mmded

There has been an update on the fundraising site for anyone considering donating.

I am very saddened to say that Joe Bunn lost his battle with leukemia last week leaving a wife and young son. He wished to have his body returned to the U.S. for burial beside his grandmother. Bridget Breiner and others have launched a fundraising campaign to raise the funds to help fulfil his wishes. I hope I am not breaking rules by posting a link to a site for him. https://www.youcaring.com/spela-and-aiden-bunn-626851 Joe touched so many lives and will be missed by so many both professionally and personally.

Below is a link of a bit outdated and incomplete list of the male dancers he taught over the years. It is very impressive. http://www.yagp.org/pestov_site/Pestov%20Alumni.pdf

Sorry I can only post a link to a German site. He will be missed greatly at John Cranko Schule. http://www.tanznetz.de/news.phtml?page=showthread&aid=187&tid=20866

Last week Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg guested for one performance of Cranko's Onegin in support of Kathryn Bennetts and the company. From all I have read it was a very special evening and one I would have loved to have been there for.

It is beautiful!! Sam Asaert, the film maker started off his association with the Royal Ballet of Flanders making a short film called Atrophy Bank which got a lot of recognition.

I am married to a great ballet dad who always was 100% supportive both financially and emotionally of both our professional ballet dancer daughter who trained away from home starting in grade eight and who will be starting her third year with a European company and our soon to be army doctor daughter. Happy Father's Day!!

Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg will be dancing Cranko's Onegin for one performance of the premier performances of Onegin by the Royal Ballet of Flanders. The date is June 23rd 2011.

Thanks!

I am having difficulty editing my link so if anyone can help me out. I have tried to post the correct one twice and it reverts the the one that doesn't work. The correct link is on the sister site Ballet Talk for Dancers.

There is an article on the ongoing situation in the New York Times by Roslyn Sulcas. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/arts/15i....html?src=twrhp The company is currently over half way through a very busy season dance wise and the lack of any sort of resolution has to wear on the dancers and the artistic staff.

Just bumping this up - the hearing is this week with the Flemish government and as many signatures as possible are needed. The situation was mentioned under politics in the latest Dance Europe issue. Meanwhile the company is starting a run this week of Swan Lake choreographed by Marcia Haydee who wrote a letter of support which I have copied below. My dear miss Joke, normally I don't need to introduce myself, any person who would know anything about arts would also know what I have done and do in the ballet world. But reading all about what is happening to Kathryn Bennetts and the Ballet van Vlaanderen I realize that we are dealing with people with no knowledge about arts whatsoever. My name is prof. Dr. Hc. Marcia haydee, and I was during many years (thirty six years) principal dancer and artisitc director with the stuttgart ballet. I can not believe that such a country as belgium, does not appreciate and give value to the wonderful ballet company they have. It has become one of the best companies in the world and all choreographers with myself included have had a complete joy working with this wonderful dancers. And all this is happenig because of one person: Kathryn Bennetts. A company is as good as its head, and there is no better head than Kathryn Bennetts. It would be a disaster if belgium would not be aware of all this and not protect, support and be proud to have such a wonderful ballet company and a very special womanthat has achieved all this. And do not forget that the Ballet van Vlaanderen during these years has been the very best ambassador from belgium around the world. I hope belgium will offer Kathryn benntts all what she needs to continue the wonderful work with this great company. At the moment I am the artistic director of the santiago ballet in chile and all my dancers support Kathryn benntts artistic direction and the Ballet van Vlaanderen. There are many wonderful letters on the Flanders company website and lots of signatures many of them well known in the ballet world supporting the company and ballet in general in this time of uncertainty.

This is the latest news for the Royal Ballet of Flanders from one of the support sites: The Royal Ballet of Flanders was granted a hearing at the Flemish Parliament on dec. 16th. We need the petition to be signed by as many people as possible by that time, so please, tell all you friends about the petition!! http://www.royalballetofflanderssupportgroup.net/ www.royalballetofflanderssupportgroup.net The link explains about the petition. The company just did a run of Artifact that was very well received and attended by many first time ballet goers including Flemish politicians. Please pass along the information to as many as you can who might consider signing the support petition in advance of the hearing. Thanks very much mmded

Besides getting ready for a run of Artifact this weekend the company has been working hard outside the studio to keep the issue in the public eye. Some of the dancers did a flashmob last weekend and some dancers were filmed in short clips that are up on youtube and one of the support facebookk sites - http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_140060016042424&ap=1 Here is the flashmob link: and a sample of the dancers' videos

Here is a letter of support from William Forsythe speaking about what the company and Kathryn represents and what he feels about what the Belgian government is doing, http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1462528923540&set=a.1289488757644.2037883.1242973561 The dancers and Kathryn are still looking for support. There is an online petition which they are asking supporters to sign. A request for donations by the site creators appears after the vote is added which can be ignored. There are a number of clips as well on the site to see what the company is doing. http://www.royalballetofflanderssupportgroup.net/ Thanks mmded

Belgium is now ranking second in statistics showing a breakdown by country of support for the company. In just a few days the Save the Royal Ballet of Flanders has almost 4000 "likes". The latest announcement on the site: On Monday evening ( November 1, 2010) there will be a website for an online petition against the fusion of the Royal Ballet Of Flanders and the Flemish opera. Here is the future website address : www.royalballetofflanderssupportgroup.net . Please be so kind to pass this information to ALL your friends and have them sign it!

