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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

Who’s Fighting for Gender Equity in Classical Music?

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By ELIZABETH NONEMAKER

August 2019

Data on the gender split among professional orchestra performers offers a more complex view of the situation. At first glance, the numbers are encouraging: In 2018, 48 percent of players in orchestras represented by the League of American Orchestras were women, a vast improvement from orchestras of the past. However, positions for brass, percussion and some wind instruments – not to mention principal positions – are disproportionately occupied by men. 

But we can also look to those numbers for encouragement: They show us that gender parity can at least be improved. One reason for the increase of women in orchestras since the 1970s has been the implementation of blind auditions. Another? Increased social acceptance and visibility of women in roles from which they have been historically excluded. 

Making classical music a more equitable place demands a cultural change – and cultural changes don’t happen without conversation and action. Just in the past five or so years, there has been an explosion in initiatives working to address the gender disparity in classical music. Here are some of our favorites.

Read the full article on DePauw POP Picks.

New York Times: In the #MeToo Era, Museums Celebrate Women

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By Kerry Hannon

23 October 2019

WASHINGTON — Her somber gaze is direct, and in her lap, she firmly holds a book.

The circa 1855 daguerreotype portrait of Lucy Stone, the suffragist and abolitionist, is powerful in its simplicity. Not surprisingly, Ms. Stone’s mission was incited by the inequality in a society that discouraged women from becoming educated.

The image is part of “Women of Progress: Early Camera Portraits,” an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, one of several major exhibitions in the nation’s capital that celebrate women — from the battle for voting rights, spurred by the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, to artworks by feminist icons who embody the challenging issues of their epochs.

“Considering the longstanding imbalance in museum prerogatives, a convergence of exhibitions addressing women — as artists, as activists, as historical figures — is notable,” said Susan Fisher Sterling, the director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Read the full article in The New York Times.

The Times: Viviana Durante: How Isadora Duncan drew me back to the stage

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By Debra Craine

23 October 2019

There are many ways for a ballerina to retire. Sylvie Guillem packed in her illustrious career with enormous grace at the age of 50 and disappeared from the public eye; Alessandra Ferri retired and then changed her mind, pursuing a new career as a performer in her fifties; Darcey Bussell left Covent Garden in her thirties only to find even greater fame as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing in her forties. Viviana Durante chose the hardest route — starting a company.

Read the full feature in The Times.

East Bay Times: Hung Jury Forces Mistrial in Case of Bay Area Ballet Teacher Accused of Raping Students; DA Will Retry

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By Annie Sciacca

22 October 2019

MARTINEZ — A mistrial was declared Tuesday after a jury failed to deliver a verdict in the case against a Bay Area ballet teacher accused of raping and molesting former dance students.

After deliberating Monday and Tuesday, the jury announced it could not unanimously agree on the counts against Viktor Kabaniaev, attorneys confirmed Tuesday. Kabaniaev was charged with and pleaded not guilty to 14 counts including rape, forced oral copulation and molestation of girls younger than 15.

“We’re delighted that six jurors kept their eyes open on the evidence — the devil is in the details,” said Kabaniaev’s defense attorney, Ken Wine. “The details showed there were too many inconsistencies.”

According to Wine, Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Mary Ann O’Malley polled jurors and asked whether anything could be done to change their minds, but they said ‘no,’ and reported they had taken four votes. For the majority of the counts, Wine said, the jury was split. He noted the votes swung from 9-to-3 to 7-to-5 to 6-to-6, but the jurors did not indicate whether they leaned toward guilty or not guilty.

Read the full article in The East Bay Times.

WTOP: Q&A: Washington Ballet kicks off 2019-2020 season with ‘NEXTsteps’

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By Jason Fraley

23 October 2019

From “The Nutcracker” to “Swan Lake,” “Balanchine + Ashton” to “Coppélia,” it’s going to be an exciting 2019-2020 season for The Washington Ballet.

It all kicks off this week with “NEXTsteps,” offering three never-before-seen productions at Sidney Harman Hall this Wednesday through Sunday.

