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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery

Up to date announcements of company seasons, featured artists and special programming as well as grant of awards such as Princess Grace, or artistic appointments

BBC News: Muses no more: Ballet’s newest choreographers

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BBC News highlights Boston Ballet principal Lia Cirio’s work from ChoreograpHER in a recent feature. The company is leading the way with its ChoreograpHER initiative and Cirio’s talent is not going unnoticed. We’re proud to see a woman’s hard work getting recognized so soon after her choreographic debut!

See the video on BBC News.

(Video by Hannah Long-Higgins)

Wallpaper: Dior designs costumes for Philip Glass-composed ballet in Rome

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By Laura Hawkins

“Dance in all its forms and variations is a very important frame of reference for me; it fascinates and inspires me, because it gives the body and its possibilities a central role,’” explains Dior artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Dance has long had associations with the French maison. In 1955, Christian Dior designed the wedding dress of Royal Ballet star Margot Fonteyn, and his autobiography abounds with metaphors comparing the rhythm behind and performance of showcasing a collection as a ‘ballet’. 

Dior’s S/S 2019, featured in the Dior Magazine. Photography: Ken Browar

For her S/S 2019 collection, Chiuri celebrated the power, femininity and strength of the pioneering female dancers Isadora Duncan and Loïe Fuller, with a featherlight and ethereal offering of gauzy dresses in nude tones, pleated tulle skirts and ballet pumps. Her accompanying runway show featured a collaboration with choreographer Sharon Eyal. ‘Dance in all its forms allows me to explore the body and its performances in a way that is harmonious and beautiful, even unconventional.’

On Thursday 29 March, Dior’s couture-meets-costume design credentials took centre stage, when the designer debuted her creations for Nuit Blanche, a ballet dedicated to the composer and musician Philip Glass, performed at the the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.

Read the full article in Wallpaper.

The Reviews Hub: Northern Ballet: Victoria – Sadler’s Wells, London

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By Maryam PhilpottC

2019 marks the bicentenary of Queen Victoria’s birth, a monarch who, along with both Elizabeths, secured her place in history by reining unchallenged for decades and presiding over a golden age of technical, societal and cultural innovation. Yet for modern storytellers, it is her personal grief that fascinates, living most of her life in widows’ weeds mourning the death of her beloved Albert, which Cathy Marston has now turned into a full-length ballet, Victoria, arriving at Sadler’s Wells for its London premiere.

Read the full article in The Reviews Hub.

New York Times: #SpeakingInDance Hats Off to Ballet Hispánico’s Women

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By Gia Kourlas

27 March 2019

For the series #SpeakingInDance for The New York Times, Ballet Hispanico’s work with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa was shot on video. According to The Times, the piece was “created for male dancers,” and will be performed by women for the first time in NYC at the Joyce Theater on March 26. Sombrerísimo, Ochoa’s piece, is set to music by Titus Tiel. Read more about the company’s empowering take on the work in The Times.

Watch the video on The New York Times’ website or Instagram.

Stylist: Why the English National Ballet’s new season is the most feminist ballet yet

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By Elena Chabo

The English National Ballet’s new season is en pointe when it comes to amplifying female voices.

Dance may seem like an industry dominated by women, but female choreographers are still a minority. This April, the English National Ballet has leapt on the issue, presenting She Persisted, a programme celebrating women in all aspects of dance.

“The classical ballet world needs more women’s perceptions on female characters in narrative dance,” says choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, whose work Broken Wings, based on the life of Frida Kahlo, is one of three that make up She Persisted. 

Read the full article in Stylist.

Boston Ballet ChoreograpHER Initiative Updates

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Boston Ballet’s ChoreograpHER initiative continues to develop. The program establishes a platform for female dance students and professional dancers to develop choreographic skills and for Boston Ballet to invest in new, innovative works by female artists. One of the few of its kind, the initiative will support women beyond 2019, as it is designed to be a multi-year endeavor for the company and its affiliate school.

Boston Ballet has recently shared the ways in which the program is progressing and giving women new opportunities:

  • The inaugural Student Choreographic Project performance took place in February and featured original choreography from ten female student choreographers. The Student Choreographic Project aims to discover and nurture future choreographers by creating and presenting a piece with their peers to a live audience.
  • On May 22, Principal Dancer Lia Cirio is debuting a premiere at the 10th Anniversary of the Next Generation program with music by Anna Stromer. Lia was one of the six dancer-choreographers featured at BB@home:ChoreograpHER this past November, so this commissioned ballet is a next step in her choreographic development, bringing her artistry to a larger stage for a larger audience. Next Generation will also feature choreography by two female faculty members. 
  • The 2019–2020 Boston Ballet season will feature Helen Pickett’s Petal as a company premiere, as well as a return of Tsukiyo.

Learn more about the initiative here.

