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 Scottish Ballet |
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These words were updated in June 2006. For posterity we keep old versions of this page... June 2004 SB page December 2002 SB page |
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Archive Page - latest version please note the links on this page may no longer all work
It has not always been so and just 6 years ago (2000) the company was at an all-time artistic and audience low. In August 2001 the Board decided to reposition the company as 'a major force in contemporary dance' with a 'broadly based modern repertoire'. Ashley Page (ex Royal Ballet dancer and choreographer) became Artistic Director in the summer of 2003. Since then the repertoire has been totally renewed with the emphasis on 20th and 21st century works, particularly Page's own choreography which makes up 40-50% of the repertoire. Page is universally acclaimed for pulling the company's standards right up and attracting a cracking bunch of dancers, if the applause for the steps he produces is not always so hearty. It would be good to see other choreographers invited to create on the company and see a greater diversity of choreographic vision. While critically acclaimed, it is not yet clear if the radical change of direction will be preferred by the wider Scottish audience. Encouragingly, from a terrible low, the audience numbers are bouncing back, though they are still a fair way short of the 130,000+ that the company saw at the height of their popularity when dancing more traditional ballet fare. But ballet needs to renew and Scottish Ballet represent a bold move in that - and Rome, or perhaps Brasilia, wasn't built in a day. |
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Scottish Ballet are in the vanguard of modernising ballet in the UK and receive much favourable comment from critics, the arts establishment and fans in Scotland and beyond.