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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

The Guardian: Dances with Jacqueline Du Pré and Dante in the Royal Ballet’s new season

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By Lyndsey Winship

14 May 2019

A ballet based on the life of Jacqueline du Pré and an epic inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy are the highlights of the Royal Ballet’s 2019-20 season, announced today.

Choreographer Cathy Marston, riding high on the success of her ballets Jane Eyre and Victoria, will make her first main-stage work for the Royal Opera House, examining the life and art of the exceptional cellist Du Pré, who had multiple sclerosis and died in 1987 aged 42.

“I think with somebody who is as passionate an artist as Jacqueline du Pré, Cathy’s the right person to tackle it,” said the Royal Ballet’s artistic director Kevin O’Hare. “She’s got an astute way of telling a story and getting to the real heart of it.” Marston and O’Hare went to see Du Pré’s former husband, the conductor Daniel Barenboim, to discuss their plan. “I think he was touched that we went and told him,” says O’Hare. “He said, ‘Yes, go and do it!’”

“So often in ballet we’re dealing with fictional characters or historical characters, so to address somebody of our generation is interesting,” said O’Hare. There will be a new score by composer Philip Feeney as well as extracts from some of the works Du Pré performed, including Elgar’s Cello Concerto. The music will all be played in the orchestra pit rather than on stage. “No, nobody in a blond wig playing the cello,” said O’Hare.

The most epic production of the season will come from the Royal Ballet’s resident choreographer Wayne McGregor, whose Dante Project has an all-star cast of collaborators with a score by composer Thomas Adès and designs from artist Tacita Dean. “The drawings I’ve seen so far are beautiful,” says O’Hare. “The first act is the underworld – it’s as if you’re seeing everything in mirror image; a beautifully drawn mountainscape in reverse.” The first act, the Inferno, will premiere in Los Angeles in July as part of the Royal Ballet’s tour, but the complete work will not be seen until May 2020 in London.

The productions returning to the Royal Opera House include Preludes, a reworking of Alexei Ratmansky’s 24 Preludes, which the choreographer felt was not as successful as it could have been. “There are lots of great things in there but we both felt there were things that could be different, so we’re really paring it down,” said O’Hare. “It’s important to bring work back. Having that second look, in a colder light, you can learn a lot of lessons.”

Read the full article in The Guardian.

Ciston PR Newswire: World Premiere Of Dance Theatre Of Harlem’s New Ballet “Passage” Commemorates The Collision Of Three Cultures In 1619 Virginia

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9 May 2019

NORFOLK, Va., May 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution, in partnership with Virginia Arts Festival, commissioned a new ballet from Dance Theatre of Harlem, which received its world premiere May 3-5, 2019 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, VA. The 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution themes of democracy, diversity and opportunity are reflected in the performance.

The new ballet, titled “Passage,” was created by the female creative team of choreographer Claudia Schreier, an award-winning young choreographer who has drawn attention from American Ballet Theatre, the Vail Dance Festival, and many others; and composer Jessie Montgomery, who created an entirely new score for the piece, and whose music has been hailed as “wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post); and under the leadership of Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director Virginia Johnson and Executive Director Anna Glass.

Dance Theatre of Harlem also will perform the same piece at The Kennedy Center, May 28 – June 2.

“We are thrilled to present Dance Theatre of Harlem’s new ballet, Passage – one of the most anticipated Signature Events of 2019 Commemoration. And we are very grateful to Dance Theater of Harlem and our partner, Virginia Arts Festival, for helping us bring this performance to Chrysler Hall,” said Kathy Spangler, Executive Director of 2019 Commemoration. “This live artistic performance offers a tangible way for modern audiences to engage with themes that emerged when African, Virginia Indian and English cultures first collided in 1619 Virginia. This collision of cultures had an indelible influence in shaping 400 years of American history and culture.”

Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director Virginia Johnson hailed the opportunity to create a meaningful work that can express in abstract the fortitude of the human spirit and celebrate the invincible spark within that must prevail.

Read the full article on PR Newswire.

Arts Professional: Is it time for quotas?

