Iraq’s only ballet and music school faces funding crisis
Iraq's only music and ballet school has survived decades of war, sanctions and dictatorship, but now faces a funding crisis due to low oil prices and the costly war against the Islamic State group. On a recent day boys and girls in leotards warmed up on a practice bar before a mirror-lined wall, while an […]Susannah George writes for AP:
Iraq's only music and ballet school has survived decades of war, sanctions and dictatorship, but now faces a funding crisis due to low oil prices and the costly war against the Islamic State group.
On a recent day boys and girls in leotards warmed up on a practice bar before a mirror-lined wall, while an orchestra worked its way up scales in the next room, with students tuning cellos and plucking notes on Middle Eastern string instruments known as ouds.
The teachers are still receiving salaries, but funds for instruments and equipment are drying up, leading to the cancellation of performances and raising concerns that the school — which has always recruited based on talent alone — may one day only serve the wealthy or close altogether.
