A Day In the Life of Mikko Nissinen

November 28, 2001

 

The role of artistic director sounds like a dreamy career. They get to choreograph, choose company repertoire and watch beautiful dancers all day long. But as it turns out, the job isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. What a lot of dancers don’t understand is that when they transition to the managerial side of ballet, they’ll have to deal with a lot of meetings, dancer turnover and long, long days. Think a leadership position is in your distant future? If so, check this out: The Boston Globe followed Boston Ballet’s Mikko Nissinen through a typical week of work. In the article, he candidly speaks about casting, auditions and the not so glamorous parts of his job. (And there are some nice photos of him teaching company class, too.)

 

Above: Nissinen at a Boston Ballet audition. Photo by Matthew Murphy for
Pointe.