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
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
×"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
By Brandy McDonnell
20 March 2020
Oklahoma City Ballet is postponing its “(e)motion(s): A Triple Bill,” which is to include the world premiere of a new short ballet commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, to new dates and times in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The venerable dance company was originally to perform “(e)motion(s): A Triple Bill” April 17-19 at the Civic Center. Since the weekend corresponds with the 25th anniversary of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, OKC Ballet Artistic Director Robert Mills said in an autumn interview that he wanted to create a new work not just to memorialize the tragedy but also to celebrate Oklahoma City’s resilience.
As previously reported, the world premiere piece, titled “A Little Peace,” will be set to music by Oklahoma native and Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill.
“I remember his music from that time. I was a fan. He was huge. He pretty much won a Grammy every year in the ’90s. … Most elementally, he’s a beautiful lyricist and an incredible singer,” Mills said in the interview. “I wanted to create something that used the classic ballet idiom in a contemporary way, but something that was extremely unexpected in how it visually looked on the stage.”
Read the full article here.
By Lynn Trimble
18 March 2020
When it comes to gender equity, American museums aren’t doing great. Fewer than 12 percent of artworks in permanent collections were created by women, according to Jennifer McCabe, who heads Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (aka SMoCA).
Her museum wants to help change that. For nearly an entire year, it’s showing an exhibition called “Unapologetic: All Women, All Year,” which includes works by 42 women artists drawn from the museum’s own collection.
“It’s important to call out the importance of gender equity,” says Julianne Swartz, an artist born in Arizona whose delicate sculptural house forms made with glass, feather, bones, silk, and seeds hang suspended in one of the museum’s galleries. Nearby, viewers see a kinetic sculpture by Tempe artist Laurie Lundquist.
More than a dozen “Unapologetic” artists are based in Arizona, including Muriel Magenta, whose Coiffure Carnival Trilogy videos are on view in the SMoCA Lounge. They explore hair’s sculptural properties and its connections to identity. “The exhibit gives people an idea of the strength of work being done in Arizona and gives Arizona artists more exposure,” Magenta says.
Read the full article in the Phoenix New Times.
By Kathleen McGuire
13 March 2020
Kathryn Morgan is on a mission to change the dance field. The Miami City Ballet soloist and March Dance Magazine cover star appeared on the “Today” Show on February 27 where she openly discussed the challenges of body image and mental health in dance.
Two days later, Morgan took to her own YouTube channel to dig deeper on the subject. She shared with her followers that she had been recently removed from performing Firebird because of her body. We caught up with Morgan to learn more.
I had that incredible experience of being able to tell my story on the “Today” Show and one of the things I really asked to talk about was body image and the mental side of ballet because I have dealt with it and I still deal with it. The problem is that the “Today” Show interview is only three minutes and I just felt that I needed to expand upon it because I did not get to say everything that needs to be said.
When I sat down to film it I didn’t know I was going to get that emotional and I didn’t know exactly what I was going to say, but I started talking and it all just came out. I was like, This is the time, no one is talking about this and we need to be talking about it.
Read the full article here.
By Alyson Krueger
With the spread of the coronavirus, more people around the globe are not only examining their hand-washing habits, but also wondering about those of the people around them. Personal hygiene habits have far-ranging consequences.
There are some things we’ve long suspected about how men and women approach hygiene in the past, said Rosie Frasso, program director of public health at Thomas Jefferson University.
“Traditionally women were more engaged in meal prep and house cleaning and were more likely to do the diaper changing,” she said. “My guess is that these roles made women think about hand washing differently.”
She also points out that women and men have different experiences in the bathroom, making women more conscious of germs. “Women are dealing with seats,” she said.
Past scientific surveys back up the idea that women are the superior hand-washers.
In 2010 a study by the American Cleaning Institute and the American Microbiology Society found that men are less likely to wash their hands even after petting an animal, handling food, coughing or sneezing.
The market research company Ipsos found in 2018 that more women than men agreed that washing their hands after using the toilet is “very important” (91 percent vs. 84 percent). More women also agreed it was “a crucial behavior” after taking public transportation (74 percent vs. 66 percent).
A 2016 paper by the Los Alamos National Laboratory analyzed the results of dozens of studies from around the world to determine what factors influence the adoption of protective behaviors, specifically within the context of pandemics.
“Women are more likely — about 50 percent more likely — than men to practice non-pharmaceutical behaviors, things like hand washing, face mask use and avoiding crowds,” said Kelly Moran, one of the authors of the study. Even when the researchers tested their findings against factors such as culture or a country’s level of development, they found that the gender gap persisted.
