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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
December 31st: New England Presenter Travel Fund, December 31st: Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet Scholarship, December 31st: 24 Seven Dance Convention, December 31st: National Theater Project Presenter Travel Grant, December 31st: Breck Creek Artist-in-Residence Program
×"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
By Brian Seibert
17 October 2019
At American Ballet Theater’s fall gala on Wednesday, along with premieres by Jessica Lang and Twyla Tharp, there was much talk of women. The honoree, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, the president and chief executive of Celebrity Cruises, drew a parallel between the fight against gender imbalances in her industry and in ballet. Just as she congratulated herself for hiring the first and so far only female captain, so she praised Ballet Theater for its Women’s Movement initiative supporting female choreographers.
The stark maritime statistics were new to me, but not the ballet numbers. For several years now, people in the ballet world have not just been talking about the longstanding gender imbalance in choreography; they’ve been changing it. Efforts like Ballet Theater’s have been giving female choreographers more chances to create work and get it seen, more chances to do what male choreographers have always been allowed to do: sometimes make hits, sometimes make duds.
Read the full article in The New York Times.
17 October 2019
This weekend’s Louisville Ballet production — a three-bill performance called “Serenade + at High + Velocity” — will feature a dance designed by the company’s newest addition and first-ever female resident choreographer, Andrea Schermoly.
Before 2018, the Louisville Ballet company did not have designated positions for resident choreographers but did hire female choreographers for dozens of shows. So, while Schermoly is not the first woman to ever choreograph a show at Louisville Ballet, she is the first official resident choreographer, a yearslong contracted position with the company that includes consistent commissions and collaboration.
It’s a high-profile gig in a male-dominated industry.
Schermoly’s choreographed dance, “at High” — accompanied by a live orchestral performance of Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony — is not her first work with the Louisville Ballet. She choreographed the company’s performance of Martha Graham’s “Appalachian Spring” in February and has been involved in previous years of the Choreographer’s Showcase.
Before her dancing career was ended by an injury and she began choreographing in full force, Schermoly danced professionally for the Boston Ballet Company and the Netherlands Dance Theater, and trained at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg, where she grew up.
Read the full article on USA Today’s Courier Journal.
17 October 2019
Practice is over and Boston Celtics assistant coach Kara Lawson is still working.
She stands under the basket rebounding and giving feedback to rookie guard Carsen Edwards as he shoots from different spots on the court. After swishing his final three attempts he jogs over to her.
“Thanks, coach,” Edwards says before exchanging a high-five with Lawson.
Welcome to the new-look NBA, in which women’s footprints are directly impacting every aspect of the game — from broadcasting booths, to officiating, coaching on the sidelines, front-office executives to ownership.
Lawson is one of a record 11 women serving as assistant coaches in the NBA this season. While former WNBA star Swin Cash and Sue Bird are working in NBA front offices.
“It’s not a fad,” said Basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman. “It’s opportunities going to very accomplished women who have given their life to the game.”
While it may not be a fad, it is a recent trend.
Read the full article in The Chicago Sun Times.
By Alison Starling/ABC7 News
11 October 2019
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — The Washington Ballet Theatre officially opens its new season in October. At the helm of the company is a woman who is known as one of the premier dancers in America, Julie Kent.
The Washington Ballet is not performing Swan Lake until April, but rehearsals are well underway.
In command of each move and magical step is Julie Kent, the artistic director for the Washington Ballet. But for nearly 30 years, she was captivating audiences with the American Ballet Theatre in New York. She was its longest-serving ballerina and principal dancer for more than 20 of those years.
Kent tells ABC7, “I think it was the greatest gift and greatest privilege to spend your life doing something that you love.”
Watch the video here.
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By Jane Howard
12 April 2019
In 2009, director Neil Armfield stood on the stage at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre and announced, for his swansong season as artistic director of the company he co-founded, a season of shows almost exclusively written and directed by men.
It was a moment that prompted considerable scrutiny of industry-wide gender disparity.
In that year, at the eight best-funded Australian theatre companies — members of the Major Performing Arts Group (MPAG) — just 24 per cent of plays were written by women, and 24 per cent were directed by women. A staggering 86 per cent of productions had at least one man as writer or director.
But in the decade since, something remarkable has happened. The balance has shifted.
In 2019, women will make up 47 per cent of playwrights and 58 per cent of directors at MPAG theatre companies. And, for the first time ever, more of these productions will have at least one woman in a lead creative role (67 per cent) than at least one man (60 per cent).
Read more in ABC Arts.
By Erin Jaffe
Columbia Classical Ballet’s new season arrives with a determined focus. This year’s programming will focus on female-driven productions, reflecting internal changes that Artistic Director Radenko Pavlovich feels were a long time coming.
“Well, to be honest, at the end of our last season, it occurred to me that the world is really changing,” he explains. With the #MeToo movement, women are rightfully demanding the respect they deserve. That movement and controversy even touched the ballet world, and it really shook me.”
“Honestly, women are what comes first to mind when people think about ballet, and yet women’s role in leadership positions have been almost exclusively limited to ballet mistresses or coaches,” he continues. “Only recently are there more female choreographers and artistic directors.
“I started thinking, ‘I want to change that in my company and I want the change to be from inside-out.’ I wanted a stronger female presence from the board to the artistic staff to the ballets the company will perform. This season is really a celebration about that change.”
Read the full article in The Post and Courier.
By Natalie de la Garza
16 October 2019
It’s a good time to be performing the great Martha Graham’s choreographic masterworks. But according to Janet Eilber, the artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, that wasn’t always the case.
“There were a few decades in there where they were just old,” says Eilber. “But they are now old enough and they’ve proven themselves enough to be called classics.”
If you are one of the few who hears “classics” and expects the company to appear on stage with horns and a breast plate when they finally return to Houston after 15 years, well, you’ll be disappointed. With The EVE Project, Eilber says they are honoring Graham’s legacy of innovation through a theme that highlights Graham’s “revolutionary approach to female characters on stage.”
Read the full article in The Houston Press.
By Carla P. Gomez
15 October 2019
BACOLOD CITY –– Charges were filed against a ballet school owner and his two female dance instructors for allegedly abusing three female teen students.
Three complaints for violation of the Special Protection Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, were filed against the ballet school owner, who is also a dancer and choreographer, and his two female dance instructors at the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office on Monday.
The names of the respondents were withheld to protect the identities of the alleged victims.
The abuses began in January 2019 when certain requirements were imposed on the complainants who entered into a scholarship contract with the respondents’ school.
The three ballet students were allegedly subjected to an excessive dietary program that affected their health, as well as to physical, verbal and emotional abuses, said Jeremy Moreno, the lawyer of the three complainants.
Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1177760/ballet-school-owner-dance-instructors-face-raps-for-abuse-of-teen-students#ixzz62WSv3LA8
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1. #MeToo — accusations overrun Hollywood
On October 5, 2017, film producer Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment in a New York Times article. 10 days later, US actress Alyssa Milano urged women to write “me too” in answer to her post on Twitter if they, too, had experienced sexual harassment. This was the birth of the #MeToo movement, a worldwide debate about the sexual abuse of power.
2. #Aufschrei — Germany discusses sexism
Germany was in the midst of a heated debate on sexism as early as 2013, when a journalist wrote about an encounter with a German politician who stared at her breasts, and told her she could easily “fill a dirndl.” A German feminist immediately started the hashtag #aufschrei (outcry), and tens of thousands of women responded, sharing their experiences with everyday sexism. The issue found its way into the established media and politics, the first time ever that a hastag has had such clout in Germany.
Read the full list on DW.
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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