Debt-Ridden ABT Watches Its Steps

If ever a ballet company couldn’t afford a misstep, American Ballet Theatre--$5.7 million in debt--is it, said Gary Dunning.

ABT’s new executive director is working on a stabilization plan that he can show prospective ABT funders.

“We have to convince the community and funders that we’re still here and that we’re going to make it with their help,” Dunning said. “We have to make sure we make no mistakes.”

One common mistake that Dunning is determined to avoid is counting chickens before they’re hatched; spending grants and gifts that haven’t come in.

“Even if you deserve it, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will come,” he said. “We need to get the budget solid and not rely on a few lucky breaks. We hope to regain the trust of donors, to convince them that it’s worth investing to help the company out of this hole. I think people will want to help, once they believe their money is not going to be lost over time.”

The company owes NatWest and Chemical banks $1 million each and, although neither bank has forgiven any of it, Dunning vows to go on asking. Then there’s $1.2 million owed to eight or nine vendors such as Freed’s, for toe shoes; warehouses where sets and costumes are stored, and travel agents who have booked the company’s tours. About $600,000 is owed to an individual creditor, whom Dunning did not identify but is widely known to be financier Howard Gilman.

Then there’s $2 million that the company owes itself, a cash reserve fund that’s not always counted but that Dunning regards as “absolutely a debt.”

He’s also told ABT’s board that they need to give money “at last year’s levels, $6 million or a little higher because of the period of stagnation” that followed Jane Hermann’s resignation as director last summer. Maybe he’ll communicate a little differently from the way Hermann did. “I like Jane,” he commented, “but I’m probably less confrontational. So is Kevin (McKenzie).”

Dunning, most recently of the Houston Ballet, worked on ABT’s business side when McKenzie was a dancer with the company. He remembers saying, over dinner with McKenzie in Minneapolis 12 or 15 years ago, “Someday you’ll run a company, and when you do, give me a call.”