zxDaveM Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 looks like Sky are closing Sky Arts 2 (or, as they put it, merging 1 & 2). Which can't be good news for dance (or classical music) coverage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 (edited) Oh, this is a shame .... (I did notice that there was far less 'new' SA2 product of very late ... and what there was over the most recent months seems to have premièred on Sky Arts 1) .... I have a feeling some of us will have to question our subscriptions in time depending on the outcome of the renewed focus. I wonder if the increase of Arts programming on the BBC under Tony Hall was a factor. That said the BBC now generally produces its own arts material whilst Sky Arts 2 largely brought such in from the outside. The British arts commissioners' market in terms of media is certainly becoming an ever more elite calling. I'm certain they must wish it was otherwise and may soon look at Sky Arts 2's history as a separate entity with an ever more acute nostalgia. Truly. Here's the sky article on the merger .. http://www.sky.com/tv/channel/skyarts/article/latest-news I see the BalletBoyz will be focusing on the Kama Sutra in a Sky Arts 'Sex' season with choreography by Javier De Frutos. Edited May 1, 2015 by Bruce Wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Pigeons Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 My goodness. No more Andre Rieu round the clock at weekends! Apart from that I will miss Sky Arts 2. There have been some interesting dance documentaries over the years as well as performances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I don't for a moment suppose that will result in any greater arts coverage on free-to-air channels, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 My goodness. No more Andre Rieu round the clock at weekends! . LOL - every cloud, and all that :-) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmhopton Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 What a shame! We changed from cable tv to Sky way back in 2000 just for SkyArts (or Artsworld as it was then). Lately Sky was the main channel showing the ROH cinema broadcasts. Who will show them now? I remember being amazed how quickly they showed the Osipova Giselle. I thought up to transmission it must be a mistake and another cast would appear and couldn't believe it when Carlos and Natalia appeard on screen. Having said that there have been few new programmes since then apart from the Bolshoi Unseen series though that was very interesting. I can't say I remember many actual performances being shown on any BBC channels recently despite Tony Halls stated commitment to the arts. There were the 3 ballet documentaries about ballerinas, dancing in the Blitz and Swan lake interpretations which were interesting but not much in the way of performances apart from Winters Tale at Christmas. Mind you opera fared even worse as there was no televised opera at all over Christmas on BBC. I understand the expense of filming performances but surely more channels could show the cinema broadcasts or buy in filmed performances from abroad. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted May 1, 2015 Author Share Posted May 1, 2015 Had a detailed reply (on Facebook) to my whinge. They say that the content will remain, just there will be less repeats. Tuesday will be ballet night - Thursday Andre Rieu night!! (no getting away from that!) They are going to be making it easier to do 'on demand' searches (for whatever device) for content - including the eqivalent of box sets by the sounds of it. As I rarely use 'on demand' in any format, not sure how I'll benefit from that. But at least they replied to my concerns! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLOSS Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 Sky is a commercial business and you can not expect it screen programmes that do not attract large audiences.The BBC is not,in theory, a commercial organisation.It has a duty to educate and entertain but it appears very happy to concentrate on entertainment and forget about educating its viewers about the theatrical art forms of opera and ballet on terrestrial television. It seems content to fill late night hours with The Old Grey Whistle Test and documentaries about pop singers of the 1960's to 1980's. I suppose that such programming ensures that the corporation will not be accused of elitism. It seems ignorant about and/or indifferent to the art programmes that I assume are still in its archives After all you might have expected the documentaries about the dancers of Diaghilev's Ballet Russes, John Drummond's Speaking of Diaghilev to be dusted off and screened occasionally.Other programmes that should have been retained are the masterclasses that Markova gave on Les Sylphides and some other ballets with Ashmole and Barbieri as dancers. Then there is the Fonteyn series about ballet history; recordings of a number of ballets including Peter Wright's production of Sleeping Beauty with Sibley and Dowell which the BBC say was wiped, and De Valois' 1977 production with Park and Wall which was screened in 1978. I am always suspicious of the BBC's statements that recordings are not available or have been destroyed because that used to be the corporation's stock response to enquiries about sound recordings at a time when they were not considered to have any commercial value.If the tape of the Sibley and Dowell Beauty really was wiped than the corporation could always ask the public whether anyone has a recording of it. It was just such an enquiry that led to the recovery