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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

Diana Vishneva’s CONTEXT Festival

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By Isabelle Vail

4 November 2018

A legend in the international ballet scene, Diana Vishneva retired from American Ballet Theatre’s stages last year, but her career has not slowed down. Still dancing and innovating, and recently a new mother, Vishneva has conceived a dance festival engaging young Russian choreographers.

CONTEXT festival is a multi-day even that includes lighting design workshops, guest company performances, master classes from contemporary and classical figures, a film project, and a talk in addition to young-choreographers performances. Karen Kain, artistic director for the National Ballet of Canada, headlined the “Context Speaks” talk, discussing art, career, and life with choreographers and dancers.

The roster of young Russian choreographers featured in the past includes Vladimir Barnabas, Konstantin Keyhel, Lilia Burdinskaya, Konstantin Semenov, and Olga Vasilyeva. With a female leader at its helm and women emerging as major figures in this festival, we will look forward to future CONTEXT festivals eagerly and commend Vishneva on her innovation and productivity.

Learn more about CONTEXT here.

The Annenberg and NextMove present Jessica Lang Dance Dance as fine dining

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By Camille Bacon-Smith

2 December 2018

In November, Jessica Lang Dance surprised fans by announcing that the company would disband in April, after its current touring season. Although I found the evening at the Annenberg a little uneven, world premiere “us/we” shines.

During the artists’ conversation after the November 30 performance, Lang compared a dance program to a meal and said she tries to offer a variety of styles — the audience doesn’t want a whole evening of dessert. These five dances lived up to her mission.

Lang’s lightness and “Glow”

“Solo Bach” opened the evening with selections from Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for Violin Solo. Patrick Cocker danced with the lightness I expect from Lang, who deftly combined classic and modern elements, and even hinted at Baroque dance. However, it is barely an amuse-bouche, so slight I passed over it in last year’s review. It seemed strange to bring it back this year. The excerpt from “Aria” kept the music in the Baroque period with Handel’s gorgeous “Qual Nave” from the opera Radamisto. The trio (Julie Fiorenza, Eve Jacobs, and Laura Mead, in Fritz Masten’s flowing red dresses) could have stepped off a Grecian urn. The dance incorporated elements of Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan, including the iconic Duncan circle with upraised clasped hands. But if dance is a meal, we hadn’t reached the salad yet.

2018/2019: A Season of Female Programs in the Works

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By Isabelle Vail

27 November 2018

The ABT Incubator Program has wrapped up after two weeks of exciting Instagram posts and anticipation within the dance community. DDP has closely followed the initiative, as it is a model of inclusivity. Led by Principal David Hallberg, the initiative lent studio space and opportunity to three male and one female dancer in the company and two women choreographers. These artists were James Whiteside, Duncan Lyle, Sung Woo Han, Gemma Bond, Kelsey Grills, and Gabrielle Lamb. Over 80 applications were received by Ballet Theatre, and leadership’s decision to include a diverse and half-male, half-female roster of artists is notable after similar initiatives by other companies, like the Joffrey Ballet’s Winning Works program, have been overwhelming male. The mission of the company’s Incubator was to evolve, create, and explore. A melting pot of styles, from a tutu-clad piece by Bond; to grounded modern movement from Lamb; and to the Ashton-inspired homage to female dancers of ABT by Whiteside, this series did just that.

A similar program is set to take place in May, hosted by Ballet West. Along with The Washington Ballet, Charlotte Ballet, Richmond Ballet, and Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet West’s National Choreographic Festival “will focus on the work of women choreographers and women artistic directors from around the world.” Pieces by Africa Guzman, Natalie Weir, Gemma Bond, Katarzyna Skarpetowska will have their world premieres, and the refined works of Jennifer Archibald and Robyn Mineko Williams will complete the program. This program will also feature a symposium with Kate Mattingly, Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Utah, Artistic Director of Charlotte Ballet, Hope Muir, choreographer África Guzmán, Artistic Director of Cincinnati Ballet, Victoria Morgan, choreographer Jennifer Archibald, and Artistic Director of Ballet West, Adam Sklute. The topic of the gender divide in leadership roles in ballet will take center stage.

