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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

Washington Post: Storytelling is the key ingredient in the year’s best dance works

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By Sarah L. Kaufman

10 December 2019

Strong storytelling defined my favorite dance performances this year. The events took vastly different forms but offered a great deal to think about, whether the curtain opened on fresh retellings of familiar tales, true stories of courage and optimism, new stories about everyday struggles and universal themes, or short sketches that opened a window on the vulnerability, frustrations and messiness we all experience. Creating a sound dramatic arc is a triumph for choreographers and dancers alike, and can make the visual and kinetic pleasures of dance that much more meaningful. Here are my top picks, in no particular order. What are yours?

The Washington Ballet’s ‘Sleeping Beauty,’ at the Kennedy Center

This traditional account of the beloved 19th-century ballet was a sparkling platform for new company member Katherine Barkman in her first major role with the troupe, and it was a personal achievement for Artistic Director Julie Kent and her husband, Associate Artistic Director Victor Barbee. Exceptional care and passion for detail were evident in a production that was visually beautiful and an artistic high point on every level.

‘Ballet Across America,’ at the Kennedy Center

This series celebrated female artistry in a profound way, with two female-led companies — Dance Theater of Harlem and Miami City Ballet — performing works by female choreographers, in collaboration with female composers and musicians. Both programs offered top-notch works, though the world premiere by Pam Tanowitz was the hands-down highlight. Titled “Gustave Le Gray No. 1,” it brought together four dancers, two from each company, along with onstage pianist Sylvia Jiang in an evolving exchange of musical and visual rhythms. The title comes from the music: Caroline Shaw’s 2012 “Gustave Le Gray” for solo piano, named for the French photographer. Throughout the music and the dancing, there’s a play of textures and endless invention; surprises upon surprises.

Read the full article in The Washington Post.

NY Times: Best Dance of 2019

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By Gia Kourlas, Siobhan Burke, and Brian Seibert

Where have I seen dance in 2019? Basically, everywhere: from Broadway to bar basements to parks to proscenium stages, and in films and on television. That has been overwhelming in the best sense. Here, in no particular order, is a selection of what stood out.

The effervescent Ms. Casel has been honing her expertise in tap dance since the 1990s. Her collaboration with the pianist and composer Mr. O’Farrill at the Joyce Theater was too long in coming — she should have been commissioned years earlier — but it was a spectacular display of technique and heart. Ms. Casel danced with the skill and spirit she is known for, but she also paid homage to the female tap dancers who came before her. She’s extraordinary.

With her feline beauty, and the undulating flow and power of her dancing, this self-assured young member of New York City Ballet is just starting out. This fall, she made her debut as the tall girl in George Balanchine’s “Rubies,” and it was a spectacular performance, though hardly a surprise to those who saw her dance in “Scotch Symphony” at the School of American Ballet Workshop performances in 2017. At City Ballet, Ms. Nadon is not alone in talent, but she’s an important part of the company’s future.

In Twyla Tharp’s magnificent triple bill at American Ballet Theater last spring, the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House shook off its cobwebs. Along with “The Brahms-Haydn Variations” — it’s hard to forget Stephanie Williams’s gorgeous arms — and the rousing closer, “In the Upper Room,” the program featured the revival of “Deuce Coupe.” That 1973 work by Ms. Tharp, whose mix of classical and modern dance has led it to be considered the first crossover ballet, was resurrected for the current generation, who danced it with daring and aplomb, making it a hit all over again.

Read the full article in The New York Times.

Broadway World: The Joyce Announces Spring/Summer 2020 Season

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4 December 2019

Linda Shelton, Executive Director of The Joyce Theater Foundation, unveiled the full slate of programming for the organization’s Spring/Summer 2020 season, featuring a diverse roster of companies from across the U.S. and around the world. From classical ballet and seminal contemporary dance to some of the most in-demand choreographers and dancers creating new work today, the New York City organization continues to pave the way for dance as one of the world’s most renowned presenters of the art form. The Joyce Theater‘s Spring/Summer 2020 season will see dance artists and companies celebrate monumental milestones and boundary-breaking world premieres, creating a unique blend of revered tradition and future classics across genres that will both delight dance aficionados and engage new audiences all season long.

