YouOverThere

KInd of interesting that while at least in the US we were initially told that wearing masks was useless, it might turn out that wearing masks would have been the most important way of slowing the spread. As I understand it, only an N95 mask that's properly fitted and properly worn protects the wearer from other people but other types of masks provide some amount of protection from a possibly infected wearer. Plus, it isn't realistic to expect that there will be enough N95 masks for the general public in the foreseeable future. I am considering ordering some non-N95 masks so that I'll have them if they become required (in DC and Maryland, they are already mandatory in grocery stores and on buses and trains) since there is a 6-8 week backlog.

But how many orchestras and dance companies could survive if they could only sell a third or half the seats? Especially dance companies since they have a limited number of performances. Anti-body testing is scary. If possessing antibodies becomes a criteria for going places and doing things, it might motivate younger people to intentionally try to get infected so that they will develop antibodies.

Classical arts performances lend themselves to policing audiences much more readily than popular music concerts, but governments might find it politically impossible to allow one and not the other, should it be determined that requiring audience members to wear face masks provides sufficient protection to allow gatherings in close quarters. I've listened to/read interviews with 2 of Germany's leading experts on coronaviruses (1 of whom is the leader of the team that created Germany's SARS-COV-2 test kit), and they both believe that the overwhelming majority of transmission occurs when people are physically close to an infected person for an extended period of time - there is little chance, for example, of being infected by someone passing by in the aisle of a grocery store - and that only a small amount of transmission occurs from people getting the virus on their hands.

I guess that I am a little disappointed that they chose to do Giselle, which has been performed frequently in DC the past few years, including by ABT just a few weeks ago. Should we infer that it's still the case in DC that WB audiences and the audiences for the out of town companies that show up at the Kennedy Center don't have a lot of crossover? I'm looking forward to the all-Ratmansky show.

The run is scheduled to last into September, so unless this crisis lasts well into the summer they would likely be able to get in a lot of performances. One theory that has been tossed around is that the Kennedy Center is desperate for the revenue that Hamilton will bring in and are furloughing employees just in case they have to cancel a substantial number of performances.

The Washington Ballet has cancelled their production of Coppelia which had been scheduled for the middle of May. A piece of trivia: Coppelia was the first ballet that Julie Kent danced in at the Kennedy Center (not sure what role she danced).

Why am I thinking that these are the numbers if everyone were to be paid in full for 2 months rather than what it will cost to pay most of the employees for 1 month and 150 or so for 2 months?

According to the Kennedy Center website, both the Bolshoi Ballet and Scottish Ballet productions have been cancelled. https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/ballet/

The Kennedy Center stated that about 90 percent of holders of tickets to cancelled performances have asked for a refund rather than donating the money. I'm guessing that other organizations are finding similar results,

The Kennedy Center director claims that they need $6 million a month to pay those members administrative staff who aren't being laid off and for office and warehouse rentals. This does NOT include the cost of maintaining the building because the building is owned and maintained by the government.

Despite being given $25 million in the bailout program, the Kennedy Center is going to layoff the musicians in the National Symphony Orchestra.

The small Denver-based dance company Wonderbound posted on their Facebook page that they will also pay their dancers and staff.

We'll have to keep our fingers crossed that this is the last extension, since it would still allow the Scottish Ballet to perform.

The Kennedy Center has cancelled all performances through May 10, so this isn't going to happen.

I did little searching around the Internet, and found that it is apparently possible for performing arts organizations to purchase insurance to protect themselves against having to cancel performances. However, I got the impression that protection against cancelling performances due to an infectious disease outbreak isn't usually a part of the basic policy but instead requires an additional premium, and it wasn't clear if the insurance company has to pay if the organization makes the cancellation decision or only if the government forces the cancellation.

They included the statement "Patrons who have tickets to this performance have three options to enable them to continue enjoying Colorado Ballet performances.", so it isn't clear that this list is exhaustive. I can easily see this crisis being the death knell for many performing arts organizations, especially since it seems quite possible that cancellations will have to be extended.

The Colorado Ballet has posted on Facebook that they have cancelled Masterworks. Not that they had any choice since Denver has prohibited gatherings of more than 250 people through April 12. Totally infuriating, as this disease did not have to happen. SARS and 2 deadly strains of bird flu developing out of Chinese wildlife markets should have given the Chinese government more than enough motivation to close down the markets.

The WB has adjusted their schedule, moving Swan Lake to June 13-21. As of right now, the Kennedy Center has only cancelled performances through the end of March, but I guess they didn't want to take the chance of a last-minute cancellation.

I suppose I should admit that when I attended Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake back in '06 I was surprised (and disappointed) when I discovered that it wasn't a ballet.

The Kennedy Center was giving refunds. I suppose that this was the right thing to do given that they charged higher prices for Ms. Copeland's scheduled performance than for other shows. There were quite a few people at the ticket window to get refunds, so that if I had wanted to pay the extra $ for a ticket for last night I would have missed at least the first 10 minutes (instead, I went to a rather bizarrely - and IMHO not very effectively -staged rendition of Mozart's "The Clemency of Titus" - it did have dancers in it, though they were distracting and annoying, spending most of the time pretending to fight with each other). There are people in the DC area who only go to a ballet if Misty Copeland is in it. Or only go to a dance performance if it's the Alvin Ailey company. But the audiences for the National Ballet of Canada performances featured an unusually large (and vocal) percentage of Canadians and Canadian-Americans. Audiences at performances by Korean companies have been largely Asian and Asian-American.

I'm too lazy to type in everything, so here's a link to the casting to the WB's "Balanchine and Ashton" run (you need to click on "Read More" for each piece): https://www.washingtonballet.org/events/balanchine-ashton/ Katharine Barkman and Maki Onuki both get a chance to partner with Marcelo Gomes.

Though there are now several dozen seats available (presumably) because of Copland's cancellation, the Kennedy Center is still charging premium prices ($119 for the seats in the area that I paid $59 the last 2 nights), so I doubt that I will go.

I guess that I didn't notice the lack of musicality from McBride, perhaps because she was an improvement over the ballerina on Tuesday. If both ballerinas struggled with the part, perhaps some of the blame can be pinned on the choreography/staging. Otherwise, I basically agree with what the others have posted about the Wednesday performance. Hee Seo was better than I expected on Tuesday night, perhaps being even more convincing as a (presumably) mid-teens girl than Sara Lane (even if perhaps not quite as fluid). But the main reason that I took in the Tuesday performance was to see Devon Teuscher as Myrta (Myrtha?), and I wasn't disappointed. As usual, I have complaints about the costumes. Berthe looked more like Giselle's grandmother than mother and Bathilde looked too old to be marrying Albrecht.

I just received an email about a ticket discount: "Select orchestra seats from $59". There's no indication of what seats are considered "select". Since it doesn't specify otherwise, it presumably applies to any performance other than tonight (Thursday), which as of 11:20 EST was listed as sold out (I doubt that anyone needs to check to see who is dancing Giselle tonight). The discount code is 390821

I can't pass up the chance to complain about the costumes. Some of them were a bit ridiculous, especially in the last act where the men wore bright orange pants and what looked like exotic birds on their heads and the mazurka women wore dresses with brown circles at interesting locations.