Turns out, “The Wizard of Oz” truly is great and powerful — and benevolent to the Colorado Ballet. The company’s new production of the classic tale took on historic proportions before it even opened.
The show, which premiered locally Friday, represents the first time Colorado Ballet has reached beyond the city’s borders to partner with peer companies on a new work — a trend in the dance industry that is allowing mid-size operations to generate big-budget attractions they couldn’t manage on their own.
Creatively, it’s a major leap forward, a ballet term that applies in landmark ways in this case.
And it’s the company’s first production — beyond its annual, marathon “The Nutcracker” — ever to crack $1 million in box office sales, and that happened a week ahead of the first curtain rise.
The show — among a number of films, plays, video games and more to take on L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book now that its copyright has expired — is co-produced with Kansas City Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Kansas City premiered the work in October. Canadian audiences will see it in May.
The choreographer is Septime Webre, the former artistic director of Washington National Ballet and one of the field’s most respected dance-makers.
Webre was toying with the idea back in early 2016, when he happened to be in Denver to oversee Colorado Ballet’s presentation of “ALICE (In Wonderland).” He asked the company’s artistic director, Gil Boggs, if he had any interest in the project.
The answer: An enthusiastic yes, according to Boggs. The title was an automatic crowd-pleaser, and the material held real possibilities for the art form. Beyond that, the effort would give the company’s dancers fresh challenges, something they don’t always get from the warhorse ballets they usually perform.
From there, it was down a yellow brick road of creative adventures, lining up partners and assembling a creative team that includes costume designer Liz Vandal, composer Matthew Pierce, and the set and lighting team of Michael Raiford and Trad Burns. Nicholas Mahon, a puppeteer known for his work at the 2016 Olympics opening ceremonies in South Korea, was brought on for special effects.
The three co-producers set up an LLC to cover legal aspects — and that turned out to be crucial.
While Baum’s book is in the public domain, the beloved 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” film is still owned by Warner Bros. pictures, which embellished the tale with key elements that are now indispensable to the story. The ruby slippers, the actual names of the farmhands — those and other details belong to the movie studio, and rights had to be negotiated.
There were also creative matters to resolve. “Our biggest concern is that we each wanted to have our own dance company’s imprint on the ballet itself,” said Boggs.
The solution: have Webre work out sections of the movement in each city, mining the particular strengths of each company’s dancers.
The result is a work that taps the familiar, but with 21st century sensibilities. There’s a certain dog, a few flying monkeys, and a tornado that arrives via whirling projections. But, for example, there are no little people playing Munchkins. Expect instead some colorfully clad “yellow brick roadies” helping the action along.
There’s no dialogue, of course, and no “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” But there is a lively score and a wildly green Emerald City, and the ballet mimics the film’s unique color palette, going from muted earth tones in the rural, opening scenes to the brilliant hues you’d expect to see as the hero arrives in the Land of Oz.
There are a lot of details, and they were worked out through a series of meetings that brought the key players together digitally over the two-year-plus project. There was a standing creative team meeting every Friday at 9 a.m., and the artistic directors conferenced every three weeks to hammer out other issues.
The companies, which split costs evenly, got along well, Boggs reports.
“It was actually easy because 90 percent of the designs everybody agreed on right away,” said Boggs “There wasn’t a lot of angst on that.”
Amy Fitterer, executive director of the non-profit Dance/USA, the country’s premier industry group for dance troupes of all shapes and sizes, says that’s typically the case for companies that co-produce. She has seen more mid-sized organizations jump on the trend in recent years. And it goes beyond the United States, with partnerships forming across the globe.
Other fine arts forms, such as opera, also have embraced the idea of co-producing lately because it cuts risks and allows greater opportunities for creative teams.
It’s not just a heathy business model, it’s also an important way for the classical arts to grow, reach new audiences, and keep high-level performers, composers, musicians, designers and choreographers content.
“Our culture needs that,” said Fitterer. “We need to celebrate the things that have been around but also to have new voices recognized.”
The Colorado Ballet is only looking forward. Splitting production costs means the three companies now own all of the sets and costumes and the key ideas that come with the piece. Those will be leased to other companies that produce the ballet in years to come, and the originating trio will share any profits. Potential renters already have expressed interest, so Boggs is optimistic.
Does that mean the company will co-produce more works in the future? Boggs has his radar tuned.
“If there’s a great idea out there and it makes financial sense, absolutely,” he said.
The Colorado Ballet‘s “The Wizard of Oz” runs Feb. 1-10 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Tickets range from $30 to $155. Info at 303-837-8888, ext. 2 or coloradoballet.org.