Beautiful Laura Hildago (one of our all-time favorite ABT Tharp Bombers) as Titania in Liam Scarlett's production of A Midsummer's Night Dream at Queensland Ballet where Laura is a principal dancer. It just opened a couple of days ago and is a shared production with the Royal New Zealand Ballet.
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Stare down at the SODRE corral.
Julio Bocca has taken an indefinite leave of absence from the Ballet Nacional del Sodre (where Maria Riccetto is principal ballerina) as the unions and SODRE officials bicker like inane bureaucrats and create obstacles for the ballet company's continued progress. Who will blink first? Our guess is that Julio will never blink and will simply walk away permanently if the political/union environment does not improve. Here's hoping that his good health has not been affected by the stress.
In his own words:
A la opinión pública
Por razones personales he decidido tomarme una licencia temporal como director artístico del BNS, por un plazo que aún no he definido. No se trata de un adiós, sino de un hasta luego.
Durante los próximos meses Sofía Sajac estará al frente del BNS. Sofía ha sido mi mano derecha desde el inicio de esta gestión al frente del BNS y tengo en ella y en el resto del equipo la más absoluta confianza. Yo estaré además a la orden del equipo artístico de la compañía y del Consejo Directivo del Sodre para lo que se necesite.
Durante 2016 participaré como director artístico en la gira internacional del BNS que se presentará en el Festival de Cali de Colombia (junio), en el Teatro Juan Bautista Gutiérrez de Guatemala (noviembre), en el Teatro Coliseo de Buenos Aires (noviembre), en el Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona y en los teatros del Canal de Madrid (diciembre-enero 2017).
Agradezco el gran apoyo del público que ha resultado en un nuevo récord histórico de venta de localidades para El Lago de los Cisnes, superando las 23.000 entradas.
Siguen para 2016 y 2017 grandes obras que ya hemos programado. Confío en que el público continuará apoyando a esta gran compañía que ha logrado consolidarse como una referencia para la región.
Julio Bocca
B/N/S – Director Artístico
Montevideo, 1 de abril de 2016
There is a petition on Change.org (Spanish version)that asks the Minister of Culture to agree to the conditions that the ballet company needs so that they don't lose Julio.
6900 signatures in about 3 days. The goal is 7500. Here's the link, but it's possible that too many signatures from outside the country could be viewed by Uruguayan officials as affecting the integrity of the petition. I don't really know, but it might.
https://www.change.org/p/no-queremos-perder-a-julio-bocca
Posted by: Haglund | April 05, 2016 at 05:12 PM
A couple of updates:
There are now nearly 12,000 signatures on the above referenced petition.
A new article in Espectador.com quotes two of the company dancers as saying they witnessed mistreatment of dancers by Bocca and that is why he took the leave of absence.
From the Google translator:
However, Guillermo Gonzalez and Oscar Escudero two native dancers from the province of San Juan members of Ballet Sodre, told the Diario de Cuyo in Argentina that the removal of Bocca is related to discomfort in the company and with episodes of mistreatment toward the dancers.
"Many things happen in the company and Julio does not have a good attitude with us. You have to get away for the waters to subside. Mistreatment when correcting and when day is requested for study, to give consideration, you out of what you were dancing. Never had talked about this, but it happens always, only we were afraid to say it . that's the truth ," said Gonzalez to said medium. [End of quote]
http://www.espectador.com/sociedad/333595/bailarines-del-sodre-denuncian-destratos-de-julio-bocca
http://www.diariodecuyo.com.ar/home/new_noticia.php?noticia_id=709875
It sounds like a stressful situation for everyone involved. Here's hoping that the cultural minister resolves this, because if she doesn't, Uruguay's cultural future will be tarnished and set back for decades to come.
This writer [ http://ladiaria.com.uy/articulo/2016/4/callarse-o-no-la-bocca/ ] expands the discussion of what is happening with the ballet to the rest of the country.
Posted by: Haglund | April 06, 2016 at 09:14 AM
There's talk he was offered artistic directorship of ABT. Wonder if Kevin McKenzie is planning to step down.http://www.busqueda.com.uy/nota/julio-bocca-considera-una-propuesta-del-american-ballet-de-nueva-york
Posted by: newyorkie | April 08, 2016 at 02:12 PM
Thanks, newyorkie, I think I'll move your link up into the spotlight.
Posted by: Haglund | April 08, 2016 at 02:26 PM