Company Secrets with Septime Webre: Directing Hong Kong Ballet

In this episode, we delve into the artistic vision and leadership of Septime Weber, the dynamic Artistic Director of Hong Kong Ballet. With a commitment to nurturing young talent, Weber shares invaluable insights for aspiring dancers, emphasizing the importance of self-motivation and understanding the broader context of their craft. Discover how his innovative productions, like "Romeo and Juliet" set in 1960s Hong Kong, reflect the unique cultural fusion of the city. Learn how Hong Kong Ballet's international environment and Weber's leadership provide a vibrant platform for young dancers to grow and thrive. Tune in to explore how Weber's journey and vision continue to inspire the next generation of ballet artists in Hong Kong and beyond.

Transcript

Jared Redick (00:04.248)
Welcome to Company Secrets Ballet Unfiltered, the podcast where we pull back the curtain on the professional dance world. Each week, I sit down with artistic directors and industry leaders to have candid conversations about how dance companies really work, what they're looking for, how decisions get made, and what it takes to thrive. I'm your host, Jared Redick.

Jared Redick (00:30.958)
Today's guest, Septim Weber, is a dynamic and visionary force in the ballet world. Internationally acclaimed director, choreographer, and educator. Currently serving as artistic director of Hong Kong Ballet, his bold cinematic productions like Romeo and Juliet, set in 1960s Hong Kong, and in 1920s Nutcracker, have redefined ballet's relationship to place and story. Before Hong Kong, Septim led the Washington Ballet for 17 years.

dramatically expanding its reach and launching acclaimed full length works inspired by American literature, including The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises. His choreography is performed across North America and his leadership continues to push the art form forward. Septim brings energy, intellect and originality to everything he does. And today he's here to share his story and insights with us. I've been looking forward to this conversation for a very long time.

So let's get started. Welcome, team.

Jared, it's great to be here. Really fun to talk.

Thanks so much and you are joining us today from Hong Kong and we have this 12 hour time difference.

Septime Webre (01:40.094)
Yes, good morning, good evening. I can drink coffee. You can have a glass of wine.

Exactly. Well, I should lay off the wine so I can stick to my questions. Let's just jump into it. Tell us what does a typical day look like for you as artistic director there?

It's really a lot like what it looked like in Washington DC. And actually before DC, was a director in Princeton and New Brunswick at the American Repertory Ballet. So I've been a director for a long time. The acculturation when I moved to Hong Kong was mostly the things surrounding the studio and stage work. Working with dancers, creating work, sharing the work with audiences is the same everywhere in the world. It's uplifting, it's hard work, it's blood, sweat and tears. It's all of those things.

The topics of the ballets have changed a bit because I'm a local, I'm a love the one you're with kind of guy. And that means in DC, my works were really focused on the American experience. I moved to Hong Kong and right away I fell in love with this new home. So the works are very much informed, not just the works I choreograph, but also the works I commission. So many are informed by the special unique fusion culture of Hong Kong and this region. What my days are like.

is I teach class or I'm doing emails during class and then today I'll be at the studio in rehearsal from 11.15 to 6 p.m. We're getting ready for a fall of big touring. Liggen Center in August and Seoul Korea in September, Hong Kong in October, Shanghai in November, and then my cracker time. A big difference though is something that has improved my life a lot.

Septime Webre (03:17.13)
American directors spend so much of their energy and time fundraising. I still do that about a bit now, but about 45 % of our annual budget comes from a single check from the government of Hong Kong. There's a lot of state support in Hong Kong as there is in Europe, much more than the U.S. So that's a big difference in my life is that element is a bit more financial security in ballet companies here than in the States.

We've talked to some other directors and some directors in Europe and the idea that having so much more federal or government money to support you allows for that creativity to flow a little bit more easily because you're not out fundraising all the time. Is that fair assumption or fair assessment?

Sure, absolutely. Actually, advocacy is still a big part of my role. So I'm out there talking about the work a lot. It's just that at the end of the conversation, I don't have to say, and could you give us $50,000? The lunch is a little smoother and they pick up a check more easily.

You can digest a little bit more easily. So you go from Washington Ballet to Hong Kong. What drew you specifically to this company?

