© Assis Carreiro/DE International Ballet Directors Conference 2005 Ballet.co magazine coverage of Dance East's Rural Retreat for Ballet Directors 2005 Future of Ballet and Dance Forum... to link with the Ballet Directors conferences. Go and have your say in where ballet should be heading. Introduction to 2005 Conference Ballet.co coverage of the 2003 Conference

On the day before 27 artistic directors arrive from around the world for the 2005 Directors' Conference, Assis Carreiro sounds remarkably calm and unfrazzled. One of the scheduled attendees dropped out earlier in the week, and some fast work was needed to find a substitute (Jonas Kage of Ballet West): otherwise everything is under control.

It's two years since Assis organised the first of these conferences, and I started by asking her about the lasting effects of that meeting. One director, she said, had put in place several initiatives which he attributed directly to what he'd learned at Snape; for most of the others the benefits were less quantifiable, though equally appreciated - above all, perhaps, the knowledge that none of them was alone, and could now talk to others all over the world who were facing the same problems.

The plan for this year's meeting is to go more deeply into specific topics. There's a list of a dozen or so on the agenda, and most of them could be grouped together under the heading of 'Challenges'. Managing people, marketing, nurturing creativity, today's dancers - and at the heart of it, perhaps, the challenge of leadership. 'The hardest thing is being the boss', says Assis, and it's particularly hard for those new to the job, coming perhaps from being a top-flight dancer and suddenly having to learn a whole new way of working. (A later Rural Retreat, for would-be directors, will surely draw heavily on what's said at this one.) 'Some people think they spend all the time talking about Swan Lake, but actually it's much more about private things' - things which the public doesn't see and may not even be aware of, but which have a crucial effect on what we eventually see on the stage.

Assis Carreiro
© Assis Carreiro/DE

There are two outside speakers this year: Nicholas Hytner, Artistic Director of the Royal National Theatre, and Gail Rebuck, Chief Executive of the publishing giant, the Random House Group. Hytner will talk about his experience of trying to move a large company along the road to the future - the artform may be different but the problems are very similar, and though directors of some of the smaller companies represented at the conference may not have such heavy structures and long histories to cope with, they need the same philosophies and techniques. Rebuck's brief is to discuss the diffiulties (and, one hopes, the rewards) of managing creative people, tying in with other agenda items such as the changing expectations of dancers now compared with twenty or thirty years ago.

The format of the weekend will follow more or less that of the first Retreat - general sessions alternating with work in smaller groups, which then report their findings back to the whole meeting. All discussions are recorded and transcribed for future reference, and to form the basis of the final report. One of the key provisos is that no outsiders are present at any of the discussion sessions, so that the directors can speak freely and openly of their real concerns - a rare opportunity for most of them them. Assis also sees the out-of-town locations - Hertfordshire this time - as an important factor in producing the right atmosphere. 'Mostly when they meet, they're all in their suits and they're going to performances in the evening': this is much more relaxed and informal, and the evenings are spent eating and drinking together.

An interim report will be presented to the press and other interested parties at a reception at the House of Commons the day after the conference closes - though this time, at the request of the directors themselves, there won't be a general question and answer session - and a full report will be published later. There is much interest in the format which Assis and her colleagues have developed, and many people both from the dance world and from other art forms will be keeping a close watch on the outcome of the meeting. The deliberations of these directors will influence what we see in our ballet theatres for the next decade: we wish them a very useful weekend!