Arts Notes: Ballet’s big wheel, Ferris, leaving LV

Friday, Nov. 18, 2005 | 8:57 a.m.

Come February, Nevada Ballet Theatre will bid an emotional farewell to Executive Director Harris Ferris.

Ferris, who will become executive director of the struggling Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, said his decision to leave his friends and the Nevada Ballet board was tough.

But it's possible he will be back. He and his wife, Janet, are keeping their Las Vegas house, along with her business while they live in a condo in Pittsburgh. His new contract is for two years.

"I love it here (Las Vegas)," Ferris said Tuesday. "The infrastructure for the arts is growing. We'd like to come back."

Ferris began working with the Nevada Ballet Theatre in 2000 when it recruited him from the American Repertory Ballet in New Brunswick, N.J. Since then, he's been credited with increasing the staff, board and audiences. Performances at venues such as Hills Park in Summerlin and at Super Summer Theater helped broaden exposure.

Performances in Northern Nevada, Utah and California also added to the exposure and revenue. The ballet also had its European debut in November in Lisbon, Portugal

Nancy Houssels, president and co-chairwoman of the ballet's board, said she is sad to lose Ferris, whom she credits with strengthening educational outreach and fundraising.

"He was very instrumental in getting a grant from the Wiegand Foundation," Houssels said. "(It) gave us a quarter of a million dollars to build our "Nutcraker." He'll be hard to replace. He's a dancer and has an MBA. Those are rare qualities." "He's gotten an offer he couldn't refuse," she said.

Ferris also has a challenge. Although Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre has a long "elegant" history, Ferris said that it has encountered "several crises," including a shrinking annual budget that dropped from $10 million in recent years to less than $8 million today.

Additionally, an $800,000 deficit forced the company to drop the orchestra, he said. Ferris has been consulting with the company since September. Even with its dwindling revenue, it operates on more money than the Nevada group, which has a $3 million annual budget.

"Pittsburgh Ballet is major stuff and it's, of course, a major cultural city," said Hal Weller, director of the Las Vegas Philharmonic, which partners with the Nevada Ballet for its annual performance of "The Nutcracker." "So it's a great move on his part. He'll do great things for the Pittsburgh company."

While Houssels says that she misses Ferris already, Ferris says that the ballet will do fine without him.

"We are in the strongest position financially than we have been in eight years," Ferris said. "Nevada Ballet Theatre is very healthy right now."

Still, he said, "I'll miss the board, I'll miss Nancy Houssels. It brings tears to my eyes to think of her."

A little opera

UNLV Opera Theatre will perform excerpts from "LaBoheme," "Le Nozze di Figaro," "Cozi fan Tutti" and "Don Pasquale" in "Brilliant Strokes and Desperate Measures," at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at UNLV's Black Box Theatre. Tickets are $10. Call 895-2787.

Feel the Earth move

Also at UNLV, the Philosophy, History and Biological Sciences departments and the Boyd School of Law will retry Galileo Galilei, the Italian physicist, philosopher, astronomer and inventor who in the early 17th century challenged philosophical and biblical teachings of the time.

"Book Colloquium: Retrying Galileo, 1633-1992" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. today at the Frank and Estella Beam Hall, Room 241. Call 895-3433.

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or at kristen@lasvegassun.com.