I'm an American who grew up largely outside of the United States. My mother was Cuban. My father was American of French background. And my six older brothers were born and grew up in Cuba. My family left during the revolution. I was born in the States, but I grew up largely outside of United States as an kind of an expat in the Bahamas until I was 12 in South Texas, but then in the Cote d'Ivoire, Haiti and Sudan. Lots of time in Africa, particularly as a teenager and young adult. So being inside the United States and outside the United States feels quite comfortable to me.

Septime Webre (04:56.814)
I had the honor of leading Washington Ballet for a long time, 17 years. And I took over the company. I inherited it from Mary Day, the legendary director of, founder of the Washington School of Ballet. She trained generations of great artists like Kevin McKenzie and Amanda McKerrow and a lot of big American stars, Virginia Johnson. But the company, she was really focused on the school and the company was relatively small in budget. And the budget grew 600 % during my tenure.

And so that was just a lot. And after 15 years, thought, I've accomplished so much here. Maybe it's time for a new gig, just something new, or maybe I need a little sabbatical. And then after 17 years, just by sort of serendipity and agents called and said, could I take a call, a Skype call with the board of Hong Kong Ballet? thought, well, what the heck? And the 45 minute call turned into an hour and a half. I flew to Hong Kong for an interview and just I was here for

A weekend on the second day, they offered me the position, just fell in love with the city. And it seemed like time for a new adventure. Serendipity led me here, but I came with the same sort of value system I had developed. What was inside of me and what I'd brought to the directorship, but also years of understanding how a ballet company can be an important part of the local culture. And that's something that I understood. I began to learn in New Jersey, particularly with some community programs in

Trenton and New Brunswick, two cities that had a lot of economic challenge. And then definitely DC, which is a very complex city, wonderful, but complex with a lot of nuances of relations of different segments of the community and showing all the segments of the community were represented in the institution and on stage and that kind of value system and skill sets that I learned on the job. There's no artistic director training. You just kind of jump into the...

frying pan and so many years of making mistakes on the job. Probably a lot of it just led me to have a same value system, but some skill set as a leader, as a director, as kind of steward of a civic institution. Like what direction is the company going? That's one thing. And then the second is I developed as a choreographer, as a storyteller and these narrative works. I didn't start doing that. I developed that craft. I'd been doing those two things for quite a long time, so they're pretty well developed.

Septime Webre (07:25.078)
So it was fun, kind of like going to Dennis and getting your teeth cleaned and feel so good coming with a relatively clean slate and start from scratch, which is great.

Absolutely, and so much experience they're so lucky to have after 17 years in a place you learn a lot on the job, any position you're in for a long time. And being an artistic director in the United States is such a challenging position to be in because your time is stretched so thin and you're always fundraising and going to Hong Kong sounds like you have more financial support. Having a new environment, a new city, a new culture to really invest your time and energy in is just a wonderful opportunity for you.

Also, I enjoy how international it is. Hong Kong Ballet is in Hong Kong. We have about eight dancers or 10 dancers from Hong Kong in Hong Kong Ballet. Everyone else is from all over the world, from China and Japan and Philippines and Korea, but from Australia and New Zealand and from US and Canada, from Europe, from Cuba. It's really international. I appreciate that part. I get started from all over the world. And also we have a history of

really celebrated superstars from the world of ballet joining us. You my new production of Giselle, which I staged just last month in collaboration with Charlotte Gann, New York based South African artist. The opening night cast was Marinella Nunez and Matthew Ball, and then other guests dancing with our own principal dancers. Just the international flavor of Hong Kong. You know, it's Asia's world city. It permeates everything we do. It's, know, we're preparing for a big tour to New York now and in discussion and

Actually, we have a big project with Wayne McGregor that just opened at the Venice Biennale, and it'll go to London this fall, and then it'll to Hong Kong. So I'm really enjoying the global aspect of our work.

Jared Redick (09:10.52)
Sounds fantastic and we could spend the next hour just talking about what you just described and what you're telling me about what the company's doing. But that's fantastic. Just I have to give a little bit of a shout out to you because I follow the company and what you're doing there from when you got there. And I was so inspired by the amazing marketing campaign you did right out of the gate and how visually stunning that was and continues to be. So kudos to you.

