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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

100th Anniversary of the Ratification of the 19th Amendment

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On August 18th, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified— that’s 100 years ago, today.

The passage of the Amendment was one of the first tangible steps on the long road to equity, a road which continues to extend before us, even today in 2020, and which sees women of color and other minorities marginalized to an even greater degree. As we arrive at this milestone of 100 years since women suffragists secured the right to vote, let us celebrate how far women have come but take note of the countless areas in which inequity prevails (and worsens due to the pandemic).

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Wall Street Journal: Working Parents Are Hitting Their Coronavirus Breaking Point—and Paying for It

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By Christina Rexrode and Lauren Weber

15 August 2020

Working parents going on six months without school or camp are about to take another hit: rising child-care costs.

Parents with school-age children are hiring sitters or paying for online classes they wouldn’t need if their children were in school. Some are lining up tutors or switching to private schools that plan to open for in-person learning. Parents with younger children are bracing for potentially higher charges at their day cares, which are straining to pay for protective gear and additional cleaning.

Child care and its costs might seem incidental in a global pandemic, but they are integral to the economy. For individual families, higher child-care expenses can range from troublesome to financially debilitating. Rising costs divert money from other purchases or investments, and many working parents said child-care costs prevent them from saving for a home. Yet without child care, parents are less productive at work—not to mention more stressed and tired.

“Here’s the deal,” said Misty Heggeness, an economist who wrote about the pandemic’s effect on working mothers for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. “If you care about U.S. economic growth…this should be one of the first areas of concern for you.”

Read the full article here.

Pointe: What’s Ahead for Ballet Companies in the Age of COVID-19?

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By Avichai Scher

12 August 2020

Let’s be frank: No one knows what’s ahead for the performing arts in the U.S. With COVID-19 forcing the cancellation of nearly a year of performances so far, including many Nutcrackers, ballet companies face a daunting path ahead with no roadmap for how to survive. While schools can offer classes online or in small groups, what does the future hold for companies when it’s not safe to gather large audiences or corps de ballet?

“We are in for a very hard set of months,” says Michael M. Kaiser, chairman of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland. “Nothing will change until there’s a vaccine.”

Pointe set out to find out what the new normal looks like while the virus is with us.

Online Content and Digital Seasons

When COVID-19 hit, it seemed everything moved online that could, from galas to company class. In a recent online panel, American Ballet Theatre artistic director Kevin McKenzie said the company’s May online gala, which did not include much dancing, was well-received but not a financial success. The Washington Ballet’s gala centered on livestreamed performances and was financially successful. But afterwards, artistic director Julie Kent, a company dancer and a gala chairwoman became ill with COVID-19, despite social distancing and other safety precautions.

Can online platforms be a safe, longer-term source of income and artistic outlet for ballet companies?

Marc Kirschner, a founder of the paid performing arts streaming service Marquee TV, says this moment is a line in the sand for companies’ survival.

Read the full article here.

Dance Australia: Dancers without borders: Danielle Rowe

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By Geraldine Higginson

16 December 2019

Former Australian Ballet principal is working up a fury in San Francisco.

Some dancers have a set list of goals from a young age, and move through life ticking them off one after the other; others change path and direction as they go, finding new goals along the way.

Readers who have watched the Australian Ballet (AB) for a decade or more might remember a former principal dancer by the name of Danielle Rowe — who danced with the company from 2001 to 2011. Tall and striking, she excelled in both classical and contemporary roles with the AB until a restless nature and a desire to seek new challenges took her overseas.

First stop was Houston Ballet, until her application for Netherlands Dance Theatre (NDT) — sent on a whim, never expecting to actually get in — was accepted, precipitating a second move to the Netherlands after one season in Houston.

Read the full article here.

The Guardian: An Evening with Scottish Ballet review – masked dancers leap into digital

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By Lyndsey Winship

10 August 2020

As a gallant effort to keep the show on the road (or the screen) despite the cancellation of this summer’s edition, Edinburgh international festival has commissioned An Evening with Scottish Ballet. Although “evening” is pushing it, as this is more like a half-hour sizzle reel. Six short films packaged together, old and new, plus existing choreography filmed especially for Covid times by director Michael Sherrington.

There are two pieces from the company’s resident choreographer Sophie Laplane, full of stylish staccato riffs set to 4/4 machine beats. It’s a distinctive style, very watchable. In Oxymore, Rishan Benjamin and Anna Williams dance backstage in front of towers of flight cases and props. Their movement is straight-faced and straight-angled, a kind of un-groovy groove. Idle Eyes, filmed last year, is glitchier and quirkier, and benefits from the texture of a bigger cast, too.

Another pre-coronavirus film, Frontiers, by San Francisco Ballet’s Myles Thatcher, was filmed in 2019, under a concrete flyover. Thatcher aims to undo the gender stereotypes in ballet and he’s created gender-neutral partnering – the same choreography danced by two men, two women or mixed couples, spliced together with fast cuts until it all becomes a blur of identities. Flickering between dancers dressed in androgynous tailoring, the women do lifts, the men sort of swan dive, and it completely works as choreography. Crazy that this is still a boundary to push in 21st-century ballet, of course.

