Los Angeles Ballet Drops Coppelia from 2016-17 Schedule

[Helene]

Los Angeles Ballet has dropped "Coppelia" from its 2016-17 schedule, where it had been listed for March; the Balanchine Program has been moved to March.

http://losangelesballet.org/balanchine

 

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[sandik]

Too bad -- I was hoping they'd manage to keep growing.

[pherank]

I wonder if anyone knows if this was simply a funding issue? Were they planning to do the Balanchine version? Or was it a different choreographer?

 

[Helene]

As far as I know, there hasn't been a public statement, and there's nothing as of today on their website in the Media tab of their website.  

 

I don't remember which version, and the link has already been deleted from their site.

[California]

I found an unaltered PDF announcement of their season still on-line. It doesn't say anything about Balanchine in the paragraph on Coppelia, although he is credited in two other programs. Although this is not decisive, it does imply that this was not his version. 

http://losangelesballet.org/pdf/Los Angeles Ballet Presents Season 11.pdf

[pherank]

1 hour ago, California said:

I found an unaltered PDF announcement of their season still on-line. It doesn't say anything about Balanchine in the paragraph on Coppelia, although he is credited in two other programs. Although this is not decisive, it does imply that this was not his version. 

http://losangelesballet.org/pdf/Los Angeles Ballet Presents Season 11.pdf

 

I was just thinking that there would have been a possibility of renting costumes/sets from PNB or SFB if it was the Balanchine version. But if the funds never materialized...

[sandik]

PNB and SFB share their production of Coppelia, and I think there's a non-compete clause in there which would make it difficult to rent it to a company just down the highway.

[California]

If you Google Coppelia-sets-costumes-rent, it turns out there are companies all over the continent with things they're happy to rent. The best guess for the cancellation is a shortage of money - for costume-set rentals, rehearsals, stagers, dancers, whatever. We know from experts like Michael Kaiser that ticket revenues bring in only about 50% of the operating budget of a typical ballet company, with the rest coming from donors and grants. If their budget is coming up short, something had to go and perhaps maintaining their Balanchine legacy (which is considerable) was more important than staging a generic version of Coppelia.

[sandik]

I would imagine that budget comes into play with this as well.  A program-length narrative ballet usually requires a larger cast than the Balanchines they have scheduled for the spring.  But I do assume that the major element in a choice they'd make would be their company style.

[Helene]

Official sources only; I've removed a post with an unofficial source.