There is a facebook site now Save the Royal Ballet of Flanders. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Royal-Ballet-Of-Flanders/106874442712339 In a couple of days they have almost 3000 fans. They have just put out statistics on the site. The most fans are from the U.S. - 414 followed by 206 from Germany and Belgium a disappointing 198! I am very fearful that Kathryn and all of her dancers are wasting their efforts and their passion trying to make things work in a country that, as Marc said in the previous post, has no interest in ballet. My wish is starting to be that Kathryn and her dancers including my daughter find positions where they will be appreciated and supported.

Thanks mirabray!

Thank you so much for your support.

The Company is showing their support of Kathryn Bennetts and their frustration towards the governments decisions by writing letters addressed to Joke Schauvliege ( the Minister of Culture). They are asking for your support to take the time to write your own letter to prove to the Minister the impact on the global dance community. The email address is kabinet.schauvliege@vlaanderen.be Please place in the cc of the email kathrynbennetts@balletvlaanderen.be Important things to be mentioned in the email 1) The Company does not want an Intendant who will do the programming for the ballet 2) The budget should be raised 3) The actual proposition from the Minister of Culture will mean the end of the Royal Ballet of Flanders Please forward this to as many of your colleagues, friends and family to get them also to write letters. The more emails that the Minister receives the more chance the company has of fighting back. Thanks so much for any letters you send. My daughter and her colleagues feel so strongly about Kathryn Bennetts and the company that they are willing to speak out as Kathryn did. Traditionally dancers have not been known to be vocal but in this case they are willing to come forward publicly to fight for the continued survival of the company as it exists today.

The Company is showing their support of Kathryn Bennetts and their frustration towards the governments decisions by writing letters addressed to Joke Schauvliege ( the Minister of Culture). They are asking for your support to take the time to write your own letter to prove to the Minister the impact on the global dance community. The email address is kabinet.schauvliege@vlaanderen.be Please place in the cc of the email kathrynbennettss@balletvlaanderen.be Important things to be mentioned in the email 1) The Company does not want an Intendant who will do the programming for the ballet 2) The budget should be raised 3)The actual proposition from the Minister of Culture will mean the end of the Royal Ballet of Flanders Please forward this to as many of your colleagues, friends and family to get them also to write letters. The more emails that the Minister receives the more chance the company has of fighting back.

Kathryn Bennetts has fought for her dancers and her company from the time she took over a struggling company in Antwerp that no one cared about. She has transformed it into a company that has won an Oliver dance award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance Award, a company whose dancers were on a recent cover of Dance Europe for David Dawson's Third Light commissioned for their fortieth anniversary, and in the latest edition of the same magazine has two of its dancers named outstanding dancers of the year. David Dawson has been named resident choreographer this year which may not mean much in North America but is a real coup in the eyes of the European dance world. Christian Spuck, the current resident choreographer for Stuttgart Ballett and the incoming AD of Zurich Ballet created The Return of Ulysses on Flanders which was performed at the Edinburgh International Festival the summer before last. Kathryn Bennetts sets Forsythe choreography for many of the top ballet companies in the world and was given permission to perform Artifact in its entirety which is a rarity. She has received many outstanding reviews from many sources including a memorable one from the New York Times. Unfortunately Flanders is still a struggling company that no one in Antwerp and indeed Belgium seems to care about. A recent tour to Brussels ( a 40 minute train ride from Antwerp) was cancelled because Brussels did not want to pay the costs associated with travel. It is hard to believe that Flanders is the ONLY company in Belgium that currently the country should appreciate and support. Here are several clips to show the diversity of the company .

It has been announced over the weekend that due to decisions made by Joke Schauvliege, the Minister of Culture that Kathryn Bennetts will be resigning as Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders as of 2012. My daughter has danced under her direction and can say on the behalf of the company that they are devastated. The minister has not even attended one performance of the ballet and yet she has made this decision that greatly impacts the lives and careers of them all. My daughter feels as though the most impact can be made when the global dance community becomes aware of this. The Royal Ballet of Flanders certainly needs everyone's support. Here is a link to the full interview as seen in a link previously posted. http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.890921

Even though it is in Flemish, here is an interesting report. Just seeing her speak about her company makes it obvious how passionate she is and how much of a loss she will be. http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.890771 The more people that are globally aware of this issue, the better.