Read the full article here.

 

amNew York: Harlem dancer takes on ‘The Call’ to stop racial biases in healthcare

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By Emily Davenport

11 August 2020

Dancer and activist Ingrid Silva is taking on women’s issues and empowering women in the process through her New York City-based organization.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Silva started her dance journey at the age of 8 and began training in ballet at Dançando Para Não Dançar, a social project in Mangueira.

“Dance was never actually my dream but I was really excited when my mom mentioned to me about dance auditions,” said Silva. “I’ve always been involved with sports, been swimming since age 3, and joined a professional team. I had to decide between swimming and classical ballet – I ended up choosing ballet because it was really challenging and super fun.”

Silva went on to dance for three more schools in Brazil — Escola de Dança Maria Olenewa, Centro de Movimento Debora Colker and Grupo Corpo — before she sent an audition tape to the Dance Theatre of Harlem. She officially joined the company in January 2008, and currently resides in Riverside.

“It was a really interesting and amazing experience because when I first came to the states, I literally came for dancing,” said Silva. “My teacher came with me for the first month and then after that, I stayed with the school. That’s when my journey started in the states.”

During her time in the United States, Silva not only gained principal roles in a number of performances, but she also gained national recognition for leading the charge for skin-toned ballet shoes for dancers of all races and cultures. Silva has also been seen as a spokesperson for Activia and appearing in a Nike video series called The Common Thread.

Three years ago, Silva founded EmpowHER NY, an organization that centers around educating and giving women a safe space to speak freely about their ideas and experiences. The organization has made global connections with brands and organizations that want to empower women. Silva says that the organization has had events in New York prior to the pandemic, and has also helped women launch their brands and help them find jobs.

Read the full article here.

 

EGAL: Transforming Business Beyond COVID-19: An Equity Fluent Leadership Playbook

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Read Parts 1-3 of the Playbook here. 

Yahoo Finance: Misty Copeland: Ballet ‘extremely behind’ on racial justice

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By Max Zahn with Andy Serwer

6 August 2020

Ballet star Misty Copeland told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview that the ballet industry remains “extremely behind” on issues of racial justice, criticizing the continued use of blackface in dance productions and the lack of diversity she has witnessed in her career.

But the nation’s racial reckoning in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd has prompted the ballet community to address such issues “for the first time,” says Copeland, who in 2015 became the first Black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theater, one of the most prominent ballet companies in the U.S.

“It’s something that the ballet world has been very easily able to just kind of get away with,” she says. Now “our eyes are wide open and people are listening.”

“It’s something that I’ve talked about very openly and freely in trying to be the most respectful as I can,” she adds. “Because I know the deep rooted traditions and history in classical dance.”

“Being a European art form and the fact that we still perform those ballets that were created in that time in Europe to this day,” she says. “Just says a lot about where we are in the ballet world when it comes to racism.”

In June, as racial justice protests arose in the U.S. and around the world, ballet dancers called on their companies to acknowledge the lack of diversity and Black representation within the industry. The American Ballet Theater — among other ballet companies and cultural institutions — released a statementmourning the death of Floyd and vowing to do more to address racial injustice.

Read the full article here.

Yahoo Finance: Misty Copeland: Coronavirus will impact ballet for ‘years to come’

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By Max Zahn with Andy Serwer

5 August 2020

While the spread of the coronavirus continues to devastate the performing arts, fans and experts are targeting a return next year as a potential vaccine becomes widely available.

But star ballet dancer Misty Copeland told Yahoo Finance that her industry will feel the effects of the outbreak beyond 2021. She pointed to the enduring financial losses suffered by ballet performers as well as mental and physical strain, adding that ballet companies should consider outdoor performances amid the pandemic.

“It’s going to impact us for a couple of years to come,” says Copeland, who has danced for the American Ballet Theater for two decades and appeared in a 2018 movie adaptation of “The Nutcracker.”

“I feel like a lot of the impact we haven’t even seen yet,” she says.

“It’s been difficult for people who spend their days — spend their lives — invested in this art form,” she says. “We’re very physical people. We spend hours at a time partnering one another and [in a] very intimate environment”

“Getting out of that and not having that personal human connection,” she says, “is a bit shocking.”

Read the full article.

 

 

Dayton Daily News: Dayton Dance Initiative’s free virtual performance takes dance into the light

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By Libby Ballengee

7 August 2020

When the Dayton Dance Initiative’s second annual live performance was canceled in May, there was an obvious sense of disappointment. The professional dancers who planned and were set to perform their own original production had put in countless hours to create it all, from the choreography and music, to costumes and ticketing.

There was no way this dedicated group of dancers was going to throw in the towel that easily. Instead of turning the cancellation into defeat, the dancer-operated project decided to take the performance online and push their creativity even further.

Rather than film or live stream a static performance at the PNC Arts Annex, where the in-person show was to take place, the dance group has created an hour-long “dance movie” showcasing the individual dance pieces in unique and unexpected places.

Read the full article here.