Behind a Ballet School’s Financial Transformation Is a Strong Artistic Director

As artistic director of the Colorado Ballet for 18 years, Martin Fredmann was credited with improving both the group’s finances and the quality of its dancing.

When he left that post in 2005 to be a guest teacher in Japan, he realized he enjoyed the freedom of not working for one institution. So when the call came last year asking him to take over as artistic director of the beleaguered Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington DC, he was reluctant to return to a life that would require constant fund raising.

The academy, founded in 1990 with the patronage of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a Korean businessman and founder of the Unification Church, had last year lost 40 percent of its budget, as the Moon family pulled back its support because of the bad economy.

It is now trying to fill a $2-million budget gap. And while the school has produced dancers who perform with some of the world’s most prestigious companies, Mr. Fredmann was concerned that it had a tendency toward artistic closed-mindedness, as well as an overall insular culture.

“I knew if I were going to do such a thing, changes would have to be made. I knew in the teaching staff, the whole environment and atmosphere had to be changed,” says Mr. Fredmann. The only way out of its financial crisis, he says, “was to open up the doors and let people in and get rid of the iron curtain that surrounded it. I mean, it was really an old Soviet enclave.”

Mr. Fredmann exacted promises from Kirov Academy’s board of directors that he would be given the freedom to make changes. And then he stepped up to the challenge.

“I never thought in all my life, after all those years at Colorado Ballet, that I would ever again be in a situation where it was nonstop begging for money,” he says. “And here I am again. I certainly know what to do, though, and I’m ready for it.”

He quips that fund raising for ballet is like being an elegant beggar: “You’re sort of like a street person with a nice office.”

Russian Heritage

Though he jokes about fund raising, Mr. Fredmann says he now believes the academy’s unusual role of training dancers in an esteemed traditional Russian style is exactly what will help him make the school stand out in the minds of potential supporters.

“Part of our sale, and I think what gives us more clout, is this heritage,” he says. “You have to build an awareness of the entity. You have to let people know who you are, what you are about, and how good you are and that you want to make a mark. Well, this place already has a mark.”

Mr. Fredmann hopes that the school’s reputation for excellence, as proven by many of its alumni’s successful dance careers, will help make his case to potential supporters.

For example, Sascha Radetsky, a 1995 graduate of the academy who is now a soloist with the American Ballet Theatre, says the school not only gave him a solid technical and artistic foundation but also helped him grow up, in many ways.

“I know this sounds like a cliché, but I felt like I was becoming a man,” said Mr. Radetsky of his time at the academy. “Those were the most formative years of my life. I learned how to overcome obstacles and treat others with respect.”

Such stories underscore Mr. Fredmann’s belief that the school’s current financial problems are worth working through.

“This place must be maintained and saved and also developed further. It’s a little enclave full of grace and respect,” he says. “We don’t have the kinds of problems with the kids who are enrolled in this school that others have. These kids really want to be here, and they’re incredibly focused and centered in an art form that is hundreds of years old, and they have a real appreciation of it.”