LONDON LETTER HIGHER PAY SOUGHT FOR BALLET DANCERS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27441, 30 August 1954, Page 10

LONDON LETTER HIGHER PAY SOUGHT FOR BALLET DANCERS

(By

K. W. McCOOK.

London Correspondent of "The Press”)

London, August 21.—A1l is not well in the world of tu-tus, tights, and pas de deux. Th 6 low wages paid to dancers in. the most glamorous and romantic branch of the theatre, ballet, led to a wage dispute this week between Equity, the actors’ trade union, and the Sadler’s Wells Theatre management. The union had asked for an all-round increase of 30s a week for 30 members of the Sadler’s Wells Theatre ballet but the demand was rejected by the directors, who refused to make a flat rate increase. The Theatre Ballet is the junior company of the well-known Sadler’s Wells Ballet, which has its headquarters at *he Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in which the New Zealanders Rowena Jackson, Bryan Ashbridge, and Alexander Grant are principals. The senior company is administered by the Covent Garden directors, while the Theatre Ballet is under the control of the Sadler’s Wells Foundation, to which the Arts Council pays a subsidy of £lOO,OOO a year. Ballet salaries have been a sore point with Equity for some time. It believes that the wage of £7 a week paid to members of the corps de ballet of the Theatre Ballet company is a low reward for dancers whose ability over years of training has won them a place in the finest junior company in Europe. The union points out that even chorus girls in West End revues are paid £lO a week, while leading dancers in an independent company, the Festival Ballet, get three times as much as the Sadler’s Wells principals. What are the rewards for prima ballerinas and leading male soloists after their years of rigorous training? Margot Fonteyn, the prima ballerina at Covent Garden, receives about £lOO a week, while other leading dancers get from £2O upwards, according to their ability. Soloists received from £lO to £l4 a week. The Festival Ballet pays its soloists from £l5 to £3O a week, but a star like. Tamara Toumanova, who is the guest ballerina at the Festival Hall this seasoif, is paid £5OO a week. The Salder’s Wells directors, Dame Ninette de. Valois and Mr Norman Tucker, admit that the dispute involves only an extra wage bill for £5 a week lor the Theatre Ballet; but they say that, as a matter of principle, they wish to retain the- right to settle salaries with individual dancers, according to their ability. Only nine dancers were offered increases lew than the 30s demanded by the union. Unless the dispute is settled this month, the directors will be forced to cancel an autumn tour of the provinces planned for the company. .

Palace Guards Shift Beats Those pictures of tourists find publicity seeking film stars posing beside the Guardsmen at Buckingham Palace may soon be a thing of the past. To stop the sentries being mobbed and distracted by sightseers while on septry go outside the palace, the sentry boxes, where they halt after each turn, have been moved close to the main gates. They are now within a few feet of the palace police, who are on permanent duty at the chief entrance. Previously, the police have been forbidden to leave their posts beside the main gates; and they have had to watch while sightseers and visitors jostled beside the guards standing at attentiort at the sentry boxes some yards away. Now, without moving from their posts, the police will be able to move on persons who pose and attempt to discomfort the sentries while their friends photograph them.

Motoring Caravan A conducted tour for motorists who want to boast to their friends that they have motored from Britain to India in their own cars has been organised by the Alliance Internationale de Tounsme. Starting from Geneva in Switzerland in October, the conducted tour will travel some 7400 miles through Zagreb, Belgrade, Istanbul, Ankara, and thence through Beirut, »e d ; e toßombi” an ’ QUetta ’ . The organisers say that the tour is not a competition and that there are no Srizes for motorists whose cars last le distance. The trip will last 55

days and will cost each motorist about £563. This includes the cost of registration fees, petrol, overhaul and upkeep of the cars, board and lodging ® return air ticket from Bombay ’to Geneva, and the cost of shipping carg back from India to Geneva. ’ One condition is laid down by the organisers. Adventurous motorists who feel like taking part in the cavalcade have to be “prepared to endure any possible hardships and sleep out in tents or sleeping bags.’’ Cricket Losses With Association football teams ready to kick off for the season on Saturday, first-class county cricket has little chance of recovering from the worst summer it has ever experienced ? financially. Altogether, it is estimated I that county clubs have lost more than £70,000 this year through the bad weather. Hardest hit of the county clubs is Lancashire, whose receipts this year have dropped by £ll,OOO on home matches—the equivalent of three weeks’ play. Other clubs whose gate* takings have been affected by the regular “Rained Out’’ notices and meagre attendances are Derbyshire, (£3000) in estimated losses, Middlesex (£5000), Yorkshire (£5000), and War. wickshire (£5500). The Pakistan tour*, ing team hopes to break even on its tour. Built-in Radar Porpoises do not leap out of the water for the sheer enjoyment of exercise, according to an expert writing in the British Medical Associatidoi magazine, “Family Doctor.’’ Latest; research has shown that while the parpoise leaps and frolics he keeps up a refrain of chirruping and groaning noises, Which are spiced with high, frequency vibrations that the porpoise uses as an echo-sounding radar device The bursts of ultrasonic vibrations’ are reflected from obstacles in the water; and by listening for the echo, the porpoise can estimate how near he’ is to a collision and take “evasive ac- ? tion.” Although the experts have given their learned opinion on porpoises’ play, many persons who have watched their antics around ships will still think that their gambolling is just good-ilatured fun to the fish. Sentimental Viewers The power of television as an ad-' vertising medium was demonstrated this week during a British Broadcast* i ing Corporation programme broadcast' from a lost dogs’ home fh Glasgow. Al*-1 though no direct appeal was made and $ there was no suggestion that viewer* i should write in for dogs, the announcer described how several animals were,; waiting to be destroyed and patted a-brown-and-white mongrel terrier that* was going to be “put to sleep.” Before the programme finished, tog exchanges throughout Britain were jammed by -sympathetic viewers rinjp ing the British Broadcasting Corpora- 1 tion and the dogs’ home, asking for ? the anifnals. At one time calls Were* being received at the rate of 1000 as* hour. One newspaper, while praising the generosity of the sentimentu viewers, noted that at the time telephone exchanges were being 4 swamped with anxious inquiries about the animals, a 90-year-old widow war' sleeping on Brighton beach, hatfng nowhere to go for the night. It won-* dered whether the telephone would also ring for the elderly widow. i While the Sun Shines The main office of the Bank of Kna. land, on the comer of Threadneedle and Princes streets, presents a mm’ l and dignified exterior to passers-by. Inside, however, the atmosphere is (fif. ferent, and the governors take a keel interest in the welfare of their Shift ’ This week, the governor of the hint (Mr Cameron Cobbold), sent an ordtf’’ to every department in the bank saving that when the sun did eventuiuty’ shine this summer, all staff could leave their offices if they had finisbed their work for the day. Mr CobboH i felt that members of the staff were; not; getting the full benefit of tirefr holidays during the rainy j he wanted them to take advantage; of) the few flhe days while theywist* Mr Cobbold’s kindly ’idea has here welcomed by his staff. Unfortunattiy, p since the order was issued there hW» been no sunny days to send the bank ’, staff rushing out into the sunshine. /