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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

Washington Post: The U.S. hasn’t signed the world’s foremost women’s rights treaty. Activists have gotten local versions passed instead.

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By Heidi Nichols Haddad 

08 March 2020

On International Women’s Day, how is the U.S. doing on women’s rights? That question could be answered in many ways, of course, pointing to anything from Harvey Weinstein’s recent conviction for sexual assault to how a diverse Democratic field of presidential candidates narrowed to a race between two white men. But here let’s look at a different, less celebrated arena: local governments. In the past several years, Honolulu, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Berkeley and the counties of Miami-Dade and Santa Clara have put binding gender equality laws on the books.

Turning to local government to get past national gridlock

These local laws are a direct answer to federal inaction on women’s rights. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would constitutionally enshrine equal rights regardless of sex, failed to win the necessary 38 state ratifications by the legislation’s 1982 expiration date.

Further, the United States is one of only six United Nations member states — and the only industrialized democracy — that hasn’t joined the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The other non-signatory countries are Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Palau and Tonga.

Dubbed the “international women’s bill of rights,” CEDAW represents the most comprehensive global consensus on promoting and protecting women’s rights and the associated obligations of both governments and private actors. President Jimmy Carter signed CEDAW in 1980. The Senate held hearings on CEDAW in 1988, 1990, 1994, 2002 and 2010, and twice reported favorably on it, but the treaty never reached the Senate floor for a vote.

U.S. policymakers have generally agreed with CEDAW’s goal of eliminating gender discrimination. But they clash, mostly along party lines, over its likely effect on the private lives of Americans. During the 2002 hearing on CEDAW, Republican Sens. Mike Enzi and Sam Brownback questioned why the U.S. would join a treaty that did not reduce women’s oppression in Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and North Korea. The activist groups Concerned Women for America and the National Right to Life Committee have strongly mobilized against CEDAW; they see it as undermining traditional family roles and implicitly endorsing abortion.

Read the full article online here.

New York Times: A Cellist’s Tragic Tale, Told in Dance

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By Farah Nayeri

28 February 2020

LONDON — The stirring sounds of Elgar’s Cello Concerto rise from the orchestra pit in an opening scene of a new production by the Royal Ballet, “The Cellist.” The ballerina in the title role settles into position with her instrument: a male dancer, dressed in brown tones. She grips his upstretched arm as if it were the neck of a cello and makes sweeping gestures across his back, as if moving a bow.

This rapturous musical union is suddenly interrupted, as the cellist collapses onstage, then rubs her hands, trying to chase away the numbness. Soon, her hands begin to quiver intermittently, as do her legs. Playing the instrument becomes impossible. Her human cello tries to revive her musical powers, as does her husband, who has been conducting from a nearby podium. They wrap themselves around her in a desperate embrace. But her musical career is permanently over.

Choreographed by Cathy Marston for the Royal Ballet, “The Cellist” tells the story of two highly gifted musicians: the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, considered one of the instrument’s finest musicians, and her husband, the star conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim.

The two met in London in 1966 and married the next year, performing and recording together nonstop and forming one of the most memorable couples in classical music.

Read the full article here.

DDP On Twitter re: THE AUSTRALIAN BALLET APPOINTS DAVID HALLBERG AS ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

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The Australian Ballet announced this week that famed American danseur David Hallberg would be the company’s next Artistic Director, effective January 2021.

Read the announcement here.

See DDP’s tweets on the subject in the shots below:

Broadway World: Lyon Opera Ballet Will Present TROIS GRANDES FUGUES at The Joyce

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3 March 2020

The Joyce Theater Foundation (Linda Shelton, Executive Director) joins the worldwide celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birthday with its presentation of Trois Grandes Fugues, featuring three interpretations of the composer’s complex “Grosse Fuge” from a trio of trailblazing female choreographers – Lucinda Childs, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and Maguy Marin – danced by Lyon Opera Ballet. The engagement will play The Joyce Theater from March 18-22. Tickets, ranging in price from $10-$55, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street. For more information, please visit www.Joyce.org.

