Pas de Deux

“We are not the traditional regional ballet company,” says executive director Gary Peterson. “We don’t perform the classics. Everybody is trained rigorously in classical technique, but we are a contemporary ballet company. We are seen as cutting edge.” The New York Times’ Anna Kisselgoff labeled Sewell one of American ballet’s best and most inventive choreographers.

In addition to choreographing only for the company, Sewell has collaborated with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Dale Warland Singers, Minnesota Opera, and Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus. He choreographed last summer’s Guthrie Theater hit She Loves Me with a cast of nondancers. “James has a great sense of humor, which shows in his work,” says John Miller-Stephany, who directed the show. “I had an idea of what should happen in a number, how I wanted a scene to work. And he was able to find a choreographic language that took the dramatic moment and moved it. He’s a wonderful collaborator.”

The Minnesota Orchestra has commissioned Sewell to create a new work to perform to Bartók this September. “We’re collaborating with James because his is one of the most interesting and provocative groups in the Twin Cities, and he has a strong musical sensibility,” says orchestra general manager Robert Neu. “[We’ve asked for] a major statement, not a ten-minute curtain raiser. We look forward to what can be created by putting his mind together with Osmo’s.”

This month, the company returns for the second time to the prestigious Joyce Theater in New York City for the city premieres of Guy Noir: The Ballet, a work based on the private eye character in Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, and Anagram, a ballet set to the music of Franz Schubert. Following its New York engagement, the company performs Schoenberg Serenade, set to Arnold Schoenberg’s chamber work, and Awedville, an exploration of vaudeville, at its in-town home, the State Theatre. Next month, it tours in Iceland.

Sewell and Rousse are devoted to one another and to one another’s professional achievements. “I always fight for James,” she says. “I’m always constantly fighting for him, for more money for projects, for more respect and attention for the company.”

Says Sewell, “It wasn’t a company until Sally got here.”

A few years ago, the Oprah show filmed the couple for an inspirational segment on married couples who also work together. Reminded of it, they laugh. “Well, it’s not like our marriage is perfect,” says Rousse. “We have problems like everyone else.” But not everyone else’s husband leaps across the stage to catch her as the music swells and the curtain falls.

“We work together,” says Sewell. “Not everyone does that. I suppose that could look ideal.” He laughs. “Or not.”

Rousse takes daily dance class from Sewell without marital incident. “James is just so kind and funny. No one gets mad at him,” she says. “But it can get tricky with the company. I’m his wife, but there, I am a part of the company. That’s my role.”

Sewell grins. “But we do that pretty well, I think.”