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Back from the brink: The Washington Ballet forges ahead under the dynamic Septime Webre.

Article Excerpt
Septime Webre, artistic director of The Washington Ballet, blazes across the local scene, frequently bounding in front of the curtain to introduce his programs. He's a very public presence and a fixture on the social circuit, always upbeat, sometimes controversial.

He shepherded his group in a successful, highly publicized visit to Cuba in 2000, mounted a lavish Washington--oriented production of The Nutcracker--featuring George Washington and Tidal Basin cherry trees--and weathered a bitter labor dispute two years ago that cost the company a million dollars.

In the nine years since he arrived, Webre has turned a chamber-sized group with a modest profile into a lively company whose annual budget went from $2.8 million to $8 million. Its subscriber base has more than tripled, the number of performances doubled, and its new Nutcracker has reached a gross of $1.8 million a year.

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As the galvanizing force behind the company's rise, the director has clear goals and the hyper energy to carry them through. Named Septime because he was the seventh of nine children (and after his French great-grandfather who was also a seventh child), he grew up in Texas in a large, fun-loving Cuban-American family; he comes by his ebullience naturally.

Webre's company dwells in a city more concerned with politics than the arts. But Washington, D.C., is also host to the large, thriving Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which brings in the best of ballet from around the world--the Kirov, the...

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