Coronavirus (COVID-19) Affects the Ballet World

[Lauren]

What a bizarre response. Nope, not the board for me. Goodbye.

[canbelto]

The Bolshoi Theater also has masking/vaccine requirements:

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Theatres and museums are excluded from the new lockdown and will be permitted to stay open provided they limit the number of visitors, who will be required to wear masks and present QR codes on their mobile phones to prove they have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID.

 

[volcanohunter]

The Netherlands has gone into lockdown, and all performances by the Dutch National Ballet have been canceled until mid January.

https://www.operaballet.nl/en/corona-update 

[canbelto]

Royal Danish Theater too:

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All performances and all other activities, including tours, foyer events, ballet lessons for adults, etc. has been canceled from Sunday 19 December until 17 January 2022

All performances and all other activities, including tours, foyer events, ballet lessons for adults, etc. has been canceled from Sunday 19 December until 17 January 2022

[aurora]

The Joffrey had to cancel both of today's performances but the show will go on tomorrow!

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXoyVuZlWbI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

[cobweb]

I was very much looking forward to a performance tomorrow of Mark Morris Dance Company, at Berkeley, California's Zellerbach Hall. Just got an email -- positive covid test in the company, performance cancelled. Wow, what a bummer. And awfully expensive for an arts organization. Having it affect me personally makes me wonder more about this - who is going to pay for these cancellations, is it the dance company or the presenter? Also, is this really necessary if no one is actually sick/symptomatic? 

[Balletwannabe]

47 minutes ago, cobweb said:

I was very much looking forward to a performance tomorrow of Mark Morris Dance Company, at Berkeley, California's Zellerbach Hall. Just got an email -- positive covid test in the company, performance cancelled. Wow, what a bummer. And awfully expensive for an arts organization. Having it affect me personally makes me wonder more about this - who is going to pay for these cancellations, is it the dance company or the presenter? Also, is this really necessary if no one is actually sick/symptomatic? 

Don't close contacts have to wait something like 3 or 5 days before taking a test to see if they're positive?  

[nanushka]

1 hour ago, cobweb said:

I was very much looking forward to a performance tomorrow of Mark Morris Dance Company, at Berkeley, California's Zellerbach Hall. Just got an email -- positive covid test in the company, performance cancelled. Wow, what a bummer. And awfully expensive for an arts organization. Having it affect me personally makes me wonder more about this - who is going to pay for these cancellations, is it the dance company or the presenter? Also, is this really necessary if no one is actually sick/symptomatic? 

I too have wondered if these closures are necessary, @cobweb. I'm 100% in favor of vaccine and mask requirements, but I haven't thought through (or heard full enough explanations of) why closures would be necessitated just by a positive case or two among a fully vaccinated company.

[AB'sMom]

You make a good point. Ballet companies tend to be made up of young, healthy people. If they are all fully vaccinated and only get mild illness, if any illness at all, then is it really necessary to cancel shows? I guess until COVID officially transitions from a  pandemic to an endemic virus, cancellations will still happen. The NFL just announced that they aren’t going to test fully vaccinated players unless they have symptoms.

[Helene]

Of course, it's not just dancers who are exposed:  it's Ballet Masters, stagers, costumers and dressers, who do fittings, too, accompanists, office people, cleaning people, security people, and backstage people, and not all of them are young and healthy.  Plus the orchestra.

[nanushka]

38 minutes ago, Helene said:

Of course, it's not just dancers who are exposed:  it's Ballet Masters, stagers, costumers and dressers, who do fittings, too, accompanists, office people, cleaning people, security people, and backstage people, and not all of them are young and healthy.  Plus the orchestra.

All of whom, depending on company and location, may be required to be vaccinated. So in that way it's like many workplaces in the U.S., with vaccine and mask requirements in place (to varying degrees, on the latter). In many of those workplaces, when there's one (or more than one but unrelated) positive case — if anyone even knows about it — things don't shut down. I do hope we get to a place where that can be the norm, even if we're not there yet.

[canbelto]

I work in a school and it seems as if every day another teacher goes down. Very rarely is anyone seriously sick because we're all vaccinated. School hasn't been closed. I think moving forward theaters might eventually find a way to stay open despite some positive cases.

Edited December 20, 2021 by canbelto

[canbelto]

Royal Ballet has canceled Nutcrackers through 1/3.

[Balletwannabe]

45 minutes ago, canbelto said:

Royal Ballet has canceled Nutcrackers through 1/3.

