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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

The Walrus: When Male Runners Lose to Women

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By Leyland Cecco

2 May 2019

When alissa St Laurent set off towards the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains on a bright August morning in 2015, she was confident her intense training would be enough to finish the 125 gruelling kilometres of the Canadian Death Race. Ahead of her were three mountain peaks, leg-numbing switchback climbs, and punishing hairpin descents. In most years, fewer than half of participants finish the race, held annually since 2000, revealing the steely determination needed to overcome pain and exhaustion. But, early in the race, as St Laurent found herself among the sinewy bodies of the lead pack, a male runner looked her over and asked if she thought she could maintain the group’s brisk pace.

Frustration took hold of the then thirty-one-year-old Edmonton accountant. “I just made sure to just stay ahead of him before we got into that first transition area,” she says. St Laurent also remained ahead of every other runner, building an insurmountable lead through determination and patience. After thirteen hours and fifty-one minutes, largely spent racing against herself, she crossed the finish line to become the first woman in the race’s history to win outright. Her closest competitor was nearly an hour-and-a-half behind. She doesn’t know what became of the man who thought she was going too fast too early—only that she left him in her dust.

Read the full article in The Walrus.

Wall Street Journal – Australia Festival at the Joyce Review: Down-Under Disappointments

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By Robert Greskovic

13 May 2019

The dance presentations of the recent two-week, three-event Australia Festival were chamber-size thanks to the venue—the intimate, 472-seat Joyce Theater. Small scale need not mean insignificant, but there was little notable choreographic effectiveness. In the context of New York’s rich and varied dance landscape, most of what was performed proved to be, at best, of pleasant, passing interest.

“Attractor,” billed as “A unique music/dance experience,” with direction and choreography by Gideon Obarzanek and Lucy Guerin and produced by Dancenorth Australia, played out as a give-and-take exercise for eight casually dressed dancers, eventually joined by 20 prepped audience volunteers, to accompaniment from Senyawa, the Indonesian music duo of Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi. Despite its expressed aims of reaching trance-like and ritualistic states of being, “Attractor” amounted to improvisation-like moves that eventually blend, with the late-arriving audience participants, into tame follow-the-leader activity.

Read the full article with a subscription to the Wall Street Journal.

The Times: Pam Tanowitz’s Four Quartets: poetry in motion

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By Sarah Crompton

19 May 2019

Pam Tanowitz is about to celebrate her 50th birthday. Which is quite late in the day to become an overnight sensation. “I’m not the hot young thing,” she says, a smile flashing across her open face.

Yet here she is, in demand as a choreographer around the world and about to bring a piece to Europe for the first time. Four Quartets, a beautiful danced version of TS Eliot’s poem, arrives in London this week. The New York Times called it “the greatest creation of dance theatre so far this century”.

Read the full article in The Times.

New York Times: Caught in the Middle of #MeToo: Unions That Represent Accusers and Accused

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By Michael Cooper

17 May 2019

When New York City Ballet fired the star dancer Amar Ramasar eight months ago for sharing vulgar texts and sexually explicit photos of a dancer with a colleague, it said it needed “to ensure that our dancers and staff have a workplace where they feel respected and valued.”

But Mr. Ramasar will return to the stage with City Ballet on Saturday afternoon. To the dismay of some women in the company, he won his job back with help of their very own union, which persuaded an arbitrator that Mr. Ramasar’s firing had been too severe a punishment.

From the shop floors of factories to ballet’s grandest stages, organized labor is struggling to balance a set of competing and sometimes conflicting interests as it grapples with the sharp uptick in #MeToo-related cases in recent years.

Unions work to protect members from harassment, but they also have a duty to protect the rights of members accused of misconduct. The most difficult conflicts arise when one union member accuses another of harassment: Several unions, including the United Automobile Workers, have come under fire for seeming to do more to protect the jobs of the accused than the women who were their targets.

Read the full article in The New York Times.

The Stage: Stephen Arnell: How Bob Fosse’s legacy is being re-examined in the age of #MeToo

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By Stephen Arnell

14 May 2019

With regular revivals of his stage musicals such as Chicago, Pippin and Sweet Charity, the work of groundbreaking theatremaker Bob Fosse has never really gone away.

This year, UK fans of his musicals will see a different side to the director-choreographer with the FX mini-series Fosse/Verdon – screened in the US before heading to this side of the Atlantic – and Sky Arts’ documentary Bob Fosse: It’s Showtime.

From the trailers promoting the show, FX appears to have spared no expense; the show stars Sam Rockwell as Fosse and Michelle Williams as Gwen Verdon, and has a production team that includes Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

It aims to give Fosse’s third wife Verdon the credit many believe has hardly been acknowledged despite her huge contribution to his stage and film work.

