DANCE

Belgium’s budget minister has told the National Opera it cannot appoint U.S. choreographer Mark Morris to succeed Maurice Bejart as ballet director until the company develops a 1988 budget and a plan for balancing its books, a ministry spokesman said Friday. Morris, 30, was named to succeed Bejart after he stunned Belgium last summer by moving to Lausanne, Switzerland, saying he wanted to “seek new artistic challenges.” An official of Belgian opera company disputed the budget minister’s right to block Morris’ appointment and said responsibility for culture lay with the education ministry and not finance, Reuters reported.