American Ballet Theatre’s Misty Copeland and her former colleague Joseph Phillips have launched the most recent fundraiser: Swans for Relief. They corralled 32 ballet dancers from 14 countries to film themselves performing Mikhail Fokine’s Le Cygne (often referred to as “The Dying Swan”) from wherever they’re isolating right now. The resulting film strings their movements together one after the other.
https://www.pointemagazine.com/ballet-dancer-relief-fund-2645934191.html
Viewers are encouraged to donate to a GoFundMe campaign, which will distribute the money among COVID-19 relief funds at the participating dancers’ companies and other arts- or dance-based relief funds. “Art brings people together to provide a beautiful escape, and ballet in particular is a very unifying experience both on and off the stage, filled with history and imagination,” said Copeland in a statement. “The theater thrives on people coming together to experience a performance. Because of the coronavirus, the livelihood and careers of dancers are in jeopardy, and this will continue to have massive effects even after we start to reopen our cities.”
The featured dancers in the film include:
Stella Abrera, American Ballet Theatre
Precious Adams, English National Ballet
Nathalia Arja, Miami City Ballet
Isabella Boylston, American Ballet Theatre
Skylar Brandt, American Ballet Theatre
Misty Copeland, American Ballet Theatre
Monike Cristina, Joburg Ballet
Ashley Ellis, Boston Ballet
Greta Elizondo, Compañia Nacional de Danza Mexico
Nikisha Fogo, Vienna State Ballet
Angelica Generosa, Pacific Northwest Ballet
Sarah Hay, freelance ballerina, U.S.
Francesca Hayward, The Royal Ballet
Robyn Hendricks, The Australian Ballet
Whitney Jensen, Norwegian National Ballet
Yuriko Kajiya, Houston Ballet
Maria Khoreva, Mariinsky Ballet
Ako Kondo, The Australian Ballet
Misa Kuranaga, San Francisco Ballet
Stephanie Kurlow, freelance ballerina, Australia
Sara Mearns, New York City Ballet
Ginett Moncho, Ballet Nacional de Cuba
Katherine Ochoa, Ballet Nacional de Cuba
Hannah O’Neill, Paris Opéra Ballet
Denise Parungao, Ballet Philippines
Tiler Peck, New York City Ballet
Tina Pereira, National Ballet of Canada
Ida Praetorius, Royal Danish Ballet
Jemima Reyes, Ballet Philippines
Ingrid Silva, Dance Theatre of Harlem
Bianca Teixeira, San Francisco Ballet
Xu Yan, The National Ballet of China