Performing Arts

Managing director John Toohey announced Friday that he will be leaving Texas Ballet Theater. But fans who prefer their drama onstage instead of behind the scenes should not panic: He remains at the helm of the company until the end of the year.

"I never really intended to stay beyond my three-year contract," Mr. Toohey said from his office in Fort Worth. "I'm 55, and I feel I need to make one more strategic move. I have worked for nonprofit organizations all my life. I may work for another nonprofit organization, or go into business by myself, or work for a profit company."

In his 2 ½ years on the job, the company has prospered, he noted. It has added nine more performances in Dallas and Fort Worth, increased ticket sales, opened a separate ballet school, increased the number of full-time dancers to 40 from 35, and significantly improved dancers' wages.

And for two years, it has remained financially in good standing, with a budget that has grown from $5.8 million in 2006 to $6.5 million this year.

"I am sad to see him go," artistic director Ben Stevenson said Friday. "He is part of the team. I hope he finds something fabulous. It's tough working for an arts organization."

Mr. Toohey says he's committed to the success of the ballet. "I love dancers. They are so eager to work. I can't say that about musicians." He has far more experience working with musicians, having served from 1988 to 2005 as the general manager for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. "Musicians," he says, "can be querulous. But I love musicians, too."

He says his departure "does not affect the quality of the programming. It is Ben's artistic work that affects the company. The face of Texas Ballet Theater is the dancers and the artists."

Margaret Putnam is a Richardson-based writer who covers dance.

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