I actually want to spend a moment about that because that was really successful and it's continued on. kind of established a brand. was, in retrospect, I'm really proud of it because it was certainly a gorgeous campaign that got a lot of attention worldwide. And I've got a lot of artistic directors of ballet companies from all over the world, you know, sort of pinging me on IG to say, hey, wow. And we could continue to do that. It was important for me and it is important, I think, for ballet companies to look like their city, to be like their city.

to incorporate some of the details of who they are. Hong Kong is such a unique place that everyone in the world knows about, but really doesn't know exactly the character of it. And the Hong Kong Ballet, all of my predecessors, I've known most of the directors of the last 30 years actually of Hong Kong Ballet, actually known all of them in passing, professional friends. And they all have great tastes, a really elegant company, beautiful dancing, but...

generic in a way, the company. I wanted the world to see the Hong Kong Valley as something unique to Hong Kong that couldn't be seen elsewhere. And there's some things about the city, its unique nature of being this kind of isolated place with so many different cultures coming together to be reflected in the images we put out there and on stage. But in terms of Hong Kong, because we're relatively isolated, we're an island fairly far away from any other major city or world. I wanted them to think of us.

in this kind of way to understand some of the uniqueness just by seeing some iconic images and then them extrapolating what we might be like.

Jared Redick (11:09.25)
think you absolutely achieved that goal because I got it just from watching what was coming across social media. I mean, it's beautiful. And of course, I saw, I was fortunate to see Romeo and Juliet a couple years back at Chapel Hill and the company looks amazing and your production of Romeo is so vibrant. I don't know how else to describe the dancing is beautiful, but the production itself jumps off the stage. really enjoyed your production. So we could talk about this stuff forever. I want to move forward and get into kind of pull back the curtain on

the audition process and hiring process for you and just start with some basic questions about the company. For Hong Kong Ballet, how many dancers are currently in the company?

We have 50 dancers with, you know, quarter ballet, corfe, soloist and principal dancers. So 50 is the basic number and 50 is large and small. It's kind of medium size. It's great for touring repertoire. When we are doing big productions like Giselle or Swan Lake, it's a little bit tight for that. So we usually hire in four or six young women for the core, a collaboration with some of the big ballet schools in Asia, particularly in Beijing Dance Academy and Shanghai Ballet School. So for those big productions, we'll usually

enhance the size of the company of 55 or so.

Okay. And do you have any apprentices or second companies or training, training ships with the school?

Septime Webre (12:26.968)
We don't have a traineeship right now. What we have is Hong Kong Ballet was founded 45 years ago, but without a school. So unusual for school for big companies internationally. Most are sort of national companies with a national school. Hong Kong Ballet came out of a movement among the every young girl and many young boys take ballet in Hong Kong. It's very popular. There are big schools with a lot of output, but the academic rigors in Hong Kong are so high for young people.

that realistically most of the dancers who are really serious, they'll train very seriously with some of the best schools in Hong Kong. And then at age 13 or 14, almost all of the ones who are going to eventually go to interprofessional careers will go off to train at the Royal Ballet School, the Paris Opera Ballet School, ENB, Australian Ballet School, New Zealand, Cariff Academy in Washington, DC, National Medal of Canada, JKO, Rock School, like this, just big schools.

Because the 10,000 hour rule to get the volume of training just with academics in Hong Kong, it's really, really tough. Although the schools are the base of very high level. About three years ago, Hong Kong Ballet started an academy. So we are growing a school, but we didn't want to poach talented 12 year olds from these good schools. So we're growing fast, but we really intentionally started with the young kids who are like six to eight years old. We do have older kids, but those are now the bulk are 10 and below.

And in five years, that will be 15 and below. We're taking the long view. I use the apprenticeships for Hong Kong dancers. So most dancers that I hire from abroad go right in first year core. We are in the plans of starting a some kind of second company, studio company that I'm hoping will come online in 2027. In the interim, we have done some special projects. So for example, last year I did a big, big project that unhired a second company of 30 dancers.

from all over the world that worked for us for three months and did a show that was kind of oriented towards drawing tourism to Hong Kong ballet. It was a real ballet. It wasn't a commercial show, but it had a commercial nature to it. And so we're dancing six days a week for five weeks. It was really exciting. So we're in that interim area of beginning to have a second company in the future.

Jared Redick (14:46.732)
Wow, I mean, obviously long-term sustainability sounds like the name of the game there. You're thinking long-term about the vision of the company and that sounds like a great project for that second company to three months anywhere. That's a great gig for young dancers. I mean, obviously that was a couple years ago. In terms of the main company, how many weeks of work do they have? Are they year-round contracts? they certain amount of weeks?

