BBC News is reporting that the BBC (it’s always a bit weird when they do that!) is shelving plans to run all four acts of ‘In The Spirit of Diaghilev’ from its Christmas schedule.
The four acts of the performance, all created by different dance makers, run as one show but the segment created by Javier De Frutos is causing “The Beeb” some headaches because it features scenes of, and we’re not kidding, “a pope abusing an altar boy and strangling a pregnant nun.”
It all sounds pretty normal to us, especially coming from Mr De Frutos as he featured a pregnant woman being beaten up is his last full length dance work for Phoenix Dance Theatre ‘Cattlecall’. He’s either got issues with the Catholic Church, pregnant women, obstetricians, or all three!
Because the BBC is running the performance before the, so-called, watershed time of 9pm they will not show that particular segment but will show the other three segments created by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Russell Maliphant and Wayne McGregor.
When asked why not can the whole show for the sake of humanity and the very future of creativity the BBC’s answering machine declined to comment.
It’s all a bit of tempest in a teacup because the work will run on BBC4, a television channel only marginally more popular than the Knitting Channel (no offence to people who knit intended!)