<B>Scottish Ballet rejects classics</B><BR>Shortlist for new artistic director reveals future lies in contemporary dance <BR>The Herald (United Kingdom)<P><BR>Scottish Ballet has shortlisted five candidates to take over from Robert North as artistic director when his contract expires this summer.<P>The line-up of choreographers, all of whom work in the fields of contemporary ballet or modern dance, suggests there will be no return to the company's classical, white ballet era.<P>Since the departure of former artistic director Galina Samsova in 1997, Scottish Ballet has moved away from performing the large-scale classics such as Swan Lake, and embraced more contemporary ballets.<P>Ashley Page, a choreographer and dancer with the Royal Ballet in Covent Garden, is the only British candidate. Paulo Ribeiro, who was performing with his company in Scotland last week, hails from Portugal. Along with two of the other candidates shortlisted, Americans Donald Byrd and Douglas Becker, his work is at the experimental, abstract end of the spectrum.<P><A HREF="http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020310003827&query=ballet" TARGET=_blank><B>click for more</B></A>

Having thought about this further and discussed it with an Arts Administrator friend, it seems very odd to publish a shortlist of candidates. The unsucessful candidates will appear diminished. Can anyone think of a precedent?