Read the full article in the New York Times.
ARCHIVAL RESEARCH SARA MANCO
BE SURE YOU’RE the first woman somewhere,” an editor advised budding photographer Dickey Chapelle as World War II escalated. Chapelle took the advice and sneaked ashore with a Marine unit during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, flouting a ban on female journalists in combat zones. She temporarily lost her military press accreditation but went on to earn a reputation as a fearless war correspondent.
Since National Geographic’s founding in 1888, women have churned out achievements in science and exploration, often with only fleeting recognition. They mapped the ocean floor, conquered the highest peaks, unearthed ancient civilizations, set deep-sea diving records, and flew around the world. They talked their way onto wars’ front lines and traveled across continents.
“There is no reason why a woman cannot go wherever a man goes, and further,” explorer Harriet Chalmers Adams said in 1920. “If a woman be fond of travel, if she has love of the strange, the mysterious, and the lost, there is nothing that will keep her at home.”
Read the full article in National Geographic Magazine.
By Lizzie Green
11 March 2020
What does a typical ballet duet look like? Perhaps it is a depiction of a heteronormative couple, where the woman wears pointe shoes and is spun, contorted, and hurled through the air at the mercy of her male counterpart. But in choreographer Mari Meade’s work, “paired reflections,” she strives to challenge this prototype.
Originally choreographed for dancers at New York City Ballet as part of the fall 2018 New York Choreographic Institute, Meade will stage “paired reflections” on dancers from Columbia Repertory Ballet, a student group that provides advanced dancers with the opportunity to perform established repertoire in ballet and contemporary dance.
Meade was born in California and raised outside of New Orleans. In 2009, she moved to New York to found her own contemporary company, Mari Meade Dance Collective. She has since traveled the world showcasing her work and has held a number of prestigious fellowships such as the Kenan Fellowship at Clark Theatre at Lincoln Center, as well as residencies around the country. She heard about the opportunity to work with CRB through “the grapevine” from other New York artists.
Read the full article here.
By Daisy Finefrock
09 March 2020
The traditional Sleeping Beauty story presents cultural challenges to a contemporary audience — a stranger kissing an unconscious woman isn’t the heroic gesture it used to be viewed as. Thanks to State Street Ballet, however, female choreographers are coming to Beauty’s rescue. On Saturday, March 14, the company will present the classic Tchaikovsky/Petipa Sleeping Beauty as reimagined for 21st-century audiences of all ages. Choreographers Cecily Stewart MacDougall, Megan Philipp, and Marina Fliagina have taken on the daunting task of adapting the classic ballet version while altering certain details to deliver a message of women’s self-empowerment.
One of the most eye-catching aspects of this new production comes thanks to UCSB professor Christina McCarthy, who designed a 15-foot wearable dragon to act as sidekick to the wicked fairy, Carabosse. With great props, moving colors, beautiful costumes, and the dancing, this 90-minute version of what was originally a two-and-a-half-hour ballet should keep the kids engaged through every second.
As part of their popular Family Series, State Street Ballet intends Sleeping Beauty to resonate with all ages. MacDougall pointed out some of her favorite moments to watch for, including the Garland Waltz, during which the prince and Aurora fall in love in the forest; as well as any scene with Carabosse, the Maleficent fairy godmother, and her dragon sidekick.
Read the full article and see the gallery here.
Sharon Basco
10 March 2020
Choreographer Helen Pickett approaches her art in an intellectual way. She refers to music, literature, painting, design, philosophy and history. Her latest big project is “The Crucible,” an award-winning full-length work for the Scottish Ballet, on the weighty subject of the Salem witch trials. And yet, there’s something of the flower child in Helen Pickett. Not the flakey kind, but rather a force-of-nature type.
“I always thought I could have been a florist,” Pickett said of her ballet “Petal,” which has been evolving since 2007, and is part of Boston Ballet’s upcoming “Carmen” program. “My brain’s really oriented toward smell and the color, it’s always ignited my sensory system,” she continued. “Nature doesn’t try. It ‘is’ in its vigor and its beauty. It just ‘is.’ And it’s that ‘is’ of nature that inspired ‘Petal.’ The whole exercise of ‘Petal’ is to take the artifice of performing away and give the dancer onstage their individuality, their nature.”
“Petal” is one of two Pickett works included in the “Carmen” program, whose title is also the name of the program’s Bizet-opera-inspired piece by Jorma Elo. Also included is the 1935 classic “Serenade,” the first work George Balanchine choreographed in America.
