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Thamires Chuvas coached by Tiit Helimets: Sasha De Sola practicing social distancing at The Garage: Misa Kuranaga and Angelo Greco alone in the studio:

I saw this piece last night on the Classic Arts channel and was surprised to see the credit to Jerome Robbins: Fashion and the American Woman [1953] with Mary Martin, staged by Jerome Robbins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04xxHdmruk0

Maria Kochetkova's Instagram post regarding life during the performance hall closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic: "Never thought I’ll be so grateful for an ironing board 🦥 Many dancers around the world found out this week that not only all of our shows were canceled, for a while, but that we can’t go to the theater and take a daily class to stay in shape. We have to work from home, but it’s not as simple as with some other jobs. Share your best tricks and work routines below (I mean it). Please stay safe and healthy everyone - we’re all in it together" https://www.instagram.com/p/B9sUqoThTJP/

The contracts do generally cover such things. It's just time to move on and start thinking in terms of digital distribution as a primary way of getting product to the masses and making it a major revenue stream for these companies.

I think SFB is doing the same thing: only Midsummer Night's Dream ticket holders will get to see the video of the opening night performance. I think that's a real missed opportunity though. I hope PNB and SFB eventually figure out how to offer these videos to the public and generate some income.

From Sasha De Sola: Completely and utterly gutted that the next two programs of @sfballet ‘s season are cancelled due to COVID-19. But there is a little good news... Helgi Tomasson announced that Balanchine’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream will return in SF Ballet’s 2021 Season! And dancers, musicians, backstage crew, and ballet leadership have pulled together in a Herculean effort to create a recording that will be made available to all Midsummer ticketholders who weren’t able to attend this week’s performances because of cancellations. 🧚🏼‍♂️ I’ll be dancing as Titania for this recording and I’m so grateful we were able to pull this together in such a short amount of time to share this magical production with all of you ticket holders! Who’s excited to watch?! https://www.instagram.com/p/B9rXjDbHbRB/ It sounds like no one other than Midsummer ticket holders will get to see the video, which is quite unfortunate. I certainly hope SFB finds a way to offer the performance to the world, and make money off it.

That would be truly heroic if SFB could make that happen. But I still want them to work towards a future where performance films would be streamed online (after the program's run had finished of course) - for a small fee/subscription. ;) SFB needs to deliver its 'product' to a world-wide audience and get a new revenue stream happening.

From the SFB website: "In addition, Artistic Director Helgi Tomasson wants to be sure that our valued patrons do not miss out on what is truly a magnificent production – therefore, we are happy to inform you that A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be included as part of the 2021 Repertory Season." https://www.sfballet.org/a-message-regarding-the-covid-19-virus/

You are quite right, Quiggin - I should have mentioned hospitals will be overloaded with work, and, there are many, many people who should be tested for the virus, but the system is no where near ready to handle all the tests needed (as compared to, say, South Korea which now tests 10,000 people a day).

Here's a posting from Mathilde Froustey about the current performance closures:

You bet - any contracts that have already been negotiated may be problematic, but I assume that these contracts have special clauses to deal with the unexpected (such as Liam Scarlett's 'troubles').

I've been thinking about that. It would be pretty simple to just move the programming over to next year. I think it would be great to lead off the 2021 season with Midsummer and follow with Programs 5 and 6 (becoming Programs 2 and 3). Jewels or Romeo and Juliet could follow or be placed strategically in the season. I'm sure Tomasson had other ideas, but he's going to have to make adjustments due to the extraordinary situation were all facing. Many ballet companies may be in similar situations.

I wish! But I'm not hopeful. Yep, when Gov. Newsom made the big announcement that pretty much sank the rest of the season. If the whole idea is to slow down the disease progression (buying some time for the medical researchers to develop an effective vaccine), then 3 weeks isn't going to make that much difference. I fully expect these closures to last at least 6 weeks to be effective. However, as we are all noticing - these closures are tanking the economy many places and simply making it harder for society to function as needed. There's going to be a lot of juggling between health and safety, and economic well being (since after all the economy pays for everything we do).

The Music Center in Los Angeles is following California Governor Newsom's "strong recommendation" to close all large gatherings of people. Here is the email notice. "Amidst rising concerns regarding the COVID-19 global outbreak, Governor Newsom’s strong recommendation that all gatherings of 250 or more people across the entire state be cancelled, and the County of Los Angeles’ order that The Music Center close its theatres (Ahmanson Theatre, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and Walt Disney Concert Hall), The Music Center closed its theatres, effective today, March 12, 2020. The Music Center’s resident companies (LA Phil, LA Opera, Center Theatre Group and the Los Angeles Master Chorale), along with TMC Arts/Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, are also cancelling all presentations, public gatherings, tours and education programs through at least March 31, 2020." We can expect this to affect all large performances in California for an indefinite period (although March 31, 2020 is the current date given for end of closures).

