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Based on what Dr. Fauci said in an interview with fivethirtyeight.com this week, I wouldn't be surprised if the next ballet that most of us attend will feature dancing rodents.

Ugh! I can't imagine living without any Venezuelan beaver cheese.

The vaccination program in the US is off to a rather inauspicious start. The supposed goal was to give the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine to 20 million people by the end of December, but the current rate is only 110,000 per day. I'm giving up hope that the Washington Ballet will be able to put on Swan Lake in May.

The Kennedy Center has cancelled all performances through April. This includes the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre programs.

The Colorado Symphony has just cancelled its entire season. Tick..Tick..Tick

I think that the big concern is that companies won't be able to continue paying the dancers so many of the dancers will move on to other careers. My worry is that when performances start up again that companies will not have a full roster of professional dancers.

So has the Baltimore Symphony (in what was supposed to be Marin Alsop's final year as Music Director ).

Larry Nassar, Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, O.J. Simpson. The list of white men who have gotten away with rape and murder is endless.

It is my understanding that "furloughed" is equivalent to "laid off" in regards to unemployment compensation (including whatever amount the federal govt. will kick in if they ever get another relief package passed) just about everywhere in the USA. Both are involuntary terminations that are not the result of inadequate performance or malfeasance. $3 million is pretty ambitious for Denver.

Just saw a post on Facebook that states that the CB furloughed the dancers a week ago (9/2).

Unfortunately, it would be impractical to test an entire audience. Hydroxychloroquine worked well in a laboratory setting, but not so great in the field. Of course, the laboratory setting consisted of treating cells taken from green monkeys rather than from humans.

If terahertz spectroscopy pans out, companies should at least be able to resume rehearsals since it will be physically possible and apparently economically feasible to test every dancer before every rehearsal.

There was a brief article by Tracy Jones on the Facebook page of the American Guild of Musical Artists. In it, she mentions that her retirement decision was "partially made" for her by 2 knee surgeries.

A group in Israel has developed a breathalyzer test that gives results in about half a minute, and they're hoping to have it mass produced in India. However, they're only claiming "better than 90 percent accuracy", which might not be accurate enough for people who work very close together.

The Kennedy Center is hoping to salvage a dance season, with Alvin Ailey currently scheduled in February, NYCB in March (A Midsummer Night's Dream), ABT in April (Don Quixote), and Paul Taylor in May. In addition, the Washington Ballet is still hoping to perform Swan Lake at the Kennedy Center in May.

Deleted.

Also not ballet, but irresistible - elderly man shuffle dances with 2 elementary school-aged girls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6HWtcYXblw

The Baltimore Symphony has cancelled all concerts through the end of November, though they are installing robotic cameras and will try to present some online concerts. I'm handling my semi-hermitic existence right now because of the long days and a close-by park where I can watch serious tennis players play. But I'm dreading autumn when evenings are dark and there will be nothing to do.

This hardly qualifies as ballet, but it does fit under "feel good videos". A 102 year old woman sees videos of her dance performances for the first time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bktozJWbLQg&fbclid=IwAR2qf8TBv4fQTK2lC2toioNBSQ0VUWNQ4aQnhPew-5H1bqli14vhvnLRIHs

The 50th anniversary celebration for Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, which was intended to be a collaboration with the Colorado Symphony, scheduled for October 30, has been cancelled (as have all the Colorado Symphony's other September and October performances).

According to the Washington Post, at least 3 employees of the WB have tested positive since the gala. One is a dancer (not named in the article).

According to the Washington Post, the WB will decide in August whether they can have their Nutcracker production. (Given the plodding pace of drug trials, I'm not optimistic.)

My favorite is Master Chang's Tiger Den Martial Arts and Ballet

We've lost a film score composer whose music was often good, never bad, and certainly not ugly. Ennio Morricone is my favorite film score composer of all time.

Along the same lines as yesterday's video: