Ballet Hires New Exectuive Director

The Louisville Ballet has hired a new executive director. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has more.The Louisville Ballet announced that Dwight Hutton is the company’s new executive director, replacing Jack Lemmon who left last month to take a job with the Colorado Ballet.Hutton was a dancer with the Milwaukee Ballet through the 1990s before becoming company manger with the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle.Hutton says the current recession doesn’t make him pessimistic about leading an arts organization now."For those of us in the arts, particularly for a long time, it’s all cyclical," Hutton says. "And it’s just convincing people that we’ll be here tomorrow and doing whatever you have to do to be sure you are."He says interest in dance is growing."I think ballet’s time’s come for another resurgence, you know, since the lat ‘70s, early ‘80s," he says. "And with all of the dance programs on TV, it’s all about dance."Hutton was the managing director of the Smuin Ballet in San Francisco until last year. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He starts with the Louisville Ballet on Monday.