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By Cath James

2 May 2019

Gender equality and quotas. It’s nothing new, right? It’s a conversation that has been going on for decades. Back in 1985 I was performing in an all-female choreographers dance programme in Brisbane – the work commissioned and presented specifically to address the lack of the female perspective on dance stages in Australia.

In 2013 dance critic Luke Jennings gave us a well thought through assessment of the UK dance scene, from which I quote my good friend, the late great choreographer Janis Claxton: “It’s a nightmare for those of us who watch as men get given chances they are simply not ready for while we graft away at our craft and take smaller-scale opportunities…. Women quit because they don’t get the support that their male colleagues get, and having to push constantly against this outrageous gender inequality is infuriating.”

Then we had a UK first in 2015 in The Bench, a programme established by Tamsin Fitzgerald, Artistic Director of 2Faced Dance Company. It was a direct response to serious concerns about the lack of equality faced by female choreographers within the dance sector.

Has anything changed since then? Is it time for 50/50 quotas? This is a question I posed to a panel of dance industry programmers, creative directors and independent artists and choreographers in March, as part of a debate at Brighton Dome during International Women’s Day celebrations. What was immediately clear is that this is not a simple issue. Many points came across, but three really stood out for me:

Read the full article on Arts Professionals.

Broadway World: Choreographer Jennifer Archibald’s ARCH DANCE Comes to Baruch Performing Arts Center

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13 May 2019

The CUNY Dance Initiative, Queensborough Community College’s Dance Program, and the Queensborough Student Association present Jennifer Archibald’s Arch Dance Company. The evening features a preview of Arch Dance Company’s newest work Hushed, with QCC dance program students opening the program in Archibald’s Line Up. The performance is Saturday, May 25, 2019 at 8:00pm at Baruch Performing Arts Center (25th Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenues, NYC). Tickets are $16.00 general / $11 students and seniors and are available online: www.bit.ly/ArchDance.

Jennifer Archibald is known for her stylistically diverse choreography and has received numerous commissions, including several from the Cincinnati Ballet, where she is the first female Resident Choreographer in the company’s 40-year history. Archibald taps classical training, street, funk and lyrical dance styles to create high-energy contemporary dance works based in personal investigations of human behavior.

In this preview of her newest work, Hushed, for her own company, Arch Dance, Archibald dives into the consequences of muting women’s souls. Springing from Jane Brox’s A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives, Archibald traces the history of silencing women’s voices. Performed by an all-female cast, Hushed brings together the hard edges of street dance with the fluidity of classical technique to express the ideals and disillusions that come from speaking uncomfortable truths. Archibald comments, “Souls are essential parts of human beings. When you expose the dark corners of your past, at what point do you reveal, release and soar?”

Read the full article on Broadway World.

Shropshire Star: ‘Why shouldn’t Peter be a girl?’: The cast of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Peter and the Wolf talk ahead of Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Shrewsbury shows

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By Rebecca Stanley

13 May 2019

Now Peter and the Wolf returns to the stage – but not quite as we know it. In a brand new production from Birmingham Royal Ballet, Peter is a girl.

The story has been transported from the Russian countryside of almost a century ago to a modern urban landscape, and it’s coming to Shrewsbury’s Theatre Seven, Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre, and Birmingham Hippodrome as part of its run.

“Why shouldn’t Peter be a girl?” asks the ballet’s choreographer and BRB First Artist, Ruth Brill.

“This feels like the right moment for the story to come back in a new form. Peter has a boldness and sense of playful fun and is an instinctive leader. I had certain dancers in mind to portray that, and they’re all girls. Why not? When I hear Peter’s music, I don’t think it’s particularly male.”

“While adults may question why Peter is a girl, I think most children will just accept it.”

While Sergei Prokofiev’s music and fable remain the same, our new interpretation has nine dancers playing a group of youngsters hanging out in ‘The Meadow’ and re-enacting the story of Peter and the Wolf using the scaffolding set.

Read the full article in the Shropshire Star.

