The Billy Elliot story could become impossible because of Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private schools, the head of the Royal Ballet School has warned. David Gajadharsingh said the proposed 20 percent tax was likely to “destroy” opportunities for talented children from less affluent backgrounds and could ultimately damage ballet’s reputation in Britain. In … Read more
They lure you in from a distance and promise pure aesthetic pleasure: pastel-colored tutus, beautiful girls. Once you get there, look closer. You notice the darkness around the edges; you wonder about the battered foot in the pointe shoe. Degas’s dancers fascinate for the same reason as the ballet itself. A new exhibition, Discovering Degas, … Read more
Director of the English National Ballet, Aaron Watkin – Rii Schroer When Aaron Watkin was a dancer with the Canadian National Ballet in the late 1980s, he was sometimes overcome with unnerving anxiety. “I felt my body humming with fear,” he says. “I would have to say to myself: your solo will only last 60 … Read more
Difficult art: ballet is hard on the feet, body and mind – SimonSkafar For more than half a millennium it has been the most beautiful art form; that little girls all over the world dream about, with streams of young hopefuls throwing themselves at the feet of schools every year. Yet in recent months, a … Read more