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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

Long Hard Road Ahead According to The Conversation: Gender equity—the way things are going, we won’t reach true parity until the 22nd century

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By Rebecca Cassells and Alan Duncan

8 March 2019

The good news this International Women’s Day is that women are now moving through the ranks into management roles faster than men.

If things continue at this rate it will take just two more decades for women to hold the same number of full-time management positions as men.

For lower-level managers, it could happen even sooner, perhaps in just ten to eleven years.

But for the top spot of chief executive, we are unlikely to see women holding half the positions until 2100. That’s right: until the turn of the 22nd century, 80 years away.

Credit: BCEC|WGEA Gender Equity Insights Series 2019: Breaking through the Glass Ceiling via The Conversation

Projected dates women should achieve parity with men

The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre has crunched five years of data collected by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and discovered that while the glass ceiling that has prevented women from holding high-level jobs is receding, the ceiling governing salaries remains pretty much in place.

At every management level, in every industry, the spread of salaries available to male managers is much wider and higher than the spread available to female mangers.

The top paid 10% of male mangers earn at least $600K in total salary, whereas the top paid 10% of female managers earn $436K, a difference of over $160K.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2019-03-gender-equitythe-wont-true-parity.html#jCp (The Conversation)

Scene from Praedicere, Choreography by Michelle Dorrance, Courtesy of American Ballet Theatre, Photo by Marty SohlCourtesy of American Ballet Theatre/Photo by Marty Sohl

American Ballet Theatre Highlights Women Credited Throughout Its History & Announces Movement’s Next Endeavors

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In a new extended page that details the American Ballet Theatre Women’s Movement, Ballet Theatre is featuring the artists responsible for stagings and commissions throughout the company’s history.

The thirty-nine women come from different generations and diverse backgrounds from around the world. Ranging from Natalia Makarova, who has staged La Bayadère for Ballet Theatre since the 80’s (and the less-performed Paquita), to Catherine Littlefield, who brought her work “Barn Dance” to the company in 1944, the list is intriguing and serves as a model for what all companies should be doing – giving choreographers support and exposure beyond their commissions or staging.

The company has also shared the Women’s Movement’s influence on its 2019 Spring Season. Jane Eyre, a full-length work by Cathy Marston, is coming to the Metropolitan Opera House, followed by a reprisal of In the Upper Room, one of Twyla Tharp’s best-known works. The latter comes as part of the Tharp Trio program, which includes the choreographer’s The Brahms-Haydn Variations and Deuce Coupe.

Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company is set to perform more work by Claudia Schreier and a new work by Stefanie Batten Bland beginning in January 2019. Eight women choreographers have already benefited from the Women’s Movement since its official rollout last fall.

DDP Founder Liza Yntema provides continuous support to the Movement.

See all the information on the Women’s Movement on the American Ballet Theatre website.
Read about the Movement in the news here: Marie Claire; The New York Times; Dance Magazine; San Francisco Classical Voice

Screenshot via Dance Magazine

Dance Magazine: Sergei Polunin, Unapologetic About His Social Media Spiral, Is Somehow Still Getting High-Profile Dance Jobs

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By Lauren Wigenwroth

8 March 2019

After a slew of homophobic and misogynist Instagram posts got Sergei Polunin dropped from an engagement with the Paris Opéra Ballet and a host of other opportunities, we thought we’d heard the last of him for a while.

And he has been relatively quiet for the past two months, at least on social media. (In one interview he says that he deleted his Instagram; in another he says it was hacked and shut down.) We hoped he was taking time for a much-needed intervention—some of his posts were truly disturbing and suggested deeper issues at play.

But the quiet didn’t last long. Yesterday, The Guardian released an exclusive interview with Polunin—one that he initiated, approaching a writer who didn’t know about ballet because Polunin “hates talking about ballet.”

Polunin wanted to explain his recent activity on social media, his manager told writer Simon Hattenstone.

Great! We could all use some clarification about why he said that he wants to slap fat people and effeminate men. (Not to mention an explanation of his chest tattoo of Vladimir Putin.)

But the story left us with more questions—and made us wonder why his unacceptable behavior is still being normalized by those who continue to hire him for performances and program him for appearances.

Read the full article in Dance Magazine.


Pointe Magazine: Chelsy Meiss on Being the First Woman to Dance the Mad Hatter in Wheeldon’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

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By Chava Lansky

6 March 2019


When Christopher Wheeldon‘s celebrated Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland returns to National Ballet of Canada’s stage this week, there will be one big change. First soloist Chelsy Meiss will dance the role of the quirky, tapping Mad Hatter, the first time ever that a female dancer has stepped into the part. “Chelsy is one the most versatile dancers in the company,” says artistic director Karen Kain. “The Mad Hatter role is the perfect vehicle to showcase her acting ability, enthusiasm and tap dancing technique.” For Wheeldon, this decision came at just the right time. “In the current climate, where the boundaries of gender in ballet are being explored, the option to have Chelsy as The Mad Hatter became a relevant discussion,” he says.

The National Ballet of Canada’s promotional video from YouTube. Courtesy of the National Ballet of Canada.

We caught up with Meiss to hear all about what it feels like to take on this groundbreaking role.

Read the full article in Pointe Magazine.

Financial Times: How Ballet Black changed the dance landscape

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By Louise Levene

A March 8th article for the Financial Times discusses Ballet Black’s (UK-based) founder Cassa Pancho. She began the troupe as an 8-person endeavor when she was a mere 21 years-old. Her company were spotted by a Covent Garden director, who gave the group residency. According to the Financial Times, funding arrived at this point via private donors and grants.

Today, the London Arts Council’s NPO award has praised the company for bringing in a diverse range of choreographers. Next up on the roster, we hope, will be female choreographers getting the start artists like Liam Scarlett got from the company.

Read the article in the Financial Times.

Cincinnati Business Courier: Premieres highlight Cincinnati Ballet’s 2019-20 season

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By Nikki Kingery

7 March 2019

The Cincinnati Ballet announced its 2019-20 season, featuring several world premieres as well as updated versions of classical works.

“The season has a great balance to it,” artistic director Victoria Morgan said in a release. “We have world premieres from emerging artists, classical works refreshed for a modern audience and family-friendly story ballets.”

The season opens Sept. 12-22 with the “Kaplan New Works Series”at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut St. downtown. The series will showcase three emerging female choreographers: Cincinnati native Heather Britt will be joined by Andrea Chermoly, resident choreographer at Louisville Ballet, and Sarah Van Patten, longtime San Francisco Ballet principal dancer. 

The series also includes two world premieres from Cincinnati Ballet dancers selected through the ballet’s annual Choreographer’s Workshop. 

Read about the full season in the Cincinnati Business Courier.

Read about Cincinnati Ballet and its outstanding advocacy on the Cincinnati Ballet website.

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Women’s Team Sues Soccer Federation, Alleging Gender Discrimination

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Soccer’s U.S. Women’s National Team alleged gender discrimination in a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, a dramatic step just months from the kickoff of a Women’s World Cup in which the American squad is the defending champion and favored to repeat.

Read the full article with a subscription to the Wall Street Journal.

The Guardian: International Women’s Day 2019: celebrations and protests take place around the globe – live

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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.

New York Times: Even Google Can No Longer Hide Its Gender Pay Gap

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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.

Columbia Daily Spectator: Athena Film Festival panels on gender equity unite leading voices in fight for film industry representation

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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.