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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

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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

Dance Magazine: Michelle Dorrance is Choreographing for ABT. Yes, You Read That Right.

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By Courtney Escoyne

13 March 2018

American Ballet Theater has commissioned a female choreographer, according to an article from Dance Magazine. The company, known for producing classical works often created by famed choreographer (and controversial traditionalist) Alexei Ratmansky, has stepped out of its comfort zone to bring in the exciting Michelle Dorrance.

Dorrance’s commission is funded in-part by Vail Dance Festival, where she is choreographer-in-residence, according to this article. This is hopefully one of the first of many steps in the right direction for ABT with its new executive leadership in Kara Medoff Barnett (and longtime Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie).

Read the full article in Dance Magazine.

NYTimes: Julliard’s New Dance Director Comes from Ailey and Ballet

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By Joshua Barone

10 April 2018

A female has been made the director of dance at Julliard, according the the New York Times. Alicia Graf Mack, the article reports, takes the post as Damian Woetzel becomes the new president of the Julliard School.

The school will aim towards diversity, according to Mack, and will also encourage and support the individuality of students.

Read more in the New York Times.

NY Times: Review: At Vail, Female Choreographers Feed the Mighty River of Dance

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By Alastair Macaulay

8 August 2017

Alastair Macauley acknowledges the talent of some female choreographers in this article for the New York Times. He enjoys Michelle Dorrance but questions the other women. He also discusses- in a very mixed review, the work of the future resident composer at Vail’s festival, Caroline Shaw.

Read more in the New York Times

The Guardian: Ballet British Columbia triple bill review – the new classical

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By Luke Jennings

11 March 2018

With the future of ballet very much up for discussion, and directors faced with the knotty problem of how to honour the classical canon while also producing groundbreaking work, it’s exhilarating to see the confidence with which Vancouver-based Ballet British Columbia takes the stage. The Canadian company has been directed since 2009 by Emily Molnar, formerly a dancer with William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt.

Forsythe’s choreography shows how the classical technique can, while remaining true to its essence, be employed as the basis for any number of radical evolutions and Molnar has taken this idea and run with it. The dancers of her company display the rigorous, coolly centred control implanted by classical training, while performing work that looks nothing whatever like traditional ballet.

Read the full article in The Guardian.

The Washington Post: Ballet is more diverse than ever. Why is the audience still so white?

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By Boer Deng

17 August 2015

In an article for the Washington Post, Boer Deng describes the shock of whitewashed audiences amidst a time of diverse dancer promotions and talk of equity:

” In 2012, 80 percent were white, two-thirds were female, and more came from families earning $150,000 a year — that’s more than attendees of any other arts performances except the symphony — hardly figures suggestive of a democratic art. “

Read the full article in The Washington Post.

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens- Femmes or Faux Feminism?

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By Isabelle Vail

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens recently announced a season “dedicated to women.” But this dedication seems a bit misinformed. A new production based on the novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover will premier, choreographed by Cathy Marston, and the company announced its invitation of three choreographers to create Femmes, a three-part production based on the theme of a woman’s experience in being a woman.

The issue? Douglas Lee, Marwik Schmitt and Mehdi Walersky are the three men invited by Les Grands Ballets to choreograph this work. Ballets about the female experience would logically by created by those who have experienced female life. But no, it seems Ivan Cavallari, director of the company, believes men can tell our story.

A petition on change.org gives us the opportunity to not only object to this outrageous idea of men relaying the female experience to audiences in Montreal, but also to object to the insensitive wording of the company’s announcement, which appears to have been taken down from the website.

To read more on this topic, visit The Guardian or the Montreal Gazette.

DDP Zoom: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

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By Isabelle Vail

The Dance Data Project database has record of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performances from 2015 to the current spring 2018 season. This record includes 45 pieces of choreography, works within the Ailey repertoire and works performed by the company. Of these 45 pieces performed, 5 are by female choreographers. That is, only 11% of the company performances in the past few seasons have been female commissions.

What is more, only 14% of the spring 2018 season pieces are created by females. While this proportion is greater than the 6% female-created works of the previous season in 2016, it is far below a fair distribution. (The 2017 season featured 15 choreographers and 21 pieces of dance.) The company’s last public record of expenditures was over $39 million (2016). Record shows senior artistic and administrative individuals in the company are compensated in the ranges of hundreds-of-thousands of dollars per year. According to Glassdoor, choreographers typically make around $40,000/year, or $19/hour. For choreographers commissioned by larger companies like Ailey, it is likley they are compensated more generously than the average choreographer, but this amount would still be far within the logical expense budget of this company.

DDP calls for companies of such scale and groundbreaking missions to increase these statistics. Hire the women to create works on your company, Robert Battle. At least make it past 45% if you can’t get it to 50%…

Chicago Tribune: New study finds female protagonists decreased in 2017 films

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By Jack Coyle

22 February 2018

According to Coyle’s recent article, in 2017, only 24% of protagonists were female, compared to 29% in 2016. While diversity inclusion in the films increased this year, concern for female representation, particularly in a year as outspoken as 2017 for women in film, is high.

Read more in the Chicago Tribune.

New York Times: The Problem With Broadway Revivals: They Revive Gender Stereotypes, Too

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By Michael Paulson

22 February 2018

Billy Bigelow hits Julie Jordan. Henry Higgins molds Eliza Doolittle. Fred tames Lilli. And Edward rescues Vivian.

Amid a national reckoning with sexual harassment and misconduct, Broadway is mounting a cluster of musicals this season and next that, some theatergoers already contend, romanticize problematic relationships between women and men.

The titles are beloved: “Carousel,” “My Fair Lady” and “Kiss Me, Kate” are classics of the canon, while “Pretty Woman,” a new musical, is adapted from a smash film. And each of their female protagonists has her own strength — strength that in some cases changes the men in their lives.

But elements of the stories — and the fact that all four productions are being directed and choreographed by men — are prompting new scrutiny at this #MeToo moment.

Read the full article in the New York Times.

Pointe Magazine: Garrett Anderson Has Just Been Named Artistic Director of Ballet Idaho

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Pointe Magazine has shared the news of the appointment of yet another male to lead as artistic director of an American ballet company. See below:

Ballet Idaho has announced that Garrett Anderson will succeed Peter Anastos as the company’s next artistic director, starting in July. Anderson, who had an extensive dance career as a soloist with San Francisco Ballet and Royal Ballet of Flanders, and later danced with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, has a special connection with Ballet Idaho’s home city. He performed with the Trey McIntyre Project in 2011 and later as a guest artist with Boise-based LED,  a music, film and dance collaborative. Anderson has also served as the chair of the Dance Department at New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe.

Members of Ballet Idaho in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Photo by Mike Reid, Courtesy ballet Idaho.

Read more in Pointe Magazine.