In Trois Grandes Fugues, three revolutionary female choreographers – Lucinda Childs, Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker, and Maguy Marin – each lend their distinct style to Beethoven’s intricate “Grosse Fuge” for a string quartet. Each choreographer is paired with a unique recording of the notoriously challenging composition in this triple bill of choreographic imaginings, danced by the exquisite artists of Lyon Opera Ballet. An inquiry into translation, Trois Grandes Fugues, explores how movement and musicality interact in distinct ways, demonstrating how the creative visions of musicians, dancers, and choreographers converge to create a truly novel interpretation that can never be duplicated.

Read the full article on Broadway World.

Limelight: David Hallberg to Lead the Australian Ballet

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By Jo Litson

3 March 2020

David Hallberg has been appointed as the next Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet. The American-born superstar dancer, who is a Principal with both American Ballet Theatre and The Bolshoi Ballet, as well as a Principal Guest Artist with The Royal Ballet, knows The Australian Ballet well. He is currently a Resident Guest Artist with the Company, and in 2015/16 undertook an intense 14-month rehabilitation program with TAB’s medical team, who helped him recover from a debilitating ankle injury.

It will be the first time that Hallberg has run a ballet company as Artistic Director.  Speaking to Limelight last year, prior to performing at the Sydney Opera House in Pure Dance with Natalia Osipova, he said that he would like to run a company one day. “[It] certainly feels like that’s the direction I’m headed in. I do feel a very inspired inclination to nurture the younger generation, and to really nurture audiences as well from the repertoire that I’ve witnessed throughout the world. I do feel like I’ve been fortunate to gain a lot of experience in Russia, in England, in New York, Japan and all over the world,” he said. “There’s going to come a time where the spotlight goes off me and goes on to other dancers, and I really would like to reward them with the experience that I’ve garnered.”

He agrees that more needs to be done to increase the number of women choreographers in ballet.

That is definitely important, but what else is important is the conversation that The Australian Ballet has with this age, and being relevant in the community, and really trying to ask the question of what is the greater responsibility to the greater community by The Australian Ballet. Right now, the focus is definitely female choreographers but the focus is also in diversity, it’s in inclusivity, it’s in being a relevant and  active cultural institution in modern day Australian society.

Read the full article on Limelight.

Pointe: Onstage This Week: New Ratmansky at ABT, Pennsylvania Ballet Presents Restaged “La Bayadère,” and More!

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By Chava Lansky

2 March 2020

DDP Note: A lot of female choreographers featured by companies this week…

Colorado Ballet’s Newest Work Is Based on the Board Game Clue 

Catch Colorado Ballet’s triple bill of contemporary works March 6–8 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Titled Tour de Force, the program features Edwaard Liang’s Feast of the Gods, Lila York’s Celts and the world premiere of Julia Adam’s Cluedo. Featuring music by Cosmo Sheldrake, this new ballet is based on the board game Clue; check out rehearsal footage in the above video.

New Ballet Fantastique Full-Length Is Set in Ancient Ireland

Mother-daughter choreographic duo Donna and Hannah Bontrager, artistic directors of Ballet Fantastique, present their newest full-length ballet March 6–8. Dragon & the Night Queen is set in ancient Ireland, and explores magical worlds, dragons and epic battles. The ballet is set to a score by resident composer Gerry Rempel, who will play it live with Celtic rock and Irish traditional musician Eliot Grasso.

Carolina Ballet Celebrates Four Female Choreographers With Mixed Bill

Principal guest choreographer Lynne Taylor Corbett’s Boléro returns to Carolina Ballet March 5–22 on a mixed bill program celebrating female choreographers. Boléro, set to Maurice Ravel’s famed score, joins world premieres by three emerging dancemakers: Mariana Oliveira, Adriana Pierce and Carolina Ballet dancer Jenny Palmer.

Grand Rapids Ballet Presents World Premieres by Nine Company Dancers

This week, Grand Rapids Ballet gives company dancers the chance to showcase their choreographic chops. Jumpstart 2020, presented at the Peter Martin Wege Theatre March 6–8, features new works by nine artists: Yuka Oba-Muschiana, Gretchen Steimle, Adriana Wagenveld, Isaac Aoki, Nigel Tau, Matthew Wenckowski, Ednis Gomez, James Cunningham and Sophia Stefanopoulos.

