The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and The Australian Ballet have announced that #WorldBalletDay 2021 will take place on 19 October.
The global celebration returns for its eighth year, bringing together many of the world’s leading companies. During the day, rehearsals, discussions and classes will be streamed worldwide, with behind-the-scenes glimpses of ballet’s established stars and upcoming performers.
With COVID-19 guidelines changing daily, dance companies have struggled to return to stages and rehearsal studios, and this year’s celebration will recognise the resilience of this art form in the face of those challenges.
The Royal Ballet
The 2021 edition of #WorldBalletDay will be in collaboration with TikTok, and with streams across YouTube and Facebook, and this year’s viewers are expected to exceed the previous record set in 2019 when #WorldBalletDay content was viewed over 300 million times.
Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, said,
This year’s celebration of our cherished art form will be more important and meaningful than ever, as friends and colleagues around the world return to the stage and the studio, many still with great difficulty. I hope World Ballet Day continues to provide dancers and ballet lovers across the globe with a sense of solidarity – and at the same time introduces a new generation to the beauty and inspiration of ballet that has sustained and nourished our audience members over the past 18 months.
The Bolshoi Ballet
A full line-up of participating companies and their respective streaming schedules will be made available via www.worldballetday.com in late September.
The Australian Ballet
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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.