Five esteemed companies will celebrate their 50th anniversaries with engagements at The Joyce Theater in 2020. In its golden year, Ballet Vlaanderen, locally known as Ballet Flanders, will make its Joyce debut with a mixed bill featuring a blend of contemporary dance – Crystal Pite‘s much-lauded Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue – and traditional Kathak dance from India – Akram Khan‘s Kaash. In April, three companies in the half-century club will take the stage commemorating their contributions to the dance world: Honoring generations of Latinx choreographers, Ballet Hispánico presents, New York premieres from both Gustavo Ramírez Sansano and Annbelle Lopez Ochoa, among other works; Trisha Brown Dance Company marks its anniversary with a double bill of Brown’s collaborations with Robert Rauschenberg; and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s repertory program, focusing on human relationships, concludes with the premiere of a dance-multimedia work by Staycee Pearl. Charlotte Ballet returns in May for its 50th celebration with a mixed bill of thrilling contemporary works, all having their New York premieres.

Read the full article on Broadway World.

Dance Spirit: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Michelle Dorrance’s Delightful Tap “Nutcracker”

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By Amanda Sherwin

3 December 2019

There’s a new holiday dance tradition in the works, thanks to the genius brain of tapper Michelle Dorrance. Dorrance Dance, her innovative company, is putting its own spin on The Nutcracker, using Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s jazzy version of the classic score and a slew of talented tappers, including Josette Wiggan-Freund as the production’s “Sugar Rum Cherry.” Check out this behind-the-scenes look at the company’s fast-paced, anything-goes creative process, and catch the world premiere of The Nutcracker Suite at The Joyce Theater in NYC from December 17 to January 5.

Read the full article on Dance Spirit’s blog.

New York Times: After Misty Comes Marie: Breaking Barriers in ‘The Nutcracker’

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By Gia Kourlas

28 November 2019

She may not remember it, but during the first summer of her life Charlotte Nebres canvassed for Barack Obama with her mother, Danielle, who carried her in a sling. She attended political rallies. And on a frigid day in January 2009, she accompanied her parents and older sister to his inauguration.

When Charlotte was 6, Misty Copeland became the first female African-American principal at American Ballet Theater. That, she remembers.

“I saw her perform and she was just so inspiring and so beautiful,” Charlotte, 11, said. “When I saw someone who looked like me onstage, I thought, that’s amazing. She was representing me and all the people like me.”

Read the full article in The New York Times.

SMU DataArts: Joint Study in Gender Disparity Shows Gap Persists Despite Gains in Art Museum Directors

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The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the National Center for Arts Research (NCAR) at Southern Methodist University in Dallas today released findings from the second iteration of their gender gap study, which was designed to deepen understanding of the gender disparity in art museum directorships to help AAMD member institutions advance towards greater gender equity. Through a combination of quantitative analysis of 2016 data collected from AAMD member institutions and interviews with female museum directors and executive search consultants who specialize in recruitment for art museums, NCAR and AAMD researchers – led by Zannie Voss, director, NCAR, and Christine Anagnos, executive director, AAMD – examined the ongoing and historical factors of the gender gap in art museum directorships, and compared their findings to those of the previous study, conducted in 2013. While incremental gains have been observed in the last three years, the study found that the gender gap persists: women still hold fewer than 50% of directorships and, on average, earn less than their male counterparts. The study also found that museum type and budget size were influential factors on representation and salary differentials.

In 2016, AAMD conducted a survey of its members, collecting data from 210 respondents that included each institution’s operating budget, endowment, the salary of the director (or top leader), the director’s gender, and the self-reported museum type (e.g. encyclopedic, contemporary, etc.). Of these 210 museums, 181 also participated in the 2013 survey, allowing for examination of trends. The study sought to answer three main questions: What is the current state of women in art museum directorships? How has the gender gap in art museum directorships shifted in the past three years? What are some factors that may drive the gender gap? The NCAR and AAMD study had several key findings:

  • While men continue to outnumber women in director roles, there has been a 5% increase in female directorships from 2013: women represented 48% of art museum directorships in 2016 (compared to 43% in 2013).
  • There are clear disparities in gender representation depending on operating budget size: the majority of museums with budgets of less than $15 million are run by a female, rather than a male, director. The reverse is true for museums with budgets of over $15 million, where female representation decreases as budget size increases.
  • Women are at a salary disadvantage: on average, female directors earned 73 cents for every dollar that male directors earned.
  • When segmented by operating budget, the gender disparities are more nuanced:
  • For museums with a budget of over $15 million—roughly the top quarter of museums—female directors earned 75 cents for every dollar a male earned, an improvement from 2013, when women earned only 70 cents per dollar earned by a man.
  • For the other three-quarters of member museums (those with budgets of less than $15 million), female directors on average earned 98 cents to every dollar earned by a man. This represents a reversal from three years ago, when female directors at these same museums earned an average of $1.01 for each dollar earned by their male counterparts.
  • Women hold the majority of directorships in College/University museums (60%) and Culturally Specific museums (57%). Men hold the majority of directorships at Single Artist (67%), Encyclopedic (59%) and Contemporary (54%) museums.

