World Ballet Day Is Too Good to Be True

September 8, 2014

 

The Royal Ballet’s Marianela Nunez and Federico Bonelli, who will be featured in the live stream. Photo by Johan Persson, courtesy ROH.

 

Fact: There is a daylong celebration for pretty much anything you could imagine. International Bacon Day? Yup. Hug Your Cat Day? Of course. Ball Point Pen Day? Yes, that too. But tell me, when is our yearly ode to all that is ballet?

 

October 1 marks the first ever World Ballet Day. And oh boy, the plans for its kickoff sound super exciting. Five companies—Australian Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet—will live stream four hours of studio time each. That’s 20 hours of dance! We’ll see the companies take morning technique class and rehearse works on the bill for the coming season.

Live stream times for each company will be announced at a later date. But don’t worry if your life demands that you spend some of those 20 hours—in many different time zones—at school, work or in bed. The whole event will go on YouTube for later viewing. A preview of what we’ll see on October 1st is below.