Sylvie Guillem is cancelled in Florence

Sylvie Guillem, returning to a work en pointe for MaggioDanza in Florence, finds the first of her four performances cancelled.

Guillem is the guest artist for an evening called Grandi Coreografi (Great Choreographers) with works by Balanchine, Kylián, Forsythe and, erm… Andonis Foniadakis (maybe, but give him time).

Guillem has arrived in Florence to prepare for William Forsythe's Steptext. However with the uncertainty of the future of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and with the almost certain elimination of its dance company, MaggioDanza, the 10 June performance will be cancelled “to allow the theatre workers to participate in a demonstration”.

The extraordinary fact is that those who have tickets for that performance can just come along for the last performance with the same tickets and have their same seat – that's right, a ballet with Guillem and the theatre's half empty with tickets still available at all prices, and stalls seats at only €44!

If this isn't a good enough demonstration of the incompetence of the theatre's organization I don't know what is: Guillem, Balanchine, Kylián, Forsythe (and Foniadakis) and they can't sell cheap tickets. In London, Paris or New York it would have been sold out months ago.

What do the press office do in Florence? This is tourist season, Florence is packed, and there are only four performances to fill. Shame on you…

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.