When Dance Shut Down, These Directors Banded Together

Last summer, Jonathan Stafford, the artistic director of New York City Ballet, was feeling isolated and anxious. It was a few months into the pandemic, and the strangeness of lockdown and the turmoil and urgency of the Black Lives Matter protests were on his mind.

City Ballet’s performances, programs and plans had come to an abrupt halt — as they had for performing arts organizations across the country. No one knew when or how theaters would open again. Many dancers had fled to family or friends outside the city; most didn’t have adequate space to keep up the intense physical training needed to keep in shape for performance.

A dance company’s artistic director nurtures dancers, conceives and plans seasons and tours, and keeps in close touch with every department from fund-raising and marketing to costume making. What was the role of an artistic director now?

Stafford called Robert Battle, the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, to chat. “This is great,” Battle said after they had spoken for a while. “I wish we were talking to other artistic directors.”

Read more @ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/arts/dance/artistic-directors-meet-during-pandemic.html