The company’s stated goal of the “Carmen” program is to explore and celebrate many facets of femininity. How do these four short ballets — two by men and two by a woman — address the subject of being female? How are they all about women?
“Basically, George Balanchine’s ‘Serenade’ is about femininity, it’s about regular women turning into dancers. Epic, classic, the ultimate feminine brilliant ballet,” said Mikko Nissinen, Boston Ballet’s artistic director. “And Helen Pickett is the creative female force, and we see ‘Tsukiyo’ and ‘Petal’ from her. And then there’s another really strong woman, ‘Carmen,’ in the Jorma Elo choreography.”
Click here to read the full article.
07 March 2020
To mark International Women’s Day on March 8th we have updated our glass-ceiling index, which ranks 29 countries on ten indicators of equality for women in the workplace: educational attainment, labour-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior positions in management, on company boards and in parliament. East Asian women face a ceiling that appears to be made of bulletproof glass. In South Korea they earn on average 35% less than men and occupy only one in seven managerial jobs and one in 30 board seats. In Iceland, which topped the league table this year, women claim nearly half of all executive and board positions. As usual, Nordic countries perform best overall. America, which granted women the right to vote a century ago this year, continues to frustrate the ambitions of female workers. It comes a dismal 22nd on The Economist’s list, a little ahead of Britain and below the average for the oecd club of industrialised countries. Full results can be found at economist.com/glassceiling2020■
By Karen Campbell
06 March 2020
While it may not have been the initial theme, Boston Ballet’s upcoming “Carmen” program (March 12-22 at the Citizens Bank Opera House) seems to come into focus as a celebration of strong, complex women. In addition to the feisty antiheroine of the title piece by company resident choreographer Jorma Elo, and “Serenade,” George Balanchine’s luminous ode to young ballerinas, award-winning dancemaker Helen Pickett contributes two evocative ballets — “Petal” and “Tsukiyo.”
“It’s a really special program that highlights every aspect of a woman — the sassiness of a woman, the strength, sensuality, camaraderie,” says Boston Ballet principal dancer Lia Cirio, who will perform the role of Carmen as well as dance in both of Pickett’s ballets. “I think it’s a really beautiful, very positive show.”
The evening suggests an evolution of womanhood, beginning with Balanchine’s landmark “Serenade.” The choreographer’s first original ballet created in America, the work is set to Tchaikovsky’s stirring “Serenade for Strings” and was originally created as a lesson in stage technique for aspiring ballerinas. “The whole ballet is about a regular woman turning into a ballerina, and what a masterpiece it is,” says Boston Ballet artistic director Mikko Nissinen. “It is an absolutely gorgeous essence of a woman, of a dream of a woman and dream of a ballet all in one. Every time I watch it, I still find it fresh.”
The evening takes a different turn with the works of Helen Pickett. Boston Ballet gave Pickett her first ever choreographic commission in 2005 and has commissioned five works in total from her. An impressive commitment to Pickett’s talent and artistic development, it has translated into a kind of collaborative dialogue she says she is able to have with dancers she has worked with over many years. “We understand each others’ movement ideas,” she says. “You can have conversations without words. There’s a symbiosis through art, and I really value that.”
In fact, Pickett’s “Petal” comes full circle with the upcoming Boston Ballet presentation. The seeds of the ballet were planted here in 2007 through a grant from the New York Choreographic Institute and resulted in a 10-minute piece for a Boston Ballet in-studio workshop. Pickett later developed the piece into a full ballet for Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, and this marks the first time the complete version of the work will be seen in Boston.
Pickett recalls a key moment of inspiration, walking by a flower shop and being taken by the vibrant explosion of colors. “It was this visceral moment of buds in spring, of life bursting forth,” she says, “and the colors and the kinetic relationship between the dancers came to reflect the vigor of nature.”
The work is not just about the sensory swirl of colors and patterns, Pickett says, but also about communication and connection. “It’s a celebration of the birth of color, the sound and touch of the human being, without which we would all wither.”
Pickett says the intimate duet “Tsukiyo” is also about the power of touch, but in a more sensual vein. She calls it a kind of “fated meeting” freighted with anticipation. “I want audiences to live in the possibility of what can happen between two people.”
Nissinen calls it “very steamy, very personal.” He adds with a laugh, “The funnest compliment I heard from someone was that after watching it, they felt like they needed a cigarette.”
Read the full article online here.
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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