Dance world comes out in support of Ashley Page, departing artistic director of Scottish Ballet

Ballet wars part two: the dance world is revving up in support of Ashley Page at Scottish Ballet, who is departing as artistic director of the company "with great sadness and regret" after he was offered just a one-year extension to his contract last month – in effect pushing him out of the company he has built up to greatness. The Guardian has seen a damning letter from Noah Gelber, dancer and choreo-grapher with the William Forsythe company, to Cindy Sughrue, Scottish Ballet's chief executive. He writes: "I am sincerely afraid for the future of the Scottish Ballet as things follow their present course." Encouraging Page's departure will, Gelber claims, "constitute a loss from which the company's reputation may never recover".