In the "things are tough all over" file, add Salt Lake City's premiere dance troupe, Ballet West, to the list of organizations tightening their belts.

Ballet West announced Monday an effort to cut $1.2 million from its operating budget for the 2009-10 season - by cutting four jobs, freezing salaries, requesting furloughs and reducing pension contributions for its 35-member administrative staff, as well as asking for concessions from the unions that represent dancers, musicians and stagehands.

With some corporate and foundation contributions down 60 percent, Ballet West executive director Johann Jacobs said the company aims to cut its budget from $7.5 million to $6.3 million.

The troupe hasn't fired any dancers, though four of the 37-member troupe are leaving for other reasons.

"Sustainability and survival are now the order of the day," Jacobs said. "It's very important to us that our product remain intact, and that it remains as well received as it has been for the last two years."

Labels: Ballet West

Don't think that Ballet West, Salt Lake City's premiere ballet troupe, is just for locals. It's getting some national recognition - a rave review in The New York Times - for its current production, "Treasures of the Ballet Russes."

Here are the first two sentences of Alastair Macaulay's review:

"Triple or quadruple bills of ballets created between 1909 and 1929 for [Sergei] Diaghilev's Ballets Russes are not uncommon. All the more remarkable then that Ballet West's current 'Treasures of the Ballets Russes' triple bill proves the most stimulating Diaghilev anthology I have seen in more than 30 years."

Macaulay goes on to praise the dancer's athleticism in the demanding works, the "adventurous programming" of works seldom staged in the United States, and the "enlivening effect" of Ballet West's artistic director Adam Sklute.

"Treasures of the Ballet Russes" has finished its run at Salt Lake City's Capitol Theatre, but Ballet West is performing it at 7 p.m. tonight and Wednesday at the Val A. Browning Center at Weber State University, Ogden. It's worth the trip.

Labels: Ballet West