The Met Season: Nine ballets, eight weeks, up to seven (sometimes eight) casts per ballet, six days per week. What a tremendous feat for a ballet company to take on. Though if there is one company that can pull it off with great success, it is American Ballet Theatre.
I got the privilege this summer of interning for ABT as an artistic intern as well as a major gifts intern. Getting to experience both departments allowed me to witness the incredible work that goes on both artistically and administratively during the Met Season. For the artistic side of my internship, I got to work two days a week at the Metropolitan Opera House with the artistic staff who temporarily relocated their offices from 890 Broadway to the Met Opera green room. They relocate offices because the company spends the total of their time both rehearsing and performing at the Met during the season. To be honest, it’s more like the artistic staff relocated residence to the green room because “working round the clock” is not an exaggeration for them. Some nights they would leave the Met with just enough time to turn around and come back in the morning.
My primary job as the artistic intern was to verify and calculate dancer overtime/penalty pay for rehearsal and performance days. Most of those days I got to watch rehearsals, see performances and meet dancers coming in and out of the green room. The excitement of walking through those stage doors never got old. In verifying schedules and calculating overtime, I realized just how incredible of an undertaking a season like this is for the dancers performing. The level of professionalism it takes for these dancers to be rehearsing several different ballets for hours during the day then on top of that performing another one that night is simply unfathomable. Not to mention all that entails for the production staff as well.
And of course while all this goes on within the Met Opera House, there’s a whole other side going on administratively. Ticketing, VIP visits, member events, dinners and meetings: it all happens during the Met Season as well. The sheer number of events, let alone the magnitude, that the development staff puts on is incredible. It is an endeavor only accomplished through much commitment, time, and effort from everyone involved. As a major gifts intern, I was able to see how all the planning and preparation made these events come to fruition.
Though it is a busy time and an extraordinary effort, watch an ABT performance during the Met Season and I think you’ll agree that it’s all worth it. It was without a doubt one of the most thrilling and enjoyable times to be an intern at ABT and I’m so grateful I got to be a part of it!
Katie Currier
Major Gifts and Artistic Intern
Summer 2014
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