Matt Krashan bids farewell to UW World Series

National and international dance troupes have been appearing at Seattle's Meany Hall for so many years that it's difficult to picture our local cultural scene without them.

But when Discover Dance, a series founded in the early 1970s under the auspices of the Seattle Parks Department, declared bankruptcy in 1984, the likelihood that Pilobolus, Twyla Tharp Dance Company, the Joffrey Ballet and other renowned companies would keep coming to town was put in jeopardy.

If it weren't for Matt Krashan stepping into the breach, dance offerings in Seattle might have become considerably the poorer.

In 1982, Krashan was hired to direct the President's Piano Series and the Lively Arts Series ("a potpourri of various and sundry world music and dance events," as he describes it). So Discover Dance's crisis came early in his tenure. In an interview last month, Krashan, who steps down this month from directing the UW World Series, recalled the moment well.

Upon hearing the news, he interrupted a vacation and flew to Seattle to talk to Ernest M. Henley, then dean for the University of Washington's College of Arts and Science, about rescuing the series. Henley agreed it was important, then quickly asked: "What's it going to cost?"

Krashan, with a big laugh, remembers telling him: "A lot."

They moved ahead with it, but it was a tricky business. They couldn't honor patrons' Discover Dance tickets or they would have been liable for all of Discover Dance's debts. So they had to instantly start the reinvented series, Dance at Meany, from scratch.

Running an arts series — the UW World Series now encompasses dance, chamber music, piano recitals and a world music and theater program — clearly takes nerve and stamina. It's a never-ending balancing act, as Krashan looks for performers who inspire him, who will draw an audience and who are available within a certain window of time.

But Krashan balks at the suggestion that it's a "crazy" job.

"What's crazy about it?" he asks. "Is it any more crazy than running a hospital?"

Perhaps not. But one does wonder what's kept him going for close to 30 years.

"Passion," he says frankly. "I just think that the arts can make a tremendous difference in someone's life, and I really believe that I've been incredibly fortunate to, for the most part, contribute to helping artists get together with audiences, which is kind of what it's all about.... It's social, it's cultural, it's experiential — it's all those things."

His reverence for the acts he brings to town — not just dance troupes but pianists, chamber musicians and world-music performers — is unmistakable.

"What do artists do?" he asks. "They dive into an ocean of human experience. And the great artists are able to bring something up from those depths that's able to reach out and speak to us in ways that other things don't."

If the art is the reward, the logistics are a challenge.

"There are a lot of factors involved," he says, "and a lot of variables."

For one, there's the geography factor.

"People don't realize it," he chuckles, "but Seattle is still tucked away in the Northwest. A lot of artists, for instance on the classical music side, will travel to Los Angeles and maybe San Francisco. Getting them here is difficult, because a lot of artists have limited availability."

Another problem is the difficulty of ensuring that overseas artists' visa petitions are processed in a timely manner. Local arts organizations have all had the experience of not knowing until days before the event whether performers will be allowed into the country.

Last month, Krashan's turn came with Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. Two days before the show, one member of the Cuban musical troupe was held at the Miami airport for six hours. Officials let him go just minutes before his flight to Seattle was due to leave.

"I think we live in a difficult time," Krashan says, "and it's not my area of expertise. ... All we can do is to do our best to work with our legislators."

When the stars align, good things happen. For the 2011-2012 season, Krashan was able to book a dance troupe he's long had his eye on: the Netherlands' Introdans.

"A spectacular company," he says. "They do wonderful crossover work."

He kept in touch with them for 10 years and was able to book them when they got an American manager ("more important than ever nowadays, because of the visa, immigration"). Other acts new to Meany in Krashan's final programmed season include Australian dance troupe Chunky Move; pianists Till Fellner and Jan Lisiecki; and chamber ensembles Cuarteto Casals and the Calder Quartet.

"The thrill of this job has been discovery," Krashan says. "You bring your own knowledge to it, which is always helpful. But it's kind of humbling when you realize how much work goes into the creation of a dance company or the maintenance of a chamber-music ensemble or what it's like for a pianist to sit down and choose a program, practice it and then put it up on the stage in front of so many people, and travel while doing this. You feel proud that you can be a part of that machinery, that environment that enables the live performances to happen."

Krashan's post-Meany plans are uncertain: "I'll be a year shy of 70.... How I'm going to keep my mind active and how I'll participate will be interesting. My wife, Christy, and I are buying our subscriptions next year. We're very serious about that. And we'll continue to contribute — we're donors as well."

No particular event triggered Krashan's decision to retire this year: "I'd been thinking about it for a while. I think an age factor came in, and I just said: Enough."

As for the series' future, he doesn't like to speak for his successor, who has yet to be chosen.

"I've always kind of erred on what I call eclectic programming — not necessarily staying within a particular division of a genre," he says. "But I would expect that there would be some change, of course. A change is good."

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com. Times researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this story.