European style year-on-contracts. We work on the academic year's calendar. So we usually, we start sometime around middle of July and we go, last production ends the first of June and our summer break is actually June and first half of July, this era. And I kind of really what I've done my old career in December, I usually have mid-season contract evaluations with everyone. And I like to give contracts out at the end of January and the dancers usually have a few weeks. And so.

I'm sure what contracts I have available sometime in February, but the audition season, we already started in November and I can talk to you about that because so many big companies have their own school and maybe a second company and a trainee program and really like to hire from there. So don't have as many outside positions to draw from because we don't have a school. We do have in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, which is like the Juilliard of Hong Kong. So it's a university level program that

graduates at 21 or 22 years old, graduates that I can draw from, but we don't have our own schools. So we have more positions to draw from. we look everywhere for students. So there's a lot of audition opportunities.

Sure, that's great to understand your timeline and what you're looking at. So those new dancers who come in, so for a new dancer, first year dancer in a company, what is their starting salary, either weekly, monthly, what does that look like for them?

Septime Webre (16:30.69)
We're monthly, I can't share exactly the bottom line price because I can't recall the exact amount, but it is competitive with the European salaries. It's a good livable wage, probably what a first year high school teacher makes and or first year elementary school teacher makes. Hong Kong is an expensive city actually. It's a big cosmopolitan city. Apartments are small and you know, we pay a lot for rent. So we make sure that dancers can have a studio apartment or share an apartment with another dancer and

I genuinely, mean, when I was first a young dancer, a young director, for me, what was important was that each show be its best. Now I've been a director long enough to know that actually my responsibility is greater than that. I need to ensure that the dancers that are in the company grow and that a first year core member could advance each year within the core and then in three or four years become a member of the core fae and two years later as the soloist. And then, you know, if they really through their own determination and hard work.

and display qualities that are principal status make it there. So we tend to take care of the young dancers pretty well.

That's fantastic and I love to hear that. It's so great to hear that. I'm a firm believer in that there has to be progression. You can't just get stuck in the core, but if you're working hard and you're putting in the time and you're trying to develop your artistry, that you have a place to go with it.

In our core, we publicly rank these four, well, apprentice and then core at these levels. If a dancer is doing well behind the scenes, there's a little percentage pay. Everyone gets a bit of a raise every year, but a percentage of ranking that is not public, that is sort of core one, level one, level two, level four, like that. And if they're doing well and on the move, I hope that they can jump each year if they're fast tracked.

Septime Webre (18:17.546)
And maybe injuries might hold it back for a season or our progress is distinct, but it is never really linear. It's always a little jagged. So really important to develop the young generation.

Yeah, I mean, everyone grows at different times, right? Nothing goes in a straight line like that.

Another particular thing that's interesting to me, because the dancers are from all around the world, the only language everyone has in common is English. About 50 % of the company, a little more than 50 % are from greater China. That means mainland Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong, although not as many for just Hong Kong, but all over. And then everyone else, no one else speaks Chinese. And even within there, some are Cantonese speakers, some are Mandarin speakers. So English is the one, it's kind of like the Latin, the lingua franca. Like a lot of the European countries.

So we speak English, although we have two Chinese ballet masters who speak Mandarin. But some of the dancers come without strong English skills. So we also in different seasons, provide weekly immersive English language classes. We have provided immersive Cantonese classes. I can give a short current speech in Cantonese. So it's definitely a polyglot's heaven if you're into language and even the relationships, you know, there's a Japanese girlfriend and a Chinese boyfriend and they...

The only language having this in common or something like that. It's much different than the more homogenous nature of some of the other companies in Asia. In Beijing is the national of China, everyone is Chinese or in national about Korea, just about everyone is Korean. Maybe they have one or two internationals or even in America. Well, we have a lot of international dancers in America, but it's even more diverse than what I've experienced in the States.

Jared Redick (19:55.63)
It sounds very multicultural for sure. It sounds like an amazing and artistic place to live and be a part of that culture. Dying to come over and see Hong Kong. All right, so moving on. For dancers, when they send their audition materials to your company, what is your process? Who sees it? And probably most importantly, when do you see it?