Read the full article in Pointe.

My Carolina: Carolina Ballet Honors Female Choreographers with New Production

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3 March 2020

Carolina Ballet’s latest production is a showcase of talented female choreographers, as a way to celebrate and honor International Women’s Month.

See the original post on My Carolina.

DANCE DATA PROJECT® ANNOUNCES 2020 “TOP 50” SAMPLE OF U.S. BALLET COMPANIES

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Dance Data Project® today released the updated “Top 50” list of United States ballet companies, which will make up the sample of ballet companies studied by the research team for 2020 reports associated with ballet company repertoire and operations.

Read more

Dance Business Weekly: Why Arts Business Leaders Should Not Try to Do It All

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By Rachel Moore

Rachel Moore has the kind of deep background in the arts that compels people to listen when she speaks. After identifying as a dancer all her life and dancing professionally with American Ballet Theatre for six years, she found a calling in advocating for artists’ rights. Eventually she returned to ABT as executive director/CEO, a position she held for 11 years. In 2015, she became president and CEO for The Music Center in Los Angeles, the largest performing arts center on the West Coast. —DBW

While there are those who suggest that executive leadership requires you to have “all the answers,” I don’t agree. Instead, I believe that true leadership articulates where one wants to go; why the desired destination is important; and what the values are that those on the journey should embrace. The nuts and bolts of how one gets there is a collective process that requires the talents and skills of a diverse team of people. 

Rather than them trying to do it all, I offer this advice for leaders in our field:

1. Build a team that does not look or think like you, and be sure it represents a diverse set of skills.

As Doris Kearns Goodwin famously noted in her biography of Abraham Lincoln, “Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation.“ The point is not to get to your decision; but, rather, to determine the right decision. Research shows, time and again, that diverse teams are smarter, more productive and more innovative. (See “Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter,” by David Rock and Heidi Grant, for instance, in Harvard Business Review.)As you build your team, be honest about your strengths and weaknesses and hire people who are different from you and who have differing skills sets. Reach outside your comfort zone and curate your team to be strong and capable as one unit. 

2. Build a personal board of directors.

In my book, The Artist’s Compass, I suggest that one establish a group of personal advisors who will provide support and advice. I call this a “personal board of directors.” These advisors should be people who support you as an individual (rather than just your organization). They should have the skills or knowledge you lack, challenge you in different ways, tell you the truth no matter what, and understand your professional goals while bringing different points of view to the table. Having people with whom you can vent, strategize, brainstorm, etc., without having to worry about the politics of your workplace, is revelatory and a true stress reliever. 

Read the full article here.

New York Times: Tobi Tobias, Longtime Dance Critic, Dies at 81

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By Neil Genzlinger

21 February 2020

Tobi Tobias, whose dance criticism for New York magazine and other outlets made her an influential voice in the genre for decades, died on Feb. 13 at her home in Manhattan. She was 81.

Her husband, Irwin Tobias, confirmed the death. He said she had been in declining health for some time.

Ms. Tobias, who was also the author of a number of children’s books, began writing about dance in the early 1970s, starting with an article about Twyla Tharp for the alumni magazine of Barnard College, both women’s alma mater. Armed with that and another article about Ms. Tharp for a different publication — the sum total of her dance writing at that point — she offered her services to Dance Magazine.

To her surprise, William Como, the editor in chief, called her in for an interview. Although they differed about a lot of things — “Just for instance, he was a Béjart guy; I was a Balanchine gal,” she wrote on her blog some 40 years later — he enlisted her as a writer and, later in the decade, as an editor of other critics.

She became the dance critic at New York magazine in 1980 and held that post for 22 years. She also wrote for The New York Times, The Village Voice, Bloomberg News and the website Arts Journal, among other outlets.

Her articles for Arts Journal made her a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in criticism. The Pulitzer judges singled her out for “work that reveals passion as well as deep historical knowledge of dance, her well-expressed arguments coming from the heart as well as the head.”

Read the full obituary here.