“We’re continuing our commitment to the creative process and advancing dance into the 21st century with three new commissioned works that are making their world premieres,” artistic director Julie Kent told WTOP.

“The 2019-2020 season will clearly mark the incredible artistic growth of the organization after [my] three seasons here. This beautiful season opening shows our commitment to the whole spectrum of what our art form has to offer, creating opportunities for our dancers to expand their understanding, artistic depth and physical and technical depth.”

The first world premiere of the “NEXTsteps” program is Jessica Lang’s traditional work “Reverence,” adapting Robert Schuman’s 11-movement piece “Symphonic Etudes” performed live by pianist Glenn Sales. There is no specific story per se, but rather an interpretive view of eight dancers (four men and four women).

Listen to/Read the full discussion on WTOP.

Wall Street Journal: Ladies First at American Ballet Theatre

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By Robert Greskovic

22 October 2019

The remarks at American Ballet Theatre’s Wednesday gala, which opened the company’s season that runs through Sunday, often focused on “ABT Women’s Movement,” launched in 2018 as “an ongoing initiative to support the creation, exploration and staging of new works by women for ABT and ABT Studio Company.” To that end, two of the newest additions to the 79-year-old troupe’s repertory presented at the gala were by female choreographers; another premiere, also by a woman, is in the offing this week, as ABT aims to right the imbalance between ballets in current repertory by women versus those by men.

So far the fledgling program has yet to produce a strong work, but perhaps Gemma Bond’s “A Time There Was,” which has its premiere tomorrow, will be the first. The two works already unveiled offer little to suggest they’ll find longevity at ABT.

Of these latest efforts, Twyla Tharp’s “A Gathering of Ghosts,” to Brahms’s String Quintet in G Major, Op. 111, held the stage more vividly but not impressively enough to indicate staying power. The 27-minute ballet showcases Herman Cornejo as its designated Host. Mr. Cornejo is celebrating his 20th anniversary with ABT this year and will be featured in a special program on Saturday evening that will include Ms. Tharp’s new creation.

Read the full article in The Wall Street Journal.

Pointe Magazine: Stella Abrera to Retire from American Ballet Theatre in June

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By Amy Brandt

21 October 2019

American Ballet Theatre announced today that, after 24 years, beloved principal dancer Stella Abrera will retire from the stage this coming summer. Her farewell performance will be June 13, 2020, at the Metropolitan Opera House, dancing the title role in Giselle.

Giselle holds special significance for her. In 2015, Abrera, then a 37-year-old soloist, made a triumphant debut in the title role, stepping in for an injured dancer at the last minute. (She herself had been slated to dance Giselle seven years earlier, but a debilitating injury sidelined her. It took years for her to fully recover.) Shortly after her performance, and after 14 years as a soloist, Abrera was made a principal dancer. “At my age and with the amount of time I had been out I didn’t think it was going to happen,” she told Pointe in 2016. “I thought, My career is going to be over soon, I’d better just go for broke whenever I go out onstage.”

Since then she’s more than made up for lost time in debuts including Aurora, Juliet, Cinderella, Terpsichore in Balanchine’s Apollo and Princess Tea Flower in Alexei Ratmansky’s Whipped Cream. The Filipino-American dancer has also spent plenty of time giving back: She founded Steps Forward for the Phillippines in 2014 to benefit victims of Hurricane Haiyan, and in 2018 directed a benefit gala in Manila to raise money for the Stella Abrera Dance and Music Hall at CENTEX (Center of Excellence in Public Elementary Education). She is also the director of Pro Studio/Stella Abrera®, a new training and coaching initiative for professional dancers at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park.

There’s no news yet of what Abrera’s next step will be. But in addition to her farewell performance on June 13, audiences can catch her this Tuesday at New York Koch Theater in Alexei Ratmansky’s The Seasons, as well as in performances of Giselle on tour with ABTin Washington, DC (February 15) and Durham, North Carolina (March 28). 

Read the full article in Pointe.

