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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

Scene from Praedicere, Choreography by Michelle Dorrance, Courtesy of American Ballet Theatre, Photo by Marty SohlCourtesy of American Ballet Theatre/Photo by Marty Sohl

American Ballet Theatre Highlights Women Credited Throughout Its History & Announces Movement’s Next Endeavors

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In a new extended page that details the American Ballet Theatre Women’s Movement, Ballet Theatre is featuring the artists responsible for stagings and commissions throughout the company’s history.

The thirty-nine women come from different generations and diverse backgrounds from around the world. Ranging from Natalia Makarova, who has staged La Bayadère for Ballet Theatre since the 80’s (and the less-performed Paquita), to Catherine Littlefield, who brought her work “Barn Dance” to the company in 1944, the list is intriguing and serves as a model for what all companies should be doing – giving choreographers support and exposure beyond their commissions or staging.

The company has also shared the Women’s Movement’s influence on its 2019 Spring Season. Jane Eyre, a full-length work by Cathy Marston, is coming to the Metropolitan Opera House, followed by a reprisal of In the Upper Room, one of Twyla Tharp’s best-known works. The latter comes as part of the Tharp Trio program, which includes the choreographer’s The Brahms-Haydn Variations and Deuce Coupe.

Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company is set to perform more work by Claudia Schreier and a new work by Stefanie Batten Bland beginning in January 2019. Eight women choreographers have already benefited from the Women’s Movement since its official rollout last fall.

DDP Founder Liza Yntema provides continuous support to the Movement.

See all the information on the Women’s Movement on the American Ballet Theatre website.
Read about the Movement in the news here: Marie Claire; The New York Times; Dance Magazine; San Francisco Classical Voice

Screenshot via Dance Magazine

Dance Magazine: Sergei Polunin, Unapologetic About His Social Media Spiral, Is Somehow Still Getting High-Profile Dance Jobs

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By Lauren Wigenwroth

8 March 2019

After a slew of homophobic and misogynist Instagram posts got Sergei Polunin dropped from an engagement with the Paris Opéra Ballet and a host of other opportunities, we thought we’d heard the last of him for a while.

And he has been relatively quiet for the past two months, at least on social media. (In one interview he says that he deleted his Instagram; in another he says it was hacked and shut down.) We hoped he was taking time for a much-needed intervention—some of his posts were truly disturbing and suggested deeper issues at play.

But the quiet didn’t last long. Yesterday, The Guardian released an exclusive interview with Polunin—one that he initiated, approaching a writer who didn’t know about ballet because Polunin “hates talking about ballet.”

Polunin wanted to explain his recent activity on social media, his manager told writer Simon Hattenstone.

Great! We could all use some clarification about why he said that he wants to slap fat people and effeminate men. (Not to mention an explanation of his chest tattoo of Vladimir Putin.)

But the story left us with more questions—and made us wonder why his unacceptable behavior is still being normalized by those who continue to hire him for performances and program him for appearances.

Read the full article in Dance Magazine.


Pointe Magazine: Chelsy Meiss on Being the First Woman to Dance the Mad Hatter in Wheeldon’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

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By Chava Lansky

6 March 2019


When Christopher Wheeldon‘s celebrated Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland returns to National Ballet of Canada’s stage this week, there will be one big change. First soloist Chelsy Meiss will dance the role of the quirky, tapping Mad Hatter, the first time ever that a female dancer has stepped into the part. “Chelsy is one the most versatile dancers in the company,” says artistic director Karen Kain. “The Mad Hatter role is the perfect vehicle to showcase her acting ability, enthusiasm and tap dancing technique.” For Wheeldon, this decision came at just the right time. “In the current climate, where the boundaries of gender in ballet are being explored, the option to have Chelsy as The Mad Hatter became a relevant discussion,” he says.

The National Ballet of Canada’s promotional video from YouTube. Courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada.

We caught up with Meiss to hear all about what it feels like to take on this groundbreaking role.

Read the full article in Pointe Magazine.

