Denver Municipal Ballet

9 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2009

See all articles by William Lyne

William Lyne

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Abstract

A Member of The Board of Trustees for a ballet company must decide between two artistic directors. Choice involves recognizing points of view of several different constituencies.

Excerpt

Denver Municipal Ballet

David Trout sat in his office, smoking his pipe and wondering what to do. He was the president and CEO of a large paper-products company based in Denver, Colorado, but right now he was faced with a decision unlike any other in his years of business experience. Trout knew that he was unqualified to decide the fate of Mark Spagin, but the vote was this afternoon, March 1, 1985. Puffing gently, he picked up an old copy of The Atlantic Monthly from his desk:

The so-called dance boom has come to an end. George Balanchine is dead, Mikhail Baryshnikov is getting into the movies, and the people who ten years ago were signing up in droves for dance classes have lately been scouring Gelsey Kirkland's memoirs for evidence of the ballet world's sordid underside. The fans have fallen away; the devotees remain. Owing largely to the Reagan Administration's cuts in government funding for the arts, the expansionism that characterized the seventies has given way to the consolidation of the eighties.

The article was called “Room Enough to Move,” by Holly Brubach, and it described the radical changes taking place in the structure of the ballet world. Now, almost by accident, Trout had to make a decision that would probably set the tone for ballet for years to come.

In 1972 when the Denver Municipal Ballet's board of trustees asked him to join their ranks, Trout had been flattered. He thought of himself as a simple businessman, a fellow who liked a good book or a night at the theater., but also one who didn't really know very much about the arts. He had gladly accepted the position, however, feeling that it was his duty as a leading Denver businessman and confident that his job would entail nothing more than managing some sort of endowment and going to a few cocktail parties. Trout's daughter, who studied dance at the University of Colorado, had assured him that the real power in a ballet company was in the hands of the artistic director.

Unfortunately for Trout, his daughter was living in an earlier; more innocent time in the history of American ballet. George Balanchine at New York City Ballet had been the model for artistic director as benevolent dictator. Until his death in 1983, Balanchine had delivered the final word on hiring, casting, training, schedules, repertoire, and choreography. He had educated and developed a rapport with his New York audience; and everyone on the board of directors felt that it was their privilege to serve Balanchine. No one questioned his authority, the board turned over both public and private funds without stipulation, and New York City Ballet delivered one popular season after another. It was a wonderful confluence of genius-and circumstance, and the Balanchine legacy would forever be the rock on which American Ballet was built.

. . .

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, leadership

Suggested Citation

Lyne, William, Denver Municipal Ballet. Darden Case No. UVA-BC-0102, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1416504 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1416504

William Lyne (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

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