© John Slater Ballet into the 21st Century Conference Ballet.co magazine coverage Ballet into the 21st Century forum... to link with the second Ballet Artistic Directors conference. Go and have your say in where ballet should heading. Introduction to Snape Conference Mark Baldwin profile on Rambert site recent Rambert reviews Rambert Home page

Mark Baldwin, like the company he now leads, straddles two worlds. He has worked in a classical idiom, but his face is set determinedly towards contemporary dance. Yet, he is unlikely to feel like a ghost at the Snape feast. Many ballet directors now accept that dance is ‘indivisible’ and are less sectarian than in the past about their own tradition. They are likely to listen to Baldwin with great interest. They should.

After years as a freelance choreographer, Mark Baldwin has just succeeded Christopher Bruce as director of Rambert Dance Company. He is surprised by the suggestion that ballet might be “stuck”. From his perspective it is an established form with large audiences and having a heritage of some of the best music written in the last hundred years. What is interesting is how spontaneously he invokes the ‘Swan Lake’ test; the proposition that a new three-act ballet is the real creative frontier that choreographers need to breach. “It is silly for everyone to lie back and to say: “oh well, there will never be another Swan Lake. If you really want there to be, from the music and idea concept,

“Technically ballet is developing all the time, with dancers able to achieve a wider range of things than ever before. The problem is that often the dancers are better than the actual ballet.” Mark Baldwin

it would probably have to be about the times we live in. Technically ballet is developing all the time, with dancers able to achieve a wider range of things than ever before. The problem is that often the dancers are better than the actual ballet. That balance needs to be redressed.”

New commissions

The litmus test for a director of Rambert is continued success in commissioning new work. This is inherently risky, with the potential for large financial loss. Minimising the risk, Baldwin says, means matching choreographers with the right material, making apt music choices and being aware of the traditions with which audiences are familiar. All directors face such decisions. They are particularly on Baldwin’s mind at present because he is new at Rambert. However, he has been programming for his own company for years, and made his first work when he was 21. “All of those

“Sir Frederick Ashton said that being artistic director of the Royal Ballet was bad for him as a choreographer. That has rung around in my head.” Mark Baldwin

things build up to an artistic overview and I am coming at it fresh.”

There is an obvious dilemma for Mark Baldwin. His considerable creativity as a choreographer won him the directorship of Rambert. Yet he has made a decision not to programme his own work while he gets to grip with his new charge. He knows well the risk that he is taking with his own creative sensibilities. “Sir Frederick Ashton said that being artistic director of the Royal Ballet was bad for him as a choreographer. That has rung around in my head.” Unlike David Bintley at Birmingham Royal Ballet, he does not necessarily see his role as a personal choreographic opportunity. For the next two years he intends only to programme work by others. “It is very important that Rambert remain a repertoire company, that takes its voices from a whole range, rather than as tended to happen in the past at Rambert, that we were rather led by one particular choreographic voice, with a lot of that one choreographer’s work – Christopher Bruce, Richard Alston, Robert North. I have to be careful to go back to what Rambert was originally – a repertoire company.”

Globalisation and distinctiveness

Mark Baldwin is aware of the dangers of globalisation, albeit that contemporary dance has been less vulnerable to it than ballet. He knows that Rambert must work to keep a distinctive voice. There is much British talent, he says, that

“When we are asked to go abroad, we are often asked to bring a repertoire that is British. That is what I hope to do.” Mark Baldwin

Rambert has not exploited. He has begun to commission a group of choreographers and composers who, he feels, could find a distinctive voice working for Rambert. “When we are asked to go abroad, we are often asked to bring a repertoire that is British. That is what I hope to do. Everyone does Mats Ek. Everyone does Jiri Kylian. Everyone does Ohad Naharin. I can clearly see that there is a market for other voices.”

