SCHOOL FOR SYLPHS?On November 18, Krissy Keefer, a local dancer/choreographer, filed a complaint with the San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden Human Rights Commission because her daughter, Fredrika Near Keefer, age 8 at the time, had been refused admission to the San Francisco Ballet San Francisco Ballet, or SFB, is a San Francisco, USA based ballet company, founded in 1933 as part of San Francisco Opera Ballet. The company is currently based in the War Memorial Opera House, where it is directed by Helgi Tomasson. School. Keefer, who describes her daughter as "musical and really talented," felt that the school's rejection of Fredrika violated a recent San Francisco ordinance A law, statute, or regulation enacted by a Municipal Corporation. An ordinance is a law passed by a municipal government. A municipality, such as a city, town, village, or borough, is a political subdivision of a state within which a municipal corporation has been outlawing the funding of organizations that discriminate on the basis of body type. Since the San Francisco Ballet Company, which runs the SFB SFB Sonderforschungsbereich SFB Sender Freies Berlin (German Radio and TV Station) SFB Star Fleet Battles (game) SFB San Francisco Ballet SFB Society for Biomaterials SFB ScaleFactor Band school, regularly receives support from the city's Grants for the Arts program, Keefer felt that she had a case. In its response on December 6, the San Francisco Ballet rejected the claim of discrimination on the basis of weight and height, citing statistics on the broad range of height and weight levels among its Level One students. The SFB School's published criteria for admission include the following requirements: "a well-proportioned, slender body; a straight and supple supple Physical exam adjective Referring to free movement of a body part spine; legs that are well turned out from the hip" and "an ear for music and an instinct for movement." In an additional brief, filed on January 8, SFB pointed out that Grants for the Arts recipients are not able to use the funding for education and training activities and that the school's funds come from tuition and gifts alone. Keefer's complaint hit a sore spot in many circles. The story was reported by newspapers across the country, and Keefer herself was invited to appear on ABC's The View and Good Morning America Good Morning America is a weekday morning news show that is broadcast on the ABC television network. The show was adapted from The Morning Exchange, a morning show created by and airing on the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio, and was launched nationally as . Both major local ballet critics wrote opinion pieces in support of the ballet company's right to choose students it considers best suited for the kind of training the school aims to provide. Others in the news media decried ballet's "elitist e·lit·ism or é·lit·ism n. 1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources. " attitudes and questioned the role of public money in an art form that, they argue, serves a minority of the public. At the very least, the controversy has stimulated discussion on what kind of dance training is suitable and desirable for young children. As of press time, the Human Rights Commission was awaiting a decision by the City Attorney on whether Keefer's claim has legal merit. |
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