'History with an edge.' In the final section of his column, Richard Morrison talks about the appointment of yet another damn foreigner, David Nixon, to run one of OUR dance companies, Northern Ballet Theatre. Bring back the Empire, say I. <P>Actually with Equal Opps. employment and the fact that there are so few medium sized ballet companies in this country, it is almost inevitable that new ADs will come from overseas countries. With Matz Skoog (ENB), the writer has ignored, or doesn't know, that he spent a number of years with ENB as a dancer. <BR> <A HREF="Http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,7-70214,00.html" TARGET=_blank>Http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,7-70214,00.html</A> <P>Stuart adds later - just in case anyone is in doubt, my opening comments were meant to be ironic. I am fully in favour of exchange of talent from country to country. After all de Valois, Rambert and Ashton came from Ireland, Poland and Ecuador respectively.<p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited January 30, 2001).]

It seems, Stuart, you and I discussed this once before in a previous thread. You were, as I recall, very much in favor of the globalization of the art forms.<P>I surely am not against that - but I also think there is value to the individuality with which nations and cultures have endowed the arts in general and their own intrinsic art forms. Some of the flavorings are being lost.<P>How one resolves this problem, if problem it is, remains beyond my feeble mental capacity.

Stuart--what country is Mr. Nixon from?..just curious. I had a little bit of experience with this "issue". I tried to get teaching work in Canada actually. IN Canada, they are very adamant about "hiring their own" over foreigners. I guess they want to stem the tide of artists leaving Canada to get work in specialized fields. I can respect that...Some fields, like arts administration is so speciallized, though, that the pool of candidates is quite small.

Sorry for the delay in reacting to this trina.

Here is the link to the item in 'Ballet':

<A HREF=http://forum.criticaldance.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000626 target=_blank>David Nixon link</A>

<small>[ 08-11-2002, 18:20: Message edited by: Azlan ]</small>