Cincinnati Business Courier: Premieres highlight Cincinnati Ballet’s 2019-20 season

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By Nikki Kingery

7 March 2019

The Cincinnati Ballet announced its 2019-20 season, featuring several world premieres as well as updated versions of classical works.

“The season has a great balance to it,” artistic director Victoria Morgan said in a release. “We have world premieres from emerging artists, classical works refreshed for a modern audience and family-friendly story ballets.”

The season opens Sept. 12-22 with the “Kaplan New Works Series”at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut St. downtown. The series will showcase three emerging female choreographers: Cincinnati native Heather Britt will be joined by Andrea Chermoly, resident choreographer at Louisville Ballet, and Sarah Van Patten, longtime San Francisco Ballet principal dancer. 

The series also includes two world premieres from Cincinnati Ballet dancers selected through the ballet’s annual Choreographer’s Workshop. 

Read about the full season in the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Read about Cincinnati Ballet and its outstanding advocacy on the Cincinnati Ballet website.

Pittsburgh City Paper: Camille A. Brown & Dancers rewrite the Black narrative with ink

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By Amanda Waltz

5 March 2019

There are no tutus, leotards, or ballet buns in the Camille A. Brown & Dancers (CABD) production of ink. Instead, dancers wear untucked, button-down shirts, cargo shorts, tank tops, and yoga pants, all meant to designate their roles as everyday people on the street. By staying grounded in reality, the new dance theater show at the August Wilson Cultural Center (March 9-10) explores how small interactions and relationships contribute to Black empowerment.

“[Brown] wanted people to feel like they could see themselves on stage,” says ink dancer Juel D. Lane. “She wanted us to see our brilliance for who we are as a people, as a community. So the choice to have costumes that are very pedestrian sheds light on ‘this is who we are and where we’ve been.’”

Lane has worked with Brown — a prolific choreographer, dancer, director, and educator — since they met in the early 2000s as students at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. That includes dancing with CABD in the previous two installments leading up to ink, the final in a trilogy he describes as dealing with Black identity. 

The first show, the award-winning Mr. TOL E. RAncE, uses dance, as well as comedy, animation, and theater, to explore the history of Black performers and addresses forms of “modern-day minstrelsy.” Lane says the following BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play tackles the stereotype of “the angry Black female” to provide a more nuanced, celebratory portrait of Black womanhood.

Read the full article in the Pittsburgh City Paper.

The Guardian’s Top Dance of 2018 Included Ballet BC’s Female Mixed Bill and Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre

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In Judith Mackrell’s Top Dance of 2018 article for The Guardian on January 3rd, 2018, Cathy Marston won praise. The choreographer is recently gaining attention for her Jane Eyre, which was premiered for the Northern Ballet of Canada last year (featured on the list) and is now coming to New York City, where American Ballet Theatre will present the work at the Met.

Marston’s work 16 + a room was also mentioned, along with work by Crystal Pite and duo Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar for Ballet BC, the company which Marston directs.

The steady stream of good reviews and full-length works by Martson (Jane Eyre and Queen Victoria) serve to reinforce our excitement that Martson’s work will soon hit the American big-leagues. It is time for a woman’s full-length work to gain the attention a new Ratmansky or Wheeldon ballet would garner.

Watch the trailer for Jane Eyre below:

Read the fill list in The Guardian.

The Guardian: Queen Victoria – the ballet: ‘You think you know her. It turned out I didn’t’

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By Lyndsey Winship

Queen Victoria is falling into the arms of John Brown. He rocks her as if a child, her body heavy with grief, before she steps into a stoic arabesque. “What he’s doing is making you strong through your stubbornness,” choreographer Cathy Marston tells dancer Abigail Prudames, playing the mourning queen preparing to face her public after her beloved Albert’s death.

We’re in rehearsals for Victoria, Marston’s latest work for Northern Balletfollowing her acclaimed Jane Eyre in 2016. Marston must be the most accomplished British female choreographer in ballet right now, but she’s spent most of her professional life in Europe, first as a dancer, then for six years as director of Bern Ballett. Freelance since 2013, Marston still lives in Switzerland with her Australian husband and two young children, but she’s about to have a flurry of work on stage in the UK. There’s another outing for the award-winning The Suit, made for Ballet Black, and then San Francisco Ballet dancing Snowblind, based on Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome. In June, Jane Eyre will have its US debut at the Met in New York courtesy of American Ballet Theatre. “That’s a huge deal, it’s terrifying,” she says.

