Support the dancers of the Washington Ballet

Dear AGMA Members and Friends of the Washington Ballet Dancers:

Many of you have asked how you can help support the dancers of the
Washington Ballet since Mgmt. canceled the remainder of the
Nutcracker performances and have locked them out of their jobs.
Contributions can be made to the AGMA Relief Fund on their behalf. In
the memo section of your check please specify Washington Ballet
Dancers and mail them directly to :
Ms. Susan Davison
AGMA Relief Fund
1430 Broadway, 14th Floor
NY, NY 10018-3308

In order that we may receive the greatest amount of circulation
for this support, we ask that you forward this to anyone you know who
would be interested in helping these courageous dancers. Thank You
for your help and support.

Eleni Kallas
National Director of Organizing and Training
and Mid-Atlantic AGMA Representative
16600 Shea Lane
Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Phone 301-869-8266
FAX 301-670-9818
AGMADC@comcast.net

They barely make a middle-class living, and their careers last twenty years, if they're lucky. They spend hours in the studio from age eight or ten and never experience normal teenage years. Yet they do it gladly for the love of their art.

Meanwhile, pro football and basketball players, coddled all their lives and treated like royalty through high school and college, whine if they aren't paid ENOUGH millions, and addlepated sports fanatics excuse them because "their careers are so short."

Yet dancers make less in their entire careers than a pro athlete does in a year.

Just goes to show you how screwed up our values are. The pseudo-warriors get millions, while the purveyors of grace and beauty get the mid-five figures.

Watch this thread about a group of artists locked out of their jobs sink to the archives, while posts about some stupid game that no one will remember next week gets dozens of posts.

If so as much emphasis was placed on the arts as is on competitive sports, the two disciplines would be on more of a (pardon the expression) level playing field.

On the other hand, if the Washington Ballet could get a deal with Zima or Addidas, we might get to see them on a major network.

Instead, the corporate world utilizes advertisements that make classical music and dance appear "uncool" and "for nerds only".

that the dancers are seeking protection for their basic health and safety. 20% of the company is injured. :-(

Obviously there's something wrong with their performance schedule, such as having the same people dancing the same grueling roles for too many consecutive performances without a break.

Imagine if the Washington Redskins were 20% injured...

You hit the nail on the head.

Nobody would expect injured football players to work unless they had a doctor's approval.

Sadly nobody gives a damn about the arts, but disrupt a pro ball game and the shit will really hit the fan. When is the last time you saw a televised production of Swan Lake or a classical concert? If it existed it was likely on PBS, not a major network.

The steroid-laden ball kings and lip-synching Barbie Dolls are what the people want, not true talent and beauty.

Menotti's opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" was commissioned by NBC in 1951. The fine arts programming that our school system cable station plays late at night often uses clips from Firestone Theater and the Bell Telephone Hour. And I wonder how many people remember that Itzakh Perlman performed on Ed Sullivan when he was a child. My first exposure to Thornton Wilder's Our Town was on the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

I wonder what the hell happened to quality network programming? What made corporate television sponsors turn their backs on the Arts?

So that's what the corporate sponsors give them. Pro sports, cookie-cutter boy bands and Barbie Doll singers (who can't really sing without their studio enhancement machinery), bland movies, raunchy sit-coms and graphic murder dramas. The arts are relegated to PBS and obscure cable television stations because they are considered to "high brow" or boring for the average person. If it isn't at 100 decibles, doesn't have a naked woman/dead body every 10 minutes, or fill a stadium it isn't considered worthy of the average viewer.

they've been taught by these same sponsors that ignorance is cool.
Even PBS is not what it used to be, thanks to the thugs.

What can be done, short of censoring idiocy?

I think it is up to the parents, the teachers, the librarians and anybody else who comes in contact with children in particular, and the public in general, to expose them to the arts. Show them what they are missing--teach them to enjoy things other than the drivel that the corporate sponsors are shoving at them. Some, possibly even many, will resist. However there will be those who will have a whole new world opened for them, and it is those people for whom it will all be worthwhile.

rebel against their parents by listening to classical music and jazz, attending operas and ballets, and reading Emerson and Goethe.

What a wonderful world that would be.

It's not much, but it will help.

And now, to look at the Colorado Ballet schedules. DH is going to learn to like taking me to the ballet whether he likes it or not.

Thank you, for my friends in the ballet! :hug:

money comes in.

:-)

is testimony to your kindness and generosity. :hug:

Moulin Rouge. This has got to be interesting.

Tell us all about it when you see it!

Something we could use a hell of a lot more of these days.

self-sacrifice, physical prowess, and all those things that "only" sports are supposed to give you.

Those dancers deserve better. Sports are child's play compared to ballet training. And dancers have to make it look easy when in reality it's hard as hell.

I figured this thread would sink to the last page of the Lounge.

Here's to you! :toast:

the special guest was a pro football player who was also a ballet dancer. It was wonderful to see him go from football mode to dance mode...a terrific lesson particularly for little boys who like both dancing and sports.

From one who dreamed of that as a girl.....but lacked the dedication. never the spirit; though.

all you learned was not wasted. :hug:

Followed by a battement tendu and a rond du jambe a terre. :-)

and finish with the grand battement. Better flow, and all. :D

since I last sidled up to the barre.

Ballet is great exercise at all ages (within certain boundaries, of course...in other words, lay off the saut de chat).

when I tore my left leg apart in the midst of some tour jetés. I ended up on crutches for two months, and I concluded that since I was at the age when real dancers retire, I would leave the studio to the young folks.

However, my 13-year-old niece shows signs of becoming a real dancer, takes several classes a week, and has started dancing on point (something I never did). I can tell that she's a natural, something I never was--I did it because it was a type of exercise that I enjoyed and because it worked some of my problem areas--posture, balance, and flexibility (obviously, I wasn't a natural :-) )

It's a noble profession, and I hope her dreams come true.