you to be your special. The diamonds and you know the Diamond Dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot anything but if that's only 45 seconds the piece is about 15 minutes long and I will have interviews with the choreographer. We had interviews with some of the dancers and all that. All that will be downloaded into the to the schools all across the state. So I think it's a great opportunity for education and for the young people to actually see how a ballet is created. See what the choreographer doesn't just into that is about I called hush and it's used to recording that. Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma did together of the same title Hosh and it's a link Udo who was a soloist with American Ballet Theatre and is now

about a mistress. Value and she did that balance. It's a brand new piece. It's just very witty and very exciting so you have Lynn's very deep sort of emotional piece and then your witty piece and I think that that's great for the kids to see that the range that because dance can really express every emotion even though there's no words it it's just it can do just as much as a play just as much as an opera in some some ways more because you have this whole body language that that that expresses something that that words sometimes can express as you work with young people just listening to you. I'm sure of what you've discovered is that almost everybody has some creativeness somewhere and then physical movement is one of the places where it could be most quickly expressed

if not talented. You search for this as you go around and talk with young dance companies are you always looking for that aren't you. Absolutely I mean we're always looking for talent and but I found. Interestingly enough I've made a lot of friends outside the dance profession I mean some in the other arts in theater and in music but with business people as well and I think that anyone who's successful has to be creative and it's not just in the arts. And when you take take somebody like like Barrington who I've gotten to know very well and he's very creative over the years I've met a lot of people and I think what's interesting is that the creativity and ideas are the thing that really drive mankind forward. So I noticed in reading about you that you've had some work relationship with Paul Taylor and burst Cunningham of their two annual

blossoming over here the American Dance Festival Charles and Stephanie run are a decade and more modern dance went to that. That's a uniquely American contribution to it. Yes it's uniquely American. I think really you could say. Isidora Duncan Ted Shawn Ruth St. Denis started then Martha Graham. So. And then there you know Martha Graham's children really are conning him and and Taylor so. What Agnes DeMille took it to the stage and took it to the movies that yes Agnes DeMille did a great deal with both classical ballet and and a sort of modern dance that Broadway and movie dance that changed also the way people look to dance on Broadway in the movies as well. Well Oklahoma was such an adaptation in a popular way that it created hundreds of thousands of fans of Yes absolutely did it. Well now you just finished one season you got everything ready and now for the next year what are we going to find in the fall season.

Well we're opening with a program I'm calling New York New York and it basically is is three ballots that have been created for the New York City Ballet. One by its current director Peter Martin's one by one of its ballot card ballot masters Richard Tanner who was also my artistic associate when I when I was the director in Philadelphia so it's an old relationship and one by George Balanchine again. And one is to the barber violin concerto one is to we're speaking as engineers and dances in the Balanchine is to Stravinsky appreciate for piano and orchestra is called Ruby just from from his trilogy Jules and Someday we hope will amount to the entire jewels but the ruby section is very powerful and that will close the program. So that's really exciting and then later on in the year we're reviving Handel's Messiah which we did three performances. Last Christmas and we had two on Saturday matinee and evening and we had one on Sunday and we didn't have it on our subscription last year because we had it later and on the Sunday 500 people lined up just from the word

of mouth of the people that had seen it on Saturday. So that was pretty damn exciting. We're doing seven of them this Christmas and we we hope will become the annual tradition for the triangle to come and see the Messiah. I think it's it's a very special piece because the music of course is so so wonderful and so spiritual. But I had I choreographed about a little over half and I brought in four other choreographers. And actually one of them from the area Tyler Walters who teaches at Duke. And one of the dancers in the company team aboard sank off to do part of that and it came out as if everybody had had one mind. It's one whole piece. And it's I think it's a little bit different because it really I think it raises the spirit. And it's it's not commercial. It's it's a very spiritual piece at Christmas time which

I think is a. Great think what are we going to see in the springtime in the springtime where they do Carmen and there's never been a full length evening Carmen that I know of. Well actually that's not true. Someone when I started the idea I said I don't think there's been one because it's been many sweets of Carmen where they tell the story in 30 minutes or so. In ballet but someone just did one in England last year and I'm really excited about it because I think the story is terrific and I think that it can lend itself to a full evening ballet and will be something new and different. Do you have any working relationships with the different colleges and what they do in the dance school of the arts all these if you had title we actually had dancers from the School of the art students from the school the arts dance with us in our gala are our New York bureau gala before we even had the company started and then then they did our first program are all balancing program last fall. The students in the school the arts dance George Balanchine Serenata And when when Balanchine first

choreographs are not in America he had used to dance. So we had the principals were from Carolina ballet but the back up was the school of the arts so we had a relationship there and I taught there as a guest when I first came down here and I had a little more time when I when I was first year then than I have now but it was great working with the kids and it's a great school I mean that school is really terrific. Next year we're also going to be performing in Winston-Salem and we're going to be performing in Greenville as well. So we're going to get out and we really want want to get out and show the whole state what we're doing. We also perform in Durham. We we we work with the choppy quartet there and that's a it's a great string quartet and it's a great resource for us. When I if I want to get my tickets and who do I write to the car lot about Laver Raleigh and sees that what I do. You can call the Carolina ballet. And we're also online. Well you're a long time observer of the arts in this country. What do you see in the in the United States today a

