Hey everyone........

I was just wondering...
What would you say are the typical venues for ballet performances and what kind of audience's do they attract?

Also, I was wondering how big the casts are and the number of performers they require?.... how they are funded?

Sorry about all the questions, just interested..teehee!!
Dancer246 xxx

Typical ballet venues I can think of in the UK are the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and Sadlers Wells, both in London. There is also a fair bit of ballet at the Hippodrome theatre in Birmingham as the BRB are based there.

Generally, large companies will only perform at the more major venues across the country.

Greetings

Generally, the larger companies tend to perform in venues that seat upwards of 1000 people, but from time to time perform in small, very intimate theatres. It really depends on the facilities available, cost and the size of the typical audience.

As to casts, they range from a single dancer to upwards of 100, if you count extras. Outside of full-length ballets, the largest cast is probably in Balanchine's "Union Jack" which has more than 60 dancers, I think.

Funding really depends on the company and how much they can make from tickets sales. In Europe, many companies receive the majority of funding from the government, and only rely on corporate and private donors for a small perecent of their budgets. In the US, companies spend a great deal of time raising money - some comes from governmental organizations, but usually most is raised from private donors, galas and private trusts/non-profit organizations etc. And it's often not an easy task to keep a company in the black - debts are not uncommon.

Kate

Thank you both for your brilliant responses.
Any more responses is greatly appreciated...