American Ballet Theatre at Sadler's Wells. Photograph: Rosalie O'Connor
American Ballet Theatre's season at Sadler's Wells broke one very significant box office record: top ticket prices of £70, the highest the theatre has ever charged for non-fundraising performances.
Director Alistair Spalding says that the Wells' policy is primarily to "keep prices affordable" but believes that "occasionally we need something at the glamorous end of things". Only a week before, the theatre's Sampled Weekend, with tickets pitched between £5 and £10, attracted a uniquely young public, some of them first-time dance goers. It was a brilliant coup for Spalding. But does it matter that for ABT's season, the average age of the audience went up in almost direct proportion with the ticket prices?
There is a good argument for the Wells spreading its remit and opening its doors to as wide a variety of dance as it can. Someone needed to give stage room to ABT, since neither Covent Garden nor the Coliseum have been able to present the company during the last 17 years. There is also a good argument for the Wells mixing up its repertory and attracting a wider range of punters - some of the ballet purists who came to ABT might in future come back to try some more challenging or contemporary performances. But there also may be a danger of such a policy rebounding. If theatre's image gets too glamorous, and too pricey, will the younger punters, whom the Wells are doing so much too attract, simply be frightened away?
