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Hindus are upset at the taxpayer funded Norwegian National Opera & Ballet (Den Norske Opera & Ballett) (DNO&B) for re-announcing \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d ballet; which they protested in 2022 as \u201cculturally insensitive\u201d, outdated and seriously trivializing Eastern religious and other traditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d is announced to run from April 17 to May 14 on the Main Stage of Opera House in Oslo. Hindus have termed this revival as \u201ca step backward for cultural sensitivity in the performing arts\u201d, and have asked for the immediate cancellation of the upcoming ballet performances. It was previously showcased by DNO&B in Oslo on March 23-April 07, 2022.<\/p>\n
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was so sad that DNO&B; which is \u201cwholly-owned by the Norwegian state\u201d, ignoring previous pleas, chose to re-hurt the feelings of Hindus by callously promoting appropriation of traditions, elements and concepts of \u201cothers\u201d; and ridiculing entire communities.<\/p>\n
It was just a repeat dismissal of serious cultural harm. These issues were thoroughly outlined to the concerned four years ago. DNO&B should stop celebrating and profiting from historical prejudice; Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, stated.<\/p>\n
Rajan Zed indicated that this deeply problematic ballet was just a blatant belittling of a rich civilization and exhibited 19th-century orientalist attitudes. He also urged DNO&B to apologize for such an inappropriate selection and repeat it again despite knowing about the objection of the Hindus in the first instance.<\/p>\n
Norwegian National Ballet, which claims to be \u201cNorway’s classically based ballet company\u201d, should have shown some maturity before selecting and then re-exhibiting a ballet like \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d (The Temple Dancer), displaying disrespectful Western caricaturing of Eastern heritage and abetting ethnic stereotyping; Zed noted.<\/p>\n
It was highly irresponsible for DNO&B, whose “Towards 2030″ statement on its website claims\u2014 \u201c\u2026we offer a place where people can find peace\u2026inclusive community\u2026we strengthen both individuals and our society\u2026we create impact\u2026we build community\u2026\u201d; to repeatedly choose such a ballet which had been blamed for patronizing flawed mishmash of orientalist stereotypes, dehumanizing cultural portrayal and misrepresentation, offensive and degrading elements, needless appropriation of cultural motifs, essentialism, shallow exoticism, caricaturing, etc. DNO&B could do better than this to serve its diverse stakeholders; Rajan Zed pointed out.<\/p>\n
Zed also urged Norwegian Minister of Culture and Equality Lubna Jaffery; who \u201cis responsible for cultural policy, equality- and discrimination policy\u201d; to seriously look into this issue of cultural stereotyping by DNO&B, whose board is appointed by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Equality should also take its areas of responsibility\u2014culture, equality and discrimination\u2014more seriously, and have a better understanding of the feelings of \u201cothers\u201d to do the job more effectively. Is not the issue of cultural stereotyping in \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d visible to the Ministry? Rajan Zed asked.<\/p>\n
If our pleas are not heard, we plan to appeal to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St\u00f8re; as it is simply unfair, unethical and inappropriate to spend taxpayer\u2019s money on repeatedly caricaturing \u201cother\u201d cultures; Zed says, and adds that hard-working Hindus have contributed a lot to the prosperity of Norway and continue to do so.<\/p>\n
Moreover; DNO&B collaborators; like Norsk Tipping, OBOS, DNB; should rethink about their relationship with it if it continued with ballets like \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d, which trivialized traditions of \u201cothers\u201d; Rajan Zed added.<\/p>\n
Zed suggested DNO&B CEO Geir Bergkastet, Board Chairperson Sarah Willand, Ballet Artistic Director Ingrid Lorentzen to re-evaluate its systems and procedures and send its executives for cultural sensitivity training so that such an inappropriate stuff did not repeatedly slip through in the future.<\/p>\n
Description of three-hours long \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d on DNO&B website includes: \u201cthe work also contains elements that are difficult to identify with or endorse. For that reason, many ballet houses are now questioning whether this and other classics still have a rightful place in their repertoires.”<\/p>\n
During the 2022 protest, DNO&B Communications Director Kenneth Fredstie admitted in the email to Rajan Zed, who spearheaded the protest, that \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d features \u201cfascination with, but also ignorance of, other cultures\u201d.<\/p>\n
We fully support \u201cartistic freedom\u201d, but not when it distorts and trivializes our communities. \u201cArtistic freedom\u201d is not a license for repeatedly distorting and trivializing \u201cother\u201d communities and hurting their feelings; when there are so many ballets to choose from. When traditions are portrayed inappropriately and misrepresented, it can perpetuate misunderstanding and can be painful for communities. DNO&B is out of alignment with contemporary standards of cultural respect and artistic accountability, Zed said.<\/p>\n
Like many others, Hindus also consider ballet as one of the revered art forms which offers richness and depth. But we are well into the 21st century now, and outdated \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d, which was first presented in St. Petersburg (Russia) in 1877, is long overdue for permanent retirement from the world stage; Rajan Zed points out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hindus are upset at the taxpayer funded Norwegian National Opera & Ballet (Den Norske Opera & Ballett) (DNO&B) for re-announcing \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d ballet; which they protested in 2022 as \u201cculturally insensitive\u201d, outdated and seriously trivializing Eastern religious and other traditions. \u201cLa Bayad\u00e8re\u201d is announced to run from April 17 to May 14 on the Main Stage of Opera House in Oslo. Hindus have termed this revival as \u201ca step backward for cultural sensitivity in the performing arts\u201d, and have asked for the immediate cancellation of the upcoming ballet performances. It…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":666385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47748],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-666384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666386,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666384\/revisions\/666386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.malayalamdailynews.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}