The Washington Ballet’s Septime Webre to Step Down

February 7, 2016

From Paris to Washington, D.C., there seems to be something in the air affecting ballet directors. On the heels of Benjamin Millepied’s startling resignation announcement last week, The Washington Ballet has disclosed the impending departure of Septime Webre; the company’s longtime artistic director will step down at the end of the season. “My current contract expires in June,” Webre says, “it felt like a ‘now or never’ moment to take this bold step.”

Webre’s tenure has left a lasting impact on The Washington Ballet and the city’s arts scene. Since taking the helm in 1999, he has increased TWB’s budget nearly six fold, expanded the school (which now trains over 1400 students), increased the organization’s community outreach, added many works of his own to TWB’s repertoire and brought in a number of guest artists. The company has yet to find a replacement director.

Looking forward, Webre says, “I have been itching to get back to my core skill set: creating new work, coaching and mentoring young dancers and choreographers and advocating for the art of ballet.” In addition to new creative endeavors, he plans to stage his ballets for other companies. Already, Webre’s Alice (in Wonderland) has appeared in repertoires from Kansas City to Cincinnati.

Companies in Italy and Russia, too, are seeing big changes. Milan’s La Scala Ballet announced that choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti will replace Makhar Vasiev, who heads to Moscow in March to lead the Bolshoi Ballet. Bigonzetti was the artistic director of the Italian contemporary ballet company Aterballetto from 1997 to 2008, and he has choreographed for companies like New York City Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet. Given his contemporary background, Bigonzetti’s appointment at the large and traditionally classical La Scala has raised some eyebrows.

We’ll be keeping our eyes on how the flurry of new directorships develops this year. For more news on all things ballet, don’t miss a single issue.

Septime Weber interviewed about his
Alice
at KCB:

A clip of Bigonzetti’s
Vespro
for New York City Ballet
: http://www.nycballet.com/ballets/v/vespro.aspx


La Scala Ballet dancers in Bigonzetti’s Cinderella. Photo by Marco Brescia and Rudy Amisano courtesy of Teatro alla Scala.