Read the full article in The Guardian.

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

New York Times: At New York City Ballet, Progress but Not Equality

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In a March 1st Critics Notebook for the New York Times, Gia Kourlas wrote about Wendy Whelan and Jonathan Stafford’s hiring as the associate artistic director of New York City Ballet and the artistic director of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet, respectively. Kourlas did not falter from the honest critique she is known to share:

I’ve always supported the idea of seeing two people share City Ballet’s top position because of the job’s immensity. But there’s a problem here: equality. Mr. Stafford is to become the artistic director of both City Ballet and its affiliated School of American Ballet; Ms. Whelan has been named the associate artistic director of City Ballet.

The company has undergone much turmoil in recent months: Three male principal dancers were forced out after they were accused of sharing text messages of sexually explicit photos of women. In the current climate — something City Ballet and its board should know a thing or two about — elevating the job title of a man over a woman seems like a regressive, shortsighted and even cowardly act. It’s also a confusing one given that in an interview in The New York Times the two said that “they intended to work as partners.”


The critic’s sentiment is shared by many across the dance community. If the two are partners, why do their titles differ in hierarchy? It is indeed confusing. The article largely focused on Whelan and her diverse experience and interests. Kourlas sees room for error with Whelan controlling programming and coaching the dancers. She also can largely expand the company’s repertoire from its narrow, Martins/Robbins/Balanchine/Peck bubble.

Kourlas continued, “In her new position, she must be able to see the big picture. But there is reason for hope: Her recent project is a work by Lucinda Childs, the great postmodern choreographer. It’s possible that many City Ballet dancers, especially the younger ones, have never heard of Ms. Childs, who has been choreographing ballets in Europe for years. Ms. Whelan’s new job is an opportunity to impart, along with technique and musicality, some dance history beyond ballet, to be a bridge between the worlds of contemporary, or downtown dance, and its more classical uptown counterpart.

Ms. Whelan gets out into the world — recently, I’ve seen her at New York Live Arts and the Museum of Modern Art. It’s extremely important to know what’s going on in dance outside Lincoln Center: This is an art form that is not only about the body but also about ideas, and Ms. Whelan has demonstrated in her own career, especially post-retirement, a solid grasp of that.”

Surely, however, Whelan can get even farther outside of Lincoln Center. Beyond MoMa and NY Live Arts are remarkable commissions by regionally-emerging choreographers. See Stephanie Martinez and the perhaps better-known Penny Saunders choreographing for Charlotte Ballet. Many choreographers-in-residence do not get out of their small-town scenes to program work at the larger companies like NYCB with big-name connections.

Whelan, who has a clear passion for the overlaps between different mediums of art and mergers of classical with modern dance, should send company representatives to regional performances to consider bringing regional talent to New York’s world stage. Another international leader, American Ballet Theatre, is doing just this in June. Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre, which began in Canada at the Northern Ballet, will be brought to the Metropolitan Opera House by Ballet Theatre.

New York City Ballet’s new direction can take note.

Read Kourlas’ article in the New York Times.

Steven Pisano/ GOGO PR

Hyperallergic: A Ballet Redefines “Wokeness”

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By Dillon Heyck

1 March 2019

Dwight Rhoden’s galvanizing protest rally of a ballet, WOKE, premiered at The Joyce Theater with his company Complexions Contemporary Ballet. The mere possibility that ballet dancers could carry the laborious weight of topical issues while wearing pointe shoes, without devolving into obscure, apolitical abstraction, might be met with an arched-eyebrow. Dwight Rhoden takes on just this task by answering the call of rap, hip-hop, electronic pop, and R&B back with neoclassical phrases of piano music that his dancers match in vivacity and poise. WOKE is a work that will admit many responses and interpretations, but one of its undaunted objectives is to realize a vocabulary of movement that bridges popular music with arguably the most conservative form of dance.

