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March 26th: New & Experimental Works (NEW) Program, March 31st: SIA Foundation Grants, April 1st: Palm Desert Choreography Festival, April 1st: New England States Touring (NEST 1 and 2), April 17th: World Arts West (WAW) Cultural Dance Catalyst Fund, September 14th: New England Dance Fund, October 13th: Community Arts Grant - Zellerbach Family Foundation, December 1st: Culture Forward Grant - The Svane Family Foundation, December 31st: National Dance Project Presentation Grants - New England Foundation for the Arts, December 31st: National Dance Project Travel Fund, December 31st: New England Presenter Travel Fund

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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

DDP Founder Liza Yntema at American Ballet Theatre

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DDP Founder Liza Yntema paid a visit to American Ballet Theatre last week, meeting again with visionary Executive Director Kara Medoff Barnett . The company’s Women’s Movement is taking off with full support at all levels of the major company. Details will soon follow on our website.

Read more about the Women’s Movement on the ABT website here.

HeraldScotland: ‘Defiantly unorthodox’ – Reviews: Scottish Ballet’s Spring! plus Glengarry Glen Ross

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By Mark Brown

6 April 2019

Scottish Ballet, our national dance company, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Given the breadth of its programming, it is fitting that it should begin its celebrations, not with a classical ballet, but with Spring!, a double bill of defiantly unorthodox choreographies.

The evening begins with the world premiere of Dextera, an intriguing and memorable work by Scottish Ballet artist in residence Sophie Laplane. The choreographer describes the piece as a celebration of creativity, but, it seems clear, it is also commenting, upon current debates around gender inequalities and identities.

This it does with imagination, humour and some disquieting imagery. In contrast to the beauty of music by Mozart, red-gloved men manipulate puppet-like women, some of them with hooks attached to their costumes (all the better to control them).

This rigid, disconcerting gender scheme begins to crack when we see a male figure, attired in the same white dress as the women, being moved around the stage with energetic roughness. Soon, chorus scenes are offering comedic gestures of feminist defiance, leading to a final montage of personal freedom and social harmony.

Read the full article in HeraldScotland.

The Boston Globe: At the theater, furious rebuttals in the age of #MeToo

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By Don Aucoin

4 April 2019

In a recent interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, author Rebecca Traister pointed to a large, gaping hole in the history books: Namely, that they have habitually minimized the intensity and the effectiveness of women’s anger as a force for social change.

“We’ve never been taught the story or given the view of women’s anger as politically potent,’’ said Traister, whose book “Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger’’ was published last fall. “Women’s anger, even when it has existed, has often been covered over by the people telling the story of it.’’

At this moment, though, that story is being forcefully told on stages from Boston to Broadway. The anger of women, and their determination to fight back against the role of systemic misogyny in making them feel undervalued and unsafe in the world, has formed the basis of recent and current productions as different as Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s “The Little Foxes,’’ Sleeping Weazel’s “The Audacity: Women Speak,’’ Flat Earth Theatre’s “Not Medea,’’ Also Known As Theatre’s “Extremities,’’ and the riveting “What the Constitution Means to Me,’’ at New York’s Helen Hayes Theater.

Even generally lighthearted classics like Lerner & Loewe’s “My Fair Lady,’’ George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion’’ (from which “My Fair Lady’’ was adapted), and Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate’’ now resonate differently, having been tweaked by contemporary directors to emphasize the defiance of their incensed female protagonists and the legitimacy of their grievances.

Read the full critic’s notebook in The Boston Globe.

The Telegraph: She Persisted, ENB, Sadler’s Wells, review: an all-guns #MeToo broadside

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By Mark Monahan

5 April 2019

Is it encouraging and emancipating – or patronising and pigeonholing – to showcase “female choreographers”? Either way, there’s no doubt that women are sorely under-represented in the realm of dance-creation, and you could hardly accuse English National Ballet (under dancer-director Tamara Rojo) of not sticking to its guns.

Three years ago, it unveiled She Said, a triple bill of new works by women. Now, also at Sadler’s Wells, it is serving up an even more explicit #MeToo-era broadside, with She Persisted. 

Read the full review in The Telegraph.

CNN Business: Women are now running all three network morning shows for the first time ever

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By Brian Stelter

April 4 2019

New York (CNN Business)

For decades, the TV morning shows that are designed to appeal primarily to women have been produced mostly by men. But that’s changing.On Thursday, CBS named Diana Miller the new executive producer of “CBS This Morning,” filling a void that was left when Ryan Kadro exited the show three months ago.There was loud applause in the newsroom when new CBS News president Susan Zirinsky announced Miller’s promotion.For the first time, all three network morning programs have female executive producers. The E.P. is the day-to-day boss of the show.Roxanna Sherwood became the E.P. of ABC’s “Good Morning America” in July 2017. She reports to senior executive producer Michael Corn.

