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)