Fonty Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Well, someone told me yesterday whom it is to be (apparently) and I not sure I believe them. Not Monica Mason, is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 Well, someone told me yesterday whom it is to be (apparently) and I not sure I believe them. There is only one name doing the rounds and I share your disbelief, not that the rumour is inaccurate but that anyone would take on such an inexperienced person to run a major company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I'm feeling worried now! Does anyone know when the name of the new AD is going to be announced? I really hope that whoever it is, s/he really understands the challenges of running a company like ENB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I was told the new director's name would be released after the Easter break, in other words this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna C Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 I'm feeling very sorry for the dancers. All this uncertainty must be incredibly unsettling for them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 I wonder whether they already know who it is! They're all very quiet on Twitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpistic Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 They're on holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted April 10, 2012 Share Posted April 10, 2012 So they are - I'd forgotten. Welcome back, harpistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpistic Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Thanks - it's nice to have an account at last! They're on holiday till the end of this week - so if the announcement is made this week, it'll be while they're still away? We can but wait and see.... ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpistic Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 There's a full company meeting at ENB tomorrow, so the speculation is nearly at an end... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Harpistic, can you post the name of the new AD when it becomes public? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpistic Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Will do - if I'm not beaten to it! Also, there's a couple of fresh posts over on the Dancing Times thread if anyone's still following it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Effie Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 I'm not convinced that public criticism of the ENB board (and petitions and individual letters to The Arts Council) will be helpful to the ENB dancers and staff. If a grant-giving body believes that an organisation is dysfunctional it may decide to withdraw the grant altogether and fund other organisations instead. It would have been better if the authors of this letter had asked for a private meeting with the board to discuss their concerns but perhaps they have tried this approach already and have not got anywhere. We don't know who the authors are. If they are major donors they would obviously have more influence than a group of dancers and ballet-lovers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Effie Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Mmm, I thought that. There's nothing wrong with objecting to the loss of a Director so I wonder why the authors would feel the need to hide behind anonymity? Why not just write saying how sad it is for the company and ask if anything can be done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Effie Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 There is everything wrong if the Chairman of the Board issues a fulsome tribute to one of the best Directors ENB has ever had the privilege to work with, and if the Chairman then goes on to say that he looks forward to working with said sacked Director in the future - truly Alice in Wonderland time. Puzzled bystanders are entitled to ask exactly what is the problem. It is as simple as that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpistic Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 (edited) Puzzled bystanders can find said answers on the Dancing Times page. Perhaps they're not the answers which ENB fans want to hear, but they can be found on that thread. Edited April 11, 2012 by harpistic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Effie: As a total bystander in this affair, I offer a possible answer to your implied conundrum - and it is that if ENB is to keep Wayne Eagling's "Nutcracker" and works such as "Men Y Men" in its near-term repertoire, as I imagine it must do for financial reasons, then some relationship with him will become inevitable. And in such circumstances, the responsibility for making things work will presumably fall most heavily on the new AD and not on members of the Board. Accepting that there appears to have been a total breakdown in relations, for whatever reason - and we bystanders may have to wait for the protagonists' memoirs to know the real story - I see the Chairman's statement as formulaic and, however reluctantly, pragmatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amelia Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 quote: “It would have been better if the authors of this letter had asked for a private meeting with the board to discuss their concerns but perhaps they have tried this approach already and have not got anywhere.” Exactly, Aileen, your guess is right. The authors did ask the Board! And the private meeting was scheduled! But eventually cancelled - guess by whom? quote: “why the authors would feel the need to hide behind anonymity? “ I can only guess, spannerandpony, that the authors might be close to some members of the company and wanted to protect them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Effie Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Puzzled bystanders can find said answers on the Dancing Times page. Perhaps they're not the answers which ENB fans want to hear, but they can be found on that thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Effie Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Dancing Times pages are neither here nor there: the only people who know the full story are Mr Talbot and his Board. He refuses to explain his decision, he cannot be questioned publicly (as can the Prime Minister and his Ministers) so one can only assume that he may be on thin ice and knows it. There is an issue of accuntability here which will not doubt be pursued in the appropriate quarters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Effie Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Effie: As a total bystander in this affair, I offer a possible answer to your implied conundrum - and it is that if ENB is to keep Wayne Eagling's "Nutcracker" and works such as "Men Y Men" in its near-term repertoire, as I imagine it must do for financial reasons, then some relationship with him will become inevitable. And in such circumstances, the responsibility for making things work will presumably fall most heavily on the new AD and not on members of the Board. Accepting that there appears to have been a total breakdown in relations, for whatever reason - and we bystanders may have to wait for the protagonists' memoirs to know the real story - I see the Chairman's statement as formulaic and, however