Ballet regards dancers as its highest priority
I am responding to the letter from Mark Biggam (Dec. 16) claiming musicians lost jobs to technology in Greensboro Ballet's production of "The Nutcracker" this year. While I understand his concerns, his assumption is incorrect. The Greensboro Ballet has not used live musicians for Nutcracker since 2002. We would love to have the full sound of the Greensboro Symphony, but we simply cannot afford to do so at this time.
Moving forward, Greensboro Ballet will add live music to all possible performances, although the first priority is to restore our professional dancers. After all, we are a ballet company and our mission is to offer ballet performances of the highest artistic caliber given the resources available. This year, NOTION offered to provide us with 12 musicians and a conductor along with the computer program. I gratefully accepted their offer. We were thrilled to provide live music at our performances once again.
Maryhelen Mayfield
Greensboro
The writer is artistic director/CEO, Greensboro Ballet.