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September 15th: WHITE WAVE: SoloDuo Dance Festival, September 28th: New England Dance Fund, October 13th: Community Arts Grant - Zellerbach Family Foundation Deadline 3, October 13th: Asian American Ballet Project: Choreographer Residency Program, October 14th: Shubert Foundation Dance Grant, October 22nd: Perform Europe Open Call, November 1st: Howard Fellowship, 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

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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

Just Released: Boards of Directors & Trustees Analysis

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The following is a report on the gender distribution of leaders within the Top 50 domestic companies’ Boards of Directors and Boards of Trustees. The data is separated into two subsections: Chair Gender Distribution and Executive Committee Gender Distribution. DDP cites sources and expresses limitations at the end of the report.Download the June 2019 Report

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The City Paper Bogata: Scottish Dance Theatre delivers its double bill Ritualia/TuTuMucky at Teatro Mayor

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21 June 2019

The Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo is bringing the very best of UK culture to Colombia as part of a year-long program to host the United Kingdom as its Guest Nation of Honor. Starting with the first-ever performance in the country by the Academy of Ancient Music to the much-anticipated concert in May of the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, and recent piano recital by Benjamin Grosvenor, the main stage of the Teatro Mayor is also the venue for representatives of other artistic genres; including theatre with a romping – almost tribal – take on Dickens’ Oliver Twist by the Avant Guard Dance Company, and on June 22, the double bill “Ritualia/TuTuMucky” by the Scottish Dance Theatre.

Based in Dundee, Scotland, the Scottish Dance Theatre is also marking its first performance in Colombia with a work by Colette Sadler inspired by Bronislava Nijiaka’s ballet Les Noces and set to the music of Igor Stravinski. The second performance of the evening is TuTuMucky by the London choreographer Botis Seva.

With its focus on the physicality of dance, the Scottish Dance Theatre delivers an energetic production. Adding to a narrative that elevates classical dance with avant-garde sequences, Ritualia celebrates gender and the body as an extension of the natural world. “There is also the idea of the body as a way to gain power, to empower ourselves,” states Joan Clevillé, the theatre’s artistic director. “I think there’s a sense of urgency, of moving in a very visceral way and finding a very urban language. It’s a very different contrast between the two pieces.”

Read the full article in the City Paper Bogata.

Inside Philanthropy: Gender Norms Don’t Get Enough Attention from Funders. Here’s How Philanthropy Can do Better

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By Riki Wichins

20 June 2019

In many ways, social justice funding stands at a crossroads. The field has traditionally been animated by a strong impulse toward racial equity, using philanthropy as a means to challenge the infinite ways that that opportunity in America continues to be stratified by race and class.

At the same time, funders themselves are increasingly aware that race and class are “not enough,” that to really address complex and intractable issues of equity, there must be more. But what might that be?

One buzzy answer to this question is intersectionality—to recognize that those living in disinvested communities often must contend with several different kinds of oppression that interact, and that one or even two-dimensional models are not enough.

An intersectional approach can be particularly important when addressing individuals who make their lives at the borders of identity—who are not just black or Latinx, but also low-income, gay or trans, living with a disability, or living without proper immigration paperwork.

And then, of course, there’s also gender. Some social justice funders interpret addressing genderto mean increased equity for women and girls; others to mean funding issues affecting LGBTQ and other gender-nonconforming individuals.

By either measure, the field has far to go. Funding specifically devoted to women and girls totals only about 7 percent of total U.S. foundation grants (about $400 million); to LGBTQ issues, less than 2 percent (about $180 million).

And then there are gender norms. While virtually ignored in the U.S. when it comes to social justice funding, major international donors have thoroughly embraced it. Institutions like CARE, PEPFAR, UNAIDS, UNFPA, USAID, WHO and the World Bank have all implemented “gender transformative” initiatives that challenge rigid gender norms, and found them effective.

USAID no longer funds new programs that lack a strong analysis of gender norms and the inequities they cause; PEPFAR has made addressing masculine norms its No. 3 priority worldwide.

Read the full article on Inside Philanthropy.

