Ballet Is Sadly Canceled

I’m done with the local ballet company! I’m not a dancer, just a lifelong fan. And I’m not going to support any ballet company in my town anymore. The season passes I looked forward to buying each year (toward the end of summer is when it becomes available) I finally decided to forgo this time around. It’s not because of the historically upheld white supremacy or promoting unhealthy body image or anything woke like that, sorry. The price isn’t unaffordable either (in fact I’ll probably spend more than ever, enjoying the artform by going to see bigger ballet companies, with unionized dancers, that perform further away) I still am upset about what happened last year, when they fired many dancers for complaining about safety.

Dancers need to preserve their health, it seems so obvious, let them rest and trust that they went into this competitive career with a goal of putting on the amazing show.  Bosses are morons within every profession, I guess.

The fired dancers worked together to put on some lovely shows in my city, and then a few months ago formally created a fresh new ballet company. It sounded like a good idea to me, suggesting there could be more performances for me to attend, and hopefully with the ethical treatment of these physical artists being held as important. They were awarded a grant of $300,000 which sounds like a promising investment, but more and more it seems to be a scam. I know $300k is “not a lot” (as far as high quality performance arts go) but it seems like there should be more to show at this point. At least they finally got a website up?! But they don’t offer any sort of membership, so in my mind that’s suspiciously short-sighted (maybe it was a scam all along).

Their productions before the grant were in beautiful theaters downtown. Now they are advertising two nights of Nutcracker performances in December that will be staged at a suburban high school. Sorry to be a snob but that’s appalling to consider. It was exciting and inspiring to see them perform a single act from Swan Lake a few months ago and I had highly hoped to see them again but it’s not going to happen now, I’ve really lost any interest. 

It’s the brand new Central New York Ballet I’m mentioning here, sorry if it was cryptic not to name and shame them outright. And the Syracuse City Ballet that I used to enjoy and had a membership with for so long, shame on them both. 

SCB is having a free preview of their 2024-2025 season at the Empire Theater at the NY State Fair, today and tomorrow. I am torn about whether to go check it out. As badly as they treated their dancers I still love to see someone maneuvering in their slipper shoes and strive more towards an ideal of beauty. 

I’ll update again soon and share if I make it. And if you’re a ballet fan as well (or a total hater) I’d love to know how you process all the inherent toxicity or whatever you’d call it as well.