He is discreet about his commissions, which not be announced until the spring. He can say that Tom Addis and Karole Armitage will be working with Rambert. (“From what I have seen of Karole’s work, it could be absolutely gorgeous.”). Baldwin is not planning the season in an ad hoc way and in isolation. His preferred approach is to plan for several seasons and to anticipate emerging patterns and trends. “I am building a creative plan, which, I hope, will be very interesting for the public.” The spring announcement will, Baldwin says, not be limited to the season ahead, but will also be a statement of intent for the company’s repertoire over several years.

Rambert’s balletic heritage

Although this round of commissioning does not include ballet choreographers, Rambert recognises the balletic tradition to be an integral part of Rambert’s identity. Most of its dancers are ballet trained and take a ballet class daily. “It’s one of the mainstays of our dancing.” The company’s dancers have strong classical technique, a resource available to visiting choreographers, if they wish to use it. “The palette is rather marvellous”, Mark Baldwin enthuses. “They can do all the work that initiates itself from the torso, and all the straight and hard lines from ballet that punch off the floor in jumps, as well as all the liquid language spinal stuff.”

Even if the company has evolved from its classical beginnings, it is not, to Baldwin’s mind, a disowning of that heritage. “Modern is everything that has gone before plus, rather than everything that has gone before less, if you see what I mean.”

Because Rambert is tightly budgeted, it has to find ways of putting its resources to their most creative use.

“I am thinking big music, big dancing, big ideas that last for a long time” Mark Baldwin

“Sometimes people learn to work within what they have got, rather than just dream all the time. We are beginning to think very big within that. The Arts Council support us to tour large lyric theatres. That is how we have to think. So, I am thinking big music, big dancing, big ideas that last for a long time”. Does this mean big risks? Baldwin hopes not: he is taking care with the detail of his plans and Rambert’s business side is so effectively run. When Baldwin applied for the Rambert job he sought help from friends in the business world. He has learnt to understand a balance sheet and where to look for lurking problems. The business and creative sides of Rambert are not devoid from each other, he insists.

The changing role of artistic director

One of the issues to be discussed at Snape is the formation of the next generation of artistic directors. Baldwin himself had to assemble the dance company that bore his name. While at university in New Zealand, he ran a dance ensemble called Limbs. “I learnt to make something out of nothing.” Those grassroots skills now stand him in very good stead. Artistic direction is no longer, he says, merely an issue of work in the studio and commissioning the right

“The more skills you bring to it, the better off you will be. You have to be grown up to be able to take advice” Mark Baldwin

people. The director must integrate the strictly artistic side with the work of the marketing, press and education departments. There is a relationship to be managed with the chief executive and board and the company’s external stakeholders. “The more skills you bring to it, the better off you will be. You have to be grown up to be able to take advice. Another director advised him: “The secret of it is to try and convince everybody that you are a creative genius. Surround yourself with people who are better than you and let them get on with it!”

Ballet and contemporary dance in dialogue

On the divide between contemporary dance and ballet, Baldwin is not a partisan. In 1996 he was resident choreographer with Scottish Ballet, where Galina Samsova insisted he make dances using pointe. Because music is such a basic motivation in his work, he has been frequently asked to make work for classical ensembles. Last year he made a major

“Now I’m at Rambert, I’m saying ‘no-one must use pointe at the moment: we really need to distinguish what we do!” Mark Baldwin

work for Royal New Zealand Ballet. He insisted there on the use of pointe. “Now I’m at Rambert, I’m saying ‘no-one must use pointe at the moment: we really need to distinguish what we do!’

Audience expectation, however, is important. “When people go to see the Royal Ballet, they expect to see ballet. When people come to see Rambert, they do expect to see modern ideas and modern work.” Both dance languages need to be in dialogue, Baldwin says. Each language risks becoming ‘stuck’ and need each other to grow. “It’s all there for us to borrow what we want, and when we want to. But, because modern is the voice of the future, it is a powerful force, I think.”