kylara7

According to the article, the Toronto Star, a respected journalistic outlet, will be meeting with NBoC board-of-directors members and will investigate independently, so as I said, shoes will likely continue to drop. I didn't see Dancers First mentioned; this seems to be a board of directors/wealthy donor issue.

As the shoes continue to drop, my thoughts and empathy are with the dancers and others who have been/will be most impacted, in the short and long term. I hope that this spurs serious changes in company/board management and personnel policies. Unfortunately, good governance (via checks and balances) is often an afterthought in arts/non-profit orgs where wealthy individuals end up with outsized influence.

Well said! It is my personal feeling (based on life experience and instincts honed in academic, corporate, non-profit, and arts settings) that "something is rotten in the state of Denmark." I don't know what it is or how deep it goes, but for now, I'm choosing to stay away. I hope the ship can get righted sooner rather than later, for the sake of the dancers and others whose careers are constrained by time and other realities outside of their control.

Long-time lurker/reader here. My own observation of NBoC after watching them (albeit less and less) for the last 6-7 years, is that the women of the company are getting skinnier and skinnier to the point where they do not look good/healthy. As a former dance student and lifelong audience member, I'm well aware of ballet history and the "ballet aesthetic". However, there is a difference between individual company members appearing gaunt and an overall trend (at least among the women), which suggests that it is coming from the top. Excessive leanness has wide impacts on long-term health (e.g., muscle recovery, joint health, energy, etc.), but it also has the effect of accelerating the appearance of aging (hollowed out faces, sunken eyes, dull colour, etc). Some of my favourite dancers seem to have aged 10 years in less than 5 actual years. It's alarming, and in conjunction with inexplicable programming/staffing/pricing decisions, it has greatly diminished my interest in attending productions (former subscriber, went to one performance this year and one last year). I was particularly struck by the contrast with how strong and healthy the Australian Ballet looked in their World Ballet Day presentation. Pacific Northwest Ballet as well.