Performing ArtsHub: Opera and the doing of women

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By Sally Blackwood, Liza Lim, Peggy Polias, & Bree van Reyk

As reported by Alison Croggon in Opera and the invisibility of women, the New Opera Workshop (NOW2019) held in Brisbane in Aprilhighlighted the entrenched bias, the structural nature of sexism and other exclusionary forces that are reflected in many of the norms, expectations and practices of opera as an artform.

The conference was an invitation to practitioners to evolve new thinking for opera in the 21st century and it is in this spirit that we – and our co-signatories below – are making a call for change. 

NOW is the time for the opera sector to step up and join the conversation about gender equity, diversity and the championing of a multiplicity of voices. On the brink of redefining the Major Performing Arts Framework and in the wake of the National Opera Review Discussion Paper and Final Report, we ask that these points be urgently addressed. Now is the time for opera in Australia to evolve and to lead the way with diversity on our stages, in our creative teams, and on our panels. We are calling for a better vision for opera in its work practices and as an art form.

We demand a national commitment to systemic change:

  1. We want diversity to be reflected in all aspects of the opera we experience.
  2. We call for a questioning of the systemic acceptance of gender-based violence in opera.
  3. We want recognition, respect, advocacy and support for creators who are female, non-binary and from diverse cultural backgrounds.
  4. We call for safe inclusive spaces for people with diverse voices and abilities to set the agenda, to lead the conversation, to have a resonant voice.
  5. We want to decolonise the distribution of power so that the stories and creative work of women and all people with diverse voices resonate equally with that of men.
  6. We call for an unprecedented commitment to the programming and commissioning of new Australian opera work with gender and cultural diversity at the forefront.
  7. We call for those in leadership to back us and that the act of hearing be prioritised alongside the act of speaking.

Read the full call to action on the Performing ArtsHub.

Pointe Magazine: How Boutique Troupe Avant Chamber Ballet Blossomed in Dallas

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By Nancy Wozny

6 May 2019

Katie Cooper knows an opportunity when she sees one. When the Dallas-area Metropolitan Classical Ballet—where she’d danced for six years—shuttered its doors, she saw an opening for a new company: her own. “There were ballet dancers who needed work,” she says. So in 2012, Cooper, known for her Texas spunk, founded Avant Chamber Ballet, now considered the city’s cherished boutique troupe.

“During my performance career, I had never worked under a female artistic director or danced work by a female choreographer,” says Cooper, who began developing herself as a dancemaker when she launched the company. “It was time for me to move to the front of the room.” After starting ACB at 28, she quickly found that dancing, choreographing and running a company proved too big a load, so she retired from performing after the first few shows.

Though the troupe was originally project-based, local enthusiasm from audience members, musicians, dancers, critics and donors spurred Cooper to develop a set season. A threshold moment occurred when former New York City Ballet and Texas Ballet Theater dancer Michele Gifford returned to the North Texas area. Gifford, a répétiteur for Christopher Wheeldon and The George Balanchine Trust, danced with ACB for two seasons, and then, starting in 2015, began setting works by both choreographers. So far, the company has performed Wheeldon’s There Where She Loved pas de deux and The American pas de deux and Balanchine’s Valse Fantaisie, Who Cares? (concert version), Walpurgisnacht Ballet and Concerto Barocco. Cooper found that having big-name choreographers in the mix gave the company added momentum.

Read the full article on Pointe Magazine’s blog.

Comstock’s Magazine: A New Era in Ballet

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By Sena Christian

6 May 2019

Amy Seiwert is only the fourth artistic director in the Sacramento Ballet’s 65-year history. Seiwert — who danced with the company from 1991 to 1999 — assumed the role in July 2018. Comstock’srecently spoke with Seiwert about her vision and goals for the ballet.

Your inaugural season, “Roots and Wings,” is nearing completion. What were you hoping to achieve during your first season, and did you achieve it?

