The image is moving and sublime. A ballerina in full grand jeté, suspended in the air with a Chilean flag waving above her head, while behind her a water cannon truck and an ammunition carrier loom: a symbol of criminal state repression in Santiago de Chile in 2019. The red of her dress flutters like an open wound. Her body, in perfect tension, does not flee: she stands firm, clad with no external armor other than a tutu, for the other was carried in her spirit. She herself—her body, her soul, and her dance—rose up against infamy in the middle of the street, and all of this together became a human barricade that day.

That snapshot, taken during Chile’s October 2019 social uprising, condensed in a single gesture the will of a people who decided not to collaborate with injustice and to face State Terrorism, largely with the weapons of creativity and the thunderous conviction of dignity. Every revolution starts with barricades and chaos, as in Chile that October, and in the midst of smoke and confusion, suddenly, you know everything is understood and that we are all on the same side when the most classical and learned artists take their dances, operas, and instruments to the streets. And today, when I see that from the heart of one of Britain’s most illustrious institutions, that same gesture has blossomed again, I can only calm my heart thanks to the certainty that comes from knowing, from being sure that, after so much talk of Gaza and so many endless marches, we, all of us, are already on the same side.

This is a huge step. From this, nothing and no one returns unchanged. Even if the news is not widely reported nor anyone else notices, the lived truth demonstrates that you do not return the same, but conscious of being the seed of life and peace.


The decision of the Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO) to cancel its presentation of Tosca in Tel Aviv is not an administrative matter or merely a rescheduling for security reasons. It is an ethical fracture. An act of moral insurrection in the very heart of the European cultural establishment, led not by directors but by bodies: dancers, technicians, stage artists, and administrative workers who signed an internal letter, forceful and without rhetoric. They refused to travel to Israel. They refused to collaborate. They refused to become accomplices.

The cancellation, confirmed on August 4, 2025, is anchored in the protest of 182 RBO members who denounced not only the war crimes in Gaza but also the institution’s double standard, which months earlier had offered free performances for Israeli soldiers following the joint production of Turandot. The breaking point was the incident on July 19, during a performance of Il Trovatore, in which artist Daniel Perry unfurled a Palestinian flag on stage. Artistic director Oliver Mears tried to snatch it from him mid-performance. The authoritarian gesture unleashed a wave of internal indignation.

Unlike other symbolic acts, this time there was structural consequence: the Royal Ballet and Opera will not perform in Israel. Not while Gaza is besieged, bombed, murdered. Not while hospitals are blown to pieces, as happened to the UN clinic reduced to rubble on the night of August 5. And not while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, announces preparations for a “final invasion” to take over the Gaza Strip. “The war will continue until all of Gaza is under Israeli control,” Gallant declared yesterday from Tel Aviv.

The international reaction was swift. The UN, through several special rapporteurs, condemned the meeting as a call for forced annexation, a violation of international humanitarian law. Artists for Palestine UK celebrated the RBO’s decision as “an unprecedented moral and political victory in the British cultural sphere.” Unexpected voices came from inside Israel: a network of doctors, rabbis, and former soldiers published a statement saying that “bombing hospitals in Gaza is a crime, not a necessity.” These are the same groups that, months earlier, protested when the attack on Al-Shifa hospital was justified as a “military target.”

The symbolic rupture within the RBO is also stylistic. Choreographers and musical directors resigned quietly. Veteran dancers submitted private letters of resignation or protest. Internal networks leaked testimonies of “moral exhaustion” and “irreversible fracture” between executive management and the artistic teams. Alex Beard, CEO of the RBO, publicly cited “security reasons,” but internally he is blamed for not protecting the ethical integrity of his cast.

Amid civilizational collapse, this gesture from the Royal Ballet and Opera becomes part of a new genealogy of resistance: not that of the violent barricade, but that of the aesthetic, sensitive, and disobedient barricade. Like that Chilean dancer who leapt before the armored vehicle, these artistic bodies rise up, suspended in the air of history, to remind us that beauty can and must know when to say no. No more. Not anymore.

Citations:
[1] Victory for staff as Royal Ballet and Opera pulls Israel … https://artistsforpalestine.org.uk/2025/08/04/victory-for-staff-as-royal-ballet-and-opera-pulls-tel-aviv-production/
[2] Google Traductor https://translate.google.com/?hl=es-419
[3] Royal Ballet and Opera members reject future … https://www.aa.com.tr/en/culture/royal-ballet-and-opera-members-reject-future-performances-in-israel-back-palestinian-flag-protest/3650301
[4] Traductor – Google Translate https://translate.google.com/?hl=es&sl=es&tl=ro&op=translate
[5] UK’s Royal Ballet and Opera cancels 2026 Israel show … https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/08/05/uks-royal-ballet-and-opera-cancels-2026-israel-show-after-staff-protest-on-gaza-stance
[6] Google Traductor https://translate.google.com.cu
[7] British Opera Company Cancels ‘Tosca’ Collaboration in … https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/arts/music/british-opera-royal-tosca-israel-letter.html
[8] Royal Ballet and Opera cancels Tel Aviv show after staff … https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music-stage/2025/08/06/royal-ballet-and-opera-cancels-tel-aviv-show-after-staff-protest-gaza-war/
[9] UK Royal Opera cancels 2026 production of ‘Tosca’ in … https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-royal-opera-cancels-2026-production-of-tosca-in-israel-after-staff-protest/