News - Page 111 of 126 - Dance Data Project

SBNation: Nike’s incredible new ‘Just Do It’ campaign gives women the spotlight

February 28, 2019/0 Comments/in Other Arts & Related Fields/by dancedata

By James Dator

24 February 2019

Nike’s new “Just Do It” campaign will air during the Oscars on Sunday night with an ad titled “Dream Crazier,” narrated by Serena Williams.

The campaign focuses on the pejoratives lobbed at women in the world of sports. Passion becomes unhinged, angry becomes hysterical and daring to be different is “crazy.” Told through 24 different women, the ad spans the sports landscape to show us the athletes who are daring to do what people thought impossible.

In the order of their appearance the athletes are:

Sarah Reinertsen – paratriathlete
Victoria Azarenka – Tennis
Sam Gordon – Football
Alex Morgan, Julie Ertz, Alyssa Naeher- USWNT Soccer
Megan Rapinoe – USWNT Soccer
Li Na – Tennis
Sue Bird — WNBA
Caster Semenya -Track & Field
Diana Taurasi – Basketball
Cheryl Reeve – Basketball coach
Simona Halep – Tennis
Marlen Esparza – Boxing
Lisa Leslie – WNBA
Becky Hammon – NBA coach
Ibtihaj Mohammad – fencing
Simone Manuel – Swim
Chloe Kim – Snowboarding
Serena Williams – Tennis
Sam Kerr – Soccer
Tatyana McFadden – Paralympics
Sky Brown – Skate
Simone Biles – Gymnastics
Olivia Moultrie – Soccer

Read the full article and watch the video on SBNation.

BalletX: Christine Cox’s February Letter X

February 28, 2019/0 Comments/in Ballet Programming, Awards, and Season Announcements/by dancedata

Artistic Director of BalletX and choreographer Christine Cox shares an update on the company. Watch the video below or visit the company’s website to learn more about the company’s season, programs, and history.

BalletX is Philadelphia’s Premier Contemporary Ballet Company. The company publishes an e-newsletter called the Letter X, beginning with a message from Artistic Director Christine Cox. This video contains February 2019’s message from the director. Be sure to return to the Letter X to finish reading this month’s e-newsletter! For more info visit BalletX.org.

Nantucket Dance Festival

Nantucket Dance Festival: Austin Goodwin Gets a Shot to Choreograph, But No Women Premieres

February 28, 2019/0 Comments/in Ballet Programming, Awards, and Season Announcements/by dancedata

The 2019 performance program at Nantucket Dance Festival will feature a decent roster of choreographers, with Melissa Barak, Crystal Pite, and Pam Tanowitz pieces included in the roster of five other choreographers (all male).

Artistic Director Tyler Angle comes from New York City Ballet, so Balanchine no doubt makes his program. A new choreographer, Austin Goodwin, will present a world premiere with the festival’s support. While the 3:5 ratio is not terribly inequitable like many festivals and company programs tend to be, Angle could do better to invite a young woman to choreograph a premiere for the program to appear alongside the other wonderful work the festival features.

In 2018, the Joyce Theater notably highlighted women during its Ballet Festival, which led to praise throughout the dance world and strong reviews in the New York Times. Nantucket could benefit from the diversity and respect a festival earns when taking the lead in advocating for female choreographers.

See the full program details on the Nantucket Dance Festival website.

Nederlands Dans Theater’s Female General Director Leaves

February 28, 2019/0 Comments/in Pay Equity, Transparency and Safety/by dancedata

Amsterdam’s resident company with an internationally renowned reputation is saying goodbye to its female leader. In a statement from the Supervisory Board of the company, Pauline van der Meer Mohr wrote:

Janine Dijkmeijer, General Director of Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) since 2014, will resign from her position after this season 2018/2019.
The Supervisory Board is grateful for what has been achieved under Janine’s management. The company is in good shape, with a solid financial position, excellent occupany rates and visiting numbers, and a world-class reputation.

Janine Dijkmeijer: ‘It was an honor to work for this beautiful, passionate company and I look back with pride and satisfaction on what has been achieved in recent years. I leave the organization with peace of mind and will spread my wings on my way to a beautiful new challenge.’

More information about Janine’s successor will be shared in due course.

This comes during the company season that features a surprisingly small amount of female work. The Settle for More performance features no young women choreographers on its roster, instead providing choreographic opportunity to two young men in the company. The two world premieres by Bryan Arias and Felix Landerer will accompany a piece by associate choreographer Marco Goecke and a quartet by Hans van Manen. The Up & Coming Choreographers in June/July will feature three young male choreographers and no females. The program will allow Juliano Nunes, Ihsan Rustem and Dimo Milev to create their own ballets with full control and resources provided.

As the company turns a page to new leadership, we hope to see another woman take the role of General Director and a more equitable production in next year’s Up & Coming Choreographers performance. In a year when companies are doing so much to give emerging female choreographers an equal shot, Nederlands Dans Theater falls behind.

See the resignation announcement on the company’s website.

See the Up & Coming Choreographers description here.

AP Photo

Daily Sabah: #MeToo – Emma Thompson refuses to work with disgraced ex-Pixar exec John Lasseter

February 28, 2019/0 Comments/in Other Arts & Related Fields/by dancedata

26 February 2019

In a letter to Skydance Media, Emma Thompson outlined why she refused to work with the former Pixar executive John Lasseter and was withdrawing from the animated film “Luck.”

Thompson departed the project last month shortly after Skydance chief executive David Ellison hired Lasseter, the Pixar co-founder and former Walt Disney Co. animation chief. Lasseter last year was forced out at Disney after acknowledging “missteps” in his behavior with female employees.

In her letter to Ellison , Thompson said she felt it was “very odd to me that you and your company would consider hiring someone with Mr. Lasseter’s pattern of misconduct given the present climate.”

“If a man has been touching women inappropriately for decades, why would a woman want to work for him if the only reason he’s not touching them inappropriately now is that it says in his contract that he must behave ‘professionally’?” wrote Thompson. “If a man has made women at his companies feel undervalued and disrespected for decades, why should the women at his new company think that any respect he shows them is anything other than an act that he’s required to perform by his coach, his therapist and his employment agreement?”

A representative for Thompson confirmed the letter Tuesday, which was first published in The Los Angeles Times. A spokesperson for Skydance declined to comment.

Lasseter’s hiring provoked a backlash from some who said the animation executive didn’t deserve a second chance so quickly. Time’s Up, the nonprofit organization formed to combat sexual harassment and gender inequality in Hollywood and elsewhere, said his hiring “endorses and perpetuates a broken system that allows powerful men to act without consequence.”

Read the full article on Daily Sabah.

Broadway World

Broadway World: MorDance Reimagines ROMEO AND JULIET

February 27, 2019/0 Comments/in Ballet Programming, Awards, and Season Announcements/by dancedata

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

February 25, 2019/0 Comments/in Pay Equity, Transparency and Safety, Other Arts & Related Fields/by dancedata

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

February 25, 2019/0 Comments/in Ballet Programming, Awards, and Season Announcements/by dancedata

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?

February 25, 2019/0 Comments/in Pay Equity, Transparency and Safety/by dancedata

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.

February 25, 2019/0 Comments/in Pay Equity, Transparency and Safety/by dancedata

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.

DDP Talks To