YouOverThere
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Posts posted by YouOverThere
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27 minutes ago, pherank said:
And if everyone was wearing an N95 rated mask it wouldn't be so bad. Sitting and wearing a mask isn't a big deal - it's having to move about and breath more heavily while wearing a mask that is difficult (and quickly wears out the mask). We just need the darn masks.
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.
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40 minutes ago, Leah said:
What we need is maximum density restrictions, antibody testing, and temperature checking. Those are far easier to achieve than a vaccine, and it’s the approach being carried out already in Asian countries. Ballet would be difficult to manage with the close contact involved, but I don’t think it would be impossible.
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.
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1 hour ago, pherank said:
If the "2nd wave" issue wasn't weighing on people's minds, then the chance of a Fall season would be much better (following guidelines for protective gear, etc.) We need a safe vaccine, and effective treatment program for Covid-19 before we can get back to mass gatherings. Otherwise, the disease would continue to spread exponentially. I think we are looking at 1 to 1 1/2 years for this disease to run its course, and an effective vaccine to be developed. However, there are many labs in different countries racing to develop a vaccine as early as possible. It just doesn't tend to get done in under 18 months time.
I could see a situation in which healthy groups of people, who have been individually cleared (and are monitored daily) could get together to work. But they really would need to follow pandemic guidelines and wear protective gear and stay socially distant. That makes dancing together as a group real difficult. I would love for the dance companies to be able to get together again and take class, rehearse works, and film dress rehearsals for public streaming online (and make money that way). But they would need to be, in a sense, quarantined together just to do that.
I'm looking for a silver lining...
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.
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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.
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15 minutes ago, lmspear said:
They'll put off making a cancellation announcement for as long as possible, Maybe as late as June first.
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.
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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).
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15 hours ago, California said:
How is the $25M being spent?
Employee Compensation
$12,750,000
Employee Benefits
$7,500,000
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?
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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/
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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,
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47 minutes ago, pherank said:
Has anyone stated where the money will be used? Or is it all too little, too late?
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.
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Despite being given $25 million in the bailout program, the Kennedy Center is going to layoff the musicians in the National Symphony Orchestra.
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On 3/21/2020 at 8:51 AM, California said:
One bright spot in the midst of this global catastrophe: Colorado Ballet has decided to pay its dancers and artistic staff through the end of their contracts, even though the final program of the season was cancelled.
Colorado Ballet's board and leadership recognized the financial impact this would have on the various artists of Colorado Ballet and unanimously decided to pay all Company and Studio Company dancers, ballet mistresses and the Colorado Ballet Orchestra through the remainder of their original contracts, which would have concluded on April 12, 2020.
The small Denver-based dance company Wonderbound posted on their Facebook page that they will also pay their dancers and staff.
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13 minutes ago, California said:
The Kennedy Center is cancelling all performances through May 10, extending its earlier cancellations through March 31.
We'll have to keep our fingers crossed that this is the last extension, since it would still allow the Scottish Ballet to perform.
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The Kennedy Center has cancelled all performances through May 10, so this isn't going to happen.
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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.
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3 hours ago, California said:
Colorado Ballet is giving people three very reasonable options. Patrons have to take the initiative to decide what they want to do. Nothing is automatic. From the Facebook responses, it looks like many will donate the ticket value and get a tax deduction.
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Ticketholders may:
- Turn their ticket(s) purchase into a donation to help Colorado Ballet finish the season strong. All ticket donations are fully tax-deductible.
- Receive an on-account credit that can be applied to tickets for the 2020/2021 season. This credit can be used for subscriptions or single tickets when purchased by phone. The credit will be good for one year for the value of the tickets, if purchased through Colorado Ballet.
- Exchange their ticket(s) for a gift certificate for a performance during the 2020/2021 season.
As a nonprofit arts organization with 55% of our operating cost covered by ticket sales, Colorado Ballet thanks all patrons who will consider donating their ticket(s) purchase.
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.
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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.
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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.
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3 minutes ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:
A few years ago I attended a performance of Strauss' Elektra at the Met. The couple next to me was stunned, stunned to discover that they had purchased tickets to an opera and not a modern staging of an ancient Greek play. I think it was their first opera, and I suspect that it didn't exactly sell them on the art form, even though it was a very good performance.
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.
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2 hours ago, kika said:
Nanushka I cannot tell you whether anyone did in fact get a refund, but plenty were asking for their money back. I don't know what the official policy is about refunds.
The audience applauded Brandt on her first entrance, and during the final curtain calls there was a standing ovation and enthusiastic cheering. I would not say there was anything muted about the response. It was a very very good performance.
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.
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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.
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46 minutes ago, abatt said:
I so wish I could be in DC tonight! Reports please.
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.
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2 hours ago, lacdescygnes said:
The peasant pas was the only slight let down - Blaine Hoven was very good in his variations, but looked visibly tense partnering Betsy McBride, and she wasn't particularly musical or impressive, I thought. Overall though, a wonderful performance.
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.
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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
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Affects the Ballet World
in COVID-19: Ballet and the Arts
Posted
"Herd immunity" doesn't require a vaccine, however it does require a significant portion of the population to have developed anti-bodies. I've seen the figure of 60 percent thrown around. In the absence of a vaccine, that means having been infected to the extent that the immune system mobilizes against the disease. In the US, 60 percent would mean close to 200 million people, and even if the fatality rate is at the low end of the estimates that I've seen - 0.4 percent claimed in a study of one of the most affected districts in Germany - that would mean close to 800,000 deaths.