December 4, 2011

Behind a Ballet School’s Financial Transformation Is a Strong Artistic Director

By Maria Di Mento

As artistic director of the Colorado Ballet for 18 years, Martin Fredmann was credited with improving both the group’s finances and the quality of its dancing.

When he left that post in 2005 to be a guest teacher in Japan, he realized he enjoyed the freedom of not working for one institution. So when the call came last year asking him to take over as artistic director of the beleaguered Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington DC, he was reluctant to return to a life that would