I concede that a free period is likely. But since online streaming is all about p.r./marketing, AND income (not to mention artistic possibilities for the artists) performance art companies have to set up an intelligent model to sell 'product' from the start. It costs money to create the videos and requires having permissions from all the right people (which also usually comes down to MONEY), so full-length presentations should require a one-time fee, or subscription. A well thought out service like Amazon Prime handles special subscriptions (to things like the PBS Masterpiece programming) seamlessly within the interface. The arts companies are going to have to figure out which streaming platform(s) to go with to get the most bang for their buck, and reach the widest possible audience. [I have Medici.tv right now, and it is subscription only, but it works for Smartphone, Desktop computer, and TV if you have the right setup.] Shorter videos, like interviews or seminars could be used as free "bait" to lure people in. ;)

Yes please! But I would council SFB to set things up so that ticket holders get to watch for free, but non-ticket holders should pay a reasonable fee for access (and they have to register with the website). They need to think in terms of creating online product that people subscribe to (performances, rehearsal shorts, interviews with dancers, choreographers, musicians and staff). Consider going with online streaming providers like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube Premium, Medici.tv for the European audience, etc. This is a whole other revenue stream that they can be working with and planning for (but obviously there will need to be some dedicated staff arranging for all this). It's the future, and the future is NOW.

Thanks, SandiK. Turning lemons into lemonade. ;)

In North America, the NBA (National Basketball Association) suspended its season today, and the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal are being cancelled/postponed, SO, things don't look good for the weeks ahead.

Ugh. I'm glad they're doing the sensible thing and streaming rehearsals. There's money to be made from online streaming too!

The original notice contains this statement: "This cancelation does not affect use of office space, rehearsals or crew calls without public attendance" So it sounds like rehearsals could continue on the WMOH stage as long as there is no public audience present. And SFB continues to rehearse in their own building. I'm not sure what the musicians are doing right now - sleeping in?

Program 6 Present Perspectives CLASSICAL SYMPHONY Composer: Sergei Prokofiev Choreographer: Yuri Possokhov Costume Design: Sandra Woodall Lighting Design: David Finn Video Concept by: Yuri Zhukov World Premiere: April 9, 2010—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California APPASSIONATA Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Choreographer: Benjamin Millepied Staged by: Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici Scenic Design: Camille Dugas Costume Design: Alessandro Sartori Lighting Design: Jim French World Premiere: February 5, 2016—Paris Opera Ballet (originally titled La Nuit S’Achève), Palais Garnier; Paris, France San Francisco Ballet Premiere: February 12, 2019—War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California THE SEASONS Composer: Alexander Glazunov Choreographer: Alexei Ratmansky Costume Design: Robert Perdziola Lighting Design: Mark Stanley World Premiere: May 20, 2019—American Ballet Theatre, Metropolitan Opera House; New York, New York

Program 5 Ballet Accelerator: 7 FOR EIGHT Composer: Johann Sebastian Bach Choreographer: Helgi Tomasson Costume Design: Sandra Woodall Lighting Design: David Finn World Premiere: February 26, 2004—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House; San Francisco, California MRS. ROBINSON World Premier Music Composed By: Terry Davies Choreographer: Cathy Marston Scenic and Costume Design: Patrick Kinmonth Scenario: Cathy Marston and Edward Kemp Lighting Design: Jim French Dramaturg: Edward Kemp Choreographic Collaborator: Jenny Tattersall ANIMA ANIMUS Composer: Ezio Bosso Choreographer: David Dawson Scenic Design: John Otto Costume Design: Yumiko Takeshima Lighting Design: James F. Ingalls Assistant to the Choreographer: Rebecca Gladstone World Premiere: April 21, 2018—San Francisco Ballet, War Memorial Opera House New video of Cathy Marsten talking about the creation of Mrs. Robinson: https://www.instagram.com/p/B9iAtEFjAhj/

Recommended: the interview with Pam Tanowitz - "Today we talk with Pam about how she studied choreography, what inspires her, how she works in the studio, and about her work created for the Vail Dance Festival. This is book Pam references towards the end of the episode: Pas de Deux: A Textbook on Partnering. https://conversationsondancepod.com/2020/02/18/pam-tanowitz-choreographer/