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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
December 31st: New England Presenter Travel Fund, December 31st: Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Scholarship, December 31st: 24 Seven Dance Convention, December 31st: National Theater Project Presenter Travel Grant, December 31st: Breck Creek Artist-in-Residence Program
×"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
8 March 2019
The Guardian is celebrating International Women’s Day with live coverage of all events from the day – good and bad. Follow all the news and developments as people mark International Women’s Day around the world.
Follow the link for live updates in The Guardian.
By Bryce Covert
7 March 2019
On Monday, Google announced something unusual: After its annual pay equity analysis, it gave most of the raises to adjust for unequal practices to men.
The company says that it was about to make changes this year that would have compensated many men less than women in a certain job category, so it headed off that inequity. But the analysis appears to leave out many of the factors that women at the company say have led them to be paid less. The company’s annual reviews only compare people in the same job categories, yet women say the problem is that they are hired into lower-tier and lower-pay positions while men start in higher-level jobs with higher pay brackets.
It’s hard to know for sure what’s going on with Google’s wage gap, because the company won’t release all of its data publicly. In prior years it claimed that it had no gap in pay between men and women, while arguing that it shouldn’t have to hand over detailed data to the Department of Labor, which analyzes pay practices at government contractors. Yet in 2016 the Labor Department found that Google had “systemic” disparities, which an official called “quite extreme.”
A new rule could help make sense of what’s going on.
Read the full article in the New York Times.
By Sophie Smyke and Isabela Espadas Barros Leal
5 March 2019
The Time’s Up movement launched on Jan 1, 2018 as a response to sexual harassment and assault allegations made against former movie producer Harvey Weinstein. On Friday night, at Barnard’s ninth annual Athena Film Festival, one of the movement’s founders, Nina Shaw, BC ’76, Law ’79, was honored with the Athena Award for her excellence in leadership within the film industry while wearing a Time’s Up pin on her dress.
A year after the movement’s launch, Barnard fostered conversation on the movement’s impact, as well as the work still left to be done, through a series of panels featuring members of the film industry. At the Time’s Up X2 panel on Saturday and the Programming for Parity panel on Sunday, activists, producers, programmers, and directors came together to discuss how to prioritize representation and systemic change in Hollywood.
Leading members of the Time’s Up movement spoke on a panel last Saturday at the Athena Film Festival. The panel, moderated by CNN Entertainment Reporter Chloe Melas, included Shaw and the Time’s Up Entertainment executive director, Nithya Ramen, as well as actresses Amber Tamblyn and Alysia Reiner.
Although originally focused on the entertainment industry, the Time’s Up movement has since come to expand its reach with initiatives such as Time’s Up Healthcare and Time’s Up Tech. As it broadened its influence, the Time’s Up movement has continued to challenge the way industries operate on a fundamental level.
“It’s about seeing this not as a moment in time, but as a real structural retooling,” Tamblyn said, “to not be afraid, truly, from using the word ‘revolution.’ We have to think in that big language. We have to know that this is much bigger than a momentary shake-up.”
Read the full article in the Columbia Daily Spectator.
By Amanda Waltz
5 March 2019
There are no tutus, leotards, or ballet buns in the Camille A. Brown & Dancers (CABD) production of ink. Instead, dancers wear untucked, button-down shirts, cargo shorts, tank tops, and yoga pants, all meant to designate their roles as everyday people on the street. By staying grounded in reality, the new dance theater show at the August Wilson Cultural Center (March 9-10) explores how small interactions and relationships contribute to Black empowerment.
“[Brown] wanted people to feel like they could see themselves on stage,” says ink dancer Juel D. Lane. “She wanted us to see our brilliance for who we are as a people, as a community. So the choice to have costumes that are very pedestrian sheds light on ‘this is who we are and where we’ve been.’”
Lane has worked with Brown — a prolific choreographer, dancer, director, and educator — since they met in the early 2000s as students at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. That includes dancing with CABD in the previous two installments leading up to ink, the final in a trilogy he describes as dealing with Black identity.
The first show, the award-winning Mr. TOL E. RAncE, uses dance, as well as comedy, animation, and theater, to explore the history of Black performers and addresses forms of “modern-day minstrelsy.” Lane says the following BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play tackles the stereotype of “the angry Black female” to provide a more nuanced, celebratory portrait of Black womanhood.
Read the full article in the Pittsburgh City Paper.
In Judith Mackrell’s Top Dance of 2018 article for The Guardian on January 3rd, 2018, Cathy Marston won praise. The choreographer is recently gaining attention for her Jane Eyre, which was premiered for the Northern Ballet of Canada last year (featured on the list) and is now coming to New York City, where American Ballet Theatre will present the work at the Met.
Marston’s work 16 + a room was also mentioned, along with work by Crystal Pite and duo Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar for Ballet BC, the company which Marston directs.
The steady stream of good reviews and full-length works by Martson (Jane Eyre and Queen Victoria) serve to reinforce our excitement that Martson’s work will soon hit the American big-leagues. It is time for a woman’s full-length work to gain the attention a new Ratmansky or Wheeldon ballet would garner.
