Is ballet's future in America?
San Francisco Ballet's New Works Festival has been warmly received by an eager public. It makes English ballet look secretive and cautious
By Judith Mackrell
I was in San Francisco last week for the launch of San Francisco Ballet Company's New Works Festival. The levels of adrenaline and enthusiasm that were buzzing around put British ballet culture to shame.
It wasn't just that SFB were premiering an astonishing 10 new ballets over three successive days (compared to the two being offered by the Royal Ballet during their entire next season). It was that the city as a whole appeared to embrace ballet so energetically. This ambitious and expansive festival included choreography by Mark Morris, Paul Taylor and Christopher Wheeldon and a newly commissioned score from John Adams – yet most of the funding had been raised from local sponsors.
Read more about this at the Guardian website:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2008/05/ballets_future_is_in_america.html
