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The Buzz, 10-22: The
Ballerina Wants to Stop By Paul Ben-Itzak She had achieved what
every ballet dancer dreams of from the moment she tries on her first
pair of slippers: Principal status in one of the world's premium
ballet companies. The promotion came after a stunning opening night
for a new production of "Swan Lake" in which she created the role
of Odette. More accolades followed, including one of the country's
premium honors for entertainers in any medium, the Helpmann award.
But yesterday, just a year after artistic director David McAllister
named her a principal of the Australian Ballet, and at 28 years
old in the prime of her dancing life, Simone Goldsmith announced
she didn't want to dance anymore.
Calling Goldsmith "arguably the company's best-known female face," today's Sydney Morning Herald reported that the ballerina's decision to step down a the end of the current Sydney season "has shocked the dance world, with many wondering why the young dancer, the photogenic face of Graeme Murphy's 'Swan Lake,' and widely seen as one of the most talented and promising stars to have emerged in recent years, would be hanging up her pointe shoes, particularly so soon after being appointed principal dancer." The answer, according to sources close to the ballerina (at presstime, the Ballet had not responded to repeated requests for comment from Goldsmith and McAllister), is simple: The ballerina simply wants to stop dancing. Never mind that her departure comes amidst other recent or imminent high-profile exits at the Oz, including, reports the Herald, Margaret Illman, Felicia Palanca, and another recently promoted principal, Joshua Consandine; the decision does not reflect unhappiness with McAllister nor suggest bigger problems at the company, Oz insiders say. What about you, dancing dance insider? Are there reasons you would stop, or have stopped, dancing in the prime of your career? Drop the Buzz a line, why don'tchya, at . Meantime, to read more about what Goldsmith has achieved and is giving up, check Suzanne Davidson's DI review of her Odette by clicking here. The Intermittents, you'll recall, have been more or less on strike since June, protesting a plan by employers, acceded to by the government and some smaller unions, that would drastically reduce their unemployment benefits and make it harder to qualify for them. (The government and employers' main argument: There's less money in the system.) Under the current system, the Intermittents need to log 507 hours of work -- they can be with multiple employers -- over a 12-month period in order to qualify for 12 months of compensation. The new accord would give them ten (performers) or ten-and-a-half (technicians) months in which to accumulate the hours, and lower the compensation to eight months. The Intermittents are pissed, and their main union, the CGT, promised and delivered a long hot summer, forcing the shut down of most of the major festivals across France. The combination of factors that enabled this summer's actions -- the threat of reconductable strikes (with workers at each festival voting every day whether to strike that night) and mostly sympathetic festival directors -- has been largely absent this fall, with only two theaters throughout France lowering their curtains. And the government has other, larger concerns to deal with, the biggest being choler in Brussels that the country continues to exceed the 3 percent deficit limit set by the European Union. Politicians are also debating whether to retain the 35-hour work week instituted by the last, Socialist government, and many French are no doubt more concerned by a 20 percent rise in cigarette prices than what many see as the needs of underemployed artists. To retain the public's attention, the Intermittents have escalated their tactics; earlier this fall, they occupied a mansion belonging to the actor Gerard Depardieu. Depardieu, who doesn't live there, said they could stay, but the city ordered police to eject them anyway, saying the building was unfit for habitation. The Star Academy siege was an attempt to draw attention to what some see as the biggest abuser of the Intermittents system -- the audiovisual industry, which, together with the radio and cinema sectors, employs on average 35,000 of the 100,000 workers in the system. For example, the charges go, a production house will hire a costumer for 40 hours, but only report 20 hours, instructing the worker to file an unemployment claim to cover the other 20 hours. "In intervening before six million (sic) telespectateurs, we touched a nerve," one of the organizers of Saturday's action told Liberation. "This they cannot accept. We only wanted to read our text and explain the reasons for our movement." The Intermittents had unfurled their banner and were about to make their case, reported Liberation, when the network pulled the plug and substituted another popular show, Julie Lescaut, after a confrontation elsewhere in the studio between another group of militants and police and security guards left a window broken. Organizers insist they had already decided to leave when the police arrested them. "Two hours later," reported Liberation, "the broadcast resumed and "the (Star Academy) candidate Anne was eliminated, under the eyes of 3.5 million telespectateurs." In November 2000 (recounts France Soir's Sandrine Baglin-Brandel), Abdoulaye Marega, a Frenchman of Senagalese descent who had just completed a course of study in Hotel work, learned that the dining room of the Moulin Rouge was hiring. But when he called to respond to the ad, Marega says, he was told "We do not take people of color in the dining room." When he followed up with a personal visit to the famed Montmartre dance hall, he was told the problem was that he didn't speak English or Spanish. However, shortly after he arrived, a young Dutch person who also didn't speak these languages was hired. Marega alerted SOS Racisme, which conducted a test, recorded by hidden cameras, sending equally qualified white candidates and black candidates to apply for the same job. The test confirmed Marega's experience. An inspection later revealed that, in fact, no Blacks had been employed in the Moulin Rouge's kitchen since 1962. "The people from the Moulin Rouge did not respect the rights of man," Marega told France Soir after his victory. "My most beautiful victory is that since my affair, two persons of color have been employed in the dining room!"
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