Read the full summary on SMU DataArts’ blog.

Montclair Local: DANCE REVIEW: MARTHA GRAHAM COMPANY LOOKS BOTH WAYS

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By Elaine Molinaro

The air was filled with anticipation in the Alexander Kasser Theater for the opening of the Martha Graham Company’s “Appalachian Spring,” Graham’s iconic dance honoring the spirit of life on the American frontier.

Montclair State University’s Peak Performance series celebrated the work’s 75th anniversary by putting the past in conversation with the present. On the same program the company debuted “The Auditions,” a dance conceived by choreographer Troy Schumacher and composer Augusta Read Thomas to resonate with Graham’s classic.

Graham started a revolution when she had her dancers remove their pointe shoes to dance barefoot and round their torsos into the movement she called the contraction, the basis of her dance technique, in a clear departure from the upright body of elite classical ballet.

Read the full article in Montclair Local.

Women’s Media Center: A few cracks in the Baby Bump Ceiling

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By Rosalind C. Barnett, Ph.D. & Caryl Rivers

In recent months, three exceptionally prominent female journalists with large TV followings appeared on the air visibly pregnant and worked right up to their delivery dates. 

Margaret Brennan of Face the Nation, NBC News correspondent Katy Tur, and Kasie Hunt — a political correspondent and host of MSNBC’s weekly program Kasie DC — did not leave TV when their pregnancies became very evident.

Perhaps most remarkably, Face the Nation, the largest of all Sunday public affairs programs, which in 2017 had an average of 3.538 million viewers, broke all the rules. The network hired Brennan, a CBS News senior affairs correspondent, to replace John Dickerson as anchor while she was expecting. Just two months after her hiring was made public, Brennan announced that she was five months pregnant with her first child.  

Until recently, viewers almost never saw visibly pregnant women broadcasting news on television — much less heading up a major Sunday network news show. The Baby Bump Ceiling was very real for women. Will these three cracks in that ceiling put a dent in a harmful stereotype? Maybe so. 

Read the full article on Women’s Media Center.

Wall Street Journal: ‘We Were White and Sleepy Before’—The Baltimore Museum of Art’s Radical Makeover

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By Kelly Crow

A new director shakes up the institution with moves such as showing only works by women and acquiring overlooked artists.

Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.

Ludwig Van: SCRUTINY | National Ballet Showcases Technical And Artistic Brilliance In Mixed Program

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By Paula Citron

28 November 2019

The National Ballet of Canada Mixed Program/Piano Concerto #1 choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky, Petite Mort choreographed by Jiri Kylian, and Etudes choreographed by Harald Lander, Four Seasons Centre, Nov. 27 to Dec. 1. Tickets available at national.ballet.ca/Tickets.

I continue to be in awe of Karen Kain’s programming skills, in particular, the way she finds links to bring diverse pieces together. In this very satisfying mixed evening of dance, the throughline is the piano. Two of the pieces are set to piano concerti, while the third is an orchestral arrangement of piano exercises.

The new kid on the block is Jiri Kylian’s off-pointe Petite Mort (1991) set to the slow movements of Mozart’s piano concerti Nos. 21 and 23. The term, petite mort, refers to orgasm, and one would think that the stage would be crackling with all manner of sexy and/or romantic moves, but that is not the case. The very physical, clinical choreography is in direct contrast to the shimmering, aching, melancholy quality of the music. But then, that’s Kylian, the brilliant Czech-born master who layers his pieces with a combination of wit and mystery.

The work is set on six women, six men, six fencing foils, five stand-alone, black, eighteenth-century dresses on rollers (symbolizing protective armour for the women?), and a large, billowing silk cloth (symbolizing bed sheets?) that is pulled over the dancers a couple of times during the piece. So controlled is the movement that Petite Mort calls for the big guns, and of the twelve dancers, six are principals (Elena Lobsanova, Skylar Campbell, Jillian Vanstone, Brendan Saye, Greta Hodgkinson and Guillaume Côté), four are first soloists (Jenna Savella, Donald Thom, Tina Pereira and Hannah Fischer), with second soloists Spencer Hack and Joe Chapman completing the roster.

Read the full article here.