Upcoming Deadlines | click here to see if you are eligible for any of these opportunities

July 31st: Community Engagement Artists and Creatives Grant, 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

×

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

Broadway World

Broadway World: MorDance Reimagines ROMEO AND JULIET

/0 Comments/in /by

27 February 2019

MorDance embarks on their sixth season of innovative and inspiring ballet-making by presenting their first full-length story ballet, R+J Reimagined. An ensemble of eleven dancers will be joined by six musicians to breathe new life into the classic drama, May 9-11 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

Artistic director and choreographer Morgan McEwen will again collaborate with Ben Gallina, enlisting his talents to compose new works arranged amidst favorite moments from Sergei Prokofiev‘s iconic score. Furthermore, the company is ecstatic to again be joined by lighting designer Becky Heisler.

When asked about mounting this new project, Ms. McEwen states, “I’m excited to tackle a classic tragedy. I will draw upon Shakespeare’s dramatic poetic structure while developing, constructing, and choreographing my original version. I look to breathe new life and depth into this timeless tragedy through powerful choreography that employs the athleticism and prowess of my exceptional group of dancers. The team of artists and production staff I have behind this project are fiercely talented. I know we will produce a bold, compelling, and unparalleled work, while continuing to stay connected to my classical ballet roots and voice.

Read the full article on Broadway World.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy – Preventing Sexual Harassment and Promoting Gender Equity: 5 Ways to Get Started

/0 Comments/in , /by
As the Chronicle has documented, sexual harassment at nonprofits is a major challenge. Fundraisers face harassment by donors, and allegations of abuse in the workplace have led to resignations at more than one organization.

Yet there is cause for hope.

Some nonprofit leaders are addressing inequities and seeking solutions, as Katie Leonberger, president of Community Resource Exchange, details in a new article entitled Preventing Sexual Harassment and Promoting Gender Equity: 5 Ways to Get Started.

And these two articles from the archives offer additional guidance for leaders seeking to stop discrimination and abuse:
Ending Harassment at Nonprofits Means Changing Office Culture Experts Say 
5 Steps Nonprofits Can Take to Combat Sexual Harassment.

Read the articles in the links above, or visit The Chronicle of Philanthropy resources.
Chris Hardy/Smuin Ballet

Dance International: Creating Relationships: Choreographer Helen Pickett Builds Bonds Onstage and Off

/0 Comments/in /by

By Cynthia Bond Perry

16 November 2018

To find a way into Helen Pickett’s creative existence, and the many worlds she creates, look to her characters.

In Pickett’s The Crucible — commissioned by Scottish Ballet and based on the play by Arthur Miller — Abigail Williams is a young teen traumatized by seeing her parents killed. Yearning to fit into the structure of the family where she is a servant, Abigail develops a crush on John Proctor, head of the household. Their affair is the tipping point, Pickett said, for a girl who is too young to understand the sexual encounter and, then, too emotionally fragile to recover from the ensuing rejection. With the role of Abigail, Pickett digs deep to unearth the layers of a character who will feed hysteria within her community to devastating effect.

Set to premiere at the 2019 Edinburgh International Festival, The Crucible is the centrepiece of Scottish Ballet’s 50th anniversary season. When we met in the lobby of New York’s Joyce Theater last spring, Pickett was in the thick of creation, in between trips to Glasgow, Tulsa, San Francisco, Oklahoma City and Charlotte, North Carolina, where five of her ballets were in various stages of planning, rehearsal and production.

Pickett is a contemporary ballet choreographer of substance, with deep convictions, an effervescent sense of humour and a wide-ranging intellect. She is also one of few women working in the ballet world’s higher levels, and one of fewer still who are tackling full-length narrative ballets of serious dramatic heft.

Read the full article in Dance International.

New York Times Magazine: Why Aren’t Women Advancing More in Corporate America?

/0 Comments/in /by

By Emily Bazelon

MORE THAN 40 years ago, the Harvard business professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter published a pivotal book, “Men and Women of the Corporation.” Kanter showed that the disadvantages women experienced at work couldn’t be attributed to their lack of ambition: Women aspired to leadership as much as men did. But organizations often funneled women into jobs that didn’t have much of a career ladder.

By understanding gender-based expectations at work, some women were able to overcome them. From the 1970s into the 1990s, women made serious progress in the workplace, achieving higher positions, closing the gender wage gap and moving into male-dominated fields. Then that progress stalled, especially at the top. Why?

