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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

The Atlantic: The Death of the American Dance Critic

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By Madison Mainwaring

6 August 2015

Misty Copeland has become something of a household name in recent months. In late June, she became the first black ballerina to be named principal at American Ballet Theater, one of the most storied companies in the U.S., and her success is a milestone in the predominantly white world of ballet. But while her legacy is endlessly analyzed, her technical, lyrical, and theatrical abilities as a dancer are less frequently discussed: She can attack steps with fierce intensity, plays a great Juliet, and possesses unparalleled comedic timing. This is because hardly any of the countless stories published about Copeland have been written by dance critics—a dying breed of writers uniquely capable of offering informed commentary on the singular talents she brings to the stage.

Over the course of the last 20 years dance coverage—and dance criticism in particular—has been decimated in the mainstream press. This past April, Gia Kourlas left Time Out New York, where she had been dance editor for 20 years, after they eliminated her stand-alone section. The New York Post stopped commissioning regular reviews from its critic Leigh Witchel in 2013, and Jennifer Homans left The New Republic last year. The Village Voice and New York have both let go of their regular dance writers and editors in the past 15 years. The trend hasn’t been limited to New York, the dance capital of the U.S. either: Both the Los Angeles Times and the Orange Country Register laid off their critics, and the San Francisco Chronicle hasn’t had a full-time dance writer since 2004. “There aren’t many outlets to begin with, and every day you hear about another [critic] going down,” said Marina Harss, who writes about dance for The New York Times and The New Yorker.

Which leaves very few publications with house critics and editors who are dedicated to the art form. Today there are only two full-time dance critics in the country: Alastair Macaulay of The New York Times and Sarah Kaufman of The Washington Post. Some freelancers continue to publish reviews, but more likely than not the space for this kind of writing has been cut significantly. One could argue that though this trend is unfortunate, it’s almost expected given that dance concerts cater to small audiences, and the constituency reading about them tends to be even smaller still. But for a medium that can be difficult to understand, generalist coverage remains vital to the accessibility of the dance scene.

Read the full article in The Atlantic.

San Francisco Examiner: SF Ballet changes program in wake of Liam Scarlett misconduct allegations

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By Leslie Katz

30 January 2020

San Francisco Ballet’s second program of 2020 won’t have English choreographer Liam Scarlett’s “Hummingbird” on it in the wake of an announcement this week that The Royal Ballet has suspended him as it investigates allegations of sexual misconduct.

In a press statement today, San Francisco Ballet Executive Director Kelly Tweeddale that the troupe’s decision to remove the piece is made is “out of respect for the ongoing inquiry in London, the dance community at large, patrons of San Francisco Ballet, families of the San Francisco Ballet School and artists of the company.”

The BBC reports that a representative for the Royal Opera House, where England’s Royal Ballet is based, said: “We were made aware of allegations relating to Liam Scarlett in August 2019. The individual was immediately suspended, and an independent disciplinary investigation opened.”

Read the full article in the Examiner.

New York Times: Royal Ballet Suspends Choreographer Over Sexual Misconduct Claims

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By Alex Marshall

30 January 2020

LONDON — The Royal Ballet has suspended Liam Scarlett, its artist-in-residence, after accusations of sexual misconduct involving students at the Royal Ballet School.

The company was made aware of the accusations against Mr. Scarlett in August, it said in an emailed statement on Thursday. Mr. Scarlett was suspended immediately and an investigation is ongoing, the statement added.

Mr. Scarlett, who was heralded as a “choreographic wonder boy of British ballet,” has created work for the New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater and Miami City Ballet, among others.

The impact of the accusations is already spreading beyond Britain. On Thursday, the Queensland Ballet in Australia suspended Mr. Scarlett, an artistic associate of the company, and canceled its planned productions of his new ballet “Dangerous Liaisons,” The Australian newspaper reported.

Read the full article in the New York Times.

The Standard: Tamara Rojo to choreograph Florence Nightingale-inspired first production with English National Ballet

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By Robert Dex

Dancer Tamara Rojo will choreograph her first ballet with a production inspired by Florence Nightingale.

The star will also direct the show as part of the English National Ballet’s (ENB) new season which was announced today.

Ms Rojo, who as artistic director of the company has overseen its move to a new HQ in east London, will adapt the classic 19th century ballet, Raymonda, setting it during the Crimean war.

She said: “It continues to be a part of my vision for English National Ballet to look at classics with fresh eyes, to make them relevant, find new contexts, amplify new voices and ultimately evolve the art form.  