of several missing episodes of Dr Who. Both recordings would be of considerable historic interest as they show the company dancing at a speed and in a style somewhat different from what we are used to today. Some people say that they are bored by Sleeping Beauty and I certainly find the Fairy Variations as currntly cast and performed something of a trial.I no longer feel any regret if circumstances prevent me seeing the Prologue.Forty years ago I would have felt very differently. Seeing performances in which the Fairy Variations are cast with real care and a coherent,musical account is given of the entire choreographic text rather than one in which the Rose Adagio is treated as an Olympic style event and the rest of the ballet,is,as a result reduced in significance might lead to a radical rethink of what we currently see on stage.Sleeping Beauty performed at a speed that both the composer and choreographer might recognise is a very different experience from attending a performance in which the score is tortured so that Aurora can ignore as many of her suitors as she likes. Danced in the way now fashionable there is no arc of development from act to act and the Grand pas de Deux comes as an anticlimax. I would be really happy if the BBC just dusted off its dance archive and showed some of its treasures such as the recording of Les Rendezvous with Brian Shaw and Doreen Wells which is totally different from any live performance that I have seen in recent years.I can't help feeling that everyone who has subscribed to Sky would be happy to see the BBC recognise its role as an arts educator and revert to being an active promoter of the arts in general and ballet in particular. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madhatter Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I thought that I hadn´t imagined afternoons on BBC2 when they showed ballet and opera! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I also seem to recall something called. Gala Performance which I think was shown mid week and frequently featured extracts from the ballet, but I'm going back to my childhood. I share the disappointment regarding Tony Hall's apparent commitment to the Arts. I see no sustained attempt to foster an interest in dance. I will miss Sky Arts 2 for the complete performances from the Royal Opera House. I'm not convinced it's simply a matter of less repeats. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Two Pigeons Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 One of my Sky Arts highlights was Deborah Bull's programme about dancing in Russia. Another was Madam and the Dying Swan. I hope we will still have a chance to see programmes like that. I will be a bit disappointed if pretty much everything we get on dance hs the occasional programme on BBC4 and fronted by Darcey Bussell. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLOSS Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 The BBC has a programme on Radio 4 called Feedback which airs the views of the TV and radio audience. Perhaps contacting that programme might elicit some sort of response from the Powers that Be about the amount of coverage that dance,particularly ballet,is given. Does anyone have any idea about the numbers who are actively involved in ballet in this country? How many children attend ballet classes for example? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Q Fan Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 I don't have SKY but unless people give feedback to the TV companies then nothing will change. I wish ROH and BBC would use other presenters from Darcey Bussell ALL the time she's not a natural presenter - give me Deborah Bull any day far better. What's wrong with Andre Rieu? I really like the orchestra but I detest his singers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxDaveM Posted May 4, 2015 Author Share Posted May 4, 2015 What's wrong with Andre Rieu? I really like the orchestra but I detest his singers! Nothing particularly wrong with him as such - just that he seems to be on ALL the time! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLOSS Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 The BBC have a programme on Radio 4 called Feedback which enables the audience to complain about everything on TV and radio from political bias(usually from both sides of the political divide about the same interview), radio coverage or lack of it,the switch to DAB,unfunny comedies, rescheduling favourite programmes and the increasing improbability of the Archer's story lines,in other words the full range of the company's output. There is nothing to stop anyone on this forum contacting the programme about the paucity of dance coverage. As for the interviews on the screened performances I think that any complaint about their quality would have to be sent to Kevin O'Hare. Somehow I think it unlikely that he would be prepared to contemplate removing the President of the RAD from that job. Bussell is, at present, the only British ballet dancer whose name the general public knows.I suspect that a lot of the general public find all the smiley, giggly, girly incompetence totally unchallenging and perhaps even endearing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capybara Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 I suspect that a lot of the general public find all the smiley, giggly, girly incompetence totally unchallenging and perhaps even endearing. What an excellent summary of how she comes across, FLOSS! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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