In the age of #MeToo, Fosse/Verdon – which has the backing of their daughter Nicole – has particular relevance in confronting Fosse’s reputation as a drug abuser, epic boozer, serial womaniser – and looking back today – maybe darker issues.

The Sky Arts documentary – which I wrote and co-produced – also delves into this area, illustrating Fosse’s ‘don’t take no for answer’ attitude from his targets with this telling quote from a People magazine article in 1980 – one which he didn’t refute: “You can assume he’s going to try to make you,” a corps member said. “He tries with every girl and gets a fair percentage. He’s so casual. He doesn’t give you much respect.”

He was constantly helping the female dancers with their positions, working their legs apart with his hands and wrapping his arms around them to get their hips just so. “He’s not easily discouraged,” says one. “If you tell him you’re engaged, he keeps asking if the wedding hasn’t been called off.”

In his own words: “I drink too much, I smoke too much, I take pills too much, I work too much, I girl around too much, I everything too much.”

To an extent, Fosse admitted his character flaws and dark side (“I drank Scotch. I did cocaine and a lot of Dexedrine. I’d wake up in the morning, pop a pill”), which has inoculated him against some of the blowback.

In his autobiographical All That Jazz from 1979, Fosse put himself under the microscope, although some commentators thought that his vanity competed with a desire for honesty in the movie.

Read the full article on The Stage.

The Guardian: Dances with Jacqueline Du Pré and Dante in the Royal Ballet’s new season

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By Lyndsey Winship

14 May 2019

A ballet based on the life of Jacqueline du Pré and an epic inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy are the highlights of the Royal Ballet’s 2019-20 season, announced today.

Choreographer Cathy Marston, riding high on the success of her ballets Jane Eyre and Victoria, will make her first main-stage work for the Royal Opera House, examining the life and art of the exceptional cellist Du Pré, who had multiple sclerosis and died in 1987 aged 42.

“I think with somebody who is as passionate an artist as Jacqueline du Pré, Cathy’s the right person to tackle it,” said the Royal Ballet’s artistic director Kevin O’Hare. “She’s got an astute way of telling a story and getting to the real heart of it.” Marston and O’Hare went to see Du Pré’s former husband, the conductor Daniel Barenboim, to discuss their plan. “I think he was touched that we went and told him,” says O’Hare. “He said, ‘Yes, go and do it!’”

“So often in ballet we’re dealing with fictional characters or historical characters, so to address somebody of our generation is interesting,” said O’Hare. There will be a new score by composer Philip Feeney as well as extracts from some of the works Du Pré performed, including Elgar’s Cello Concerto. The music will all be played in the orchestra pit rather than on stage. “No, nobody in a blond wig playing the cello,” said O’Hare.

The most epic production of the season will come from the Royal Ballet’s resident choreographer Wayne McGregor, whose Dante Project has an all-star cast of collaborators with a score by composer Thomas Adès and designs from artist Tacita Dean. “The drawings I’ve seen so far are beautiful,” says O’Hare. “The first act is the underworld – it’s as if you’re seeing everything in mirror image; a beautifully drawn mountainscape in reverse.” The first act, the Inferno, will premiere in Los Angeles in July as part of the Royal Ballet’s tour, but the complete work will not be seen until May 2020 in London.

The productions returning to the Royal Opera House include Preludes, a reworking of Alexei Ratmansky’s 24 Preludes, which the choreographer felt was not as successful as it could have been. “There are lots of great things in there but we both felt there were things that could be different, so we’re really paring it down,” said O’Hare. “It’s important to bring work back. Having that second look, in a colder light, you can learn a lot of lessons.”

Read the full article in The Guardian.

Ciston PR Newswire: World Premiere Of Dance Theatre Of Harlem’s New Ballet “Passage” Commemorates The Collision Of Three Cultures In 1619 Virginia

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9 May 2019

NORFOLK, Va., May 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution, in partnership with Virginia Arts Festival, commissioned a new ballet from Dance Theatre of Harlem, which received its world premiere May 3-5, 2019 at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, VA. The 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution themes of democracy, diversity and opportunity are reflected in the performance.

The new ballet, titled “Passage,” was created by the female creative team of choreographer Claudia Schreier, an award-winning young choreographer who has drawn attention from American Ballet Theatre, the Vail Dance Festival, and many others; and composer Jessie Montgomery, who created an entirely new score for the piece, and whose music has been hailed as “wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post); and under the leadership of Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director Virginia Johnson and Executive Director Anna Glass.

Dance Theatre of Harlem also will perform the same piece at The Kennedy Center, May 28 – June 2.

