How to Plan a Ballet Season

Once a season begins, planning starts right away for the next one. In fact, we’re putting finishing touches on our plan for the 2025/2026 Season, and we’ll share that with you in the next blog.

I’m unaware of any classes or self-help books that tell you how to plan a ballet season, and back when we began, I certainly could have used some good advice. I just now “did some research” on the Internet, and only came up with a few earnest articles. Here are some results:

 “Major U.S. cities host unique ballet seasons, with notable productions like ‘The Nutcracker’ in New York and innovative works in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Colorado.” – Art de Ballet.com

“Performing arts organizations don’t have a magic formula they can tap into to create that perfect season.” – Boomer Magazine

“Programming is a task that requires insight, forethought, and creativity.” – Pointe Magazine

Well there you are.

In 2014, when the Marigny Opera Ballet was The Marigny Opera House Dance Company, it was a bit touch-and-go. I suppose the model was the ancient Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movie series where one of them always had a brilliant idea: “Well shucks! We don’t have any money, but we got talent, and there’s a vacant barn right here. Let’s PUT ON A SHOW!”

Somehow, this worked for us in 2014.

It’s true, I had my own experience playing for the San Francisco Ballet, where I witnessed seasons coming together right before my eyes. And now it’s been 11 seasons at the Marigny Opera Ballet. Each year we learned more, and now we have a basic system in place. We find it best to plan by asking questions.

Step One: What worked last season?

We hold a post-mortem after each production, and talk about our varied problems and successes. How were ticket sales? Were there new people in the audience? Was the audience truly excited with what they saw and heard? Were the dancers and musicians happy? These ruminations place us in the Real World, solid ground from which to plan.

Step Two: What’s the big idea?

The calendar is the starting point. Given that we’re going to present three programs between December and May, what dates do we schedule for rehearsals and performances, avoiding holidays and especially Carnival parades? Each program needs to be fleshed out: full-length? 30-minute premieres? repertory?

Step Three: What have we got to work with this season?

First off: how much money are we going to have? One premiere easily costs $40,000.00. Who will our dancers be next season? Ballet is never abstract, it’s an art based on specific bodies. We’ve been very lucky through the years: usually, most of our dancers return each season. We know who we’ve got, we know our individual and group styles.

Which choreographers and composers/musicians do we want, and who can we get? We’ve got our lists of great composers and musicians right here in New Orleans, we’ve got our list of fantastic choreographers here and around the world. We engage in fantasy matchmaking. We make Zoom calls. Ideas begin to percolate, and the new ballets emerge and take shape.

Step Four: Is this actually going to happen?

We get a lot of contracts signed, to nail down the plan: composers, choreographers, musicians, costume designers. We arrange our first photo shoots, organize press releases, advertising and subscriber brochures. Then, sometime in September, the dancers are back at the Opera House, standing at the barre, and the music starts:

“Pliés.”

It’s actually going to happen.