YouOverThere

I haven't seen a statement from the Washington Ballet, but given that the Kennedy Center has announced that it has cancelled all performances through the summer it's a pretty safe assumption that the WB's presentation of Swan Lake is not going to take place. The WB still has its season-ending program of new works listed on its website but the venue and exact dates are listed as "TBA".

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.

17 minutes ago, pherank said:

Apparently cheese and yogurt manufacturers have been really upset about Pfizer needing to buy up all the available dry ice - that would put a lot of cheese making businesses in jeopardy.

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

On 12/22/2020 at 3:18 PM, Helene said:

I'm not sure enough people will be vaccinated by April, even with at least three vaccines actively used -- assuming EUA for the Johnson & Johnson in January -- for herd immunity to take by then, but it is an outdoor venue.  I wonder how many people drive vs. fly, which might be the biggest risk by then.

 

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.

On 10/22/2020 at 2:50 PM, California said:

Opera Colorado has just announced cancellation of the spring 2021 season. They perform in the same opera house as the Colorado Ballet, so I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.

Important Announcement from Opera Colorado

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

On 11/7/2020 at 2:04 PM, Hogmel said:

With so many companies cancelling their seasons im curious to know just how you think this will affect the tissue of some companies: do you think some companies might end up changed forever and if many dancers might end up seeking employment elsewhere? 

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.

On 10/13/2020 at 2:34 PM, abatt said:

The New York Philharmonic has cancelled all performances through June 2021.

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

On 10/12/2020 at 7:34 PM, canbelto said:

Larry Nassar - the first complaints about him were made in the 1990's. It took over 20 years to put this guy in jail.

Harvey Weinstein - see above

Due process only applies to white men in society. It does not apply to POC who are often jailed for trivial, non-violent crimes while violent white murders and rapists are given the benefit of the doubt. It does not apply to women who are shamed, disbelieved, dismissed, and harassed for speaking the truth. 

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

7 hours ago, California said:

Yes. They were brought back on contract for August, with virtual company class and Giselle rehearsals for one month. Then they were all furloughed until January and administrative staff are all taking pay cuts. I don't know rules on unemployment eligibility in Colorado, but I hope that helped at least some qualify. 

https://www.9news.com/article/entertainment/colorado-ballet-institues-staff-layoffs-furloughs/73-339044422

Like many companies, they have a big fund-raiser going on to help cover the gap this fall with a goal of $3 million.

https://give.coloradoballet.org/campaign/relief-and-recovery-fund/c297017

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).

1 hour ago, Buddy said:

Four technologies to detect coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in 30 seconds developed by scientists from Israel are being evaluated at Delhi’s Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital.

[This is important] All these approaches are working well in the laboratory setting, but the challenge is to see how they will work in a field setting,” he said.

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.

1 hour ago, Buddy said:

Hopefully the availability of tested vaccines early next year will end all this.

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.

On 7/25/2020 at 5:42 PM, Buddy said:

"They talk about testing. Daily testing....Apart from a vaccine, daily testing — from home, before leaving for the studio — seems like the only feasible solution for safe rehearsal. Even though paper-strip tests are less sensitive than nasal swab tests, their speed and ease would be a game changer."

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).

On 7/1/2020 at 1:25 PM, California said:

The "socialite" co-chair of the Washington Ballet's virtual gala hosted a private dinner at her home afterwards -- and later found out she is COVID-positive. The story says no one from the Ballet company attended. She was present, however, at the studios when they did live broadcasting.

 

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.)

20 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Propublica has put together a very nice tool to search for loans over $150,000. You can search by organization name, lender, zip code and business type. If you want to see which ballet companies received loans over $150K, you can start by typing "ballet" into the search field. If the company's name contains "ballet" and if it received a loan over $150,000, its name should show up on the list. 

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.