In honesty, before pandemic in DC or in Hong Kong, materials that were sent, unless they were sent by a working professional dancer that's in a major company already, or from one of the very top schools, a lot of those materials might get ignored because they're just not infrastructure to look at all those. During pandemic, could only hire by, by zoom. could just only hire online. So we put into place.

a scenario with a much better tracking system during some of those years in 2021, 2022 even, we'd have six or 700 applications online and they were only online. So we're blessed to have, you know, a fairly large artistic team of with associate Valley masters and principals that are transitioning and myself, you know, maybe four or five staff to kind of divvy up the work and at least four plus a assessor, our current company manager who's just

She happens to be, she's Hong Kong, but educated in UK and happens to be like the knows every bit of gossip of any company, what's going on in every company in the world. So she manages it and flags for us. So those materials, she'll flag for us some to look at, but we actually audition in live. Since pandemic, I almost always will figure out if interested in someone, I really encourage them to come to see us. And we know that Hong Kong's far away.

So I go out there and I do an audition tour for the company. And that's the best way to do it is to send audition materials in, but then to, to, come to see. And I'm fairly accessible. mean, people, I G me or Facebook me all the time and I'll send them to Sasa, but it's pretty fluid. We were, we would take quite seriously the recruitment process. And I audition every year in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York, and London.

Septime Webre (22:11.5)
and often try to go to YGV job fair in Europe or the grand audition in Barcelona, or occasionally have done Paris or Amsterdam as well. So we really do a lot of live. I did it during pandemic and I would say 80 % success rate and some really important dance retired via zoom, but there's nothing like the live experience. Particularly, I want to be able to talk to someone and understand what they're like and feel like there's a good vibe.

On behalf of all the young dancers or dancers out there in the field, I thank you for making that commitment and doing all that work to get out there and giving them the opportunity to be seen because that is such a hard thing. You don't want to get lost in the shuffle of all the video submissions.

Sure. Another thing that I'm proud about is we have never charged for an audition. know it's so expensive for dancers. Young dancers don't have a lot of resources and they travel to New York or travel to London. I actually would also audition in San Francisco, just depends on the year, to have them also then spend 20, 30 bucks and then get cut after bar. know, it's particularly if it's a big audition. And in London last year, we had, I don't know, 250 dancers to be realistic.

I try to be really respectful, but at the very beginning of every audition, I say flat out to everyone, Hey guys, I've been in your shoes. I know how hard it is. You will probably not get a job today. Just look at the number of people around the room. Just enjoy the bar. And if you're lucky, you'll enjoy center, but we're just too many people. So I try to be really kind, empathetic, and really transparent and honest. And I also feel like I'm looking for something specific and everyone in that room has.

danced their whole life and has passed through the 10,000 hours and has a part in the world, it just may not be in Hong Kong because of what we do. You know, we're looking for something very specific to fit into a height and size and a look and a, you know, what have you. So I try to be very encouraging, but also really realistic because it's not fair to be not lied to want to be really honest.

Jared Redick (24:13.814)
Right, I love that human approach as well, how you're describing that. So when you're in an audition, what qualities catch your eye with these dancers? I I know it's so hard when you have that many people, but obviously there are certain things that are your taste, things that are gonna immediately draw you to a particular dancer.

What caught my eye is physique and poise. Physique and poise and kind of does the instrument seem to fit into Hong Kong ballet? I'm always in drug to the extreme actually in life. I'm a kind of live on edge kind of guy. like, you know, to just put it out there. I'm an energy bus. So also energy catches my eye. Some years we're looking for really tall guys. Some years it's where like we happen to have a lot of tall people. This year for the first time, like

gosh, we don't have that many short girls. need some short girls for shorter guys. So it really honestly depends on the year, what the height is. That's a little bit different. And then in center, the physique needs to be a classical line that I can see that you could fit into the quarter ballet for the men and for the women, your men's technique. mean, my ballets are really hard. Every guy's got to do a underdog double tour to a crouch. you know, like, it uses every ballet has Manege and double tour and pirouettes. And there's, like virtuosity.

That's not just as entertainment, but as a metaphor for living life on the edge and with gusto and fully. And for women, you've got to be able to fit into the quarter. I don't ever want to hire someone that I think I don't see them doing a solo within three seasons of joining the company. Learning solos right away. mean, everyone does solos in the training. So no one comes to this audition without having done a lot of solo work because that's intrinsic to the training of any good school.

but bringing it to a level of the stage with some depth to say in the solo, you know, it takes a little bit of life experience. So all of those things together. And so in a class generally we'll, I'll give a good long time. It's a good solid two hour class for the bar in the center. Cause you want to see everyone appropriate physique for the company, great line and movement quality, be able to cover space and dance big. Some dancers come with great training, not expansiveness. And I like the American kind of approach to expansiveness.