To answer that question, I talked with two experts who direct centers for leadership: Katherine W. Phillips, a professor of organizational management at Columbia University, and Shelley Correll, a sociologist at Stanford. They’ve known each other for a long time; they went to graduate school together.

Read Bazelon’s interview in New York Times Magazine.

Andrea Mohin/The New York Times

New York Times: Peter Martins Left City Ballet a Year Ago. But He’s Not Entirely Gone.

/0 Comments/in /by

By Robin Pogrebin

22 February 2019

Peter Martins was supposed to have bowed out of New York City Ballet, the company he ran for 35 years.

But more than a year after he left amid allegations of sexual harassment and physical and verbal abuse, he continues to make his presence felt in ways both big and small — including by ordering last-minute cast changes in performances of his ballets and showing up backstage after a show.

Ashley Bouder, a star dancer, said Mr. Martins removed her at the 11th hour from the opening-night cast of “The Sleeping Beauty” — a position she held for nearly a decade — as retribution for publicly calling for a new day at the company.

“It completely blindsided me,” Ms. Bouder said.

Contractually, living choreographers are given final approval in artistic decisions, including casting, and the right to go backstage after performances, though they typically yield to the wishes of management.

Read the full article in the New York Times.

Photo by Pascal Perich/Contour by Getty Images

Ashley Bouder Takes a Stance – DDP Stands with Her

/0 Comments/in , /by

Many will remember in April 2018 when Ashley Bouder wrote an OpEd for Dance Magazine, “It’s Time for Ballet to Embrace Feminism.” She wrote with honesty and a well-informed ear:

Personally, I like receiving flowers and being escorted offstage. I like dancing in pointe shoes and being lifted and supported. Yet that doesn’t mean a man shouldn’t be able to have those things too. It seems that whenever a man is escorted offstage or receives flowers—other than at retirement or a single rose from the ballerina—it’s only done for a humorous reaction, to make fun of him for being like a woman.

The problem with these traditions is that they highlight more serious gender inequality. It’s as if the image of a man leading a woman into the wings is a metaphor for how the dance world is run. A male director leading the careers of dancers. A male choreographer laying down the pathway of steps to perform. 

Of course, there are women who have broken through this mold. But there it is in the phrase: “broken through.” A simple place at the table would be sufficient. Instead, it’s like women are crashing the dinner party.

In order to move forward socially, and, yes, artfully, we must be willing to break from tradition and make room for all types. That doesn’t mean that the traditional male and female roles cannot exist. As long as performances of Petipa’s Swan Lake keep selling out, it is guaranteed that they will exist.


Bouder, leader of The Ashley Bouder Project, is constantly doing more to reinforce and stand by her statements from both this OpEd and her social media accounts. Recently, however, Bouder faced retaliation from her ex-male director, Peter Martins. This time, instead of laying down the pathway of steps to perform, Martins took away all steps, more specifically, an opening night, first-cast performance of the Sleeping Beauty, from Bouder. According to the New York Times, Martins continues to maintain the authority to change casts and whatever else he wants in his version of the production for New York City Ballet, despite no longer serving as Artistic Director for the company after severe allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct. Jonathan Stafford, the interim Artistic Director, had no authority to prevent this last-minute change to his first cast.

Bouder has chosen to fearlessly speak out, revealing the disturbing truth of a reality she and her peers face. Dance Data Project stands with Bouder as she remains steadfast and strong – “‘I feel like he is punishing me, even though he is not my boss anymore,” Ms. Bouder said. “And by talking about it I can be punished even further. But that’s a risk I have to take.'” Her honesty is the advocacy this community needs to fight the policies and leadership that do not promote equity and fairness in classical dance.

Read the New York Times article on Martins’ continued control here.

Read the New York Times article featuring Ms. Bouder’s project and advocacy here.

Read Bouder’s OpEd for Dance Magazine here.

Visit www.theashleybouderproject.com to see first-hand the dancer/leader’s advocacy.

Photo by Cheryl Mann

Unsex Me Here: A Stephanie Martinez Piece for Charlotte Ballet

/0 Comments/in /by

Innovative Works is Charlotte Ballet‘s yearly production that brings groundbreaking and diverse productions to the company’s regional audiences. This year, Stephanie Martinez and Peter Chu challenged Shakespeare norms in Shakespeare Reinvented. The choreographers teamed up with Shakespeare professor Andrew Hartley and UNC Charlotte Department of Theatre department chair Lynne Conner to capture the well-known characters and stories within an innovative twist on the celebrated playwright’s works.

