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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

Pittsburgh Current: Point Park Conservatory Dance Company Set To Close Out 2018-19 Season

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By Steve Sucato

16 April 2019

Point Park’s student Conservatory Dance Company closes out its dynamic 2018-19 celebrating the opening of the University’s new 60 million dollar Pittsburgh Playhouse at Fourth and Forbes Avenues with its Spring Dance Concert, April 18-21 at the Playhouse’s PNC Theatre.  

Following in the footsteps of prior programs on the season, the Spring Dance Concert is a mixed repertory program featuring works by high profile choreographic names and Point Park alumni.

One of the biggest names in dance, Christopher Wheeldon, the 2015 Tony Award-winning choreographer for An American in Parisand artistic associate of The Royal Ballet, puts CDC’s dancers to the test in his ballet “The American.”  

Premiered by Carolina Ballet in 2001, the 26-minute ballet derives its title from and is set to Antonin Dvorak’s “String Quartet in F Major Op. 96 (American Quartet)”.  Says former New York City Ballet dancer Michele Gifford who staged the ballet on a dozen (six male/female couples) of CDC’s dancers, it gets its inspiration from “America’s topography and skylines”.

One of two works on program by former Point Park students, visiting teaching artist in Jazz and 1999 graduate Kiki Lucas’ “The Vessel” has had several iterations since its premiere by Houston Metropolitan Dance Company in 2013 that featured male soloist and fellow Point Park faculty member Jason McDole. For this latest incarnation, Lucas has set three sections of the original 35-minute work on CDC’s dancers that she felt were the most dynamic.  

Danced to original music by Ben Doyle and the United Kingdom’s Matthew Barnes (a.k.a. Forest Swords), the 11-minute excerpt for nine women and six men takes its inspiration from research Lucas did on “the learning patterns and trials and tribulations of kids with cochlear implants,” she says.

Read the full article in the Pittsburgh Current.

The New Yorker: Akram Khan Remakes “Giselle”

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By Jennifer Homans

15 April 2019

Begin at the wall. A large concrete wall, a Berlin Wall, a U.S.-Mexico wall,an Israeli wall. As the curtain opens on Akram Khan’s “Giselle,” we see a crowd of people pushing against it. Their backs are to us; we feel their weight, see their hands and anonymous bodies cast in shadow and silhouette. One of them is searching for someone. He finds her, and they stand facing each other, without touching, palms open. A moment later, they are separated by a man who roughly claims her, and an intensely physical rhythmic group dance—undulating torsos, fanned hands—engulfs them all. Now herds of people are galloping across the stage, arms thrusting, in a chaos of passage and flight, their seemingly hoofed feet hitting the ground like beating drums as they cross and recross, their bodies strangely bent, half human, half beast.

We are far from the nineteenth-century “Giselle” that is still performed by ballet companies around the world. The Spanish ballerina Tamara Rojo, formerly of London’s Royal Ballet, became the director and the lead principal dancer of the English National Ballet, in 2012. Three years later, she commissioned Khan to make this new “Giselle.” It was a bold choice. Khan, a British dancer of Bangladeshi descent, is not a ballet choreographer. Trained in kathak, the northern Indian dance form, he is known for his powerful performances and innovative work with his own troupe, Akram Khan Company, on the contemporary scene. His “Giselle” was first performed, to acclaim, in 2016, in Manchester. I saw it in March, at the Harris Theatre, in Chicago, with Rojo in the title role at its sold-out American première.

Rojo wants to bring ballet out of its too often élite precincts, and she aims to do this in part by reimagining the classical repertoire. She does not share the impulse of many ballet directors to “reconstruct” or cleave as closely as possible to the original music and steps of old dances in the ballet canon. Khan’s “Giselle” is also not a modern-dress staging, like the 1982 version by the Swedish choreographer Mats Ek, in which the second act was set in a mental hospital. Instead, Rojo and Khan have scrapped just about everything of the old ballet, keeping only the barest outlines of the plot. Khan’s “Giselle” has a new score, new décor and costumes, a contemporary setting—migrant laborers in ghostly abandoned factories—and above all a new kind of dancing, which draws on kathak and ballet, on contemporary dance and everyday gesture, on animals and machines. It is a brand-new show haunted by an already haunted dance.

Read the full article in The New Yorker.

The Smart Set: The Paradox of Pointe

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By Paula Marantz Cohen

15 April 2019

I just came from a performance of Giselle, the classic ballet in which the heroine, a peasant girl, falls in love with a prince and then dies when she discovers that he is betrothed to a noblewoman. I love this ballet and watched it with rapt attention, but I was struck, in the context of our #MeToo moment, of its problematic appeal and that of other ballets that I love like Sleeping Beauty, Romeo and Juliet, and Swan Lake.

