Upcoming Deadlines | click here to see if you are eligible for any of these opportunities

March 3rd: Dance | NYC: Dance Workforce Resilience (DWR) Fund, March 31st: SIA Foundation Grants

×

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

The Globe and Mail: Crystal Pite tackles her biggest challenge yet at the Paris Opera Ballet

/0 Comments/in /by

By Laura Cappelle

23 October 2019

It’s 9 a.m. at the Palais Garnier, the imposing home of the Paris Opera Ballet, and Crystal Pite is listening to Chopin alone in her dressing room. The Canadian choreographer has 10 days to go before the world premiere of Body and Soul, her new production for the French company, and it’s not finished, she tells me when I join her. “I was listening to some of the 24 preludes that I haven’t even touched yet. So … that’s challenging.”

Read the full article with a subscription to The Globe and Mail.

Dance Magazine: Without $1 Million By December, This Essential Residency Program Might Be In Danger

/0 Comments/in , /by

By Lauren Wingenroth

24 October 2019

Just last year, the previously Rockville, Maryland-based American Dance Institute—now called the Lumberyard Center for Film and Performing Arts—moved to a 30,000-square foot-former lumberyard in Catskill, New York, spending 5 million dollars to renovate the building.

Now, the organization needs to raise 1 million dollars by the end of 2019, or risk having to shut down their pre-premiere technical rehearsal program.

What happened between last May, when the much-talked-about facility opened its doors, and today, when Lumberyard’s signature program faces potential closure?

The costs of opening the facility were just part of the problem, says Lumberyard’s executive and artistic director Adrienne Willis. It cost more to get the building operating than they expected, and some support they were counting on didn’t come through.

But Willis says the problem Lumberyard is facing is a more systemic one, that speaks to how the creation process has changed in recent years—but funding models haven’t kept up.

Since 2011, Lumberyard has been providing artists with space to hold extended technical rehearsals before a work’s premiere. (Part of the reason for their move was proximity to New York City, where most of these works end up premiering.) Lumberyard is the only facility of its kind in the United States, giving artists one or two weeks in the space with housing, a full crew and a public work-in-progress showing.

Learn more in Dance Magazine.

Tulsa Ballet to Stage US Premiere of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s ‘Vendetta’

/0 Comments/in /by

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Vendetta, A Mafia Story will see its American premiere in Tulsa next March. The synopsis is dramatic and includes a boss woman:

Chicago, 1950’s. Rosalia Carbone’s wedding day is marred by a violent murder, beginning a long standing grudge between infamous rival mob families. When the Godfather, the feared patriarch of the family, is killed in a shootout, an enraged Rosalia takes his place.

Full of red hot emotions like passion, anger and greed and depicted through the beauty of dance, Vendetta is a thrilling show where Broadway meets film noir. Add in a touch of Moulin Rouge and a hint of Vaudeville, plus a lot of humor, and bada-bing! You’re guaranteed a captivating performance.

Tulsa Ballet artistic director Marcello Angelini is also taking steps to feature female costume and lighting designers in the upcoming season, with Julie Duro lighting the company’s Nutcracker. Female choreographers, are also given attention, with Penny Saunders joining the roster via a world premiere coming to the company soon.

Learn more about the company’s season and Vendetta here.

Watch past works below:

From DDP’s Instagram – Founder Liza Yntema Attends BB@home: ChoreograpHER

/0 Comments/in , /by

It was a delight and privilege for DDP founder & president Liza Yntema to attend a preview of Boston Ballet’s BB@home: Choreographer showing on Wednesday.

The performance on Thursday is sold out, and will present new works by Principal Dancer Lia Cirio, Soloist Chyrstyn Fentroy, Second Soloist Lauren Herfindahl, and Artists Sage Humphries, Abigail Merlis, and Joy Womack.

Following the preview showing, Liza was able to meet the artists and take a quick picture before her travels south to Washington, D.C. for The Washington Ballet’s NEXTsteps performance on Thursday.

From L to R, Chyrstyn Fentroy, Liza Yntema, Helen Pickett, Lauren Herfindahl, Lia Cirio, Sage Nicole Humphries, and Abigain Merlis.

Who’s Fighting for Gender Equity in Classical Music?

/0 Comments/in /by

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

/0 Comments/in /by

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

/0 Comments/in /by

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

/0 Comments/in /by

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’

/0 Comments/in /by

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

/0 Comments/in /by

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.