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DDP Talks To

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

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens- Femmes or Faux Feminism?

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By Isabelle Vail

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens recently announced a season “dedicated to women.” But this dedication seems a bit misinformed. A new production based on the novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover will premier, choreographed by Cathy Marston, and the company announced its invitation of three choreographers to create Femmes, a three-part production based on the theme of a woman’s experience in being a woman.

The issue? Douglas Lee, Marwik Schmitt and Mehdi Walersky are the three men invited by Les Grands Ballets to choreograph this work. Ballets about the female experience would logically by created by those who have experienced female life. But no, it seems Ivan Cavallari, director of the company, believes men can tell our story.

A petition on change.org gives us the opportunity to not only object to this outrageous idea of men relaying the female experience to audiences in Montreal, but also to object to the insensitive wording of the company’s announcement, which appears to have been taken down from the website.

To read more on this topic, visit The Guardian or the Montreal Gazette.

DDP Zoom: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

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By Isabelle Vail

The Dance Data Project database has record of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performances from 2015 to the current spring 2018 season. This record includes 45 pieces of choreography, works within the Ailey repertoire and works performed by the company. Of these 45 pieces performed, 5 are by female choreographers. That is, only 11% of the company performances in the past few seasons have been female commissions.

What is more, only 14% of the spring 2018 season pieces are created by females. While this proportion is greater than the 6% female-created works of the previous season in 2016, it is far below a fair distribution. (The 2017 season featured 15 choreographers and 21 pieces of dance.) The company’s last public record of expenditures was over $39 million (2016). Record shows senior artistic and administrative individuals in the company are compensated in the ranges of hundreds-of-thousands of dollars per year. According to Glassdoor, choreographers typically make around $40,000/year, or $19/hour. For choreographers commissioned by larger companies like Ailey, it is likley they are compensated more generously than the average choreographer, but this amount would still be far within the logical expense budget of this company.

DDP calls for companies of such scale and groundbreaking missions to increase these statistics. Hire the women to create works on your company, Robert Battle. At least make it past 45% if you can’t get it to 50%…

New York Times: The Problem With Broadway Revivals: They Revive Gender Stereotypes, Too

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By Michael Paulson

22 February 2018

Billy Bigelow hits Julie Jordan. Henry Higgins molds Eliza Doolittle. Fred tames Lilli. And Edward rescues Vivian.

Amid a national reckoning with sexual harassment and misconduct, Broadway is mounting a cluster of musicals this season and next that, some theatergoers already contend, romanticize problematic relationships between women and men.

The titles are beloved: “Carousel,” “My Fair Lady” and “Kiss Me, Kate” are classics of the canon, while “Pretty Woman,” a new musical, is adapted from a smash film. And each of their female protagonists has her own strength — strength that in some cases changes the men in their lives.

But elements of the stories — and the fact that all four productions are being directed and choreographed by men — are prompting new scrutiny at this #MeToo moment.

Read the full article in the New York Times.

Pointe Magazine: Garrett Anderson Has Just Been Named Artistic Director of Ballet Idaho

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Pointe Magazine has shared the news of the appointment of yet another male to lead as artistic director of an American ballet company. See below:

Ballet Idaho has announced that Garrett Anderson will succeed Peter Anastos as the company’s next artistic director, starting in July. Anderson, who had an extensive dance career as a soloist with San Francisco Ballet and Royal Ballet of Flanders, and later danced with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, has a special connection with Ballet Idaho’s home city. He performed with the Trey McIntyre Project in 2011 and later as a guest artist with Boise-based LED,  a music, film and dance collaborative. Anderson has also served as the chair of the Dance Department at New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe.

Members of Ballet Idaho in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Photo by Mike Reid, Courtesy ballet Idaho.

Read more in Pointe Magazine.

Library of Economics and Liberty: Gender Gap

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By Claudia Goldin

The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics discusses the gender gap of female earnings. Professor of Economics at Harvard University recounts the history of this gap in this article for the Encyclopedia.

At one point in time, the gap was decreasing, but, as Goldin puts it, “The lessening of these gender gaps appears to have stalled in the late 1990s and has remained stalled since then. Whether or not the gap will continue to narrow and eventually disappear is uncertain and probably depends on the gender gap in time spent in child care and in the home.”

Read the full article here.

The Guardian: Sexism in Dance: Where are all the female choreographers?

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The Guardian: Sexism in Dance: Where are all the female choreographers?

By Luke Jennings

28 April 2013

The title of this article is shared for many publications around the world, highlighting its relevance. Though from 2013, this article showcases the ongoing concern for the unequal representation of female choreographic commissions in dance.

Read more in The Guardian.

The New York Times: Dance, Making a Career With One Eye on a Gender Gap

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The New York Times: Dance, Making a Career With One Eye on a Gender Gap

By Apollinaire Scherr

4 November 2001

In the early 2000s, the double standard for women in dance was an issue that was hushed by the dance world. Women did not get commissions – but they still don’t today. In this archived article Scherr describes the long-awaited commission of choreographer Ellis Wood.

Read more in the New York Times.

The Globe and Mail: Ballet BC changes the conversation on gender imbalance in dance world

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The Globe and Mail: Ballet BC changes the conversation on gender imbalance in dance world

By Martha Schabas

24 March 2017

The spring 2018 touring season of Ballet BC presented a repertoire of all-female choreographer works. Marth Schabas shares a discussion with these choreographers: Emily Molnar, Sharon Eyal and Crystal Pite.

Read the article in The Globe and Mail.

Huffington Post: Behind the Tutus, Ballet Is a Boys’ Club

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Huffington Post: Behind the Tutus, Ballet Is a Boys’ Club

By Chloe Angyal

15 March 2017

Ashley Bouder is well aware of the dearth of female choreography in ballet. In an article for the Huffington Post, Chlore Angyal reports that Bouder cried, explaining that this issue goes far beyond numbers. While for men in dance the options for a career outside of performing are numerous, women fall into two main categories: teacher or ballet mistress.

Thus, Bouder started the Ashley Bouder Project to give women the opportunities to lead and choreograph. The art form is still far from equal, and it may take reversing traditional roles in dance to weave equality into the foundation of ballet.

Read more in the Huffington Post.

The New York Times: The Incomplete Vision of ‘Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer’

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The New York Times: The Incomplete Vision of ‘Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer’

By Manohla Dargis

2 January 2018

In December, Marcelo Gomes left American Ballet Theatre after an accusation of sexual harassment from years ago was reported. The claim came during the completion of a documentary on Mr. Gomes, called “Anatomy of a Male Ballet Dancer.” The New York Times gives a review of the unfinished documentary and reveals that the documentary did not hit on all of Mr. Gomes’ apparent character.

Read more in the New York Times.