As successor to The Washington Ballet throne, Septime Webre reigns supreme.

By Shaun Rodriguez

A Measured Pace

The challenge of filling the looming space left by the former artistic director, dance pioneer and international ballet icon Mary Day, was one Webre accepted happily, yet went about prudently.

“When you are inheriting such a legacy,” says Webre, “you have to both deal with it respectfully and elegantly and not be timid about forging your own path.” Forge his own path he has. In his almost three years as artistic director, Webre has helped give an aging arts institution a much needed face-lift. He has enlisted the talent of such avant-garde young choreographers as Trey McIntyre and Nacho Duato to augment the company‘s primarily traditional repertoire. Last year’s subscriptions to the company’s performances hovered impressively around 2,700, up from a mere 750 when Webre first came on board. Not bad for a guy with a degree in History/Pre-Law.

How does he do it?

The keyword here is contrast -- pairing seemingly opposed entities to one another in a marriage of inspired urban eclecticism. By counterbalancing disciplined, formal training with innovative choreography and powerful musical scores, Webre has created an exciting, forward-thinking company whose repertoire ranges from classic to cutting edge. With the advent of such membership programs as The Jete Society, which sponsors “Beer and Ballet” evenings in The Washington Ballet studios and similar events, the company has made itself more accessible to members of the community once alienated by the perceived snob-appeal of the art form and the company.

The Language of the Soul

When it comes to choreography, Webre is part scientist, part creative genius. He is an example of the rare breed of artists who approach their craft intellectually, drawing inspiration from literature, music, society, and personal experience. Webre’s influences include dance legends George Balanchine, Twyla Tharp, Paul Taylor, and Merce Cunningham.

“I’m really attracted to the formalism of George Balanchine and of Cunningham, particularly,” he says. In his transcendent piece and one of this season‘s feature attractions, Carmina Burana, Webre leads his audience on a journey through the ages in search for love.

Inspired in part by Virginia Woolf’s novella Orlando, the piece begins in medieval times and follows through to present day. Carl Orff’s commanding score, performed live by The Washington Choral Society, serves as accompaniment for this moving piece. Developed from manuscripts recovered from an abandoned monastery in Germany, the score was once thought to be Gregorian chants. However, through further translation, it was discovered to consist of the lascivious drinking songs of wayward monks.

Like Mary Day before him, Webre believes in using the dance studio as laboratory, comprising the company of young dancers upon whom new pieces would be crafted. When asked of his vision for the company, he replies, “I like to think of The Washington Ballet as this tight tribe of dancers who are very energetic ... and versatile. And can dance The Nutcracker, Balanchine’s Serenade, and the wildest new work made upon them with equal aplomb.”

The Kennedy Center’s Prelude Festival was proof positive of Webre’s vision coming to fruition. The collection of pieces shows the range of the company, from the linear precision of Balanchine’s Allegro Brilliante to McIntyre’s playfully pedestrian Blue Until June. Choo San Goh’s Momentum, a poignantly lyrical duet set to Sergei Prokofiev’s resplendent “Piano Concerto No.1 in D flat, Opus 10” was excellent. Nacho Duato’s movingly passionate Na Floresta, an expertly danced company piece set to a haunting score by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Wagner Tisso, was equally magnificent.

A Man of Substance

One of Webre’s main goals for the company was to “connect the ballet more thoroughly to the city of Washington, so that the ballet would be more firmly integrated into the cultural fabric of the community,” he says. With that goal in mind, he helped form Dance DC, a program providing pre-ballet training to public school children in Washington area. A sister program for Dance DC is Dance with Words, in which kids express their ballet training through a language arts curriculum in keeping with that of DC public schools.

Dance DC served 200 children last year and hopes to double that number this year. The next large project for Washington Ballet’s community outreach program will be held in a state of the art recreational facility in Anacostia. The company will have two large studios housed in the center, where they will provide serious classical ballet training to children in the community.

When asked what he would like for people to know about him, Webre replied, after a long stretch, “I would like for them to know how curious I am about life and art, and their intersections.”

For more information on The Washington Ballet, visit their website.

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When not playing in her starring role as Urban Mother: Mistress of Laundry, Shaun Rodriguez can be found either madly scribbling the secrets and ironies of life and love in her journal or pretending to be a photographer.

Photo by Shaun Rodriguez