Curtain Call

After 48 years, Molly Buchmann and Sharon Mathews take their final bow as artistic directors of the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre

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When the final curtain falls for the performance of Cinderella later this month, it will be the end of an era for Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre (BRBT). After forty-eight years serving as artistic directors for the award-winning capital city dance company, Molly Buchmann and Sharon Mathews will officially pass the torch to a new generation of creative leaders.  

Since stepping up to lead the company in 1976, following the stead of BRBT founder Elissa Fuchs, Buchmann and Mathews have fostered a culture of progress and opportunity within the world of dance in Baton Rouge. In the early 1980s, BRBT was accepted into the national pre-professional dance organization Regional Dance America (then called the National Association for Regional Ballet), which granted the company’s dancers a greater range of development and educational opportunities.

“We wanted to be sure that there was a place in Baton Rouge where if you wanted to [study to become a professional dancer], you had everything you needed to build a good foundation, so that you could go on,” said Buchmann. “That was our goal.” 

It was under the two directors’ guidance that BRBT became a year-long professional dance company, presenting an entire season as well as summer classes. For many years, Buchmann and Mathews were both teaching dance full time in the public school system, and in Buchmann’s case for a while, at LSU. “And then we’d come to the studio every afternoon, stay after classes to do rehearsals, do more rehearsals on the weekends.” In the early days, many of the rehearsals were held in a makeshift “studio” in a small apartment next to Mathews’ home. Sharing the responsibilities of choreographing, running the studio, and tending to the organization and board behind BRBT—the two women built a deeply-held trust and collaborative relationship that has sustained itself, and the company, for almost fifty years now. 

“It took a lot of work, not only from us, but also our families, our husbands in particular” said Mathews—who recalls the important role Fred Buchmann and her late husband Bill Mathews played in transforming an old office space on Government Street into the company’s first true studio in the 1970s. “If we had not had their complete support, this just never would have happened.” 

Forward thinking for their time, the two women ensured that Baton Rouge’s dancers were on the cusp of the growing movement towards contemporary styles of dance, in addition to classical ballet. “The world of dance was changing,” said Buchmann. Early on, BRBT was presenting shorter, more modern dance performances with choreographers like Will Eldridge and Amelie Hunter. “We often brought contemporary works to the regional dance festivals, so that our dancers and audiences had an opportunity to see many different facets of the dance world,” she said. On the classical side, Mathews and Buchmann presented some of the first full-length ballet productions—beginning with Arthur Saint-Léon’s Coppélia, a production funded by a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. “This was really new and big at the time, to do a full ballet with guest artists,” said Buchmann. BRBT was the first dance company in the city to hire a full symphony orchestra for a production, and to present male dancers on stage. And then, of course, Buchmann and Mathews were the driving force behind one of Baton Rouge’s most beloved traditions, The Nutcracker: A Tale from the Bayou—which has been performed annually since 1992. 

[Read more about the history of Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre's Nutcracker production.]

This spring’s production of Cinderella will be BRBT’s sixth performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s most famous composition. The show holds a special place in Mathews’ heart especially. BRBT’s first production of the show featured her choreography, with her eldest daughter Rebecca Acosta dancing as the Fairy Godmother, and her youngest daughter Anna Schmaltz as Cinderella. Fifteen years later, the 2018 performance featured her grandson and granddaughter. “My husband was very sick at the time,” she recalled. “But he made a special effort to come and see his grandchildren perform. And it is kind of bittersweet, because that was the last performance he saw before he passed.” 

“We wanted to be sure that there was a place in Baton Rouge where if you wanted to [study to become a professional dancer], you had everything you needed to build a good foundation, so that you could go on. That was our goal.” —Molly Buchmann

Mathews went on to acknowledge the many layers of depth and meaning in Prokofiev’s interpretation of the Cinderella story, which lend themselves gorgeously to the choreography. “There’s a story that the composer wanted to introduce—the fact that Cinderella wasn’t just a fairy tale, but a whole person, and the poetic love between Cinderella and the prince was very important to him,” she said. “There’s always a lot of magic and dreams coming true at Cinderella.”

This year’s production will again feature Mathews’ choreography, with her and Buchmann’s successors acting as lead artistic directors. “Rebecca [Acosta, Mathews’ daughter] and Jonna [Cox] have been with us for many years, and as they step into our roles, it’s very comforting to know that we have these two lovely young women, to know that the ballet is going to be in really good hands,” said Mathews. “They’re really going to continue the legacy.” 

Of course, it will be hard for Buchmann and Mathews to stay too far away. “We are going to always be around to offer help or advice,” said Mathews, “whatever they need.”  

The Baton Rouge Ballet’s upcoming performances of Cinderella will take place April 20–21. Get tickets and learn more at batonrougeballet.org.