Commercial Appeal: Collage Dance Collective poised to become largest black-owned dance school in the South

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By Desiree Stennett

Kevin Thomas took his first ballet class at 7 years old. He didn’t see his first black principal ballerina perform in a dance company until 19.

And it would another decade before he saw a stage full of black classical ballet dancers while working as a principal dancer for the Dance Theater of Harlem. 

“When I came to Dance Theater of Harlem and saw that color all around me and saw that stage of color, it just was very reaffirming,” said Thomas, artistic director for Memphis’ Collage Dance Collective. “It’s something that you don’t get as a young person growing up in dance, at least back in my time.

“You knew that if you were black, you weren’t the right color for ballet, you had to try be something else. When I went to Dance Theater of Harlem, it was like ‘I am the right color. I am beautiful.’ That’s when I quickly knew we needed more Dance Theater of Harlems.”

That was the inspiration that launched the earliest iteration of the Collage Dance Collective in 2004 in New York. Back then, it was known casually as Friends of Dance Theater of Harlem. 

Today, Collage Dance Collective trains 235 students between ages 2 and 18 every week while maintaining a touring dance company that has performed across the world.

By Fall 2020, they will leave their 2,000-square-foot Broad Avenue studio for a 22,000-square-foot studio to be built in Binghampton near the corner of Sam Cooper Boulevard and Tillman Street.

The move will make Collage the largest black-owned ballet school in the South and one of the largest in the nation, according to Collage’s Executive Director Marcellus Harper.

He said the additional space could mean doubling the number of students they reach within the next three years.

Read the full article on Commercial Appeal.

Royal New Zealand Ballet Continues to Embrace Women

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Royal New Zealand Ballet announced its 2020 season yesterday, which included the announcement of the roster of works for the Venus Rising program opening on May 29, 2020.

The program will premiere two new works by choreographers Andrea Schermoly and Sarah Foster-Sproull (RNZB’s Choreographer in Residence), as well as works by Twyla Tharp and Alice Topp.

Each work boasts unique aspects sure to combine for a unique program – beyond being one of the few programs by a major company that combines this many female works. Tharp’s acclaimed Waterbaby Bagatelles will bring 27 dancers to the stage. Topp’s Aurum , meanwhile, is “inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, the practice of mending cracks in precious ceramics with gold, creating a new whole which celebrates the beauty of the broken.” The other two works, both untitled as of now, will round out the mixed-repertory performance with classical music inspired movements (La Folia and Beethoven’s birth inspire Foster-Sproull and Schermoly’s works, respectively).

Buy tickets and learn more on the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s website.

Click on the names below to learn more about the women whose works are featured in the program.

Twyla Tharp

Alice Topp

Andrea Schermoly

Sarah Foster-Sproull

Dance Magazine: Ballerina in Chief: Viengsay Valdés Takes the Reins at Ballet Nacional de Cuba

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By Marina Harss

18 October 2019

For decades the name Alicia Alonso has been virtually synonymous with Ballet Nacional de Cuba, the company she co-founded in Havana in 1948. Alonso died on October 17, just shy of what would have been her 99th birthday. In recent years, she had stepped back from day-to-day decision-making in the company. As if preparing for the future, in January, the company’s leading ballerina, 42-year-old Viengsay Valdés, was named deputy director, a job that seems to encompass most of the responsibilities of a traditional director. Now, presumably, she will step into her new role as director of the company. Her debut as curator of the repertory comes in November, when the troupe will perform three mixed bills selected by her at the Gran Teatro de la Habana Alicia Alonso. The following has been translated from a conversation conducted in Spanish, Valdés’ native tongue.

Were you expecting this appointment?

Not at all. The decision came from the Ministry of Culture. Because of her delicate health, Alicia Alonso had been forced to delegate much of the significant responsibility of running the company, and so they thought of me. I’m in charge of all the artistic and technical aspects: casting, organizing tours, programming.

How will you mark Ms. Alonso’s centenary in 2020?

I’ve been communicating with several companies in New York City and elsewhere. We will be celebrating all year, culminating in next year’s International Ballet Festival of Havana.

Read the full article on Dance Magazine’s blog.