Ballet is Labor

Nutcracker season is here and there’s always some kind of internal ballet drama to gossip about but this year is especially juicy and on-trend if you’re interested in leftist politics. The ballet dancers have gone on strike! Syracuse City Ballet company fired them after a walk-out but of course managed to quickly replace everyone. So the show will go on as scheduled, with some late cast changes (and apparently little regard for the safety and well-being of those rare talented and highly trained professional dancers who moved here from various far away places!).  

The small local company SCB usually does about 4 different productions through the year but I’ve heard the Nutcracker is the main money-maker in the ballet world at every level no matter where it’s staged. There is no way the companies would dare suffer another loss like that time when Coronavirus shut them down. I have a season pass so I’ve already paid them and still plan to go but I’m conflicted about it and hopeful that more attention comes to the story by then.   

Will there be protesters outside the theater? Will there be disruption from the audience within? As a more anarchic-minded bunhead I kinda hope so. 

I heard about something from ballet history called a riot that happened on the premiere of Rites of Spring back in 1913. People then didn’t like the discordant music of Stravinsky nor the modestly covered dancers that usually showed off more skin, I guess. The haters might have been a bit xenophobic or racist too, as the composer was a Russian debuting his new masterpiece in Paris, France. Personally I would love to see an uninterupted Nutcracker performance go on as intended, but there is also a piece of myself that would also like to see something really wild and unexpected to avert attention towards the betterment of humanity.    

If anyone has thoughts about whether I should cancel my membership when the time rolls around I’d love to hear. I wonder if it’s bad for me to even go see the scab dancers? Like I said the company already has my money, but I do feel inclined to complain. Give the dancers every safety measure and comfort they require, in my opinion!