BalletX: Sneakpeek of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s ‘The Little Prince’

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Watch a sneak peek of BalletX’s newest commission: The Little Prince. The work will be full-length – one of very few by women this season.

Courtesy of BalletX.

The Guardian Praises an Inclusive Company – and Its Female Programming – Birmingham Royal Ballet Continues To Shine

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Birmingham Royal Ballet: Unleashed review – ravishing risk-taking

By Laura Joffre

16 June 2019

We are used to seeing Birmingham Royal Ballet in traditional classical productions, in which they always excel. But this mixed bill sees the company in a more contemporary mode, experimenting with distinctive styles in pieces by three female choreographers.

Jessica Lang’s Lyric Pieces, created for the company in 2012, illustrates Edvard Grieg’s piano suites with pure classical ballet. It is not the most innovative work, but harmonious ensembles and flawless dancing, particularly from elegant Yvette Knight and sharp and precise Maureya Lebowitz, raise the overall effect.

Read the full review in The Guardian.

New York Times: Gender Stereotypes Banned in British Advertising

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When Can These Stereotypes Be Eliminated From the Stage?

By Valeriya Safronova

14 June 2019

Men unable to change diapers; women cleaning while men kick their feet up on the couch; women having trouble with parking: Scenes like these, which play on gender stereotypes, are now banned in British advertisements. Britain’s advertising regulator announced the changes in December, but companies were given a six-month adjustment period before they took effect.

The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority said in a statement that it will also ban ads that connect physical features with success in the romantic or social spheres; assign stereotypical personality traits to boys and girls, such as bravery for boys and tenderness for girls; suggest that new mothers should prioritize their looks or home cleanliness over their emotional health; and mock men for being bad at stereotypically “feminine” tasks, such as vacuuming, washing clothes or parenting.

The guidelines were developed after a report from the regulator found that gender-stereotypical imagery and rhetoric “can lead to unequal gender outcomes in public and private aspects of people’s lives.” The report came on the heels of a few British ads that perpetuated negative assumptions about women, including one for Protein World, a weight-loss drink, which paired a bikini-clad model with the question: “Are you beach body ready?” The posters inspired a Change.org petition with more than 70,000 signatures demanding the removal of the ads.

Read the full article in The New York Times.

ELLE: Hadestown Director Rachel Chavkin on the Story Behind Her Viral Tony Awards Speech

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By Bri Kovan

17 June 2019

Last Sunday night, Tony-winning director Rachel Chavkin’s acceptance speech set the internet ablaze with a call-to-arms about diversity on Broadway, asking theater producers (and their counterparts in other industries) to hire artists of color and women artists. “It’s not a pipeline issue,” said Chavkin, who was the only woman to direct a Broadway musical this season. “It’s a failure of imagination.” On stage, Chavkin championed Hadestown, which uses the mythological love stories of Orpheus and Eurydice, and Hades and Persephone as vehicles to discuss workers’ rights, climate change, and authoritarian leadership. (To dive into the show’s folksy New Orleans milieu, check out Hadestown‘s performance from the 73rd Annual Tony Awards, starring Reeve Carney.) The show won eight of its 14 nominations at the Tonys, including best musical, best director, and best original score for singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell. It’s the first musical by an all-female principal team to win best musical.

Next up, the Maryland native dives into her next set of projects: Lempicka, a feminist paean to the midcentury Russian artist Tamara de Lempicka, living in Paris between world wars; Annie Salem, an adaptation of Mac Wellman’s 1996 novel, which uses science fiction to understand racism in the post-industrial Rust Belt; and Moby-Dick, her next collaboration with Dave Malloy (of 2017’s Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, for which Chavkin earned her first Tony nod). “We’re trying to use the ‘great American novel’ to wrestle with twenty-first century America,” she says. “It deals with white supremacy—the whiteness of the whale takes on loaded significance in this adaptation—but also climate change. What’s our relationship to nature as hunters, consumers of nature?”