Watch the trailer for Jane Eyre below:
Read the fill list in The Guardian.
By Lyndsey Winship
Queen Victoria is falling into the arms of John Brown. He rocks her as if a child, her body heavy with grief, before she steps into a stoic arabesque. “What he’s doing is making you strong through your stubbornness,” choreographer Cathy Marston tells dancer Abigail Prudames, playing the mourning queen preparing to face her public after her beloved Albert’s death.
We’re in rehearsals for Victoria, Marston’s latest work for Northern Balletfollowing her acclaimed Jane Eyre in 2016. Marston must be the most accomplished British female choreographer in ballet right now, but she’s spent most of her professional life in Europe, first as a dancer, then for six years as director of Bern Ballett. Freelance since 2013, Marston still lives in Switzerland with her Australian husband and two young children, but she’s about to have a flurry of work on stage in the UK. There’s another outing for the award-winning The Suit, made for Ballet Black, and then San Francisco Ballet dancing Snowblind, based on Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome. In June, Jane Eyre will have its US debut at the Met in New York courtesy of American Ballet Theatre. “That’s a huge deal, it’s terrifying,” she says.
Read the full article in The Guardian.
In a March 1st Critics Notebook for the New York Times, Gia Kourlas wrote about Wendy Whelan and Jonathan Stafford’s hiring as the associate artistic director of New York City Ballet and the artistic director of the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet, respectively. Kourlas did not falter from the honest critique she is known to share:
I’ve always supported the idea of seeing two people share City Ballet’s top position because of the job’s immensity. But there’s a problem here: equality. Mr. Stafford is to become the artistic director of both City Ballet and its affiliated School of American Ballet; Ms. Whelan has been named the associate artistic director of City Ballet.
The company has undergone much turmoil in recent months: Three male principal dancers were forced out after they were accused of sharing text messages of sexually explicit photos of women. In the current climate — something City Ballet and its board should know a thing or two about — elevating the job title of a man over a woman seems like a regressive, shortsighted and even cowardly act. It’s also a confusing one given that in an interview in The New York Times the two said that “they intended to work as partners.”
The critic’s sentiment is shared by many across the dance community. If the two are partners, why do their titles differ in hierarchy? It is indeed confusing. The article largely focused on Whelan and her diverse experience and interests. Kourlas sees room for error with Whelan controlling programming and coaching the dancers. She also can largely expand the company’s repertoire from its narrow, Martins/Robbins/Balanchine/Peck bubble.
Kourlas continued, “In her new position, she must be able to see the big picture. But there is reason for hope: Her recent project is a work by Lucinda Childs, the great postmodern choreographer. It’s possible that many City Ballet dancers, especially the younger ones, have never heard of Ms. Childs, who has been choreographing ballets in Europe for years. Ms. Whelan’s new job is an opportunity to impart, along with technique and musicality, some dance history beyond ballet, to be a bridge between the worlds of contemporary, or downtown dance, and its more classical uptown counterpart.
Ms. Whelan gets out into the world — recently, I’ve seen her at New York Live Arts and the Museum of Modern Art. It’s extremely important to know what’s going on in dance outside Lincoln Center: This is an art form that is not only about the body but also about ideas, and Ms. Whelan has demonstrated in her own career, especially post-retirement, a solid grasp of that.”
Surely, however, Whelan can get even farther outside of Lincoln Center. Beyond MoMa and NY Live Arts are remarkable commissions by regionally-emerging choreographers. See Stephanie Martinez and the perhaps better-known Penny Saunders choreographing for Charlotte Ballet. Many choreographers-in-residence do not get out of their small-town scenes to program work at the larger companies like NYCB with big-name connections.
Whelan, who has a clear passion for the overlaps between different mediums of art and mergers of classical with modern dance, should send company representatives to regional performances to consider bringing regional talent to New York’s world stage. Another international leader, American Ballet Theatre, is doing just this in June. Cathy Marston’s Jane Eyre, which began in Canada at the Northern Ballet, will be brought to the Metropolitan Opera House by Ballet Theatre.
New York City Ballet’s new direction can take note.
Read Kourlas’ article in the New York Times.
By Dillon Heyck
1 March 2019
Dwight Rhoden’s galvanizing protest rally of a ballet, WOKE, premiered at The Joyce Theater with his company Complexions Contemporary Ballet. The mere possibility that ballet dancers could carry the laborious weight of topical issues while wearing pointe shoes, without devolving into obscure, apolitical abstraction, might be met with an arched-eyebrow. Dwight Rhoden takes on just this task by answering the call of rap, hip-hop, electronic pop, and R&B back with neoclassical phrases of piano music that his dancers match in vivacity and poise. WOKE is a work that will admit many responses and interpretations, but one of its undaunted objectives is to realize a vocabulary of movement that bridges popular music with arguably the most conservative form of dance.