“Raymonda is a beautiful ballet – extraordinary music, exquisite and intricate choreography – with a female lead who I felt deserved more of a voice, more agency in her own story. Working with my incredible creative team, I am setting Raymonda in a new context and adapting the narrative in order to bring something unique, relevant and inspiring to our audiences.  

“I have truly enjoyed delving into the creative process of adapting and choreographing a large-scale ballet and have been inspired by Florence Nightingale’s drive and passion.”

Read the full article in The Standard.

Broadway News: Protesters rally at ‘West Side Story’ against Amar Ramasar casting

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By Caitlin Huston

 A group of protesters gathered outside the Broadway Theatre Friday night to speak out against the casting of Amar Ramasar in the “West Side Story” revival. 

Ramasar, who plays Bernardo in the musical currently in previews, has been accused of sharing explicit images of female ballet dancers without their permission during his time as a principal dancer with New York City Ballet.

One of those female dancers, Alexandra Waterbury, brought these allegations forward in September 2018 after filing suit against her former boyfriend, Chase Finlay, and other dancers at New York City Ballet, including Ramasar. Waterbury alleges in her suit that Finlay had sent unauthorized nude images and videos of her to Ramasar and others, who sent back illicit images of other women in exchange. 

Ramasar and Zachary Catazaro, another dancer reportedly involved, were fired from the ballet in September 2018. Finlay had already resigned. Ramasar and Catazaro were reinstated to the New York City Ballet in April 2019, after an arbitrator, hired by the union for ballet dancers, the American Guild of Musical Artists, handed down a ruling. 

The civil suit Waterbury filed against New York City Ballet, as well as Finlay, Ramasar and Catazaro and others in State Supreme Court in Manhattan is still ongoing. The defendants have filed motions to dismiss. 

Read the full story here.

Orchestrated Sex: The Representation of Male and Female Musicians in World-Class Symphony Orchestras

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By Desmond Charles Sergeant  and Evangelos Himonides

16 August 2019

This study examines the representation of male and female musicians in world-class symphony orchestras. Personnel of 40 orchestras of three regions, the UK, Europe, and the USA, and distributions of men and women across the four orchestral departments, strings, woodwind, brass, and percussion, are compared. Significant differences in representation between orchestras of the three regions are reported. Practices adopted by orchestras when appointing musicians to vacant positions are reviewed and numbers of males and females appointed to rank-and-file and Section Principals are compared. Career patterns of male and female musicians are also compared. Increases in numbers of women appointed to orchestral posts in the last three decades are compared with increases in the proportion of women in the general workforce. The data of orchestral membership are then compared with the numbers of young people receiving tuition on orchestral instruments retrieved from a large national database (n = 391,000 students). Implications for the future of male and female representation in orchestral personnel are then considered.

Introduction

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, acquisition of musical skills by women was applauded, but social conventions prevailing in Europe and America approved their display in private but not in public. Except for the piano and the voice, women were severely limited in their access to musical training, witness the difficulties suffered by the English composer Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) and by other women (Smyth, 1987; Wood, 1995; Gillett, 2000; Vorachek, 2000; Kertesz and Elizabeth, 2001; Meling, 2016, p. 188). Conventions of respectability and appropriateness regarding feminine manners and appearances and attitudes to the female body decreed that some instruments were “unsightly for women to play, interfering with appreciation of the female face or body” or judged their playing positions to be indecorous (Gillett, 2000; Doubleday, 2008). Female cellists, for example, were obliged to adopt an impractical position sitting alongside the instrument in order to avoid a scandalous indelicacy of placing an instrument between their legs1 (Cowling, 1983; Tick, 1986; Doubleday, 2008, p. 18; Baker, 2013).

As a consequence of these social attitudes, women were excluded from professional music-making, and until the second decade of the twentieth century, membership of professional orchestras was restricted to male musicians (Fasang, 2006). The first appointments of women to tenured positions in a major orchestra in the UK were made by Sir Henry Wood, in 1913, by his engagement of six female violinists to the Queen’s Hall Orchestra. The loss of male musicians during the 1914–1918 war brought more women to Henry Wood’s orchestra. By the end of that conflict, their number had risen to 18, but acceptance of women was neither universal nor rapid. Early photographs of major orchestras dating from the 1940s show their membership as resolutely male. Examples from the archives of the London Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1904, show no women until 1942, at which date one lady is visible seated among the 2nd violins2,3.

It was not until 1930 that the first woman was appointed to a tenured fully professional post in an American orchestra, when Edna Phillips joined the Philadelphia Orchestra as its harpist4. Ellen Bogoda also made history in 1937 as the first woman brass player to be hired when she was appointed as principal horn player by the Pittsburgh Orchestra (Phelps, 2010, p. 36).

