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Forever On His Toes

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Actually, dance companies all over the country have struggled since their boom in the '60s and '70s. The Dallas Ballet and Twyla Tharp's company folded in the late '80s. American Ballet Theatre struggled in the early '90s, and the Joffrey Ballet was nearly down for the count before a move to Chicago brought it back to life. Just last year the Martha Graham Dance Company suspended operations, and the Cleveland Ballet closed its doors. Companies cited a scarcity of touring opportunities, waning government support, rising operating costs, low audience growth and tax reforms that made charitable giving less attractive. In 1990 The New York Times noted that "the hiring of administrators who can woo that selective audience is now an increasingly popular strategy in a domain once ruled exclusively by artistic directors and choreographers."

Cecil C. Conner, known among his peers as C.C., was to be that administrator for Houston Ballet. Coming from the financially burdened Joffrey in 1995, he was familiar with austerity measures. In Houston, Conner cut the number of dancers from 55 to 46, eliminated one program from the season, and negotiated a 10 percent pay cut for the orchestra. Since then, the endowment has grown from $24 million to more than $44 million, making it second in size only to the New York City Ballet's. He raised foundation giving by 140 percent to $1.5 million last year. He takes credit for using his network of touring contacts from the Joffrey to take the company to China, Hong Kong, Toronto, London, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. He also led three major collaborations between Houston and other ballet companies to produce the new, full-length works Dracula, The Snow Maiden and Cleopatra. He also has managed to preside over six seasons of balanced budgets. Needless to say, Conner has developed a strong base of support on the ballet's board.

"The strategy was to put us back in the place where we built our budget based on what was a realistic anticipation of the income from the year," Conner says. "The problem was that for a few years prior to that, it had gotten to the place of 'What do we want to spend? What do we want to do? Great, we'll find the money.' "

Unlike some artistic directors, Stevenson understands the need for balanced budgets. That's why he choreographs new story ballets like Dracula and Cleopatra. Story ballets are the best-sellers for any company. Balanchine himself once remarked that all ballets should be called Swan Lake so that people would come to see them. Rather than showcasing the same repertory warhorses over and over again, Stevenson creates new ballets in the tradition of the old ones -- with equally accessible names and plotlines. Some have argued that his ballets will become classics just like the 19th-century works they are modeled on, but Stevenson, characteristically, has no such delusions of grandeur. For the box office, he says, that's why other companies do them. Incidentally, when other companies perform Stevenson's works, Houston Ballet generally reaps rental income from the costumes and sets that go along with them.

Still, there is a natural conflict between the heads of most arts organizations. An artistic director's job is to spend money, to hire new principals, to create new ballets, to bring in world premieres. A managing director's job is to keep control of that spending. "At the end of the year, if he goes to the board and says, 'Look, I've saved all this money. We've got excess money now. We're really doing so well. I've done this. I've done that,' then his job is very well done," says Stevenson of Conner. "If I get to the end of the year and I haven't done any new ballets because I haven't been able to think…"

In fact, there were no new works from Stevenson on the 2000-2001 program, and none are slated for next season. Stevenson talks wistfully about Balanchine's longtime administrator, a man who adored the choreographer's work, protected him, and allowed him to experiment and make mistakes. But Stevenson declines to go into the details of his conflict with Conner. "I'm not going to get into a sort of scandal thing, because it's not worth it," he says. "It's not something I really want to dig up again, because it's taken me a long time to [put it behind me]."

"Actually, really," he says, as if willing it to be true, "C.C. and I are actually good friends, actually."

But the rumors circulating in the ballet community indicate that their problems went beyond the natural conflict of their job descriptions. "Sometimes I feel like he wants to direct, like he wants to be the artistic director," says soloist Mauricio Canete of Conner, "but that's not his position." Sources close to the ballet say that Conner tends to make decisions in Stevenson's absence, making connections with choreographers and coming up with future programs. Some Stevenson supporters also point out that last year's Ballet Ball, which was supposed to honor Stevenson in his 25th year with the company, was a watered-down tribute thanks to Conner, who allegedly nixed more elaborate celebrations. The chair of the ball resigned from the board after the event in February. Another board member also is resigning, in part because of the administration's mistreatment of Stevenson.

Then there is the story behind the world premiere of Stevenson's Cleopatra. It seems that Conner's close friend David Groover, with whom he shares an address, wrote the first scenario for the ballet. Stepping out of his administrator role, Conner presented Stevenson with Groover's libretto. The artistic director is said to have turned down the story in favor of his own version. Much to Stevenson's surprise, when the programs were distributed on opening night, they credited Groover.

But by far the most scandalous of the rumors is that Conner offered Stevenson's job to someone else. Up-and-coming Australian choreographer Stanton Welch, who has created the short works Indigo and Bruiser for Houston Ballet, rented Conner's guest house when he was here last summer. It was during that time that Conner reportedly quipped, "I could get you the artistic directorship here if you wanted it."

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