The American dream of Yada dance company was cut short when half its Dance Rush shows in San Francisco had to be cancelled because the US promoter did not meet its contractual obligations.
The Dance Rush dream is still very much alive and already being chased by other promoters to move on
“The way the marketing was handled resulted in promoters not reaching their financial targets… (Yada) honoured all contractual agreements . The US promoters have panicked due to marginal percentages in ticket sales and have obviously… not done their homework well in relation to marketing and financial percentages margins,” Yada director Felix Busuttil told The Sunday Times when contacted.
The last four of the eight shows, which should have been held at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre this weekend, did not take place.
Mr Busuttil said Yada was trying to reach an amicable agreement with the promoter and was ready to pursue legal action for damages if no solution was found.
Earlier this month, 37 dancers and 15 technical and artistic crew members headed to the US to premiere a dance show at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre.
Dance Rush, part of the company’s extended 25th anniversary celebrations, tells the story of a 12-year orphan who dreams of meeting his parents who have taken separate routes.
The newspaper was this week contacted by concerned relatives of Maltese involved in the show claiming the American coordinator had abandoned the Yada team without paying expenses, such as hotel accommodation, because ticket sales were “a disaster”.
When contacted on Friday morning (US time) Mr Busuttil conceded that there had been “contractual issues”, which had since been ironed out and said no shows would be cancelled.
When contacted the producer also said that Friday night’s show would be taking place. A look at the online ticket sales showed that about 300 of the 962 seats had been sold for Friday’s show, before the performances were cancelled.
But, by the evening the decision was taken to cancel the last four shows.
“When yesterday (Friday) we spoke, shows were all as normal. (Yada) only found out in the last few remaining hours that shows were cancelled,” Mr Busuttil said.
Speaking about the four performances that took place, he said Yada had a “strong weekend performance” with positive reviews.
“During last weekend’s performances we had a standing ovation and the public, as they do in Malta, were dancing to the final tune of the grand finale,” he said adding that he would ensure his dancers would get paid for the trip.
He said the Yada team was still being taken care of by the promoter who continued paying expenses such as hotel accommodation. He was determined to ensure this experience did not dampen the spirit of his team.
“The Dance Rush dream is still very much alive and already being chased by other promoters to move on… My passion for dance has been strengthened by the fact that Yada did perform in the States, has shown its capability in producing shows abroad and got excellent reviews,” he said.
The Sunday Times could not reach the promoter yesterday despite several attempts.