FED: Dancers withdraw from Chinese new year gala
AAP General News
By Amy Coopes
January 20, 2006
SYDNEY, Jan 20 AAP - Two Australian Ballet dancers have withdrawn from a Chinese New Year gala event in Sydney because of alleged political pressure from Chinese consular officials.
Principal Australian Ballet performers Robert Curran and Lucinda Dunn were slated to perform at the New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) Global Gala at the State Theatre on February 18.
The gala is staged in 17 cities worldwide, including Los Angeles, Paris, New York, Seoul and Vancouver, and is making its Australian debut in Sydney this year.
NTDTV is a Chinese-language television network stationed in New York which broadcasts via satellite and cable to the US, China, Canada and Europe.
China says the station is linked to Falun Gong, a spiritual group it has banned.
But NTDTV managing director Richard Chen said Curran and Dunn this week withdrew from the gala, claiming they had been pressured by officials from the Chinese consulate-general in Melbourne.
"Robert called me and said he was pressured (to) withdraw," Mr Chen told reporters in Sydney.
"His company has a show, a tour show in China in the next half year and that's a big issue ... he said if he came to our gala he probably (would) not get a chance to get a visa and also (it would be) a threat to his colleagues."
Australian Ballet executive director Richard Evans today confirmed Dunn and Curran had decided to withdraw, but said the decision had nothing to do with the company.
"Their decision to participate, and ultimately to withdraw from the event, was their own personal decision," Mr Evans said.
"The Australian Ballet has never had a direct involvement with the event or the dancers' participation."
Both Curran and Dunn were in rehearsals and unavailable for comment today.
The Australian Ballet has another tour to China, visiting Shanghai and Beijing, in the planning stages.
Chinese authorities have distanced themselves from the global gala event, claiming NTDTV is linked to the spiritual group Falun Gong, which the Chinese Communist Party have outlawed as an "evil cult".
NTDTV deny this, saying they are a not for profit independent media group which is funded through advertising and donations.
Mr Chen made public a letter allegedly sent by the consulate-general in Sydney to local and state politicians urging them not to attend or affiliate themselves with the gala.
"Although NTDTV claimed itself as a public media, it is in essence a tool of propaganda for the Falun Gong cult," the letter, on consular letterhead and addressed to The Honorable Councillors, said.
"The real purpose of NTDTV in staging Chinese New Year Global Gala is to publicise the Falun Gong cult and smear the image of China."
A spokesman from the consulate-general in Melbourne confirmed the dancers had been advised not to participate in the event, but could not give further details.