reluctantly, pragmatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Effie Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 It is not a conundrum; it is a question. Only Mr Talbot and his politburo know the answer. Mr Talbot's statement was not worth the paper it was written on, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpistic Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Hello Effie, I assume you've wandered over here because of the lack of dialogue on the Dancing Times page (which must be raking in a small fortune in advertising with all the page hits!) As mentioned earlier in this thread, this forum is predominantly pro-RB rather than pro-ENB, so the members don't necessarily feel as passionately as the ones commenting on the WWW? page. As Ian has suggested above, there are probably diplomacy reasons at stake, while for myself, I feel that the board's statement so far is entirely standard, and a means of trying to keep the full story where it belongs - in private. However, the various bits and pieces I've heard from various sources at ENB have been echoed by several people in the comments on the Dancing Times thread so as I said earlier, please do read through them if you are still seeking answers. I appreciate that you want to stimulate the conversation, however as you'll see, the pro-Wayne/anti-Talbot discussion is a lot livelier over on DT! Us lot are happier discussing the intricacies of the Sweet Violets storyline.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 this forum is predominantly pro-RB rather than pro-ENB I'd dispute that: it's just that the people who tend to post seem to watch the RB rather more than they do ENB. And/or we don't know enough about the situation to add anything concrete, rather than just speculate . Anyway, dating back at least as far as Peter Schaufuss in 1990, the board has never discussed decisions of this sort publicly (and arguably it shouldn't, for legal reasons), and I doubt anything will change this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 There is a company meeting today, what about has not been said I think. What I do know is that as of 17:00 last night the company had no plans to officially tell Joe Public today about a new director. Hopefully tomorrow everybody can talk about it. But all things can change and it might yet be that the company decides otherwise or anonymous fans blurt it out. I think all discussion is best had when the news properly emerges. This is a thread about Wayne Eagling's resignation - I'd assume that words about a new director will start in a fresh thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Well, I think that the ENB Board should make a public announcement about the new AD today. It seems to be an open secret who it is in some quarters. What is the point of not going public as soon as the dancers and staff are told? All the secrecy and speculation does not help the Board. If the Board is confident about its decision to replace Wayne E and confident about its choice of his replacement then it should behave accordingly and make the announcement now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Off-topic slightly but as a non-London based person I would like to say that there is an obvious reason why there are more likely to be more posts about RB than other British companies. All the other companies perform in blocks whereas the RB tend to perform in performances spread throughout the year ergo people are more likely to dip in and out. I believe the people who post on this board are interested in ballet and dance in general. When I post about BRB, NB or ENB, as I am usually only seeing one performance or several in two days it is impossible for me to post more than once on that topic. Back to topic, I had a look at the DT comments again last night. They had grown considerably from the last time I had checked and I was horrified by the tone of many of them. As no-one outside those directly involved can possibly know the facts, speculation can be harmful and hurting. For the sake of those involved I suspect that most people have decided to wait and see what happens without further stoking the flames. Again, this board encourages discussion on all forms of ballet and dance and, hopefully, some people who have recently decided to post will continue to do so about a variety of companies. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebird Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Back to topic, I had a look at the DT comments again last night. They had grown considerably from the last time I had checked and I was horrified by the tone of many of them. As no-one outside those directly involved can possibly know the facts, speculation can be harmful and hurting. For the sake of those involved I suspect that most people have decided to wait and see what happens without further stoking the flames. I was also horrified by some of the posts on the DT website. Many of them would have been removed by moderators if they'd been posted on this website. I wrote to the Dancing Times more than a week ago, asking why there was no moderation on their website. I have not yet had a reply! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aileen Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Janet, I too was shocked at the tone of some of the comments in response to the letter in the DT. There seems to be a lot of bitterness and division in and around ENB. That is why the Board needs to end the speculation now and act decisively by announcing the name of the new AD so that everyone can "move on". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAB Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I have just returned from reading the full discussion over on Dancing Times and found it very enlightening. The initial support from the start of the comments was from the AD of Cork Ballet and a UK ballet critic together with supporters of ENB, then something odd seemed to happen with what appeared to be a text book exercise in trolling when several people with exactly the same writing style claimed to be members of ENB and all these people (or more probably one person) were scathing about Wayne Eagling without explaining exactly why and the debate became somewhat vigorous. Personally I don't have a problem with the tone of the comments as I know many people are passionate about ballet and I think that the pro Wayne people have a strong case for thinking something is amiss where the ENB board is concerned: Dance Europe seems to think so too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 Am I right in thinking that the identity of the new ENB AD is now "officially" public? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann Williams Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 I'm not sure why some posters are so insistent that the ENB board should make an announcement about the new AD before, presumably, they are ready to do so. They may have very sound reasons for remaining silent - can this just not be accepted? I'm as intrigued as anyone else, but I can wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lindsay Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 To clarify, I wasn't actually calling for them to make an announcement, I was asking whether they had already done so - since several journalists now appear to think they are in a position to report on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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