Read the rest of the study on Fronteirsin.org.

Hyperallergic: Hundreds of Philadelphia Museum of Art Workers Call for Institutional Accountability on Sexual Harassment

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By Hakim Bishara

15 January 2020

Fallout continues from Joshua Helmer‘s departure from his job as executive director of Pennsylvania’s Erie Art Museum. Hundreds of current and former staff members at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), Helmer’s workplace prior to the Erie, signed a petition in support of the women who came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Helmer in a New York Times article. The signatories call for a structural change in the museum’s sexual harassment policy.

Helmer worked at the PMA as assistant director of interpretation from 2014 to February 2018. During that period, he engaged in several romantic relationships with women in the workplace in violation of the museum’s policy while dangling promises of professional advancement and favorable treatment. But the revelations brought by reporting by the New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer “barely scratch the surface” of abuses committed by Helmer, the signers say.

“Former and current staff of the Philadelphia Museum of Art listed below wish to express solidarity with our current and former colleagues who so bravely spoke out in the New York Times and those in Erie who did the same,” the petition, which has garnered 365 signatures as of this writing, reads. “We believe their stories and admire their courage.”

The statement will be shared publicly with the hashtag #MuseumMeToo

Read the full article on hyperallergic.com.

Dance Magazine: This Ballet Company Will Only Dance Works by Women in 2020. The Director Doesn’t Think That Should Be News

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By Steve Sucato

21 January 2020

It’s fitting that New Zealand, the first country to give women the right to vote, should also be the place where, for the first time, a major ballet company will pre­sent an entire 12-month dance season devoted to works by female choreographers. But according to Royal New Zealand Ballet’s artistic director, former Pacific Northwest Ballet star Patricia Barker, programming this historic season was far less difficult than it might sound.

At the start of your tenure in 2017, there was some controversy around the ratio of non–New Zealander dancers and staff hired. Has the dust finally settled?

That really never had anything to do with me. I was just the unlucky one that stepped into it. My goal was to turn the attention back to the art. As soon as we did that, all of that uproar dissipated.

Read the full article from Dance Magazine.

BWW Feature: THE DAY at Tennessee Performing Arts Center

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By Melia Kraus-har

17 January 2020

Cellist Maya Beiser’s history with composer David Lang’s 2001 work world to come includes commissioning and recording it for an album, accompanying choreographer Pontus Lidberg’s film Labyrinth Within (utilizing Lang’s score) which introduced her to dancer Wendy Whelan in 2010. And now, as a collaboration with Whelan, choreographer Lucinda Childs, and commissioning an additional “prequel” composition from Lang for the evening-length work, THE DAY, to be co-presented by Tennessee Performing Arts Center and Oz Arts Nashville in partnership with Nashville Ballet on January 18, 2020. Speaking by phone, Beiser described her early practice sessions learning world to come, born out of 9/11 experiences. “I kept getting imagery for the music while I practiced. While music is usually a very visual experience for me, I kept seeing a woman dancing. She embodied the feelings of everyone’s experience. The piece became multi-disciplinary to reflect the visceral aspect of sense and remembrance. THE DAY is not a 9/11 memorial, but builds upon the memories we hold on to, or the images that deeply shape memory.”

In terms of building the creative team for the work, Beiser felt strongly that women should shape the artistic direction. Whelan also concurred by phone, deeming that she “played it safe” in her initial departure from New York City Ballet (NYCB) working in a traditional male to female structure learned from her classical ballet background. Whelan credited her transition into contemporary works for developing confidence in diversifying gender leadership and thinking bigger, which “ultimately gave her the courage to return to NYCB” in her current role as Associate Artistic Director. Whelan described her time away from NYCB as giving her tools to support current company artists with what she wanted and needed as a young dancer, lauding the value of collaboration for both ballet and contemporary artist development. Whelan had wanted to work with Childs (ballet dancers respond well to her movement vocabulary), and Beiser was familiar with Childs’ work with mutual colleague Philip Glass. Beiser valued Childs’ approach to music and movement, noting that “not all choreographers read music.” Beiser described Childs’ interpretation of the music as “broad and deep, with a complex polyrhythmic pattern.”

Read the full article on Broadway World.

Just Released: Global Resident Choreographer Survey

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Dance Data Project® (DDP) has conducted an initial examination of resident choreographer positions globally within the ballet industry.

DDP found that among the 116 international and U.S. ballet companies studied, a significant majority have hired men as resident choreographers. The study reveals that 37 of the 116 ballet companies surveyed globally employ resident choreographers. Twenty-eight of these 37 companies have placed exclusively men in this position (76%). Read the report here.

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