Boston Ballet is contributing to this pool of female initiatives with its ChoreograpHER program. Permitting female dance students and professional dancers to develop choreographic skills, this initiative invests in new, innovative works by female artists through three main pillars: in the classroom in 2019, 2020, and 2023, in the studio for the next three years, and on stage at Boston Opera House for the 2020-2021 season. DDP founder Liza Yntema will join Boston Ballet leaders in February for a visit to discuss their initiative and how DDP can best support the conception and promotion of similar undertakings.

This is Ballet West’s third Festival since its creation in 2017. The ABT Incubator, open to all to apply, will return in the next season, likely bringing another round of diverse and equitable works to this company’s dancers. A database guide for these and more programs, featuring how to apply to initiatives, their requirements, and when to apply, is in the works. DDP hopes to share this guide by the new year.

The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU is something you should know about

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By Isabelle Vail

5 November 2018

New York University is known for both its commitment to the arts and its development of stars in film, to art, to dance.

The university’s Center for Ballet and the Arts is lesser-known and in its nascent stages, despite having won support from major funders like the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Its purpose? To study ballet and related arts, bringing together artists and scholars to develop groundbreaking and long-needed research to the field.

This center is the first of its kind at a major research university, advancing both the arts of ballet dancing and technique and dance as an area of academia. CBA is led by a team of five, four of its members being women, and its fellows appear to be a female majority.

With support from the Toulmin Foundation, CBA was able to launch the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in Dance. The fellowship, according to CBA’s website, is “designed for women creators (e.g. choreographers, composers) that promotes broader gender equity in the field of dance. The program provides fellows with a stipend, access to studio and office space, an apartment in some cases and time away from daily life to focus on their specified project – a ballet, a score or other work of their imagining related in some way to ballet.”

The center also supports an Artistic Partnership Initiative, through which the center and professional dance companies team up to inspire the creation of new choreography. This initiative comes in the form of a residency, during which fellows selected by company artistic directors develop new work at the center for multiple weeks. Gemma Bond, Shannon Glover, Julie Cunningham, and Wubkje Kuindersma are the four last residency recipients, all female, and all well-respected in the community.

With high-profile names like Lauren Lovette and Allegra Kent on its list of fellows, CBA is moving towards becoming a household name in the business and development of dance – if it is not already there.

Co•Lab: A Female-Led Initiative in NYC

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By Isabelle Vail

October 20th, 2018

Lauren Post is a longtime ballerina of American Ballet Theatre, where she is regularly featured in soloist roles and can be seen alongside fellow Corps de Ballet members night after night. Despite the demands of dancing with one of the most prominent ballet companies in the world, Post has dedicated much of 2018 to her latest endeavor: Co•Lab Dance.

On its website, Co•Lab dance is described as providing “a unique platform for interaction among dance peers, creating new choreography and intimate performance opportunities outside regular seasons.” The offseason of ballet, commonly referred to as “layoff,” is a time in which dancers constantly seek out supplemental opportunities as they prepare for the next season of dance.

For many dancers, opportunities are few and far between during layoff. Post’s initiative not only helps her peers secure a gig for part of the summer; it also has presented women with an opportunity to create and lead in this community that does not always favor them.

For its first run, Co•Lab has invited two women (and one man) to choreograph. Zhong-Jing Fang (with Duncan Lyle) and Xin Ying premiere their works in the production, while Post includes past work of the impressive and well-respected Justin Peck from New York City Ballet. The program ran in September and was praised, garnering attention from The New Yorker.

DDP looks forward to following the growth of this initiative and its female leader in the next offseason!

Read about Co•Lab Dance on its website.

Financial Times: ABT Meets the #MeToo Era

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By Apollinaire Scherr

19 October 2018

Praising the work of ABT in its Women’s Movement, Financial Times journalist Apollinaire Scherr adds to the well-deserved attention the company has received from international press. Describing Michelle Dorrance as “genius” and detailing Jessica Lang’s history with the company, Scherr analyzes the current state of the dance world and seeks to learn why women are only now garnering the praise and receiving the commissions they deserve.