Libby Leist became the E.P. of NBC’s “Today” show in February 2018. She reports to NBC News president Noah Oppenheim.The gender dynamics of morning TV have gained more attention in recent years due to the downfalls of Charlie Rose at CBS and Matt Lauer at NBC.When Lauer was fired at NBC, Hoda Kotb became Savannah Guthrie’s co-host. When Leist took over the show a month and a half later, it was viewed by staffers as a break with the past.

Read the full article on CNN Business.

Dance Magazine: Why Every Dancer Should Choreograph At Least Once, According to Boston Conservatory at Berklee

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5 april 2019

The way we create and consume dance is changing every day. Now more than ever, the field demands that dancers not only be able to perform at the highest level, but also collaborate with choreographers to bring their artistic visions to life. Dancers who miss out on choreographic training may very well find themselves at a disadvantage as they try to launch their careers.

At Boston Conservatory at Berklee—which was just named a top school for aspiring choreographers by College Magazine—choreography courses are an essential aspect of the curriculum. “The skills you learn choreographing make you a better artist all-around, and help you build a diverse portfolio,” says dean of dance Tommy Neblett. “Not to mention these skills are transferable to so many different areas within and beyond the performing arts.”

Here’s why Neblett recommends all dance students try choreography at least once:

1. You’ll have a huge professional advantage.

Read the rest in Dance Magazine.

Laurent Liotardo/The English National Ballet

What a Difference a Female Director Can Make! Vogue: #MeToo Finally Makes Waves In The Ballet World With English National Ballet’s She Persisted

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By Alyson Lowe

6 April 2019

Conjure up an image of classical ballet, and pointe shoes, tutus, a corps of fluttering ballerinas and exaggerated stage make-up will spring to mind. Visually, women are everywhere in ballet, but, this is very often where it stops; they are seen as objects of beauty, but historically it has rarely been anything more. Feminist discourse in the art form is only at its very fledgling stage, with women’s voices in the classical realm remaining especially silent.

Led by creative director (and ballerina) Tamara Rojo, the English National Ballet’s latest trilogy, She Persisted, gives those voices to these previously seen-but-not-heard women – and they’re big, bold, loud ones. A trilogy of works, all crafted by female choreographers, the production takes over London’s Sadler’s Wells for two weeks. This isn’t the first time Rojo has led a women-first project. Back in 2016, She Said similarly showcased female choreography, but it’s season two that proves Rojo is very serious about permanent change after #MeToo’s impact through the arts world.

Read the full article in Bhttps://www.vogue.co.uk/article/she-persisted-english-national-balletritish Vogue.

Bloomberg: Tech Giants Are Not Fixing Their U.K. Gender Pay Gap Problem

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By Nate Lanxon

4 April 2019

One year after U.K.-based businesses were forced to report their gender pay gap, there has been some change from tech companies, but not all of it in the right direction.

Facebook Inc. is now paying female staff less on average, but has hired more women in senior positions. Amazon.com Inc., which still employs about the same number of men and women in top jobs, has improved the gap in average pay, while Uber Technologies Inc. and WeWork Cos both revealed a sizable pay gaps.

In April 2018, employers with 250 or more staff in the U.K. were required for the first time to publish data on their gender pay gaps, including the mean and median difference in average hourly wages, bonuses, and what percentage of each pay quartile goes to women.

There were a couple of notable new entries into the report. Uber, which now employs enough people to make its gender pay gap reporting mandatory, revealed it pays women 8.9 percent less than men, and women occupy 32.9 percent of top jobs at the ride-hailing firm.

Read the full article in Bloomberg News.

DC Metro: Review: ‘New York City Ballet: Works by Balanchine, Robbins, and Reisen’ at the Kennedy Center

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By Ramona Harper

3 April 2019

Spring is in the air with not only the blooming cherry blossoms but also the bursting energy of the New York City Ballet’s exciting spring concert at the Kennedy Center.

Something old and something new was the theme of the evening. One might have thought the company’s selections would have presented its founding ballet masters and choreographers, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, first. It didn’t. Ever forward-looking, New York City Ballet opened with Composer’s Holiday, the choreography of a new rising star, 19-year-old Gianna Reisen, the youngest person ever to choreograph a work for the New York City Ballet.

Composer’s Holiday felt perfectly right for a springtime concert with its light, airy, and youthful pulsations and a feeling of excitement and anticipation.

Lukas Foss’s Three American Pieces for violin and piano, performed by Arturo Delmoni and Susan Waters, respectively, was an evocatively moving musical complement that gracefully framed the dancers’ quick, bouncy steps and joyous movements. The female dancers’ sheer white skirted costumes by Virgil Abloh of Off White added a sense of an incredible lightness of being.

Read the full article in DC Metro.

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.