June 1st: Culture Forward Grant - The Svane Family Foundation Deadline 1, July 13th: Community Arts Grant - Zellerbach Family Foundation Deadline 2, September 1st: Culture Forward Grant - The Svane Family Foundation Deadline 2, September 14th: New England Dance Fund, October 13th: Community Arts Grant - Zellerbach Family Foundation Deadline 3, December 1st: Culture Forward Grant - The Svane Family Foundation Deadline 3, December 31st: National Dance Project Presentation Grants - New England Foundation for the Arts, December 31st: National Dance Project Travel Fund, December 31st: New England Presenter Travel Fund
It is no surprise to read that Yang Liping found it impossible to toe the line as part of the China Central Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble. Yang, 60, whose dramatic dance works draw from the folkloric dances she learned as a small child growing up in rustic Yunnan province, is famous in China as the Peacock Princess. This may not be entirely to do with her masterly evocation of this spectacular bird in her first popular success, Spirit of the Peacock, which made her name in 1986.
Yang cuts a dramatic figure in fitted satin, heavy jewellery and nails like a 19th-century mandarin’s. She tells me, with a bit of a giggle, that she has been growing those extraordinary claws since 1979, ostensibly to give authentic performances of the Long-Nailed Dance. Most dancers use glittery fake fingernails, readily available online in boxes of 10: I checked. How does she get the lid off a jar? You get used to it, she tells the tour manager who is our linguistic go-between. China in 1979 was still the land of the Mao suit. Amid all that denim, Yang Liping must have looked like an explosion of silk, varnish and theatricality.
Two years ago, Yang came to Australia with Under Siege, a spectacular choreographic retelling of the Chu-Han Contention of 200 BC – an epic battle for supremacy between the Chu and Han armies that is one of China’s most important ‘‘origin’’ stories. It included kung fu, tai chi, hip-hop, Chinese opera and, of course, a spectacular set.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/13141955/DDP_logo_Primary.png26524000dancedatahttps://dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-03 09:00:162019-09-03 09:00:17Brisbane Times: Yang Liping’s Rite of Spring comes to Melbourne Festival
Days after “Good Morning America” host Lara Spencer apologized for “insensitive” comments mocking Prince George for taking a ballet class, Cincinnati Ballet is working to support male dancers.
The controversy began last week when Spencer brought up Prince George’s back-to-school plans in a clip published Thursday.
“In addition to the usual first or second-grade things like math, science and history, the future king of England will be putting down the Play-Doh to take on religious studies, computer programming, poetry and ballet, among other things,” Spencer said.
The clip then cuts to images of the 6-year-old, but laughter can be heard from the “GMA” set.
“Prince William says George absolutely loves ballet. I have news for you, Prince William: We’ll see how long that lasts,” Spencer added with a chuckle.
Women’s Equality Day celebrates the passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. The progress we’ve made over the past century is clear; more women are running for office, we make up nearly half of the work force and are more likely than our male counterparts to attend college and earn professional degrees.
So how is it then, after almost 100 years of progress towards equality, are women still only making 81% of what men are making? Weekly earnings dating back to 1979 show a gender pay gap, when women earned 62% of what men earned. In 2018, women’s median earnings were 81% of men’s. While the gap has narrowed, progress has virtually stalled for the past 13 years, hovering around 80-83% . (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).
To find a solution to this problem, we first need to understand the root. The pay gap has been attributed to multiple factors, such as: women are more likely to leave the workforce to care for their families or having to do with education. A study conducted by The Ascent, a division of The Motley Fool, took a deeper look into some of these commonly given reasons for the gender pay disparity.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/13142018/Asset-2.png296600dancedatahttps://dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-08-30 08:07:062019-08-30 08:07:07Forbes: On Women’s Equality Day, How To Fight The Gender Pay Gap
Celebrating the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote; assembled and produced by Deborah Brockus, artistic director of the annual Los Angeles Dance Festival.
Deborah Brockus has assembled another TKO of a presentation. This time at the aesthetically invigorating and lovely renovated Ford Theatre; originally entitled, prophetically first named, The PILGRIMAGE Theatre. It was an enlivening evening from start to finish. Ms. Brockus is a hands-on participant, besides organizing, directing, choreographing and publicizing and cheerleading all involved, she was there to greet the theatre goers and anyone coming to support and witness this celebration. Take note of her tenacity and perseverance.