Based on what I'm listening to in the news, we're in for a rough winter and I doubt anything is going to get better in the next two weeks... So sad Nutcracker season is being cut short for some companies.  I know that's the bread and butter of every ballet company.

Edited December 20, 2021 by Balletwannabe

[volcanohunter]

On 12/17/2021 at 5:36 AM, volcanohunter said:

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal have also been hit with a new 50% capacity limit during the height of Nutcracker season.

This year the company has been presenting a modified program without young dancers, featuring a new ballet by AD Ivan Cavallari and the second act of The Nutcracker.

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens had already cancelled Nutcrackers between December 17 and 23 because seven people working on the production have been infected, and today, in response to a record 4,571 new infections, the government of Quebec is putting the province into a near lockdown, so I have a feeling that Montreal's Nutcracker season is shot.

https://grandsballets.com/en/news/detail/important-update-the-nutcracker-claras-journey/

[California]

English National Ballet just sent this out to Friends:

To ensure that the company is best placed to avoid cancellations related to positive cases, performances of Raymonda on 18 January (evening), 19 January (evening) and 20 January (matinee) will no longer go ahead.

That leaves performances January 13-16 and 21-23. Nothing about their Nutcracker.

[AB'sMom]

My daughter said New York City Ballet cancelled The Nutcracker tonight.

[canbelto]

Yes the date is no longer available in NYC Ballet's website.

[Xiaoyi]

National Ballet of Canada has cancelled two Nutcracker performances today: 

Please note, today's performances of The Nutcracker on December 21 at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm are cancelled. Please check your inbox for further information about your options or click here and login to your account and select Ticket Options. We apologize for the short notice.

[canbelto]

Here's the official announcement:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/arts/dance/nutcracker-canceled-covid.html

[volcanohunter]

3 hours ago, Xiaoyi said:

National Ballet of Canada has cancelled two Nutcracker performances today: 

Please note, today's performances of The Nutcracker on December 21 at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm are cancelled. Please check your inbox for further information about your options or click here and login to your account and select Ticket Options. We apologize for the short notice.

All remaining Nutcrackers by the National Ballet of Canada have been cancelled because of breakthrough infections in the company.

Edited December 22, 2021 by volcanohunter

[canbelto]

Tomorrow's performances of Nutcracker at nycb have been canceled as well.

[volcanohunter]

Birmingham Royal Ballet will not perform its Nutcracker at Royal Albert Hall this year.

 

[volcanohunter]

On 12/19/2021 at 7:10 PM, nanushka said:

In many of those workplaces, when there's one (or more than one but unrelated) positive case — if anyone even knows about it — things don't shut down. I do hope we get to a place where that can be the norm, even if we're not there yet.

On 12/19/2021 at 8:10 PM, canbelto said:

I work in a school and it seems as if every day another teacher goes down. Very rarely is anyone seriously sick because we're all vaccinated. School hasn't been closed. I think moving forward theaters might eventually find a way to stay open despite some positive cases.

I think many ballet companies were trying to continue despite positive cases. When Les Grands Ballets Canadiens canceled a weeks' worth of performances, it cited seven infections among those working on the production, so not one or two. The company didn't specify whether these were dancers or musicians or crew. Perhaps all of the above. When the Royal Opera House announced a number of cancellations, it cited "resource challenges caused by the Omicron COVID-19 variant." (The Rockettes also cited "increasing challenges from the pandemic.") The National Ballet of Canada blamed plural "breakthrough cases" for ending its Nutcracker run ahead of schedule. I suspect all these shows were trying to plug holes left by people forced into self-isolation, until they couldn't plug them anymore.

I suppose musicians could be hired at fairly short notice (even if things were to start resembling the Poliakoff Agency in Some Like It Hot.) Unionized crew might also be readily available, although Nutcracker productions tend to be complex, and I'm not convinced replacing crew members would be safe. In October a super at the Bolshoi Theater was crushed to death during an opera performance by a descending piece of scenery. Dancers would be difficult to replace, especially if a company is already stretched thin by injuries. If pressed, orchestra players can sight-read their parts on the spot. Most dancers can't read notation, and in any case they can't do it while they're dancing.

Edited December 22, 2021 by volcanohunter

[silvermash]

Paris Opera Ballet triple bill at Garnier (Ashton/Eyal/Nijinski) is danced without orchestra (a music  recording had been made during the rehearsals) the last two weeks due to covid in the orchestra. Yesterday, they had to cancel Ashton Rhapsody because the dancers are now too few to perform. POB reimbursed the tickets but offered the audience to attend the two other ballets for free.