Boston Ballet is in town to entertain Jakartans

Boston Ballet is in town to entertain Jakartans

JAKARTA (JP): Ballet is not new to Indonesians. People have
known it for decades. The first ballet performance in the country
took place long before Indonesia gained its independence 50 years
ago. But ballet is not really very popular here yet.

Some Asian countries like Japan, China, Korea and Singapore
have their own national ballet companies and consider ballet a
national asset. Even though Indonesia has talented dancers and is
rich in dancing traditions, it does not have a national ballet
company. Here, ballet is considered a "Western product".

A ballet performance is thus not a daily occurrence. This
week, ballet fans will get a rare chance to see the Boston
Ballet, one of the best in the world. They will perform at Taman
Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta, for three nights, starting tonight.

Under the direction of Bruce Marks, the Boston Ballet will
perform Nine Lives: Songs of Lyle Lovett, Divertissement from Don
Quixote, Le Corsaire, World Premiere Ole and La Bayadere.

Never before has a first class dance troop like Boston Ballet
performed in Indonesia, say the organizers, Namarina ballet, jazz
and fitness school.

The Boston Ballet, the fourth largest ballet company in the
United States, was founded in 1963 by E. Virginia Williams as the
first professional repertory ballet company in New England.

Its home theater is the 3,600-seat Wang Center for the
Performing Arts in Boston, where they perform in the fall, winter
and spring months. The company's month-long production of The
Nutcracker, which attracts an annual attendance of more than
140,000 people, is the most widely attended ballet production in
the world.

The Boston Ballet has 44 dancers and 14 full-time apprentices.
The company also operates an affiliate school with more than
2,000 students and the Boston Ballet Center for Dance Education
offers numerous education and outreach programs to the community.
(sim)