Graduation gag gift

TIOM STRINI; Ballet's top dancers turn away; Departures could be

Amy Fote and Yumelia Garcia, principal dancers of the Milwaukee Ballet and the company's two most popular and recognizable faces, will not return next season.

Garcia will join Ballet Florida. Fote is mulling offers from the Houston Ballet and the New Zealand Ballet.

Their departures leave the Milwaukee Ballet with no principal women going into next season and no obvious choices for promotion from the ranks of soloists and corps. (Possible candidates include soloists Tatiana Jouravel and Jeanette Marie Hanley, both of whom are dancing again after time out for motherhood.)

Skilled women are not that rare in the ballet world. Even on short notice, artistic director Michael Pink should be able to find principals who can handle the big roles coming next season: Odette / Odile in "Swan Lake" and the title role in Kathryn Posin's "Scheherazade."

That's not to say that he can really replace Fote and Garcia. They have become artists of stature and they have earned a special place in the hearts of many Milwaukee Ballet fans. Frankly, they've earned a special place in my heart.

I admire them almost as much for their work ethic as for their accomplishment. Neither was a born ballet star. Garcia is too short. Technique, musicality and gravitas did not come naturally to Fote, who early in her career relied on beauty and sex appeal as much as skill. She has matured in every way and transformed herself into a profound dancer.

In a larger company, Garcia would have spent her career as a steely little darter and Fote would have been ever the lyrical, glamorous willow. A small company such as the Milwaukee Ballet requires them to dance beyond their natural spheres, and both have more than met the challenge.

Garcia learned to make her line appear longer than it really is and she learned to phrase in graceful arcs as well as staccato bursts.

You would never imagine her as Odette / Odile in "Swan Lake," but she succeeded in that challenging dual role in 2002.

Conversely, it's hard to imagine Fote as anything but a swan, but she surprises with the speed and clarity of her allegro and her unlikely gift for physical humor.

The Milwaukee Ballet's March 31 to April 3 concerts were monuments to their versatility.

The two stars appeared equally at home amid the sentimental comedy of David Lichine's "Graduation Ball" and the refined Danish classicism of Bournonville's "Le Conservatoire." Garcia was a dynamo in the high-speed, state-of-the-art technique of Trey McIntyre's "The Reassuring Effects of Form and Poetry."

Garcia came to the Milwaukee Ballet six years ago, not long after leaving a career in her native Venezuela. She started in the corps and worked her way through the ranks.

Fote grew up in Manitowoc and attended the Milwaukee Ballet School. Over 14 years, she climbed the ladder: student, apprentice, corps, soloist, principal and now, at least in the public mind, prima ballerina.

She is more than just another dancer. Her longevity, artistry and beauty have made her the Milwaukee Ballet's most identifiable person since Michelle Lucci 20 years ago.

Fote's image is prominent on nearly every ad and promotional piece the Milwaukee Ballet has produced in the last five years. That's Fote flitting across the top of the MBC's opening Web page (www.milwaukeeballet.org) just above Garcia's head. So why are Garcia and Fote, both in the prime of their early 30s, leaving now?

Maybe the grass simply looks greener in New Zealand and Florida. Maybe they got offers they couldn't refuse. Maybe they have personal reasons. Maybe they just can't stand Michael Pink and his show- bizzy repertoire.

We can't know for sure, because no one's talking a clause in the dancers' contracts forbids them from contacting the media without company permission.

Four separate, credible sources who asked that their names be left out of it close to the company and the dancers have told me that Fote is leaving because of Pink. But before we zip the company's A.D. into the Big Bad Wolf costume, let's remember that Pink did offer both Fote and Garcia contracts and never failed to place them in starring roles befitting their station. He could have cast them beneath rank this season to drive them out or simply not offered new contracts.

Those same sources report widespread dissatisfaction in the ranks.

Still, 17 of the current 25 dancers will return next year. Turnover is higher than usual, especially given the prominence of the people involved. But turnover often rises when a new artistic director takes over, as dancers come to understand how they fit or don't fit into a new picture, and as they come to see how personalities mesh or clash. It's better to leave and be happy than to stay and grumble, in ballet or any other business.

Eight exits don't quite constitute a mutiny, especially since we don't know how many are leaving of their own volition and how many were not offered contracts. But eight are enough to make you wonder.

Here's how the roster shapes up for next season:

-- Principals: Douglas McCubbin (departures: Fote, Garcia).

-- Soloists: Jeannette Marie Hanley, Tatiana Jouravel, Jennifer Miller, Karisa M. Stich, David Hovhannisyan, Andrey Kasatsky (departures: Georgy Rusafov, Matt Bruno).

-- Corps: Jennifer Provins, Raven Wales, Kara Wilkes, Christopher Fellows, Ian Grosh, Marc Petrocci, Adam Sterr, Petr Zahradnicek (departures: Heather Leigh Keckeisen, Dwayne Holliday, Candice Thompson).

-- Apprentices: Brent Whitney, Michael Linsmeier (departure: Claire T'Sani).

The losses of soloist Bruno, a much-admired company veteran, and Thompson, an accomplished and charismatic young member of the corps, are especially worth noting.

They refused Milwaukee Ballet contracts even though they had no other jobs lined up.

McCubbin might go, too, after he plays the lead in Pink's "Dracula" in the week leading up to Halloween.

According to executive director Amy Marshall, McCubbin's post- Dracula contract is still in negotiation.

The company released the list of returnees, but beyond that we're flying through the fog of rumor, which will bubble up through gag rules. Maybe we'll be able to cut through the fog after current contracts expire on May 15, when dancers will be free to speak their minds.

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