Not for the first time, but more strongly, I was brought up short by the contradictions inherent in what I was seeing. One cannot separate a classical ballet of this kind from its reliance on extreme, stereotypical gender representation. The tutu is a frilly exaggeration of a woman’s hips and the longer skirt is its more romanticized extension, not to mention the diaphanous nightgowns that figure in sleep-walking scenes and bedroom encounters. The male dancer is the support, the prop and pander, to this gauzy female caricature. Often the ballerina dies — in Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet there is a duet, if it can be called that, with Juliet’s lifeless body. Ballet also demands rigorous physical conformity from the female dancer. She must be of a certain height and weight, must have a certain leg length, and must possess good turn-out and feet. (My teacher informed me that I had none of these at age 12.) The male dancer, by contrast, is mostly defined by his bulging codpiece and delineated buttocks. So long as male dancers can jump and support their partners, they can be more variable in their physique.

But what strikes me the most as dramatically regressive, while also being the locus of my fascination, are the pointe shoes that ballerinas wear. (Male dancers don’t wear them, except in the most unconventional circumstances.) I have always been besotted by them. Despite having been told early on that I had no future as a ballerina, I somehow managed to acquire a pair and take a few lessons in them in my late teens. Just looking at those pink satin contraptions, or if you will, cages, for the feet still gives me a jolt of pleasure.

Read the full article on The Smart Set.

A Prize That Inspires Women – Dance Australia: Emerging female choreographer announced!

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9 April 2019

The Australian Ballet, in collaboration with Sydney Opera House and Dance Australia magazine, announced the recipient of the Emerging Female Classical Choreographer Initiative on stage at the Joan Sutherland Theatre in Sydney last night.

The initiative creates a unique opportunity for an emerging female choreographer to take up an artistic residency at Sydney Opera House and create a work for The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque program in October 2019. 

The winner, Amelia Drummond, is from Canberra and was selected from more than 40 entries. Each entry was assessed by a panel of knowledgeable judges including The Australian Ballet’s artistic associate and principal coach, Fiona Tonkin; the head of Contemporary Performance at Sydney Opera House, Olivia Ansell; and the former Artistic Director of Expressions Dance Company, Natalie Weir (who is also a former resident choreographer of The Australian Ballet), alongside Dance Australia co-editor Karen van Ulzen and Dance Australia critics Margaret Mercer (WA), Geraldine Higginson (NSW), Susan Bendall (VIC).

“We were all delighted by the diligence and care of the applications and the high quality of the choreography,” Karen van Ulzen said. “It has been a pleasure to review such a talented field of creative women and it has been very difficult making a choice. We regret that we were not able to accept them all!” 

Natalie Weir was equally enthusiastic. “This initiative is a much-needed opportunity for female choreographers working in the classical genre to have their work platformed, to work with the incredible dancers of The Australian Ballet, and to have their profile lifted, which may lead to further commissions,” she said. “Opportunities to choreograph for ballet companies are very rare; I hope this is an initiative that continues into the future.”

Read the full article in Dance Australia.

Playbill: Dance Theatre of Harlem Celebrates Its 50th Anniversary at New York City Center

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For an April 11 article in Playbill, Djassi Dacosta Johnson celebrates the Dance Theatre of Harlem’s 50th anniversary at New York City Center. Johnson highlights the company’s foundation of inclusion and awareness, calling it “the proliferation of classical ballet- artistically and socially advancing what ballet can mean to a public.”

Johnson praised Virginia Johnson, DTH’s director, writing, “She has provided a platform for female classical ballet choreographers through Women Who Move Us, the DTH program with a mission to cultivate the female choreographic voice in classical ballet. ‘There is much headway to be made,’ says Johnson. ‘The ballet world is so hierarchical and still so traditionally male dominant.'”

The company began with a strong advocate for a well-rounded, diverse, rooted-in-classical but thoroughly modern ballet, and 50 years later, this philosophy continues to allow DTH to thrive.

Read Johnson’s article here.

ThinkProgress: Muffet McGraw is done hiring men

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By Lindsay Gibbs

30 March 2019

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA — Muffet McGraw will never forget the first time she called a timeout.

It was 1977. Her team, St. Joseph’s, was playing in a big tournament game. They’d just given up six unanswered points, the players were blowing assignments, missing shots, not even trying to grab rebounds. Something had to be done.

So, McGraw — then Muffet O’Brien — got the referee’s attention and called for play to stop.

The only problem? She was just a player at the time.

Her coach was not impressed with his point guard’s initiative. “He was livid,” McGraw recalled, laughing hysterically as she thinks back to her coach’s exasperated reaction. “I was like, I thought we needed it!”

McGraw, now the head coach of Notre Dame’s women’s basketball team, no longer gets questioned about her timeout choices — not with two national championships and 920 career wins to her name. Now, when McGraw tells you to huddle up, no one second-guesses her.

Read the full article on ThinkProgress.

Major Highlights

When Title IX was enacted in 1972, 90 percent of the coaches of women’s college sports were women. These days, it’s about 41.5 percent. The numbers are slightly better for women’s basketball, the most popular women’s collegiate sport. Last year, 59.3 percent of women’s college basketball teams were coached by women, down from 79.4 percent in 1977.

