Feather in the Cap Saturday, October 12, 2003 By ORLA SWIFT, Staff Writer The News and Observer RALEIGH--Robert Weiss has played with the big kids of ballet before. As artistic director of Raleigh's 6-year-old Carolina Ballet, he has commissioned works from such prominent choreographers as Christopher Wheeldon, Richard Tanner and Lynne Taylor-Corbett, a Tony nominee who has created half a dozen dances for the company. He has taken his dancers to New York and Budapest and been championed in the national media by a pair of influential dance writers. Now Weiss has reached another milestone in his quest to make Carolina Ballet one of the nation's top troupes: Another regional company, the Washington Ballet, chose a work that Weiss created to open its 2003-04 season. Weiss traveled to Washington to work with the company, which performed "Firebird" Oct. 1-5 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of a five-part program. Carolina Ballet premiered "Firebird," a fanciful tale set to a Stravinsky score, last season and is reviving it in a four-day run that begins Thursday in Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium. Dance companies often hire guest choreographers, but because this marked Carolina Ballet's first creation to enter another company's repertoire, and because Washington Ballet doesn't ordinarily bring guest choreographers for large works like "Firebird," this is a turning point. "The notoriety of the Washington Ballet is a good steppingstone for a company like Carolina Ballet," says Andrea Snyder, executive director of the Washington-based Dance/USA, a national service and leadership organization for professional dance. "I think that Carolina Ballet can be and will be an up-and-coming company, poised to make a statement on a new plane amongst the midsize regional ballet companies." The experience also gave Weiss a chance to see "Firebird" in a new light, just as his own company was preparing to revive it in a program that includes "Carmina Burana," a dance-symphony-choral creation with choreography by Taylor-Corbett. "You always learn something when you go somewhere else," he says. "It's nice to go away and meet other people and do something with them. They bring something else to the table, so it's been very good for me, too." Yet for all that, Weiss offered a firm "no" to the Washington Ballet's first overture. A cordial refusal The "Firebird" invitation began as a routine request. Washington Ballet's artistic director, Septime Webre , had sought to use Carolina Ballet's sets and costumes with the intention of creating his own choreography to Stravinsky's score. Had Webre asked the same for Weiss' "Carmen" or "Romeo and Juliet," Weiss would have agreed. But for "Firebird" he cordially refused. "I had done what I believe to be a somewhat innovative and very different 'Firebird' than any 'Firebird' that had ever been done before," Weiss says. "It went with the scenery and costumes in a unique way. I really did not want to lend just the scenery and costumes. They shouldn't be used for someone else's vision." So that was that. Webre understood, and Weiss went on his way. Then came the next phone call, about a month later. It was Webre again. His schedule was getting overloaded, he told Weiss. Choreographing a new "Firebird" would be too much. He asked to see a video of Weiss' production. And when he did, he was sold. Weiss would come in and set the dance on Webre's company. "The central thing that distinguished his 'Firebird' from other 'Firebirds' is the emphasis on the dancing, and also his sophisticated musicality," Webre said. "Many 'Firebirds' are really wonderful pageants, but many do not emphasize the dancing." The tale centers on an evil sorcerer who has imprisoned a princess, and the prince who fights to free her, after a beautiful bird empowers him with a magical feather. Legendary ballet master Serge Diaghilev commissioned the ballet -- Stravinsky's first -- for the Ballets Russes nearly a century ago, and it has remained a popular title for choreographers. Weiss didn't want his version to be bogged down by big, heavy sets and costumes, as it almost invariably had been. So he hired David Heuvel, a famous costume designer, to make outfits the dancers could move in. And he worked with Carolina Ballet set designer Jeff Jones to create stunning but uncluttered scenery evoking delicate Russian painted lacquer boxes. And then he made it fly. His creation has a grand battle scene between the prince and the sorcerer's minions, and all the captive princesses dance en pointe. It was perfect for Washington Ballet, which Webre says is known for its athletic style. "We've developed a group of dancers who really go for it," he said. "They've got a breakneck, go-for-broke style." Still, Weiss' choreography challenged them. "It's a killer of a work for the prince and the firebird. They've had to work up the stamina to get through it." Webre said he's pleased to add Weiss' "Firebird" to the company's repertoire. He expects to mount it again in two or three years, and no longer aspires to choreograph a "Firebird" of his own for the Washington Ballet. He has also asked to see videos of Weiss' other works for Carolina Ballet, to see if he might want his company to perform anything else. Accustomed to acclaim Weiss, 54, has choreographed a dozen works since coming to Raleigh as Carolina Ballet's first artistic director. In the first season, "Romeo and Juliet" inspired critic Terry Teachout to praise Weiss' new company in The New York Times and subsequently The Washington Post and Time magazine. Veteran dance writer Francis Mason chimed in on his weekly show on New York radio station WQXR. Carolina Ballet's subsequent touring and its work with Tanner, Wheeldon and Taylor-Corbett have added prestige. The Washington Ballet's production raises it another notch. Weiss is determined that "Firebird" won't be the last Carolina Ballet creation adopted by another company. "I'd like these ballets to be out there all over the world," he says. "I think they're good enough to be part of other people's repertoires." Weiss has created commissioned works for other companies throughout his career, including the New York City Ballet, where he was a principal dancer for George Balanchine, and American Ballet Theatre. He also directed the Pensylvania Ballet in Philadelphia, where his works drew international attention and were also performed at Kennedy Center. But he doesn't want to be a nomadic choreographer, he says. He likes creating his ballets with the consistency of a familiar troupe, then seeking opportunities like this to share them with a wider audience. "There's something wonderful, totally and completely wonderful, about working with the same dancers over and over again, because you know them inside and out and they know you," he says. "They start to understand your style, your vision, what you want the movement to be like in many different areas and contexts." Still, he expects the Washington "Firebird" flight to prompt more invitations , carrying Carolina Ballet further toward its dream of worldwide notoriety. "That's the way it usually works," Weiss says. " 'Oh, yeah, he did a work for Washington Ballet? Who is he?' " Webre agrees. He has seen it happen . "The dance world is small and news is shared," he says. "Any time there's a major acquisition, there's a ripple in the ballet world, and other directors are aware of it. ... It's sort of a seal of approval." Reprinted with permission of The News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina.