© 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. Millicent Hodson interview

The projected January meeting of artistic directors of ballet companies is both heartening and frightening for ballet’s development rests fundamentally on the individuals who shape the form of changes and direction of growth. The memories of Lincoln Kirstein, Dame Ninette de Valois and George Balanchine immediate spring to mind, and the earlier examples of Marius Petipa, Pierre Gardel and Auguste Bournonville.

I would be particularly in favor of seeing that a CID/UNESCO representative be an ex-officio member of this undertaking.

If I were an artistic director attending that meeting, I would put in a strong vote for a pool for the preservation and/or recreation of works slipping away from general knowledge, prime among them works by Leonide Massine, to negotiate with Lorca Massine for a group of individuals to learn the works, not just under Lorca, but with those who danced the roles during Massine’s lifetime. Whether they are performed by companies or limited to academies, they represent singularly important archival resources in the development of ballet in the Twentieth Century. This is crucial with the remnants of the Ballet Russe era fast slipping into immortality.

The same would apply to the works of other masters: Ashton, for example, and the works of Lew Christensen. The legacy of Balanchine is extraordinarily fortunate in having Nancy Reynolds as a champion, but what about these others whose works have provided so much delight?

I would want to be part of a committee requiring ballet history taught in dance schools where it is not yet considered a necessary part of training. Part of that history requires the learning of period dancing. It includes deportment, such as the style of taking bows. It also includes, heaven forgive me, teaching social manners and a personal style. Sometimes, particularly in the U.S., the egalitarian dungaree look goes too far.

I would want to see a regular program of training as teachers and choreography, such as exists at the Rimsky Korsakov Institute in St. Petersburg and The GITIS in Moscow or with Dietmar Seyffert in Berlin. I believe that Frank Anderson and members of the Royal Danish administration already are considering a training program for the Bournonville style to provide the definitive stamp in performance of his works. Would there be value in providing this for Petipa, etc.

It seems to me the best outcome from such a meeting is a commitment to pool resources, regionally and internationally, with the formation of a clearing house, such as exists in Germany. There one central agency collates the needs for dancers and processes applications. On the negative side is the difference between the visual expectations prevalent, and actual talent. Great artists of the nineteenth and twentieth century might have been filtered out of such an application pool because of less than ideal proportions or not meeting the current standards of being attractive.