lull

http://www.forum-dansomanie.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7619

From Russian newspaper reports (easier to translate!), it seems the official line is that the ballet was not "ready" but sources are saying that the ballet was cancelled due to its LGBT content. The ballet depicts the Nureyev-Bruhn relationship (it seems even their letters are read aloud); there is a scene in the "Bois de Boulogne" part of the ballet with male corps dancers as transvestites; and Forbes (Russia) has an image of the scenery that is NSFW (i.e., projected images of Nureyev's nude photo shoot). Very bold for the Bolshoi!!! I hope another company is able to perform this production. I imagine it could have a place at POB or another LGBT-friendly company (maybe in Sweden with its new director?).

Why the censorship? I am finding it difficult to translate the Instagram comment threads from the dancers' accounts. Is it due to the people involved in creating the ballet (one of them is facing criminal charges??) or some content (one of the dancers playing Erik dropped out before it all was canceled??) or... whatever it is, the dancers feel free enough to comment on it. I just can't understand what they are saying.

In America, American Ballet Theatre is an example of what a "star system" (their words) can do to company moral. It has always been an international company with exciting guest artists - like ENB, it was late to open a school - but then for over a decade in the 2000s the CEO/CFO made a financial decision to give the *majority* of its leading roles during its main season (eight weeks at the Metropolitan Opera) to a jumble of one-time guest artists after a few years where American Ballet Theatre had been bursting with its own home-grown talent. We saw a massive turnover in the corps and dozens of soloists and even principals left the company due to lack of opportunities. These artists - and even those who stayed - made their views on the star system known in print. Even the principals who stayed have spoken about how demoralizing it was to dance less and less while "talents" like Ivan Vasiliev were flown in to sell tickets to a targeted audience. When the CFO gave an interview at a business college boasting about the star system, it was so controversial that the ballet company asked it to be yanked from YouTube. Only recently has the Artistic Director admitted that those lost years have damaged the company's reputation ("the solution became the problem") and took years away from careers (a principal promoted in her late thirties, debuting in roles at age 39!); and just THIS season, company soloists have finally had chances to debut in leading roles. I don't envy the ADs who are offered the choice between a quick fix of importing guest artists and a long-term struggle of attracting and nurturing young talent. Here are excerpts from an interview with the AD at the height of the star strategy years. Q. Does the presence of guest stars have an effect on company morale? A. I think it does. It’s natural, and it’s normal. When I was dancing, Lucia [Chase] brought lots of guests. Misha [Mikhail Baryshnikov] brought fewer, but when he did, I was like, “What’s the matter with me?” Q. Is it true that ballet dancers are more like free agents now? A. On the principal level, yes. The people it hits hardest are not the people who are new to a company and not the people who are clearly gifted and moving up. It’s the people who have already been through that and now are going, “Is this it?” I say, “What exactly is so bad about being a flagship soloist or even a junior principal who maybe isn’t right to do all the roles?” That’s what gives the company the depth we have — that the girl who’s playing Giselle’s mother is as moving and believable as the guest artist who’s maybe recognized as the greatest Giselle in the world. Q. And yet you need those guest artists to draw audiences? A. Contributions are way down. And much as I hate to admit it, a new face is interesting to an audience. And also, are we presenting the best of the best? https://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/arts/dance/american-ballet-theaters-director-kevin-mckenzie.html

Maybe it has to do with his recent comments about their relationship and his tattoo removal. Still there are role models of professionalism for him to follow, esp. at the RB there is Thiago and Marianela...

http://www.roh.org.uk/news/cast-change-marguerite-and-armand-on-5-and-10-june-2017 Very "so close but so far."

The ROH chose a great picture with which to illustrate the Polunin announcement.

You can! Thanks to the Wayback Machine. Link in English to the last Bournonville Festival season. https://web.archive.org/web/20040812083725fw_/http://www.kgl-teater.dk:80/dkt2002uk/ballet/repertoire/repertoire0405.htm

Dancer photos and bios are available on the Danish version of the website. Link below: https://kglteater.dk/om-os/kunstarter/den-kongelige-ballet/

I'm sorry about the ballet but I hope you get to go to a Broadway show or something else fun.

August is a dead zone for ballet in New York. ABT and NYCB do not return to NY until October-ish. The major dance houses for visiting companies (not necessarily "great," often regional troupes) are the David Koch Theater, NY City Center, Joyce Theater, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Those venues show no events for August.

In theory, this behavior should drive demand among the audience. Showing sold out on the ROH website should drive more people to use the overpriced vendor (this worked on Penelope's friend) at the time and then also work on people who only get around to checking on tickets from the ROH website closer to the date of the peformance. Penelope, you mentioned something like... most ROH shows sell out anyway... but this strategy may be the reason why they shift so many tickets lately. Picking aspects of dynamic pricing does not work for everyone. Famously, the Met Opera's interpretion of this model was mostly just raising their ticket prices by 10%! Needless to say, they backed away from the strategy and issued sort of an apology in the press when it affected their bottom line negatively.

Hi Janet, The uglier side of dynamic pricing which you described is very common here in America. I know it works because companies talk all the time about how it maximizes profits but it never works on me. I get turned away by the higher prices because I feel like it's a scam. You'll often find in the brochures, "Tickets from $$" instead of "Tickets $$-$$" and that can be a clue. Here in Washington DC, I thought about supporting my local ballet company (it numbers 20 dancers and performs to recorded music) but when I went to buy a last minute ticket in the back row of the theater it was selling for $90 when the best seats in the orchestra had gone for $22 just days ago. The theater was about a third of a way empty just a few hours before the show. I presume it stayed that way but maybe some were lured in by their pricing model? It seems to makes more financial sense for me to buy a $100 orchestra ticket and a $10 round trip bus ticket to see American Ballet Theatre or New York City Ballet with better dancers and live music. The Royal Ballet is likely under pressure from vendors who follow this pricing model. They can cap their prices but still give into holding blocks of tickets to create an artificial demand that benefits both parties but not the audience.

It is called dynamic pricing. In addition to many other aspects, companies hold back tickets so they are not purchased by those broker / ticket agencies selling to your friend and the ROH itself can make more of a profit.