“We are thrilled to present Dance Theatre of Harlem’s new ballet, Passage – one of the most anticipated Signature Events of 2019 Commemoration. And we are very grateful to Dance Theater of Harlem and our partner, Virginia Arts Festival, for helping us bring this performance to Chrysler Hall,” said Kathy Spangler, Executive Director of 2019 Commemoration. “This live artistic performance offers a tangible way for modern audiences to engage with themes that emerged when African, Virginia Indian and English cultures first collided in 1619 Virginia. This collision of cultures had an indelible influence in shaping 400 years of American history and culture.”

Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director Virginia Johnson hailed the opportunity to create a meaningful work that can express in abstract the fortitude of the human spirit and celebrate the invincible spark within that must prevail.

Read the full article on PR Newswire.

Arts Professional: Is it time for quotas?

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By Cath James

2 May 2019

Gender equality and quotas. It’s nothing new, right? It’s a conversation that has been going on for decades. Back in 1985 I was performing in an all-female choreographers dance programme in Brisbane – the work commissioned and presented specifically to address the lack of the female perspective on dance stages in Australia.

In 2013 dance critic Luke Jennings gave us a well thought through assessment of the UK dance scene, from which I quote my good friend, the late great choreographer Janis Claxton: “It’s a nightmare for those of us who watch as men get given chances they are simply not ready for while we graft away at our craft and take smaller-scale opportunities…. Women quit because they don’t get the support that their male colleagues get, and having to push constantly against this outrageous gender inequality is infuriating.”

Then we had a UK first in 2015 in The Bench, a programme established by Tamsin Fitzgerald, Artistic Director of 2Faced Dance Company. It was a direct response to serious concerns about the lack of equality faced by female choreographers within the dance sector.

Has anything changed since then? Is it time for 50/50 quotas? This is a question I posed to a panel of dance industry programmers, creative directors and independent artists and choreographers in March, as part of a debate at Brighton Dome during International Women’s Day celebrations. What was immediately clear is that this is not a simple issue. Many points came across, but three really stood out for me:

Read the full article on Arts Professionals.

Broadway World: Choreographer Jennifer Archibald’s ARCH DANCE Comes to Baruch Performing Arts Center

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13 May 2019

The CUNY Dance Initiative, Queensborough Community College’s Dance Program, and the Queensborough Student Association present Jennifer Archibald’s Arch Dance Company. The evening features a preview of Arch Dance Company’s newest work Hushed, with QCC dance program students opening the program in Archibald’s Line Up. The performance is Saturday, May 25, 2019 at 8:00pm at Baruch Performing Arts Center (25th Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenues, NYC). Tickets are $16.00 general / $11 students and seniors and are available online: www.bit.ly/ArchDance.

Jennifer Archibald is known for her stylistically diverse choreography and has received numerous commissions, including several from the Cincinnati Ballet, where she is the first female Resident Choreographer in the company’s 40-year history. Archibald taps classical training, street, funk and lyrical dance styles to create high-energy contemporary dance works based in personal investigations of human behavior.

In this preview of her newest work, Hushed, for her own company, Arch Dance, Archibald dives into the consequences of muting women’s souls. Springing from Jane Brox’s A Social History of One of the Least Understood Elements of Our Lives, Archibald traces the history of silencing women’s voices. Performed by an all-female cast, Hushed brings together the hard edges of street dance with the fluidity of classical technique to express the ideals and disillusions that come from speaking uncomfortable truths. Archibald comments, “Souls are essential parts of human beings. When you expose the dark corners of your past, at what point do you reveal, release and soar?”

Read the full article on Broadway World.

Shropshire Star: ‘Why shouldn’t Peter be a girl?’: The cast of Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Peter and the Wolf talk ahead of Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Shrewsbury shows

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By Rebecca Stanley

13 May 2019

Now Peter and the Wolf returns to the stage – but not quite as we know it. In a brand new production from Birmingham Royal Ballet, Peter is a girl.

The story has been transported from the Russian countryside of almost a century ago to a modern urban landscape, and it’s coming to Shrewsbury’s Theatre Seven, Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre, and Birmingham Hippodrome as part of its run.

“Why shouldn’t Peter be a girl?” asks the ballet’s choreographer and BRB First Artist, Ruth Brill.

“This feels like the right moment for the story to come back in a new form. Peter has a boldness and sense of playful fun and is an instinctive leader. I had certain dancers in mind to portray that, and they’re all girls. Why not? When I hear Peter’s music, I don’t think it’s particularly male.”

“While adults may question why Peter is a girl, I think most children will just accept it.”

While Sergei Prokofiev’s music and fable remain the same, our new interpretation has nine dancers playing a group of youngsters hanging out in ‘The Meadow’ and re-enacting the story of Peter and the Wolf using the scaffolding set.

Read the full article in the Shropshire Star.