Ballet BC has laid off all its dancers, most of its administrative staff and artistic director John Alleyne because of dropping ticket sales in tough economic times.
But if it can convince enough people to attend its annual presentation of the traditional Christmas crowd-pleaser, the Nutcracker, it may be able to salvage its 2009 season and hire back the 38 people who have been laid off.
Traditionally, performances of the Nutcracker generate enough cash to keep Ballet BC going for the rest of the year. But even ticket sales for the Christmas favourite have been way below projections. Only 2,000 tickets have been sold compared to 5,000 by this time last year.
Brend an Kiley has worked as a child actor in New Orleans, as a member of the junior press corps at the 1988 Republican National Convention, and, for one happy April, as a bootlegger’s assistant in Nicaragua.... More by Brendan Kiley
First prize is a brand new cadilac. You know what second place gets? Set of steak knives. You know what third place gets? You’re fuckin fired.
boo hoo hoo
most of my friends are food banking already
hope the laid off staff are prepared to share housing and eat cheap – you ain’t seen nothing yet
course they could VOLUNTEER to dance, since they will have a lot of free time
god forbid
Well fuck, why don’t they just offer to pay for the privilege of dancing? I mean, if you’re going to go in that direction, why not go all the way?
Of course, since they’re all out of work now, finding the money to pay WITH might be problematic. But I imagine there are still plenty of low-wage menial-labor jobs out there a healthy ballet dancer could do.
How do you say, “would you like fries with that?” in Quebequois?
Ooh, chilly thread.
Are there adopt-a-ballerina programs?
@5 – they wouldn’t cost much to feed
@3: There are Quebecois in BC?
Wow. You guys are assholes.
And COMTE, look at a map before you make your smart ass comments.
@3 Healthy ballet dancer? They subsist on a diet of cigarettes and coffee don’t they?
@7: The Quebecois in BC are migrant workers in the Okanagan fruit orchards. Not a bad job for unemployed ballerinas–they can even get all their food free if they’re vegetarians.
I like how if they can get enough Nutcracker attendees they’ll save their season. This sounds exactly like the plot of some new teen dance movie starring Zac Effron and Miley Cirus.
High School Musical 4: Dancers On Unemployment
Hey, guys – warm it up. Most small ballet companies make their annual budget with the Nutcracker season. And dancers don’t make a hell of a lot of money, in case this is news. The corps in San Francisco makes about as much as the receptionist at the office where I work. I’m surprised the BC government isn’t subsidizing them enough to take up the slack. BalletBC used to have a really good reputation, but when times are tough the serious arts always suffer. The Symphony will probably be next . . .