National Ballet of Cuba forced to cancel South Africa tour at the eleventh hour

Dirk Badenhorst, director of Mzansi Productions, announced in Johannesburg yesterday that the National Ballet of Cuba has cancelled its planned South African tour which was due to open in Johannesburg tomorrow, Thursday August 30. The SA government funded tour was being produced and facilitated by Mzansi Productions.

In announcing the cancellation of the National Ballet of Cuba's highly anticipated first SA tour, Dirk Badenhorst said the National Ballet of Cuba took the decision last night to cancel the tour after the SA government's ongoing delays in the payment of the funding required to secure and arrange the tour and in providing assistance with the logistical details required for the tour.

Plans for this year's National Ballet of Cuba tour to South Africa, in which the SA government requested to play a central role in line with South Africa's long standing close historical ties with Cuba during the years of South Africa's struggle for democracy, started between the National Ballet of Cuba and South Africa in 2010.

Dirk Badenhorst, who has piloted and propelled South Africa's growing cultural ties with Cuba since 2008, expressed deep disappointment at the cancellation of the tour.

via The Citizen Online

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.