It’s first worth noting Rhoden’s decision to title his choreography after a word tossed around enough for some to say it’s been hijacked by superficial, white cosmopolitanism in a lazy effort to appear politically conscious. Now I hear “woke” used more ironically than not and one critic flatly stated the word is dead. Rhoden is likely aware of this. And WOKE may be an attempt to reinvigorate the word with the uplifting hope and transcendency it once carried. It would be easy for a critic to level at the politics of WOKE, but how could anyone ignore the dancers’ craftsmanship?
Read the full article on Hyperallergic.
After a year of interim leadership by a team of four, New York City Ballet has selected Jonathan Stafford and Wendy Whelan as the company’s new leaders. Stafford has served on the team of interim directors over the past year, alongside Rebecca Krohn, Craig Hall, and Justin Peck. Whelan retired from her role as principal dancer with the company in 2014 and has since developed a wide range of freelance projects with artists like Kyle Abraham, Joshua Beamish, Brian Brooks, Alejandro Cerrudo, Lucinda Childs, Daniele Désnoyers, Javier De Frutos, David Neumann, Annie-B Parson, and Arthur Pita.
Stafford will serve as the Artistic Director of the New York City Ballet and its affiliate school, the School of American Ballet (SAB), while Whelan will serve as Associate Artistic Director of the New York City Ballet. Justin Peck will also tackle a new role as the company’s Artistic Advisor.Whelan’s statement in the press release recognized the rare responsibility of a woman moving into the artistic leadership. She said, “The magnitude of what my appointment represents for female dancers, and all women, is of critical importance to me. The moment for change at New York City Ballet is now, and I am excited to help welcome it with Jonathan Stafford.”
Whelan’s primary role will include “conceiving, planning, and programming NYCB’s annual performance season; commissioning new work from choreographers, composers, and other artistic collaborators.” Whelan’s control over new commissions and NYCB’s repertoire is likely to lead to more commissions of female choreographers, whose representation has been largely absent from the majority of the company’s seasons.
Protecting the female artists that were punished by Peter Martin’s continued influence following his departure is also essential to the reaffirmation of the company as a leader in America abroad. Ashley Bouder, the principal dancer who was recently pulled by the former artistic director from the company’s first-cast of his Sleeping Beauty, released a statement on Instagram, writing, “It was a long and often difficult road, but finally NYCB has a solid direction. I cannot express how THRILLED I am to have such a strong woman, Wendy Whelan, as part of the new era. With this news, our team is as optimistic as ever that the culture at New York City Ballet will change to emphasize safety, transparency, and equity both on and off the stage.”
The need for a change in the company culture has been made clear to the Board during this year of dramatic scandal and division at NYCB. The union of Ms. Whelan and Mr. Stafford is one marked by optimism, as, according to the New York Times, the pair campaigned independently during interviews with the search committee for a management partnership. Their desire to balance the roles of an Artistic Director was apparently convincing, though it is notable that the pair’s titles do not reflect the equal partnership the company’s statement describes.
Dance Magazine contributor Lauren Wingenroth, who, along with the publication, has been at the forefront of truth-telling amidst talks of inequity in the dance community, pointed this out. Wingenroth wrote, “The set-up begs the question: If the two leaders will truly be ‘partners,’ why are they not co-artistic directors? Considering the company’s recent scandals — and the troubling historical gender dynamics of the company — the arrangement sits just a bit uncomfortably.”
Oversight on which title to give which leader seems unrealistic from the esteemed organization. Therefore, only time will tell whether or not “associate” will indicate an imbalance of power between these two leaders. If the Board has played its cards right, Whelan will possess equal control, and NYCB will turn a new page towards equity.
Read the company’s full press release here.
Read the New York Times article “City Ballet, Shaken by Turmoil, Chooses New Leaders” here.
Read The Washington Posts article “City Ballet names its #MeToo-era leaders: a man-woman team” here.
By Sarah L. Kaufman
28 February 2019
One of George Balanchine’s former ballerinas has filed legal action contending that the choreographer’s legacy is in jeopardy.
Susan Gluck, a trustee of the George Balanchine Trust, which administers the rights to perform Balanchine’s ballets, filed a 136-page petition Thursday in the surrogate court of the state of New York seeking a full accounting of the financial management of the trust. Gluck was a member of New York City Ballet, the renowned company that Balanchine founded, from 1978 to 1986.
Her petition landed on the same day that New York City Ballet made its long-awaited announcement that Jonathan Stafford would be its new artistic director, with former ballerina Wendy Whelan taking on the new position of associate artistic director.
…
Gluck alleges in her petition that “over the span of 20 years, Horgan has leveraged the trust to consolidate her power over Mr. Balanchine’s works and maximize her income to the detriment of other trust beneficiaries.” Gluck further accuses Horgan of crafting “a web of partnerships” that led to more income than she was entitled to.
Neither Horgan nor anyone at the trust office immediately returned calls and messages seeking comment.
Read the full article in The Washington Post.
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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