Read the article in the Financial Times.

ABT Women’s Movement Supported by DDP Founder

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By Isabelle Vail

17 October 2018

The American Ballet Theatre Women’s Movement has committed to commission three female choreographers for the next three years. For the fall 2018 season, the company is presenting works of four women.

These choreographers are Michelle Dorrance, Lauren Lovette, Twyla Tharp, and Jessica Lang.

Dorrance returns to ABT with a world premiere for the main company. Ms. Lovette, a principal dancer for New York City Ballet, stages Le Jeune, a work she created in 2017, for the ABT Studio Company. In the Upper Room by Tharp, a fan and dancer favorite with its unmistakeable red pointe shoes and striped costumes, will again be featured by the company beginning with the Gala on October 17th. A new work by Jessica Lang, entitled “Garden Blue,” will also run from October 17th until the 28th.

Mentioned in ABT’s press release announcing the initiative to support women choreographers was DDP’s founder, Elizabeth Yntema. In the spirit of DDP’s mission of informing equity, Yntema has spent years urging company and community leaders to give women a chance on major stages and in major productions. Ballet Theatre has listened, becoming the first leading company in the world to do so, and remains one of DDP’s most steadfast supporters during our recent database expansion and 501(c)(3) application.

Along with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Yntema is bringing ballet one step closer to equity through support of the Women’s Movement. We at DDP could not be more excited to see the amazing work created by these commissioned women choreographers on the world stage.

New York Times: Sculpting with Bodies

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By Marina Harss

16 October 2018

The choreographer Jessica Lang was directing traffic from the front of a studio at American Ballet Theater a few days ago. It was late in the afternoon, and seven tired dancers turned their slightly haggard faces toward her. One by one she arranged them around one of two wooden, winglike structures, turned on its side so that it created an ovoid wall.

She worked like a sculptor, molding the group until it pleased her eye. Until finally, there it was: a wave-shaped figure shaped out of interlocking bodies, flowing from low to high.

Read the full article in the New York Times.

Pointe Magazine: ABT’s Fall Season Brings Women’s Movement to Focus

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By Chava Lansky

12 October 2018

Last spring American Ballet Theatre artistic director Kevin McKenzie announced the company’s Women’s Movement, a multi-year initiative to support the creation of new work by female choreographers. ABT’s fall season, running October 17–28 at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater, sets the project in full swing. The opening gala features a world premiere by tap extraordinaire Michelle Dorrance. A co-commission with the Vail Dance Festival, this work marks ABT’s third collaboration with Dorrance this year: She created Praedicere, a pièce d’occasion for ABT’s spring gala, as well as a work on company dancers at Vail last summer. The gala performance also includes past and present works by two female choreographers: Twyla Tharp’s 1986 In The Upper Room and Lauren Lovette’s 2017 Le Jeune, which will be danced by the ABT Studio Company.

Read the full article in Pointe Magazine.

New York Times: ‘We, the Dancers’: At City Ballet’s Gala, Affirming Ballet’s Honor

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By Alastair Macaulay

28 September 2018

On Thursday night at the David H. Koch Theater, the curtain rose to show the dancers of New York City Ballet, assembled to face the audience. Then Teresa Reichlen, standing center front, delivered a speech — written by her and Adrian Danchig-Waring, another principal — that began with the words, “We the dancers of New York City Ballet.” The unlikely occasion was the company’s fall fashion gala.

This central announcement was crucial: “We will not put art before common decency or allow talent to sway our moral compass.” Ms. Reichlen also spoke of “the high moral standards that were instilled in us when we decided to become professional dancers” and affirmed that “each of us standing here tonight is inspired by the values essential to our art form: dignity, integrity, and honor.”

Why do these words matter so greatly now? Earlier this month, New York City Ballet — and then its affiliate School of American Ballet — became one of the prime targets of a lawsuit, charging the institution with condoning multiple aspects of the abuse of women. The issues involved here are complex; they will not — should not — be dispelled soon. Yet the dancers have been responding all season by showing not just physical skill but also the moral distinction that underlies ballet’s classicism.

Read the full article in the New York Times.