Addio to Mag­gi­oDanza, the bal­let com­pany formed in 1967 under the aus­pices of the Florence’s Mag­gio Musicale Fiorentino.

A fin­an­cial crisis has res­ul­ted in the decision to axe the bal­let com­pany,  and cut the num­ber of tech­nical and admin­is­trat­ive staff, tak­ing the num­ber of wage pack­ets from 346 to 273. Chorus and orches­tra are saved how­ever, with the chorus los­ing two mem­bers who are retir­ing, and the orches­tra gain­ing three mem­bers tak­ing its num­ber to 96. The cre­at­ive work­shops will be closed and future pro­duc­tions will be made off site or hired in. The run­ning costs of 18 mil­lion euros each year to pay the staff can­not be sustained.

The bal­let com­pany had already been stream­lined to 16 ele­ments over the last few years, and after Vladi­mir Derevi­anko left the dir­ec­tion of the com­pany in 2010 it has been on shaky ground. Although Twit­ter is alive with the hashtag #giule­man­id­al­ladanza (#leavedancealone), many are coun­ter­act­ing with com­ments about the waste­ful admin­is­tra­tion, appoint­ments based on friend­ship or polit­ics and not merit, and remem­ber­ing some neg­at­ive press over the last years by crit­ics. The com­pany is now dir­ec­ted by the young cho­reo­grapher Francesco Ventriglia, ex–ballerino from the La Scala company.

Francesco Bian­chi, who heads the spe­cial com­mis­sion brought in to sort out the mess, stated,

For me it is with great regret that we must deal this blow to an artistic body that has an import­ant his­tory and tra­di­tion for dance and for Florence. The decision to close the com­pany is motiv­ated purely by eco­nomic motives and not artistic ones; Ventriglia has worked hard to give the com­pany a strong pro­file, nation­ally and internationally.

Uni­ons are obvi­ously up in arms, and are meet­ing with the com­mis­sion this after­noon. Bian­chi added,

Per­haps few people real­ise the ser­i­ous­ness of the situ­ation, even the uni­ons. We are 35 mil­lion in debt; this debt needs to be repaid. 20 mil­lion are debts with the banks who have blocked any fur­ther credit, and we have no money. If noth­ing is done imme­di­ately then the whole of the Mag­gio Musicale has no future.

The great Italian baller­ina Carla Fracci, who is Head of Cul­ture for the Province of Florence, said,

I have danced many times in pres­ti­gi­ous pro­duc­tions for the Mag­gio Musicale Fiorentino, and the news of the clos­ure of Mag­gi­oDanza pains me greatly, because neither the work­ers in the theatre — espe­cially the dan­cers — nor the city of Florence merit such punishment.

I would have liked to have seen greater solid­ar­ity on the part of the chorus, orches­tra and other sec­tors of the theatre in sup­port of the dan­cers, but unfor­tu­nately this seems to have not occurred. It is ironic that this cut has hit dance harder than other areas when dance is the most pop­u­lar art form with the Italian pub­lic at this time.

Photo: Fancesco Ventriglia

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