National Ballet’s artistic director takes an encore,
Artistic director to stay at National Ballet past exit date as hiring slows
COVID-19 has messed with all our lives, sometimes with lethal results. On a relative scale, the forced postponement of a new production of “Swan Lake” might seem of minor consequence; but not if you’re Karen Kain.
To be an artist of any kind is to live life at a level of intensity and commitment that’s often hard for outsiders to grasp. When things go wrong, artists tend to feel it very deeply.
The new version of the beloved Tchaikovsky classic, produced and supervised by Kain, was set to open June 5, the triumphant culmination of her 50th anniversary season with the National Ballet of Canada, first as a long-serving dancer and, since 2005, as artistic director.
The year began well. In January, the company earned glowing reviews from respected Washington Post critic Sarah Kaufman for performances at the Kennedy Center that included the National Ballet’s heirloom Rudolf Nureyev production of “The Sleeping Beauty.” It was the work that ignited Kain’s early career and which, as artistic director, she refurbished to its former splendour. The National Ballet was scheduled, after years of planning and negotiation, to perform the work this July at the Royal Opera House in London.
In early March, as executive director Barry Hughson summarizes it: “The company was firing on all cylinders. Everything was going right.”
The finances were in robust condition thanks to excellent ticket sales and the over-target completion of a multi-year capital fundraising drive that had grown exponentially under Kain’s charismatic moneymagnet leadership.
Artistically, the National Ballet had just presented a critically acclaimed triple bill featuring the premiere of “Angels’ Atlas,” a blisteringly brilliant work by superstar Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite. The company was dancing in top form. On March 11 it began performances of Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet.” Meanwhile, work was progressing well on the sets and costumes for “Swan Lake” by maverick Australian designer Gabriela Tylesova.
“I was loving the way everything was proceeding,” says Kain. “Then the rug was pulled from under us. Somebody shot the balloon.”
To many observers, Kain has always seemed a poised and self-confident woman, but it wasn’t always like that.
“I actually suffered with a lot of guilt about being given opportunities ahead of other people so quickly in my career. I was really quite shy and meek. I didn’t have the ego or drive to put myself forward. I didn’t think I deserved everything. But, when people believed in me, I came alive.”
And Kain had many believers, including company founding artistic director Celia Franca, Erik Bruhn and Nureyev, both towering figures of 20th-century ballet; and among many choreographers, the Frenchman Roland Petit, with whose company Kain performed as a guest, and American-born John Neumeier, with whom she retains a close friendship.
“They could be tough,” Kain recalls, “but I loved it because these people who gave me corrections and identified my weaknesses and inadequacies truly believed in me and were trying to help me be better. I would not have had the career I had without them.”
Kain was also fortunate in her timing. She began her career in 1969 at the height of a dancecrazed era now known nostalgically as the Ballet Boom. It was in this context of generalized adoration that Kain’s star shone brightly, and she had an abundance of artistry to fuel it. Kain’s versatility was renowned. She danced all the big classic leads as well as neo-classical and contemporary ballets. Working with established choreographers and creating new roles kept Kain’s career flourishing into her late 40s.
“That is what, as artistic director, I have tried to provide for our artists,” Kain explains. “I’ve invited the people who inspired me and who are still creative geniuses, and scouted the new talents around the world and tried to engage them with the company.
“Whatever sparks the artistic and emotional involvement of the artists for me has been first and foremost. But it’s also about sparking the imagination of the audience to get a bigger picture of what dance can be. And I think they’ve come along with us really wonderfully. They love the new work. They love the Sleeping Beauties, but they also love all the new choreography.”
Kain claims she never imagined herself becoming the National Ballet’s artistic director. In this she is in a minority of one.
After hanging up her pointe shoes in the fall of 1998, Kain accepted a position as part of the company’s artistic management team under then director James Kudelka. When he resigned in May 2005, it was generally assumed Kain was his obvious successor.
As Kain’s former ballet partner Frank Augustyn — the other half of the now fabled “golddust twins” — succinctly put it: “The writing had been on the wall for years.”
Unlike Kudelka, Kain did not enter the post as a choreographer, nor was she interested in reviving her stage career in character roles. As artistic director, her focus has always been the welfare of the dancers and the health, financial and artistic, of the company. She also saw herself as a team leader.
Says Hughson: “Karen leads in a spirit of collegiality and collaboration in a very authentic way. It’s really in her DNA. When I think of how we work as partners, the words that spring to mind about Karen are generosity, humility and openness. Working alongside her has been an absolute joy, a gift in my career.”
Kain, who has served longer as artistic director — 15 years — than any of her predecessors besides Franca, came to the job with a triple-pronged plan.
“I wanted to set a high standard of classical dancing, diversify the repertoire and get the National Ballet touring internationally again. It’s been a team effort, but I feel I’ve accomplished those goals. On the artistic side, I could not be more proud.”
Thus, it was not a complete surprise when last October the company announced that Kain, who turned 69 in March, would step down as of January 2021.
According to an inside source, the slightly odd timing, midseason, was to allow Kain to be around to see the fruition of a project she’d worked hard to bring about, a collaboration between Margaret Atwood and British choreographer Wayne McGregor.
In a co-production with Britain’s Royal Ballet, McGregor was set to create a three-act work based on the Canadian author’s dystopian trilogy “Oryx and Crake,” “The Year of the Flood” and “MaddAddam.” The world premiere was scheduled for Toronto this November.
Like so much else, the new ballet has been postponed; so has Kain’s departure.
The current crisis has slowed the search for Kain’s successor and she has made it clear to the National Ballet’s board of directors that she will not leave them in the lurch next January.
“I want to help the company until they are sure they’ve made the right choice,” says Kain.
“Then I’ll just step aside. If it takes until ‘Swan Lake’ (now rescheduled for June 2021) then it takes until ‘Swan Lake.’ ”
Kain may plan to step aside, but the board of directors, who know her value as an icon, want to keep her close and have given her the postretirement title of artistic director emeritus.
“I expect it will involve helping them with some fundraising,” says Kain.
“Certainly they would like me to continue as a champion for the company and to keep our patrons supportive. I’ve agreed to that already. I will have to be very sensitive to not overshadow the new director and not be too visible except when I’m needed.”
When the theatres closed in mid-March and Kain saw all her well-laid plans floating away, she admits she was in despair for several weeks but eventually snapped out of it. Now, as the situation keeps changing according to public health projections, she’s back to regular planning meetings with staff on Zoom.
“It’s good to be able to see other people’s faces, but it means I still have to get myself all done up in the morning, at least above the waist. They can’t tell if I’m wearing sweatpants.”