real appreciation for performing artists in theater and music to the degree that it should be or do you see a lot of work out there to do. Where are we. Well I think that you know there's a lot of people that still that certainly appreciate the performing arts. And I think the performing arts have grown and grown. I went when I first started dancing in. But we won't say how long ago that was but it was a long time ago. There were three men studying dance besides myself and three boys studying at school American Ballet. And now there are 75 or so and this is now schools in San Francisco and Boston I mean were many many men are studying so I think we've come a long long way. It's still not like it is in Russia where you know valleys like baseball to them I mean the Russians just eat it up and it's in every city and a big big state supported and or at least

was state supported and they're having problems now with that as well but I think I think we would still like to get more men to come to the ballet and I think that the interesting thing since I've come here is that I've gotten a lot of men to come to the ballet that had never seen a ballet and almost every time they went kind of kicking and screaming their wives influencing them to go. And they came away going you know what I really like this and I'm going to come back and that the majority of them have come back for our whole season after seeing the first performance. So I say to the men out there give it a chance. You'll like it. Well everybody appreciates her equality in any kind of performance you know. And ballet is very athletic so I mean a lot of men who might not be able to relate to it artistically can certainly relate to it aesthetically. Both the men and the women I mean what it takes is is to be a top your top athlete if you're a dancer. I read somewhere that you having a special hand in the Special Olympics it's about to come off as a major event that you were doing. You've been commissioned to choreograph

some in the lab. Oh no that was that was the Special Olympics that preceded the hardest seeded the Olympics that actually took place in the Olympic Games that took place in Atlanta. But is that what you three years ago did you put death letter says I'm into this dance and what I did was I choreographed for a woman who who was wheelchair bound after an accident. And I choreographed for her and for another dancer who was a member of the Dance Theater of Harlem Virginia Johnson. And I did a piece for them and then they went to Atlanta with it. All right let's talk about the future a little bit in addition to what you said you were really going to get out into the schools and stimulate young people here and the summer season you're reaching out all over the state. This is very ambitious. Well we we said we wanted to do something on a very first class level from the very beginning and I think we've achieved that. And in addition next year we're going to have Lynn Taylor

Corbett back with a cabaret singer. A famous cabaret singer from New York who plays the Algonquin Hotel for 20 weeks a year and he was on remarkably CI so that's going to be an exciting program. And as I say we're going to be working with a child before dad again. We did it last year we're going to do it again next year at the Reynolds theatre Duke University. And we're also going to be taking the chappy with us to Greenville to perform to perform their work. We're pitting the Romeo and Juliet that was such a success last spring in Winston. So people from the Triangle area who haven't gotten a chance to see it can go down to Winston and see it there. What about adaptations for the movies you've done motion picture work how different is this. It's a lot different because well it's you stop and start. It's not it just doesn't have the same you know Im out of form I guess it's not the same as a performance but. What's great What's great about the movies

and in commercial television is that they treat you so great you get to go first class everywhere and they have food on the set and all that stuff. You were in Germany just a year ago or doing some television about three years ago I did it. An international production that was German German money but it was done in English it was American. It was an American producer and a German producer. And the movie star Anthony Quinn. And they asked me to come because they needed somebody not only to the core of everybody to to move the people around in between the scenes and it was it was a totally different experience but a lot a lot of fun wasn't pure ballet it was it was dance. You know people come up and say Mr. Weiss what about a career today. You look back over your bird splendid career all dimensions of dance. Is there an option out there that I could exercise for young person. You what would you tell him

today. Well you know today there's so many more companies I mean almost every city in every major city in the United States has a ballet company some are better than others but there's really there really are a lot of opportunities if people want to do it and then of course there's the whole spectrum of modern dance as well not so much more modern dance than there was even 25 years ago. I would say that you know the first thing you have to do you know for sure is whether you really have the talent. And I think a lot of young people. Who are talented sometimes give up too quickly. But on the other hand there are a lot of people who who wish for it and who don't have the talent who push on too long. So the advice I give to a young person is if you think you're talented. Check it out. I mean ask ask the people who are teaching you to be honest with you because I think that makes a big difference to the decision you're going to make for your future. How do you find these young people you get in the competitions. Well what we do is

we when we when we were looking for the dancers I just had personal auditions and intensities at at the major dance centers I was this I was disco ballet has a school in the Pacific Northwest ballet in Seattle has a school you go. And I went to their schools and then anybody from the other schools in the area could also come and audition for me. And we were just about 800 students. I'm sorry we've used up all of our time it's fascinating to hear that all viewers will get in line and get the take it's a great thing to enjoy. Thank you Rob. Thank you. North Carolina people is brought to you by Wilco via banking investments and financial services for

individuals businesses and corporations. Walk over we're here let's get started.