read the full story [BBC]The Royal Ballet is to perform a series of shows at London's O2 Arena in June, it has been announced.
It is the first time the world famous ballet company has performed in a UK arena.
Carlos Acosta, Tamara Rojo, Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg will dance the principal roles in the production of Romeo and Juliet.
Up to 2,000 tickets for each performance will be available for £10 on a first-come-first-served basis.
The rest of the tickets will sell for £60 and £95 and will be available from 5 December.
A filmed introduction will be shown on giant screens in the venue at the beginning of each act.
My initial reaction to this is that it is a hideous idea and not something that would appeal to me - but that's the whole point. I go and watch ballet and dance on a regular basis.
Aside from the fact that ballet is not really designed to be performed in such a huge arena - although I suppose it could be designed to be - this could potentially have two big benefits.
Firstly, it would likely encourage the curious who would never book to see ballet in a 'conventional' theatre but who will watch a variety of events staged in arenas - ice shows, Cirque du Soleil, Riverdance, Strictly Come Dancing (not to mention music concerts full of dancing and dancers) - to come and see ballet. This must be a good thing. And Romeo and Juliet is a fantastic show, familiar to most and full of great crowd scenes and fights and strong characters.
Secondly, it will potentially generate the kind of cash income that the Royal Ballet can only dream of, surely? Perhaps if companies with the draw to ocasionally stage such events do so and bring in significant income - the dance world hardly maximises merchandise sales even to hardcore fans, for example - then they might become less reliant on arts funding, leaving more in the pot for the mid- to small-scale to one-man band companies...?
Dream on, eh?
