Tag: 10.23.01

Ross Stretton’s tenure as director of London’s Royal Ballet officially begins. Already there has been some controversy as a star dancer quits the company. Stretton says he wants to make a more welcoming place for choreographers, but warns there will be some turnover in the company’s ranks next year. The Telegraph (UK) 10/23/01

“Of course there are differences. Ross is a very young man, very active. He teaches class, he coaches, he is in rehearsals. He’s there all the time and you feel his presence constantly. He spends more hours here than we do. And he’s very easy to talk to, he’s very approachable.” The Times (UK) 10/23/01

The Bolshoi’s Maya Plisetskaya was one of the great ballerinas of the 20th Century. “The humiliations she and other artists endured at the hands of government handlers and arts bureaucrats challenge popular notions of the privileged lives of Soviet artists. Always forced to beg — to travel, to prepare new works, to be paid fairly — Plisetskaya and her colleagues more closely resembled Russian serf artists of the 18th century than cultural workers in a modern socialist state.” The New York Times 10/23/01 (one-time registration required for access)