I have nothing against Mr. Jelinek. In truth, I have never heard of him until today. I am sure he is a fine dancer. I also agree that there is a need for more male principal dancers at NBC. Some will soon retire and I suspect that some may leave for greener pastures sooner than later.
I would like to see Keiichi Hirano, or Richard Landry or Etienne Lavigne given opportunities as I feel that they have worked hard and put in their time.
I am sure that there was more to the story of Jason Reilly electing to stay in Stuttgart than a longing for more strudel.
But to get back to my contention of KK favoring international imports. Has anyone else noticed that this year 60% of the apprentices are neither Canadians or Canadian trained? Most recent corps hires have also been from away. I think there is more to this than Canadian hockey. After all, other countires have soccer enthusiasm to deal with. Is it a national lack of talent? Is it lack of excellent local training? I doubt it. Is it a preference for a style not taught here?
It is next to impossible for a young Canadian ballet dancer to be hired in the US due to their immigration and green card protectionist policies. Many American companies will not even look at Canadian dancers in their auditions due to the cost and difficulty of employing them. Is it then fair that our national company imports from abroad?
I believe that there used to be a comment on the NBC audition page about preference being given to Canadians in hiring. I could not find it today and I can not clearly recall the wording that used to be there. Can anyone remember that, and if so has the policy changed? I admit I may not recall acurately.
Please be assured that I enjoy these new dancers and I am sure they are all very talented. Nothing personal intended in my observations. I just wonder if anyone else has noticed the trend, and what they think.