Coming in after 30 years of [co-artistic directors] Ron Cunningham and Carinne Binda, it is very important for me to honor that lineage. … We did [Cunningham’s] “Incident at Blackbriar,” in our first series at The Sofia theater, “Telling Stories.” To have him back in the studio and with the dancers and to watch him coach, that was all fantastic. Honor the lineage — that’s the roots aspect. But … where else can we go? How can I subvert people’s expectations of what they’re going to see when they come to a Sacramento Ballet performance? Also in “Telling Stories,” we did the ballet “Instructions,” which is based on a Neil Gaiman poem. He’s more associated with contemporary mythology and graphic novels than ballet. In that piece, I have a dancer who is live miked. He starts as the narrator of the poem and ends up locked inside the poem and becomes the protagonist of the story. It’s also got live music — there’s a cellist onstage.

Read the full article in Comstock’s.

Vibe: Queen Latifah Aims To Bring Diversity To Filmmaking Through Queen Collective Initiative

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6 May 2019

Queen Latifah has teamed up with Procter & Gamble and Tribeca Studios for an epic project aiming to promote the importance of gender and racial equality behind-the-scenes in Hollywood. The Queen Collective in partnership with Procter & Gamble and Tribeca Film Studios provides mentorship and production support, while also creating various distribution opportunities for the next crop of female directors of color.

Through the forward-thinking collective, budding directors B. Monét and Haley Elizabeth Anderson were given the opportunity to have their films (Ballet After Dark and If There Is Light, respectively) premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, April 26. Their short documentaries are also available to stream on Hulu as of April 27. The collective supplies these young women with opportunities they made not have had initially.

Ballet After Dark “tells the story a young woman who found the strength to survive after an attack. She created an organization that is helping sexual abuse and domestic violence survivors find healing after trauma through dance therapy.” If There Is Light follows the story ofJaniyah Blackmon, who “wrestles with her new life in New York City as her mom tries to move her family out of the shelter system and into a stable home.”

Read the full article on Vibe.

Bay State Banner: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates 60 years

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Ailey Makes Conservative Moves Towards Equal Gender Representation in Choreography and Lighting

By Susan Saccoccia

8 May 2019

For 51 of its 60 years, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has come to town, each annual and wildly anticipated visit presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston. Last week, again presented by the Celebrity Series, the company brought its 60th-anniversary program to the Boch Center Wang Theatre for five performances. The programs featured Boston premieres of two contemporary works as well as a Sunday matinee, “Timeless Ailey,” a sampling from the founder’s 30 years of choreography, from 1958 to 1988. The company concluded all five programs with Ailey’s renowned 1960 masterwork, “Revelations.” 

For 51 of its 60 years, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has come to town, each annual and wildly anticipated visit presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston. Last week, again presented by the Celebrity Series, the company brought its 60th-anniversary program to the Boch Center Wang Theatre for five performances. The programs featured Boston premieres of two contemporary works as well as a Sunday matinee, “Timeless Ailey,” a sampling from the founder’s 30 years of choreography, from 1958 to 1988. The company concluded all five programs with Ailey’s renowned 1960 masterwork, “Revelations.” 

Thursday evening began with the most stirring of the contemporary works in this year’s program, “Kairos,” a 34-minute piece by Wayne McGregor, choreographer of the Royal Ballet in London. Ailey is the first American company to present the 2014 work, and the 10 Ailey dancers performed it as if it were created for them.

Its title is the Greek word for an opportune time or season, and its score is a re-imagined version of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” by composer Max Richter.

The movement and music, along with the set by Idris Khan, costumes by Moritz Junge, and lighting by Lucy Carter, formed a unified, deeply moving whole. Spare costumes showed the beauty of dancers’ bodies and the sinuous grace and athleticism of their movement.

The work began with a high-pitched, fast, minimalist electronic passage matched by strobe-lit dancers, who embodied each throbbing note. They performed behind a horizontal grid of black and white that resembled a musical scale or a hand-woven African cloth. Slowly the scrim receded to show the dancers, who seemed to be removing veil-like wrappings. As a man and woman joined in a duet, performing as equals in power and grace, the music evolved into a lyrical, fully orchestrated passage. They were like gods, distant but exposed, and combining sensuous beauty with dignity.

Read the full article in the Bay State Banner.