Orlando Ballet's Robert Hill re departing dancers:

[Helene]

Moderator Note: At the request of several members, I've split this off from the original thread (concerning the Merce Cunningham Company). It deserves a discussion of its own. Bart

Another senior person really sticks his foot in it, although this time it is Orlando Ballet Artistic Director Robert Hill:

"I'm really grateful that all that history is going away," he said, referring to the departing dancers. "It will be a really short time before we have a great new company." Hill favors remounting classics with a contemporary flair; the company's 35th anniversary program in March showcased Hill's neoclassic and pop-influenced choreography to audience acclaim.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-story-1...0,2938084.story

[dirac]

Yes, I couldn't believe that one when I posted it yesterday on the Links. An awful thing to say.

[sandik]

Another senior person really sticks his foot in it, although this time it is Orlando Ballet Artistic Director Robert Hill:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-story-1...0,2938084.story

I thought the limitations on guesting were small as well, particularly in a year when they've had their contracts shortened by three weeks.

[vagansmom]

I am hoping that those words were just an unfortunate utterance, the kind of thing we blurt out when we're tired and/or distracted, and that Hill didn't really mean them the way they sounded.

[dirac]

Tired or no, it was a remarkably insensitive and undiplomatic thing to say. Even after the most savage layoffs employers generally manage to summon up some boilerplate about the former employees' value to the organization, etc.

[Helene]

At least these dancers have the consolation that the "history" he's so glad to get rid of is also classical ballet, which they represent.

[Marga]

Not a fan of Robert Hill at all, and a HUGE fan of Orlando Ballet, but I read the remark to mean, as well, the social "history" of the company -- the behind-the-scenes relationships and loyalties, habits and traditions that extend not only to Marks' time with them, but before, to the golden Bujones years, and to when it was called Southern Ballet Theater (some of the present dancers started with the company under that name).