Month: September 2001

Alberta Ballet faces a life-threatening deficit. The company’s “financial problems reflect an inability to match expansionary artistic ambitions with the realities of its fundraising prospects. Calgary is a rich city in a rich province. On a per capita basis, its citizens support charitable causes as generously as does any other Canadian city, but they are notoriously niggardly when it comes to supporting Calgary’s struggling non-profit arts groups.” National Post 09/26/01

Houston Ballet didn’t like a story about the company in the alternative weekly Houston Press. So the company has withheld review tickets from he publication’s critic and refuse to talk to reporters. Houston Press 09/26/01 [second item]

“The greatest ballerina this country has produced is moving into a new sphere as a leader. The woman who for nearly 30 years did what she was told is now calling the shots. For dance lovers, her arrival here as artistic director of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet – an entity conceived and wholly funded by the Kennedy Center – is as momentous as basketball great Michael Jordan moving in to run the Wizards.” Washington Post 09/26/01

The Scottish Arts Minister has attacked what he calls elitism in the arts, saying, “I think there is, in certain quarters, intense snobbery that still prevails. People get hung up on classical ballet – the whole point of the business plan is to have dance in the widest sense.” The Herald (UK) 09/25/01

For the past 11 years, Irek Mukhamedovhas was the Royal Ballet’s biggest star. But ‘there was no regretful but grateful meeting between star and boss to declare time on a lustrous career, let alone an announcement.” The dancer even had to organize his own public farewell. The Telegraph (UK) 09/25/01

Scottish National Ballet recently got rid of its artistic director and announced it was abandoning classical ballet to reinvent as a modern company. Now top dancers with the company may strike in protest of the plan. The Scotsman 09/23/01

Dancers also object to a board proposal to sell their historic headquarters. The 36-strong troupe is “also demanding the removal of the current Scottish Ballet board and the scrapping of the restructuring plans, which they describe as ‘madness’.” The Sunday Times (UK) 09/23/01

The UK’s Northern Ballet has had a string of bad luck. “During the past three years the Leeds-based touring company has had to cope with the death of its long-time artistic director Christopher Gable, the departure of his replacement, and arson. How did it survive such a string of soap opera adversities?” The Times (UK) 09/18/01

Is Scottish National Ballet abandoning classical dance in favor of going modern because it wants to do dance on the cheap? Not at all, says the company’s board chairman. Our commitment to quality remains. Scotland on Sunday 09/16/01