Ms. Brockus has been labeled “the single most important person in Southland dance,” an “impresario”, “the mother superior of LA dance” and “tireless” by the Los Angeles Times for her involvement in establishing the local dance scene as a producer, choreographer and teacher.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/13141955/DDP_logo_Primary.png26524000dancedatahttps://dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-08-30 07:55:512019-08-30 07:55:53BWW Review: Women Rising Triumphantly — Choreography From The Female Perspective, Featuring Ten Dance Companies Led By Women At The Ford Theatre
A bipartisan group of legislators reintroducedThe Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) last Tuesday, with the aim of closing the gap between existing protections for pregnant workers and discrimination that still persists against them. The bill was first introduced in 2012 by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) but failed when opponents claimed that it would create an undue burden for companies. Now, the legislators hope for a different outcome.
“No woman should be forced out of a job or denied employment opportunities simply because she is pregnant,” said Representative Lucy McBath (D-GA), one of the sponsors of the bill.
If passed, the PWFA would close existing gaps in workplace protections for pregnant employees by obligating employers to make minor changes to support them – for example permitting someone an extra bathroom break during a shift, or a chair to sit on. Modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act, the PWFA states that providing reasonable accommodation is the affirmative duty of an employer unless doing so would pose an undue hardship to his or her business. In addition, the legislation prohibits employers from discriminating against people on the basis of their need for reasonable accommodations related to childbirth or pregnancy.
At the moment, only 25 American states have accommodations laws in place to protect pregnant women, which means that individuals in 50 percent of this country can only rely on federal statutes to guard against workplace discrimination. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), passed in 1974, provides some safeguards, as did a 2015 Supreme Court decision that outlined when and how the PDA should protect accommodations.
Read the full article on Women’s Media Center’s news page.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/13142018/Asset-2.png296600dancedatahttps://dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-08-29 14:58:482019-08-29 14:58:49Women’s Media Center: Legislators introduce The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
Whether familiar with the dance world or not, it probably won’t come as a surprise to most readers that the majority of the dance industry work-force is female. In fact, according to Data USA12, as much as eighty-five percent of the workers in the dance industry are women. However, when examining the past seasons of some of the most important presenting venues in the Northeast region of the United States it becomes clear that gender numbers shift dramatically when looking at successful choreographers.
The numbers:
The gender imbalance in high scale dance companies is not new. In 1976 Wendy Perron and Stephanie Woodard wrote a study called ‘Is there a bias against women in the dance world?’. The article showed clear data by which male choreographers were getting more opportunities and grants, and therefor enjoying more success than their female counterparts. Perron revised her article in 2001 to find that little had changed in nearly thirty years10.
The early 2000’s seem to have been an era of re-awakening to the gender issue in the dance world. This was the time in which several female choreographers including JoAnna Mendl Shaw14, Janis Brenner15, Ellis Wood16 and Heidi Latsky17 formed The Gender Project: a collective that gathered data, participated in panels and created work geared towards changing the face of gender preference in the dance world13.In 2001,Scherr from the New York Times accused the Endowment for the Arts of favoring male choreographers (as for the last five years, the Endowment for the Arts has given balanced grants to male and female choreographers for the production of new work).
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/13142018/Asset-2.png296600dancedatahttps://dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-08-29 09:02:112019-08-29 09:02:13Choreography and Gender: Still Looking for the Female Choreographers
As a lifelong lover of the ballet — and as a child of immigrant parents who could not afford to start me in classes when I was little — there was no question that my own kids would be enrolled in dance training as soon as they hit preschool.
When my son was 4, the movie “Billy Elliot” had already come out, telling the story of an English coal miner’s son who, at age 11, battles masculine disapproval to study ballet. The heartwarming film hardened my spine against skeptical family members who wondered why I enrolled my firstborn in level-one tap and ballet classes.
When, predictably, he was the only boy in his class, no amount of assuring him that many big, strong men were proud to call themselves ballet dancers would assuage his shame. Especially when all the mommies fawned over his teeny black slippers.
He cried at his recital and, when it was over, I let him quit. That was that for his dance-related college scholarship.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/13141257/American-Ballet-Theatre-pricipal-Herman-Cornejo-performs-in-Alexei-Ratmanskys-Symphony-9.-Photo-by-Gene-Schiavone.-Courtesy-of-ABT..jpg22503000dancedatahttps://dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-08-29 08:51:472019-08-29 09:00:00The Times Herald: Esther Cepeda: The crippling legacy of gender stereotypes
A lack of female choreographers in dance is not down to simple discrimination but too much self-doubt among qualified women, the director of English National Ballet has suggested.
Tamara Rojo, a ballerina and artistic director, said she had sought female choreographers only for them to turn down opportunities wrongly believing they are not qualified.
Saying she has “never” heard the same doubts from a male choreographer, she admitted even she had hesitated to take senior roles for fear she did not know enough.
Rojo has recently commissioned a triple bill of works by three female choreographers, in a new programme entitled She Said.
In an interview with The Stage, Rojo disclosed she had come up with the idea four years ago, before the issue of women in dance became such a high-profile debate.
