C. C. Conner, Jr.: Photo courtesy of Houston Ballet
Come next year, a familiar face in Houston Ballet’s audience will no longer be talking up the big patrons at intermission like he’s done for more than 16 years.

The ballet’s long-serving managing director, Cecil C. Conner Jr., announced Thursday he will retire in February 2012. James Nelson, currently Houston Ballet’s general manager, will become the company’s top administrator.

Conner, 69, a nationally recognized arts leader, has been a formidable force in Houston Ballet’s growth since arriving in 1995 from the Joffrey Ballet. He played a crucial role in the planning and construction of the company’s new $46.6 million Center for Dance, a five-year project.

Conner chose the February date for three reasons, he told the Chronicle Thursday: It will give him a year to enjoy his new office in the new building; it will be his 17th anniversary with the company; and he’ll be 70 in January. “It’s the opportune time. Having completed this project is something that’s given me huge amounts of satisfaction,” he said.

Nelson, 47, danced professionally 11 years (including six with Houston Ballet, from 1990-1996). Conner said Nelson is ready for the transition. As general manager, he already administers contracts for Houston Ballet’s 52 dancers, 61 musicians and 180 production employees; oversees more than half of the company’s $19.2 million budget; and directs the company’s tours. His new title, executive director, becomes effective in February.

Conner said Nelson’s title, while different from his, is the industry standard now for a dance company’s leading administrative job. Hiring from inside was vital to keep Houston Ballet’s artistic and business sides in synch, he added. “It helps you keep going on the road you’re going, as opposed to having somebody from the outside who wants to prove their mark and therefore has to change a bunch of things.”

C.C. Conner and Dawn Scannell at the Dancing with the Houston Stars, a benefit for Houston Ballet: Photo by Dave RossmanHouston Ballet was $1 million in debt when Conner was hired. He retired the deficit and has operated with balanced budgets for the past 12 seasons. Thanks largely to his money management and persuasiveness as a fund raiser, Houston Ballet’s endowment has tripled. One of the largest of any American dance company, it stood at $57.6 million in May.

Conner also built collaborations with other major ballet companies that enabled the blockbuster full-length productions for which Houston Ballet was known in the late 1990s and early 2000s — including Ben Stevenson’s Dracula, The Snow Maiden and Cleopatra; David Parsons’ The Pied Piper and James Kudelka’s The Firebird. Conner also had a major hand in company tours to China, Canada, England, Russia, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

And he led the company through the critical transition of artistic directors in 2003, when Stanton Welch replaced Stevenson, who’d built the company from its infancy.

That was a “transformational moment in the life of the company,” Houston Ballet Foundation president Karl Stern said in a prepared statement. “In addition to his superb fiscal management skills which have helped Houston Ballet maintain a strong financial position during challenging economic times, C.C.’s knowledge and love for the arts of dance and music have greatly enriched Houston Ballet.”

A lawyer who practiced for many years in New York prior to becoming an arts administrator, Conner is on the boards of the Houston Downtown Alliance and the American Guild of Musical Artists Retirement and Health Funds. He’s served on numerous other boards, including those of the national service organization Dance USA, the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County and the Texas Institute for Arts in Education (as chairman).

A native of Greensboro, N.C.n and a former U.S. Navy lieutenant, Conner speaks fluent German and is the co-author (with his partner, David L. Groover) of Skeletons from the Opera Closet ($10, 243 pp, Moyer-Bell).
Not shy behind the scenes, the dapper Conner has cut a colorful figure at many an arts gala, swapping his trademark bow ties and suspenders for costumes when appropriate. He also showed some onstage mettle at a ballet fund raiser chaired by Becca Cason Thrash last May, winning the Dancing with the Houston Stars II competition with former principal dancer Dawn Scannell in a waltz to I’m Old Fashioned.

The company’s dancers applauded Conner for a sustained time after he broke the news to them Thursday.

“Stop, or I’m going to be the next John Boehner,” he quipped.

While he’s giving up the corner office and won’t have to check his Blackberry continuously, Conner said, he’ll still be a presence at Houston Ballet, helping with the company’s fund raising efforts.