The number of women coaching in men’s college sports has remained below 3.5 percent since before Title IX. Currently, there is only one female assistant coach in all of NCAA men’s college basketball — Edniesha Curry of the University of Maine.

Altogether, women only hold one out of every 4.5 head coaching jobs in collegiate athletics. And that’s at a time when there are more girls playing sports than ever before.

There are only three out lesbian female coaches in all of Division I women’s basketball: Stephanie White at Vanderbilt, Colleen Mullen at the University of Albany, and Allison Guth at Yale.

In 2016, the Reveal Center for Investigative Reporting reported on the trend of Title IX retaliation lawsuits, noting that from 2006 to 2016, at least 29 female coaches and eight female sports administrators have filed retaliation lawsuits against their universities.

KQED Arts: Bay Area Dance-Maker Called Up as New York Looks for Next Hot Thing in Ballet

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By Carla Escoda

10 April 2019

“Can hip-hop save ballet?”

It was a question recently asked on BBC Radio by Eric Underwood. The former Royal Ballet soloist was talking with other prominent black dancers about the systemic exclusion of black dancers from the ballet world, and the need to keep the art form relevant. As ballet companies embrace assorted strategies to become more inclusive, perhaps the real question is: can ballet save ballet?

It urgently needs a pipeline of new dance-makers, and platforms that give them the freedom to take risks. As Diana Byer, founder and artistic director of the acclaimed New York Theatre Ballet, and a stalwart champion of new dance-makers, tells me, “It is a constant struggle to find even extremely limited funds to nurture emerging choreographers.” Today, she says, “media drives a specific kind of artist and the texture of the dance scene tends to become one-dimensional.”

In this grim climate, Byer has persisted. Last weekend she chose six rising choreographers to present work at New York’s storied 92nd Street Y. All are current or former dancers with well-known companies (including New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York Theatre Ballet, and Oakland Ballet), and all are New York-based—except for Milissa Payne Bradley, who hails from the Bay Area.

It’s unusual for the West Coast to be invited to a New York dance party. New York City likes to think of itself as the world’s dance capital, and every other city in America as “regional.”

Read the full article on KQED Arts.

Los Angeles Times: Actress Sofia Carson receives honors during the Los Angeles Ballet Gala

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By Ellen Olivier

12 April 2019

From onstage at Thursday’s Los Angeles Ballet Gala, honoree Sofia Carson held back tears as she spoke about how her mom took her hand at age 3 and walked her to her first ballet class.

“I don’t remember a moment in my life when I wasn’t madly in love with dance,” said the Disney “Descendants” actress. “So when I was 3 years old and stepped into my very first ballet slippers, in that moment my life changed forever. And as I grew up, my love for dance became deeper and stage became my safe place. It became my happiness, my haven.

“So I promised myself that if ever I was lucky enough to do what I love every day of my life, I would do everything that I could to give that chance to dance to other little girls who didn’t have that beginning.”

Read the full article in The Los Angeles Times.

She Persisted: English National Ballet’s She Persisted Shows Work On and By Women

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Tamara Rojo, a star of classical ballet and leader of the acclaimed English National Ballet, continues to lead her company in the right direction. To great praise, Rojo has incorporated a #MeToo era triple-bill into her company’s season. She Persisted, the production that follows the company’s She Said all-female choreography program from 2016, is a breath of fresh air, telling original stories by women to international audiences.

The program is a three-part evening, with work by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Stina Quagebeur (a First Artists with ENB), and Pina Bausch. Nora, Quagebeur’s first work for the main stage, is the program’s major premiere, which speaks volumes to the support Rojo and her team have for new artists – particularly women.

Broken Wings and The Rite of Spring return to the company’s repertoire, creating a full-circle program of work from both emerging female artists to those well-established in the dance community.

Watch English National Ballet’s video below to hear Tamara Rojo, artists, and Stina Quagebeur discuss the program and women choreographers.

Learn more about She Persisted on the ENB website, here.

Choreographer links:

Stina Quagebeur

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Pina Bausch

How is Ballet Like Soccer? – New York Times In Her Words: Abby Wambach’s Leadership Lessons: Be the Wolf

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By Maya Salam

9 April 2019

Abby Wambach has made a career out of pursuing goals. She’s scored 184 of them after all, the most by any soccer player, male or female, in international soccer history. But now, a few years into her retirement, Wambach, who led the United States women’s team to a World Cup championship in 2015, is focused on a new kind of goal: motivating women to become leaders.

“There has never been a more important, urgent time than right now for women to begin to fully lead our own lives,” she told me this week.

In her new book, “Wolfpack,” Wambach, 38, shares lessons she learned from decades of training, failure and triumph on the field. It is based on the commencement speech she gave at Barnard College in New York last year that quickly went viral. “If I could go back and tell my younger self one thing, it would be this: ‘Abby, you were never Little Red Riding Hood; you were always the wolf,’” she told graduates.

Read the full article in The New York Times.