It’s first worth noting Rhoden’s decision to title his choreography after a word tossed around enough for some to say it’s been hijacked by superficial, white cosmopolitanism in a lazy effort to appear politically conscious. Now I hear “woke” used more ironically than not and one critic flatly stated the word is dead. Rhoden is likely aware of this. And WOKE may be an attempt to reinvigorate the word with the uplifting hope and transcendency it once carried. It would be easy for a critic to level at the politics of WOKE, but how could anyone ignore the dancers’ craftsmanship?

Read the full article on Hyperallergic.

A New Day and Change of Culture for NYCB? Long Overdue Focus on Women Choreographers & Emphasis on Safe Atmosphere

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After a year of interim leadership by a team of four, New York City Ballet has selected Jonathan Stafford and Wendy Whelan as the company’s new leaders. Stafford has served on the team of interim directors over the past year, alongside Rebecca Krohn, Craig Hall, and Justin Peck. Whelan retired from her role as principal dancer with the company in 2014 and has since developed a wide range of freelance projects with artists like Kyle Abraham, Joshua Beamish, Brian Brooks, Alejandro Cerrudo, Lucinda Childs, Daniele Désnoyers, Javier De Frutos, David Neumann, Annie-B Parson, and Arthur Pita.

Stafford will serve as the Artistic Director of the New York City Ballet and its affiliate school, the School of American Ballet (SAB), while Whelan will serve as Associate Artistic Director of the New York City Ballet. Justin Peck will also tackle a new role as the company’s Artistic Advisor.Whelan’s statement in the press release recognized the rare responsibility of a woman moving into the artistic leadership. She said, “The magnitude of what my appointment represents for female dancers, and all women, is of critical importance to me. The moment for change at New York City Ballet is now, and I am excited to help welcome it with Jonathan Stafford.”

Whelan’s primary role will include “conceiving, planning, and programming NYCB’s annual performance season; commissioning new work from choreographers, composers, and other artistic collaborators.” Whelan’s control over new commissions and NYCB’s repertoire is likely to lead to more commissions of female choreographers, whose representation has been largely absent from the majority of the company’s seasons.

Protecting the female artists that were punished by Peter Martin’s continued influence following his departure is also essential to the reaffirmation of the company as a leader in America abroad. Ashley Bouder, the principal dancer who was recently pulled by the former artistic director from the company’s first-cast of his Sleeping Beauty, released a statement on Instagram, writing, “It was a long and often difficult road, but finally NYCB has a solid direction. I cannot express how THRILLED I am to have such a strong woman, Wendy Whelan, as part of the new era. With this news, our team is as optimistic as ever that the culture at New York City Ballet will change to emphasize safety, transparency, and equity both on and off the stage.” 

The need for a change in the company culture has been made clear to the Board during this year of dramatic scandal and division at NYCB. The union of Ms. Whelan and Mr. Stafford is one marked by optimism, as, according to the New York Times, the pair campaigned independently during interviews with the search committee for a management partnership. Their desire to balance the roles of an Artistic Director was apparently convincing, though it is notable that the pair’s titles do not reflect the equal partnership the company’s statement describes. 

Dance Magazine contributor Lauren Wingenroth, who, along with the publication, has been at the forefront of truth-telling amidst talks of inequity in the dance community, pointed this out. Wingenroth wrote, “The set-up begs the question: If the two leaders will truly be ‘partners,’ why are they not co-artistic directors? Considering the company’s recent scandals — and the troubling historical gender dynamics of the company — the arrangement sits just a bit uncomfortably.” 

Oversight on which title to give which leader seems unrealistic from the esteemed organization. Therefore, only time will tell whether or not “associate” will indicate an imbalance of power between these two leaders. If the Board has played its cards right, Whelan will possess equal control, and NYCB will turn a new page towards equity.

Read the company’s full press release here.

Read the New York Times article “City Ballet, Shaken by Turmoil, Chooses New Leaders” here.

Read The Washington Posts article “City Ballet names its #MeToo-era leaders: a man-woman team” here.