Tamara Rojo: Ballet in a pandemic
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2021
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some of the things the Covid pandemic has taken away are easier to quantify than others. The death toll and the job losses make headlines, but the closed arts venues, the lack of shared creative experiences, not so much. But make no mistake, the arts face an unprecedented crisis. HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to Tamara Rojo, the internationally renowned dancer and artistic director of the English National Ballet. Can the performing arts withstand the Covid calamity?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Saker. |
| 0:04.9 | My guest is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most expressive ballet dancers of her generation. |
| 0:12.5 | Tamara Rojo was raised in Madrid and learned to dance there, but she honed her skills in the UK, |
| 0:19.2 | first at the Scottish ballet and then as lead dancer with the |
| 0:23.3 | English National and then the Royal Ballet. For the past eight years, she's been artistic director |
| 0:29.5 | of the English National Ballet and last year took on a new challenge as choreographer, as well as lead |
| 0:35.7 | dancer, in a new version of Remonda. |
| 0:39.3 | Sadly, that production still hasn't been staged thanks to COVID-19. |
| 0:45.3 | As with all the performing arts, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the world of ballet. |
| 0:51.3 | Tamara Rojo, now an influential voice in the UK arts industry, has been advising |
| 0:57.1 | the government on how best to help the creative industries survive these unprecedented times. |
| 1:03.2 | She's also been trying to keep her own company and the general public engaged with dance |
| 1:08.3 | by staging online dance classes in her own kitchen. |
| 1:12.7 | Ultimately, though, the performing arts are facing a protracted financial crisis. |
| 1:18.7 | Will they survive this COVID calamity? |
| 1:22.1 | Well, Tamara Rojo joins me now. |
| 1:24.5 | Welcome to Hard Talk. |
| 1:26.6 | Thank you very much. Try to capture for me, if you can, |
| 1:31.1 | the personal and professional impact that COVID-19 has had upon you. I don't think that upon me |
| 1:41.0 | is that interested or are important at this point, other than obviously |
| 1:46.4 | most of the time that we were supposed to be creating being home. I think I would prefer to |
| 1:52.7 | discuss the impact this has in English national ballet, for sure, or in performing arts and |
... |
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