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Few international ballet companies can match the vibrancy, innovation and creativity of The Cape Town City Ballet. Tickets to performances are often hard to come by. Soloists and principal dancers are the darlings of the media. Visiting dancers and choreographers are regularly seen in the company’s Rondebosch studios as energetic outreach programs in formerly disadvantaged communities reach thousands of potentially new dancers. All the while new-sprung audiences are created. No wonder the ballet in Cape Town is the place to be seen – for socialites and serious balletomanes alike. The glamour and beauty of ballet have traveled far and fast. It is creating magic from main productions in the Artscape (formerly the Nico Malan) to more humble venues in the communities and the country. The days when mostly little white girls, their "ballet moms’’ and the privileged elderly flocked to the ballet are moth-eaten history. By world standards the CTCB, with its 33 permanent dancers, is a relatively small company. Funding is shrinking and costs escalating. Logically, after 1994, the curtain should have gone down over ballet permanently. But the CTCB and its board of directors performed a magnificent tour de force. It jetéd spectacularly into the new century – and into the hearts of the people. The evergreen classical ballets still have their regular and popular seasons, but trendy neo-classical works are now equally sought-after. Audiences simply love the blend of ballet and dynamic dance available throughout the entire year. The CTCB has much to celebrate as it turns a sprightly seventy in 2004. |
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| UCT School of Dance, Lovers Walk, Rosebank, Cape Town, South Africa |
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 | +27 21 650-2400 |
 | +27 21 650-3527 |
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