Laurent Liotardo/The English National Ballet

Broadway World: Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa Receives Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award

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20 March 2019

Jacob’s Pillow announces that internationally sought-after Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is the recipient of the 2019 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. With a career that spans over 15 years, Lopez Ochoa has created over 90 works for more than 50 major dance companies around the world-bridging different countries, genres, and reputations with a fluency that is unmatched. Lopez Ochoa will accept the award as part of Jacob’s Pillow Season Opening Gala on June 15. Ochoa joins a list of honorees that include Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, Bill T. Jones, Merce Cunningham, Kyle Abraham, Michelle Dorrance, Camille A. Brown, Liz Lerman, and Faye Driscoll, among others.

“Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is a versatile and prolific choreographer who has created signature works for companies around the world. A global citizen, she creates rigorous works of great beauty and intensity in hybrid contemporary and classical ballet vocabularies that enable dancers to truly realize themselves. Ochoa demands that dancers are deeply and unabashedly present, and because of this, the audience cannot help but be drawn to them. We honor her many achievements while investing in the work she has yet to create,” says Jacob’s Pillow Director Pamela Tatge.

Read the full article on Broadway World.

Courtesy of Cheryl Mann via Daily Nexus

Daily Nexus Article, “The Joffrey Presents Not Your Grandma’s Ballet” Covers #MeToo Discussion

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By Hannah Jackson

12 March 2019

For UCSB’s Daily Nexus, Hannah Jackson reviewed the Joffrey Ballet’s Not Your Grandma’s Ballet performance. Hannah Jackson applauded the company’s discussion of #MeToo in ballet and discussed portrayals of women in Alexander Eckman’s “show-stopping” Joy. She wrote:

Following the performance, artistic director of the Joffrey Ashley Wheater spoke onstage with Professor Christopher Pilafian from the Department of Theater and Dance. In spite of the numerous scandals that have recently struck the dance world in conjunction with the #MeToo movement, Wheater believes that “dance is having a moment right now.” It was evident that while ballet still very much tailored to an older, wealthier audience, the Joffrey is leading the charge toward a more progressive and accepting future for the art form: starting with bodies.

“Robert Joffrey said, ‘A great dancer comes in every shape and size,’ and I believe that is true if you look at our company today,” Wheater said. And he’s right: throughout the performance I was pleasantly surprised by the (relative) diversity; the presence of breasts and strong thighs more common than that of alarming skinniness.

While acceptance of the human form as it comes seems like a small step, seeing attainable body standards on the stage of one of the world’s most renowned companies is no small feat. This permissiveness, in conjunction with the Joffrey’s confidence to embrace the funk and the spunk of experimental dance will lead them into the 21st century — now it’s time for a young audience to follow in suit.   

Read the full article here.

Chicago Sun-Times: La Femme Dance Festival celebrates black choreographers in ‘dancestry’ program

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By Catey Sullivan

14 March 2019

About five years ago, Red Clay Dance Company founder Vershawn Sanders-Ward realized she was repeating herself. “I started noticing that I kept having the same conversation with my peers. That the same issue kept coming up: There was a lack of support for our work. A lack of opportunities for marginalized voices. And by our work and marginalized voices I specifically mean black women,” Sanders-Ward said, during a recent chat.

With Red Clay’s 3rd Biennial La Femme Dance Festival, Sanders-Ward gives those voices opportunities to blossom. Running March 14 – 16 in Washington Park’s Green Line Performing Arts Center, Femme Fest spotlights the creations of five female choreographers of Black/African or Diaspora/African descent. By honoring African “dancestry” (dance plus history plus ancestors), Red Clay amps up its commitment to spotlighting dances that began in the myriad nations of the African continent, spread across the planet via the slave trade and evolved through generations to influence everyone from the Brooklyn-based Urban Bush Women to Chicago’s Hiplets to superstar ballerina Misty Copeland.

Read the full article in the Chicago Sun-Times.

WFPL: Louisville Ballet Announces 2019-2020 ‘Season Of Imagination’

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By Ashlie Stevens

14 March 2019

The Louisville Ballet has released details for its 2019-2020 season, dubbed the “Season of Imagination.”

In a written statement, Robert Curran, Louisville Ballet artistic and executive director, said the company is always working to tell stories in a creative and thrilling way.

“We will continue to imagine and create the reality we want to live in, and we look forward to exploring this on stage with you this season,” he said.

The season will open on Sept. 13, 2019 with the regional premiere of “The Merry Widow,” choreographed by Ronald Hynd; scenery and costumes will be provided by the Australian Ballet, where Curran was a principal artist for 10 years.

Then, in October, the Louisville Ballet will present three pieces in one program: Balanchine’s “Serenade,” the world-premiere of “Appalachian Spring,” and the regional premiere of Stanton Welch’s “Velocity.”

“Appalachian Spring” is being choreographed by Andrea Schermoly, the company’s first female resident choreographer.

Read the full article on the blog of 89.3 WFPL.