Thursday, October 29

[dirac]

A piece in The New Yorker on how New York City Ballet has coped with the pandemic, by Michael Schulman.

Quote

Plans changed. In March, as the coronavirus spread and N.Y.C.B. projected that cancelling its spring season meant the loss of eight million dollars, it committed to paying its employees through May. The dancers retreated to their apartments or went home to live with their parents, keenly aware that ballet careers don’t last forever. Whelan, whose husband has a heart condition, moved with him to their house upstate. She figured that the company would be back by winter, a lucrative time that includes the cash cow “The Nutcracker.” “We felt a little lucky,” she said.

By June, it was clear that there would be no fall season, no Nutcracker..........

 

[dirac]

A look at how two Joffrey dancers manage their money.

Quote

Their finances are atypical in a number of ways: They usually earn a steady paycheck 10 months out of the year during the company’s season. The rest of the time they focus on earning money through side work and also qualify for unemployment benefits, which combined made up 20% of their 2019 income. And because of their younger retirement age, the couple has spent the last few years getting serious about their savings, setting up streams of passive income and preparing for their future careers and lives together.

 

[dirac]

Cincinnati Ballet performs live next week.

Quote

So instead of performing in the Aronoff Center, the ballet has moved to the Music Hall Ballroom. Rather than perform in front of 2,000 people, they’ll have to limit things to just 160 people per performance. And all of the dancers will be wearing masks.

 

[dirac]

An interview with Gabe Stone Shayer of American Ballet Theatre.

Quote

It all started when ABT executive director Kara Medoff Barnett called upon company members and staff to suggest ideas for content—ways to entertain and tide audiences over until Lincoln Center performances could resume. Missing those getting-to-know-you conversations with strangers—unfeasible today when people prefer to dart away from each other like same-side magnets—Shayer proposed a series of just that. Each of the four episodes filmed first-time encounters between ABT dancers and other culture-making individuals, plus a bit of Chanel. The maison partnered with Shayer on the project and tweeded all the cast for the occasion. As for the production, the projects was overseen by Chai Vasarhelyi (Academy Award winner for her documentary Free Solo) and her production company Little Monster films. 

 

[dirac]

Lawrence Ballet Theatre presents a virtual fall show.

 

Quote

They had the lights. They had a camera. They had the talent. Then, they realized: All they needed was a green screen.

The Lawrence Arts Center’s “Trick or Treat Masquerade” show, which premieres on Saturday, won’t be a live performance. It will be a screening of a dance film featuring the 21 dancers in Lawrence Ballet Theatre.

 

[dirac]

Carlos Acosta wonders if Birmingham Royal Ballet can survive without an easing of social distancing.

Quote

Acosta, 47, who describes himself as “an optimist”, said: “We have to make a profit. With social distancing the shows just about cover our costs but for example we would normally do The Nutcracker and we aren’t doing that this year so we lost £1 million from that.

 

[dirac]

A review of Birmingham Royal Ballet by Sarah Crompton for The Guardian.

Quote

There is no doubting the hunger for live performance, or the love the city of Birmingham feels for its ballet company, now in the hands of artistic director Carlos Acosta, whose plans for his new baby have undergone endless replanning thanks to the pandemic in our midst. That he has managed to relaunch with a world premiere and two company premieres is another cause for cheer. That the new work, Will Tuckett’s Lazuli Sky, is such an elegant, propulsive piece that deals, however allusively, with our current state, puts the hat on all this celebration.