Orlando Ballet’s plan is live music to our ears
How about some great news for fans of orchestral music and ballet?
Orlando Ballet’s upcoming productions of “Romeo and Juliet” and “Beauty and the Beast” will both be accompanied by live music. Two local orchestras are scheduled to play: The Orlando Philharmonic will perform “Romeo and Juliet” in February and the next month Central Florida Community Arts Orchestra will accompany “Beauty and the Beast.”
The live music is possible because revenue is beating the ballet’s projections, says board president Jonathan Ledden, adding that the final performance of October’s “Swan Lake” was sold out.
The return of live music was “a total no-brainer,” Ledden said.
More patrons? More revenue? Now, that’s really great news.
The ballet has been moving forward under a plan devised in consultation with Michael Kaiser, an internationally known turnaround expert for arts groups in crisis. Kaiser was called in after the ballet faced a 2015 cash crunch that threatened to put it out of business.
Kaiser’s plan was appropriately conservative for the time, Ledden said, but the ballet was able to exceed its revenue goals in the past two fiscal years. ending in 2016 and this summer.
That doesn’t mean Orlando Ballet is done seeking financial support. On the contrary, the organization has big dreams — that require a big investment.
Ledden hopes to raise about $16 million during the next 3-4 years — though he admits it might not be easy.
“This is aspirational,” he told community leaders at a recent presentation. Among those in attendance were officials from Central Florida’s leading arts organizations including the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park and Opera Orlando.
About $1 million would be used for a cash reserve that would end a recurring problem in which the company starts each season scrambling for funds. About $3 million would go to artistic development, Ledden said — money to commission and choreograph new works. The ballet would like to create a new version of “The Nutcracker” and an original fulllength piece to mark the 2020 opening of Steinmetz Hall at Orlando’s Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.
The remaining $13 million would be used to build out the ballet’s headquarters in Loch Haven Park, with facilities for the professional dancers, staff offices and classrooms for Orlando Ballet School students.
The October resignation of executive director Caroline Miller and the nationwide search for her replacement won’t slow the ballet’s momentum, Ledden said — or diminish its dreams.
“We have leadership in place who can execute,” he said. “You have to be a little bold.”