Going Toe-to-Toe

As a newcomer to the Washington Ballet from the much larger Pennsylvania Ballet and Dance Theatre of Harlem, Parish says she became alarmed at the frequency of injuries in the company. She began making a connection between the company's chaotic rehearsal schedules and the aches in her knees and her back, and in the foot that eventually became too painful to dance on.

Voted by the dancers last fall to be their representative, she not only raised concerns with Webre, she says, she proposed solutions. Both of the other companies she had danced with had been unionized. Remembering the hourly take-fives and dependable schedules, Parish added her voice to the growing campaign to organize the Washington Ballet.

For this, she says, she may never dance again.

Stair-Stepping to D.C.

"The funny thing is, Nikkia and Septime were always laughing together," says longtime company member Runqiao Du. "They always seemed to get along."

Both boss and ballerina are peppery extroverts. Webre is given to wickedly funny wisecracks and asides, and Parish likewise possesses a quick wit and a sharp tongue. Like Webre, Parish, 29, is from Texas.

After getting a degree in business management from Texas Christian University (in case a dance career didn't happen), Parish joined the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Ballet. She left after a few years in hope of dancing more prominent roles with the predominantly African American Dance Theatre of Harlem. When she saw that the Harlem company's severe money shortages were threatening its existence, she came to the Washington Ballet.

Parish arrived at the company at a time when the ambitions of its artistic director had ramped up sharply. Since taking the helm in 1999, Webre had led the company to Cuba and had collaborated with Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith and the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock.

He has presided over impressive growth in the ballet's budget, subscription sales and national profile. In his first season, the ballet's operating budget was $3.9 million; for the 2005-06 season it is projected to be $7.3 million. Subscriptions to the company's season numbered fewer than 1,000 in Webre's first year; as of last week, with months still to go in its marketing campaign, the ballet had 2,445. Webre has achieved this by injecting a moribund institution with a more youthful, marketable attitude and by infusing the repertoire with new works, sophisticated classics and large-scale ballets that the company had never attempted.

Administratively, things have not gone as smoothly. Jason Palmquist, a former Kennedy Center vice president, was hired in December as the fourth executive director to serve alongside Webre.

Parish's first year at the Washington Ballet went well, she says. She danced featured roles in such works as Balanchine's "The Four Temperaments," William Forsythe's devilishly technical "In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated," and "The Nutcracker."

At her first annual evaluation meeting with Webre -- a ritual in the ballet world, during which the director tells dancers if their yearly contracts will be renewed -- in the winter of 2004, Parish recalls he "told me he knew I wanted to step up to the 'big people's table,' as he called it, to be one of the senior or featured dancers with the company, and he gave me a list of things I needed to do in order to do that." She says his chief issue was that he wanted to see her performing "full-out," as she says he required of all his dancers. In other words, dancing at top performance level in rehearsals, rather than "marking" the steps, or sketching them out -- no matter how many hours rehearsals lasted.

Webre had praise for her as well, Parish says: "He spoke about how much he loved my energy. He said, 'The audience loves you and you go out there and make things happen.' "