Interview with LINES Ballet Board Member Aaron Walton

Ahead of our company’s Fall Season, we spoke with LINES Ballet’s Board Member Aaron Walton, whose extensive career took him from PepsiCo to Michael Jackson and Magic Johnson. Aaron’s the CEO and co-founder of Walton Isaacson (WI), a full-service advertising agency that engineered the partnership between Lexus and Disney’s Marvel Studios’ film, Black Panther.

Aaron sees advertising as an art form, looking for unseen opportunities in the industry while prioritizing diverse thinking and encouraging disruption. Get to know our friend and supporter Aaron Walton —from the philosophies that inspire his work to the classic television character that sparked his interest in advertising. 

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Interview by Erin McKay | Videos by Jamie Lyons

Tell us what motivated you to go into advertising and how it shapes your thinking. 

I can use marketing and advertising to tell stories that often aren’t told, and I also want to broaden brands’ reach to consumers that are often overlooked or unaddressed. 

Aaron Walton

What’s one of your favorite quotes or insights?

During an interview, the late American opera singer Jessye Norman was asked why she liked art. She said something along the lines of, “We all need art in our lives for various reasons. But one of those reasons is that it keeps us alive.” Jessye’s answer is so connected to who I feel I am, even in my world of advertising.

I believe advertising is an art form, a kind of storytelling. I believe it helps keep us all alive in some way. I shared this quote with Alonzo too; he knew Jessye.  

You’ve always been a leader. We understand you were the president of your student body at Babson College. 

So you’re a dance lover. Have you taken dance classes before?

Yes! In 1983, I went to work at PepsiCo’s research department in Purchase, New York. I see research as a different form of storytelling; it’s all about the data and what the data says. I loved my work at Pepsi, but while I was so focused on research, I knew something else was missing. I didn’t have the right balance between the data-driven side of my brain and the pure art of it all. So I went across the street at night to SUNY Purchase, the art school, and I took adult jazz dance classes, just to clear my mind. It was great fun while I was in New York!

What ideas influenced your approach to management and creativity? 

Why did you decide to join LINES Ballet’s Board of Directors?

It all started with Amy Schoening, who was CMO of the GAP and Banana Republic and also married to Harry, our current Board Chair. My agency (AWE) was supporting some of the marketing initiatives that Amy had developed, and she frequently talked to me about her involvement with LINES because she knew how passionate I was about art and dance.

I lived in LA and had never actually seen a LINES show. Instead, I lived vicariously through Amy’s experience with the company. I also knew Harry and had an opportunity to work with him as he did real estate. Like Amy, he talked very passionately about his work with LINES and was really committed to the organization.

As I learned more about the company and Alonzo, I became a little obsessed with who LINES was, what they stood for, and the type of diversity that Alonzo brought to an industry that wasn’t, quite frankly, brilliant about employing diverse dancers of all backgrounds and cultures.

Photography: LINES Ballet Board Member Aaron Walton (right) with Amy Schoening (left) at the 2023 LINES Ballet Gala; LINES Ballet Board Member Aaron Walton (right) with LINES Ballet Board Chair Harry Schoening (left) backstage after the LA premiere of Alonzo King’s Deep River at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills | Photo credit: LINES Ballet Executive Director Courtney Beck.

Then during COVID, Harry called me and said, “Look, I’ve really thought about this. I’ve talked to the Board about it, and we’re wondering if you’d be interested in joining?” And I told him, “You had me at ballet!” I also read about the diversity on LINES’ Board in terms of their backgrounds and passions for this kind of storytelling. So I was completely honored and thrilled to join! 

It’s been an absolute joy. I love being in that room, listening to Alonzo talk about his vision; he mesmerizes the Board when he speaks about the soul and spirit of the company. I’m on a number of Boards, and LINES is one of my favorites to contribute to. 

What was it about Alonzo’s leadership that drew you into the organization?

What do you think makes a great choreographer?

The power of a great choreographer is their ability to draw expression out of the dancers—expression that both conveys their vision and rings relevant and true to the artists. The dancers of LINES Ballet are all so different in terms of their backgrounds. They bring more than technique to the craft; they bring their bodies’ souls to the storytelling. The places they’ve lived and the things that they’ve experienced come out in their movement.  

Alonzo’s great gift is understanding how not to minimize individuality but to elevate it. He makes sure that you, as an artist, feel permission to bring out what makes you, you, and that’s what’s so great! We’re not the Radio City Rockettes, who kick in a specific line at a specific time. You want some moments of variation. 

By the way, that’s one of the great things about seeing a LINES Ballet show multiple times. Who the dancers were as artists on Monday may be a little bit different than who they are on Tuesday. And they bring those differences into the performance. I think Alonzo helps make that transparency not only possible but a responsibility of the artists.

In what ways do your goals and mission align with those of LINES Ballet? 

You saw the company perform Alonzo King’s Deep River again in LA with Lisa Fischer. Did it speak to you differently the second time? 

It was so incredible to see Deep River for a second time. I felt kind of like a kid at Christmas, asking myself, “Where do I look?” The first time you watch the ballet, you sit in awe and just absorb it. But later, you pick up on all of these different movements that you may have missed before.

I brought a lot of friends to the show in Beverly Hills, and I watched it through their lens. My friend Cheri Oteri was literally sitting on the edge of her seat. It was incredible to feel the energy and joy that I experienced the first time through someone else’s body. 

Photography: LINES Ballet Board Member Aaron Walton (far left), American actress and comedian Cheri Oteri (center), and LINES Ballet Company Dancer Babatunji (far right) after the LINES Ballet performance of Deep River in Beverly Hills

I also enjoyed watching my friends’ interpretations of the show. We all felt the power of the story. My guests walked away from the performance as different people. That’s what happens when you see Alonzo’s work. Something kind of magical happens; you can feel it. And that’s what great storytelling, and great art, should always do: make you feel something every time that you see it. And, perhaps, make you feel something different each time, because the environment, the people around you, and the world itself has changed. So our perspectives on the story should change as well. 

What do you hope to contribute to the organization?

As a Board Member, part of my obligation is to help LINES Ballet raise money so that other people can experience the joy of this company. To do that, we have to look outside of our traditional methods. The goal is to get more people exposed to the art, philosophy, and beauty of Alonzo’s work and this organization’s mission. I can see us growing, and the Board is excited. 

I’m also here to make sure that the staff, Alonzo, and the dancers have the resources and support that they need to tell their stories. I want to empower other people to experience what LINES Ballet has contributed to the world, because they have a meaningful way of moving through it. 

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Interested in joining Aaron Walton in supporting LINES Ballet’s mission of touching hearts and stirring minds through the transformative power of dance? We welcome you to join our community of passionate donors with a gift of any amount today!

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Banner Photography: LINES Ballet Artistic Director Alonzo King and LINES Ballet Board Member Aaron Walton at LINES Ballet’s 2023 Spring Gala