“My original motive was simple: I had never done a piece by a female choreographer,” she told the magazine. “In the theatre the dynamic of the piece is always from a male perspective.
It’s a clever play on words, the title of guest choreographer Andi Schermoly’s work “Stand to Reason”, commissioned by the Royal New Zealand Ballet to mark 125 years of women’s suffrage.
It stands to reason, of course, that women should have the right to vote – but it’s also a call to arms. “To stand is an action,” she says. “Nothing gets done unless we do something about it. The piece builds in energy, becoming really relentless at the end, and you see that’s how you make change – by being relentless.
“It’s also a reminder we have to be vigilant and remember that what people have fought for can be easily taken away.”
Now based in Los Angeles, Schermoly grew up in South Africa, where she was a member of the Olympic rhythmic gymnastics team. She had learnt some colonial history at school, so already knew a bit about the suffrage movement when she was approached by the ballet company to create a work for its Strength & Grace season in Wellington last year. But it was only when she began researching the issue more deeply that she stumbled across a pamphlet by Kate Sheppard called “10 Reasons Why Women Should Vote”.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/13141955/DDP_logo_Primary.png26524000dancedatahttps://dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-08-27 09:22:512019-08-27 09:22:53Noted: Choreographer Andi Schermoly showcases the strength of ballerinas in new piece
It is sometimes suggested that women simply do not think they can
choreograph as men do. One aspect of the problem may be due to training that
does not suggest that this is a plausible path. This is what makes Pacific
Northwest Ballet School’s New Voices:
Choreography and Process for Young Women course so significant. At a time
when girls’ confidence begins to fade in comparison to young boys’, the school
has introduced a class intended to empower them through creativity. Few
programs like PNB’s exist at a ballet school level.
In fact, the majority of choreography courses are implemented at a college
level. This problematic given the tendency for young dancers to skip college
and go straight into the ranks of a company at a young age. Dancers are exposed
to the choreographic process only through the lens of a performer, a tendency
that is detrimental not only to their success as a dancer, but also to their
confidence as they take their next steps in dance, following retirement.
In a time when ballet dancers are embracing new styles and career paths,
their schools need to reflect that diversity and experimental nature.
Claudia Schreier in rehearsal with the Joffrey Ballet. Courtesy of Joffrey Ballet, Photo by Todd Rosenberg.
Whether for a major or minor requirement, most university dance programs encourage dancers to explore all aspects of dance. For dance composition, students learn either through a course in which they produce actual works for the stage or through improvisation courses with no end-game of a performance. This opportunity to “workshop,” as choreographers often put it, is exactly what the dance faculty at Dean College are encouraging, Dance Spiritreports. The faculty even went so far as to assert that these courses should be a requirement in dance programs in order to “make sure your dance degree is going to work for you in the real world.” Dance Spirit suggests this may be due to the dying “choreographer/muse” relationship in a process that now “favors collaboration” or improvisation when prompted by the choreographer. As a dancer graduates and joins a company, he or she should be fully prepared to work closely with a choreographer and understand the choreographic process from the creator’s perspective.
This philosophy is extremely relevant for dancers joining smaller companies, where the hierarchical corps structure of a ballet company is replaced by a collaborative, “everyone does everything” environment. It may be advantageous for larger, more influential companies with the corps-soloist-principal hierarchy to embrace, too. Pacific Northwest Ballet artistic director Peter Boal, for instance, introduced collaboration and inverted the power dynamic of director-student relationships by showing his own new work, a piece he made on the Professional Division men for their School Performance, to students in the PNB school’s New Voices course. Following the showing, the group had a 30-minute critique of the work, which dealt with alienation and the support peers can offer. In this choreographer-to-choreographer discussion, the young women ended up helping Boal both in how to approach his final weeks with his dancers and in how to most clearly communicate his ideas for the work.
Dancers at other ballet schools who inevitably skip college will entirely
miss this key element in dance pedagogy.
Stephen Ursprung, a professor of Dance Studies at Dean College told Dance Spirit, “‘Oftentimes we impose limitations on what the students can or cannot do and this ignites their imaginations. At first it may be scary or overwhelming: Many dancers come from very rigorous technical training and get caught up in whether what they do is ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ In a choreography class, these binaries do not exist.'” If these ideas were incorporated into courses at ballet schools, we could be dealing with a greater pool of young dancers feeling empowered to choreograph, regardless of gender.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/13141404/TacklingtheProb_POSTHeader-e1565900829142.png354850Isabelle Vailhttps://dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngIsabelle Vail2019-08-16 12:00:162019-08-16 14:10:03Tackling the Problem: Why aren’t women hired as choreographers?