A review for Broadway World wrote:

Martinez and Coleman [costume designer] definitely set the women free from their traditional moorings, particularly James as Lady M and Amelia Sturt-Dilley as Kate. If you’ve seen or studied Macbeth, you’re likely aware that the “unsex me here” quote comes from a Lady M soliloquy where she is steeling herself to commit regicide with her husband and seize the throne of Scotland. Perhaps less familiar is the quote gleaned from The Taming of the Shrew, “If I be waspish, best beware my sting.” It comes from early in the first dialogue that Katherine has with Petruchio, shortly after he has obtained her father’s consent to take her hand in marriage – with a sizable dowry to go along with the prize.

Later in the article, entitled “BWW Review: UNC Doctors Do No Harm in Charlotte Ballet’s SHAKESPEARE REINVENTED,” Perry Tannenbaum writes of Martinez’ work, “Clocking in at an expansive 44+ minutes, Unsex Me Here was richly enjoyable and never struck me as an academic or PC rehab of these familiar men and women. Yes, it’s true that the guys – even Bottom – were deemphasized, but there was no detectable condemnation or belittlement.”

Watch Martinez’ Unsex Me Here below. The production was performed from January 25th to February 16th, 2019 in Charlotte. Martinez’ score design was by the choreographer herself, Ethan Kirschbaum, Johnny Nevin, and Peter de Klerk with music by Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, Sasseth, and a voice over of Lady Macbeth’s speech by Kate Fleetwood.

Read the Broadway World article here.

Read more about Stephanie Martinez here.

Courtesy of Co Lab Dance, Photo by Luis Pons

Co•Lab Dance Gets a New Season

/0 Comments/in , /by

There will be another season of American Ballet Theatre dancer Lauren Post’s Co•Lab Dance this summer. Post’s initiative has been offered an Artist Residency at the illustrious Kaatsbaan International Dance Center in Tivoli, NY.

Choreographers and dancers will stay and work at Kaatsbaan for two weeks to rehearse and create the new program. The program’s first show will be at Kaatsbaan, with two more performances in New York City to follow at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center on September 6th and 7th, 2019.

This year, Post’s initiative will welcome choreographers Danielle Rowe, Gemma Bond, and Xin Ying. Post tells us, “We are so excited to be continuing and expanding Co•Lab Dance for a second season.”

Dance Data Project’s team will share more news and media in upcoming months as the program develops.

Bloomberg: Brainard Says Fed Must Do More to Boost Diversity in Its Ranks

/0 Comments/in /by

By Alister Bull

23 February 2019

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard said the U.S. central bank must improve its recruitment of women and people from minority backgrounds because greater diversity leads to better policy decisions.

Noting that it was more than a century after the Fed’s creation that the one of its 12 regional banks was headed by an African American — Raphael Bostic, who became president of the Atlanta Fed in 2017 — Brainard said “we need to do better.”

“To achieve our goals, we will need to improve the diversity of the economics ecosystem more broadly,” Brainard told a conference in Washington on Saturday to commemorate Sadie T. M. Alexander, the first African American woman to gain a Ph.D in economics.

The Fed hires one of every 25 “newly minted” economics Ph.Ds in the U.S. each year, Brainard said, and therefore has “a significant stake in the diversity and vibrancy of the economics profession overall.”

The Fed gained its first woman leader when Janet Yellen took the helm in 2014. She was passed over for a second term when President Donald Trump picked Jerome Powell to succeed her in 2018. Women remain a minority of the central bank’s leadership.

Read the full article in Bloomberg.

Just Released: EXECUTIVE & ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP REPORT

/0 Comments/in /by

The Dance Data Project™ launched today with the first of a series of reports documenting gender inequity in leadership positions and pay among the 50 largest ballet companies in the United States. George Balanchine, the legendary Artistic Director and Founder of the New York City Ballet once said,  “Everywhere else men are first. But in ballet, it’s the woman.” However in 2019, DDP™ found men are first in ballet when it comes to leadership positions and pay even though the ballet world is overwhelming populated by women and they
are the economic drivers as well.

Download the report here.