Following Northern Ballet's confirmed switch to using recorded music for some of its 2024 tour, HUGH MORRIS interviews four musicians from the Sinfonia who candidly discuss income, mistakes made during Covid and Arts Council England funding.
When an organization restricts comments on its social media channels, it’s a sure-fire sign that something is not right. So it proved when the Northern Ballet closed comments on their season announcement in early February. An update on the company website confirmed that, rather than using the Northern Ballet Sinfonia, the company was to perform some of the ballets in the new season to recorded music.
Northern Ballet is a touring dance organization based in Leeds. Founded in 1969 as Northern Dance Theatre, it describes itself as “the UK’s foremost narrative ballet company,” with an emphasis on storytelling alongside classical ballet. It’s the definition of a touring company: as well as performances in Yorkshire (in Goole, Bradford, and Barnsley, as well as Leeds), its upcoming season goes truly cross-country, with performances from Barrow-in-Furness to Canterbury. Alongside a company of dancers, a tech team, and backroom staff, Northern Ballet—a designated National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), in receipt of regular annual funding of £3.28 million from Arts Council England from 2023 to 2026—employs the Northern Ballet Sinfonia, an ensemble that fluctuates between 26 and 28 members.
In September 2023, Northern Ballet announced that they had made the “difficult decision” to enter into negotiations to reassess the amount of live music in touring productions from April 2024 onwards, citing an “incredibly challenging financial environment where inflation and rising costs have made our traditional touring model unsustainable.” On February 6, when announcing their spring tour, Northern Ballet also announced that they would shift to a new model: “performing to a mixed programme of live and recorded music in the coming year.”...Keep reading on Van Magazine.
When an organization restricts comments on its social media channels, it’s a sure-fire sign that something is not right. So it proved when the Northern Ballet closed comments on their season announcement in early February. An update on the company website confirmed that, rather than using the Northern Ballet Sinfonia, the company was to perform some of the ballets in the new season to recorded music.
Northern Ballet is a touring dance organization based in Leeds. Founded in 1969 as Northern Dance Theatre, it describes itself as “the UK’s foremost narrative ballet company,” with an emphasis on storytelling alongside classical ballet. It’s the definition of a touring company: as well as performances in Yorkshire (in Goole, Bradford, and Barnsley, as well as Leeds), its upcoming season goes truly cross-country, with performances from Barrow-in-Furness to Canterbury. Alongside a company of dancers, a tech team, and backroom staff, Northern Ballet—a designated National Portfolio Organisation (NPO), in receipt of regular annual funding of £3.28 million from Arts Council England from 2023 to 2026—employs the Northern Ballet Sinfonia, an ensemble that fluctuates between 26 and 28 members.
In September 2023, Northern Ballet announced that they had made the “difficult decision” to enter into negotiations to reassess the amount of live music in touring productions from April 2024 onwards, citing an “incredibly challenging financial environment where inflation and rising costs have made our traditional touring model unsustainable.” On February 6, when announcing their spring tour, Northern Ballet also announced that they would shift to a new model: “performing to a mixed programme of live and recorded music in the coming year.”...Keep reading on Van Magazine.