Septime Webre (26:29.024)
I feel Hong Kong has that kind of buoyancy has had for 150 years as well. So those are important. And then there's factor X, just, you know, someone walks in this and you just know they're a star. It's because of their diploma, their presence, their approach. would say factor X is important. And then usually at the bar, I never cut people off the bar cause you can't see enough, but in the center, we do, you know, ask people to stay, some people to stay after the first couple of combinations like that, to weed it down so I can see people better.

And then usually by the end, have a good 20 people in an audition or 25 who then will do some repertoire for men and for women. So that's an important part. Really want to see how they learn. It's not important that they be experienced in the kind of contemporary dance we sometimes do. You know, we have worked by Forsythe and Killian and Justin Peck and Rematzki and a lot of really amazing contemporary Chinese choreographers too. I don't expect them to be really comfortable in that way. Some of the big schools bring that kind of experience, some don't.

but learning and putting together even a more neoclassical solo is important too. So that process kind of usually brings me to like, well, we really are, seems special, could fit in. And then I always have a conversation one-on-one with someone. Occasionally offer job right then and there, but often I'm still in an audition tour. So maybe a week later, I'll have another zoom call, just a conversation to ask them about the goals. I want to make sure that they understand what movie Don Kong might mean.

and that what the vibe is and you want to date a little bit before getting married, let's say.

Yeah, and I mean, this seems to be the theme in terms of directors wanting to know their dancers a little bit more and having those conversations because it can be a very long term commitment. You know, you don't want it to be one year and done. You want it to be an investment on both part. You're part to the dancer and the dancer to the company and the city that they're going to move into.

Septime Webre (28:17.954)
You bring up a good point and this is something I would say to young dancers, things I say to my dancers, when I'm not sure it's a good fit, they're also not sure it's a good fit. And the career is too short to be in a company where the director doesn't value the specialness in you. And everyone comes with specialness and the most basic, you can look at the American companies, some companies have short dancers, some companies have tall dancers, gravitate to, you should be in a place where

what you have is going to be valued and you're not going to have to just prove yourself and always prove yourself. But there's some, the spark is seen. And I know in myself, some dancers, see the specialist more than others. That's a beauty of bringing in guest choreographers because they will cast in a very different way than I might cast. So I think that's all good, even within Hong Kong Ballet, multiple eyes, even our ballet masters who I assist in casting my own ballets.

might see some things and remind me, you should sub team. think she's ready for sugar plum or that kind of thing. My eyes are really well honed. I've been looking for a long time, but I, I like outside voices and my advice to dancers on that from the dancer side, I think dancers really need to find a place where their values are going to be seen or the dancer wants to be seen. And you can see it sometimes I'll hire a dancer from another company where they were felt stuck in the core. But then I found some other things that it became, you know, principal dancers.

I have this kind of example throughout my director career. And that's really important for dancers to evaluate. Are they getting out of it or are they being valued and are they in the right place?

Yeah, and that's great career advice for those young dancers because I know we've all been there with you see certain dancers that they're not progressing and they feel frustrated and there maybe their talents are not valued in that company and then hopefully they go to another place and then finally they're like, it clicks and then there goes their career because someone sees them in a different light and it might just be they just need a new environment to, know, to allow those things to happen more organically in a different way.

Septime Webre (30:18.35)
I also think that happens in companies when directors change because directors change. I mean, I've been in each of my positions quite a long time, six years at the American Victoria Ballet, 17 in DC. I'm entering my ninth season at Hong Kong Ballet. So these are fairly long. I'm a long-term kind of guy. But when directors change, sometimes people who are in the company get seen in a different light by the new director. And that's refreshing for some of the dancers who maybe weren't quite as fast-tracked. So I think it's a great thing to have a fresh set of eyes look at you and

see something new about you. We've kind of

danced around the subject, no pun intended there, about these young dancers and company life. What are some things you wish that young dancers knew about company life?

