The Question Is: Which Way, Ballet?

Reid Anderson, artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet since 1996, was once a keen young dancer soaking up classical and cutting-edge work during the company’s glory days in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. His mentor, choreographer and artistic director John Cranko, knew how to put an old German state ballet company (established 1609) on the international map by creating evening-length story ballets--like “The Taming of the Shrew,” “Onegin” and a much-loved version of “Romeo and Juliet”--while also nurturing young choreographers who gave the art form a new spin.

It’s a formula Anderson, 50, follows today, having revitalized the company by trimming the ranks and adding dancers who are as keen as he was way back when. (According to German critic Horst Koegler, they “charge across the stage with the power of a Porsche.”)

At the Orange County Performing Arts Center this week, Stuttgart will do “Onegin,” based on Pushkin’s epic love story. And, on another program, a shorter work by Cranko (“Initials R.B.M.E.”) is joined by two new pieces (“Kazimir’s Colors” and “Dos Amores”) that represent the current generation of ballet choreographers who still get chances via Stuttgart’s famous Noverre Society showcases for new talent. (John Neumeier, Jiri Kylian and William Forsythe got their starts there.) Anderson, who says that risks and failure are part of finding viable new works, has chosen for this tour the pieces that have proved most popular with critics and audiences.

Anderson spoke to The Times on the phone from a hotel room in Princeton, N.J., where the company was grappling with the flu early in its seven-city U.S. tour.

Question: It’s been 20 years since the Stuttgart performed in Southern California, and back in 1980 it was also “Onegin.” Is it exciting to bring new works this time?

Answer: Yes, we’re all excited. We’re all sick, but we’re excited. I have so many dancers off with the flu this week--it’s quite a shock. They go flat out of it for four or five days. Some are just coming back, some are just going down, so it’s like a relay race.

Q: Is “Onegin” different from 20 years ago?

A: Ballets do change from generation to generation, even though it’s still John [Cranko’s] choreography. You have dancers with more technical finesse and proficiency, and as you coach the ballets, they bring things that you like. Some things become more expansive, the lifts may be a little higher, some moments may be more emotionally packed, you have subtle changes. John really believed in that too--he would have hated it if everything was the same as it was in 1965.

Q: What about the new works?

A: “Kazimir’s Colours” was created for us in my first season. I went to Italy especially to meet the choreographer, Mauro Bigonzetti, because I thought he’d be someone we should work with. It’s a very whimsical ballet, very colorful, very quirky. It has its own kind of appeal, and it has a beautiful pas de deux. “Dos Amores” is by Christian Spuck [a Stuttgart corps member]. It has to do with love and with meeting and parting, to a collage of music with Vivaldi and very percussive sections. It’s very sensual.

They’re on a program with “Initials R.B.M.E.,” which was an obvious choice for me. It’s a beautiful work, an abstract ballet, but it has John’s humanity and warmth. It was created in 1972, but it’s still very appealing today. [The ballet was named by Cranko for four colleagues who were friends: Richard Cragun, Birgit Keil, Marcia Haydee and Egon Madsen.]

Q: Since you’ve been in Stuttgart as artistic director, critics have said the company is “the best Stuttgart ever.”

A: Well, I think it really was a revitalized company my first year, and you were just seeing dancers going pow!

The ones that had been there before wanted to make an impression; the new dancers wanted to show what they could do; and the dancers who had come with me from Toronto [Anderson directed the National Ballet of Canada from 1989 to 1996] were just blown over by the public response and the whole atmosphere, how giving everyone was. It only took a few days and it was this big family--it feels like it did back when I was dancing. Our first performance of that “new” company was just phenomenal. Everybody was just going to give everything.

Q: When you left Toronto, you spoke quite a bit about your disappointment in funding cutbacks for ballet. Was that the real reason you left for Stuttgart?

A: Yes, absolutely, I spoke about it every opportunity I could. I was, to use a phrase, really pissed off. I had been approached by the Stuttgart but had no intention of leaving Toronto at first. Then one day, when I heard we’d lost an extra $500,000 during a fiscal year, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was spending more and more time fund-raising and less time in the studio. I called Stuttgart and asked if they were still looking. It’s not that I mind fund-raising--I do it gladly in Stuttgart--but not all the time. Even though we are mostly government-funded, it’s less than it was in past years.

Q: You’ve said that in Stuttgart critics can say what they want, but it doesn’t affect attendance because the public is loyal.

A: That’s true. We have critics who are very knowledgeable and very good, but we also have a public that just adores the company. They come to everything, and I don’t really have to worry about critics.

I do worry to some extent about “putting bums in seats,” but not as much as some directors. It’s wonderful to be able to take a chance, because if you’re going to make art, you have to be able to fail.

Q: Is the atmosphere for ballet very different there than in Toronto then?

A: The dancers are very cherished in Stuttgart, looked up to, something special. In Canada, the fans knew who dancers were, but the company in Toronto isn’t anywhere near as embraced by the city and politicians--the people who have the say--as it is in Stuttgart. All the years I was in Toronto, politicians hardly ever came to performances. But in Stuttgart, the mayor is there, the cultural ministers, the people who actually pay the bills. They take an active interest in what we’re doing.

Q: You staged a traditional “Giselle” last year and took some heat from the critics, right?

A: Oh, some heat-ette, it wasn’t so bad. Some critics would maybe have liked to see “Giselle” go into another direction altogether. But I wanted to make it as traditional as possible. I guess some people wanted the company to do something absolutely new with it.

Q: It sounds like you’re committed to both old and new.

A: Yes, absolutely. I love the traditional, I love classical ballet dancing, but on the other hand, I’m totally into what’s new and what’s modern, what can move. I think giving chances to young choreographers is part of any director’s mandate nowadays. We’ve got to try to help take this art form further, whatever that means, expanding, pushing back parameters, working in a new direction.

Q: Where does ballet need to go?

A: I don’t know, but I do know at the moment that few people are doing anything in the narrative line, certainly not full-length ballets. Young people seem to want to stay with shorter pieces that are abstract, and I’m totally cool with that. I find abstract ballets in essence aren’t abstract--that’s the way we live nowadays, they’re reflecting the way we are. You can always make what you want out of an abstract ballet anyway. If it’s a good piece it always has something to say. But people keep asking when we’re going to do a new full-length narrative ballet. My answer is when I find someone who can do it. You can only find it through looking and through trying and trying again. That’s the process I’m in at the moment.

But if you’re asking where it’s going--for me, it’s going in all directions at the moment. One thing I know, classical ballet dancing is not going to die. People say that all the time, but I don’t see it. OK, I have a phenomenal public in Stuttgart, but I know it’s the same here in America. People love tutus and stories and classical ballet technique. You put on swans, you put on “Romeo and Juliet,” you’re going to sell it.

Q: Except maybe in Los Angeles--it’s a tough ballet town.

A: Yeah, OK, L.A. has always been a special case with dance, hasn’t it? Berlin isn’t really a ballet city either. One doesn’t know why, but maybe it’s just some cities.

But for the most part, there will be generations of people to come who will still want to see traditional ballets. But we also have to find new ways of using ballet technique, amalgamate it with modern dance. There are no borders anymore. Dance is dance is dance, whether you have pointe shoes on or not.

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STUTTGART BALLET, Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Dates: Tuesday to Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday and next Sunday, 2 p.m. Prices: $12 to $68. Phone: (714) 740-7878 or (213) 365-3500.