I think that dancers are most successful if they take their future in their hands. And I don't think they understand how powerful they are. And we're trained and the success often comes by being the good little girl or good little boy and the director of the school or major teacher or senior teachers are the be all end all. think

dancers who really succeed dig more deeply. You get less corrections when you join a company. You get less attention than when you're in school. And so, because there's so much to cabinet in a company and some directors focus their coaching time on the principals. I think dancers to succeed are the ones who really are self-motivated, know how to get up and do it and not do what they're told, but do more than what they're told and find the break time.

Septime Webre (31:50.08)
in the other studio to work on things and to present themselves like the soloists they wish to be or see them themselves in class. It's easy to be intimidated by all the experienced dancers. And so you kind of find your place. I think the dancers in a respectful way need to behave like soloists when they're apprentices, or at least when they're in the first year core, you have to manifest, let's say. I also think I really respect research driven dancers.

I respect dancers who understand what's being trying to be accomplished. Dancers who've done research about the repertoire that they're about to learn. Dancers who come into the room. Most companies will allow study videos to be accessible to the dancers before the work. I really respect dancers. I mean, when I go into a room, I'm prepared. I have a reputation for running companies where you work really hard. That's because I expect dancers who were willing to work as hard as I were. So I think coming into the room.

prepared and understanding the idea. you're in the core of Giselle, understanding what even Giselle is about and its history and knowing it, that kind of thing. Young dancers are, we spend our whole life eating, drinking, breathing, dance, and then in our lunch breaks talking about dance and at night IG scrolling might as well put it to use. So I think that's a piece of advice I would have for young dancers is be

I'll call it research driven. It's not exactly that, but really try to understand the big picture of what you're doing. And also really one of those ones that comes in totally prepared, reviewing the steps, working with the studio on the qualities to bring something special to every day, every rehearsal.

I couldn't agree more. think that that's what I counsel my students and these young dancers. They've graduated, I've trained them, now they're in companies. Make sure you understand the context within which that you're dancing the company itself, but also the ballets that you're doing. There's so much information available to these young dancers on YouTube, on IG, wherever. You can find so much information about what is happening in the dance world and especially when you're in a company where you have such limited time to rehearse something or learn a new ballet.

Jared Redick (33:56.91)
while it's being staged, so I think that's a great-

Because so much information is available online, I'd even advise, I appreciate it when a dancer, if they've gotten past the repertory phase and I talk with them, if they don't know anything about Hong Kong Ballet, I'll be a little disappointed. They've spent all of their time to travel to the audition. They waited. I mean, it's so easy on the phone, just on the train, on the plane, on the bus, just do a little bit of research about the company. That's an important thing. So you know, you know what you're auditioning for.

completely agree. That's great advice. I'm glad you're saying it. Moving to a different subject completely. So when you were a young dancer, did you ever imagine yourself becoming an artistic director? You've been directing for how many years? Over 30 now?

Yeah, it's funny. I started when I was 10. I'm so young now. It's 30 plus years. Actually, I came into ballet in the back door. Nine kids in my family, eight brothers. And I was the one, so big Catholic family, I was the one that was chosen to be the Jesuit priest. When I was 15, I realized that's not gonna happen. So I told my parents I would be a lawyer. And in fact, I had followed my sister to ballet school. I fell in love with it. I stumbled into an amazing training initially with a

Cuban trained Mexican teacher in South Texas, and then Stanley All had been a principal dancer in the 40s and 50s at the Royal Ballet in Austin, Texas. Just really, really happened to have a fine training. But interested academically, I really thought I was going to go to law school, went to undergrad in Texas, in pre-law, but always training in ballet. But I naturally, as a kid, was directorial. I wrote my first playing when I was 10 years old. I'd gather kids in the neighborhood. High school, I would direct to the talent show.

Septime Webre (35:36.386)
and just found myself choreographing right away.

That's actually where our recording cut off. We kept talking, but technology didn't cooperate this time. Still, we captured the heart of Septeam's perspective, his journey as an artist, the values he brings to leadership, and his thoughts on auditions and company culture. I'd love to bring him back for a part two. So what would you like me to ask him next time? Drop your ideas in the comments and we'll use them to shape the follow-up. Thank you for tuning in to Company Secrets and a big thank you to Septeam for making time.

We'll link to Hong Kong Ballet's website where you can learn more about the company and follow their season. If you liked our conversation here today, you can follow Company Secrets Podcast on all streaming platforms and on our website, companysecretspodcast.com. Thank you for listening because the stage is only part of the story.