Read the full article on elle.com

Chicago Tribune: Review: ‘Internal Geometry’ by Natya Dance Theatre is hardly radical but has women telling the story

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By Lauren Warnecke

15 June 2019

Perhaps I’ll start at the end. In the post-performance Q&A for “The Internal Geometry,” a world premiere by Natya Dance Theatre at Links Hall, artistic director Hema Rajagopalan spoke about the origins of Bharatanatyam. The traditional South Indian dance began in the temples as an artistic language imparted by the gods to communicate the scriptures though rhythm, expression and drama. It’s a tradition spanning 3,000 years, often used to depict stories steeped in Hindu mythology and part of many children’s cultural and spiritual upbringing.

It is a relatively new development that Bharatanatyam is performed in concert dance venues. And while Western audiences generally get that dance can be equally entertaining and enlightening, this is often less true about dance forms whose cultural origins lie outside the French courts.

So, while audience members (like this critic) unfamiliar with Hindu mythology or the meanings of each hand gesture or shift of the eyes in Bharatanatyam might be there to simply soak in the intoxicating physicality and mesmerizing rhythms of this extraordinary dance form, Rajagopalan reminded us that the goal isn’t entertainment, but “Rasa,” the spiritual enlightenment of the viewer and a deeper connectivity to the gods.

This is perhaps why transitions between the vignettes of “The Internal Geometry” are narrated on a gargled microphone from Rajagopalan’s perch in Links Hall’s light booth, and indeed, Natya often includes English translations or explanations of the stories to appeal to a wide audience. “The Internal Geometry” is a pared-down presentation, with recorded music and a few simple light cues, uncharacteristic for Natya, but typical of most things in Links Hall’s white box theater. Even the dancers were just a bit less adorned than usual, “The Internal Geometry’s” six women wearing relatively simple traditional costumes with characteristic make-up and ankle bells, plus a few personalized necklaces and bracelets.

Read the full article in The Chicago Tribune.

The Guardian: Lack of sanctions ‘makes a mockery’ of gender pay gap reports

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By Caelainn Barr and Frances Perraudin

28 February 2019

Inaccurate figures and a lack of sanctions risk making a “mockery” of the gender pay gap reporting system, critics have warned following an in-depth Guardian analysis of submissions.

Amid concerns that a lack of transparency and inaccurate reporting is undermining efforts to address pay inequality, mathematically impossible gender pay gap data filed by companies for last year has yet to be corrected.

And with less than a month to go before this year’s reporting deadline, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) admitted that, despite those errors, no companies have yet been fined for failing to comply with legislation.

The deadline for companies to report their gender pay gap figures for 2018 is 30 March for public bodies and 4 April for private companies.

However, more than 30 companies are yet to file accurate data for the previous 2017 period with the Equalities Office, and a number have filed mathematically impossible figures this year. Analysis also shows a further 725 companies have filed or resubmitted their figures since last year’s deadline.

The shadow secretary for women and equalities, Dawn Butler, said: “Gender pay gap reporting was meant to provide transparency, but the fact that companies have given inaccurate data and faced no sanctions makes a mockery of the whole system.”

Read the full article in The Guardian.

The Guardian: Female BBC manager publicly declines promotion over pay inequality

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By Jim Waterson

22 May 2019

A BBC manager has publicly turned down a promotion after finding out she had been offered £12,000 less than a man doing the same job, threatening legal action against the broadcaster and suggesting the corporation is still struggling with equal pay.

Karen Martin emailed hundreds of BBC staff to announce she would no longer be taking up her role as one of the two deputy editors in the BBC’s radio newsroom, which produces material for broadcast to hundreds of millions of people on both UK radio stations and the World Service.

The experienced radio producer’s new job, in which she would oversee global radio news output, had been announced in February. But Martin said she could not accept the role after discovering the other newly appointed deputy editor, Roger Sawyer, had been offered a substantially higher salary.

“Despite being awarded the same job, on the same day, after the same board, during the same recruitment process, BBC News asked me to accept a considerably lower salary than my male counterpart. A lot less,” she wrote in the email sent to all BBC radio newsroom staff.

“I’ve been assured our roles and responsibilities are the same. I’ve also been told my appointment was ‘very well deserved’. It’s just that I’m worth £12,000 less. Over the past four months I have asked BBC News to think again. And they’ve inched their offer up by addressing historical ‘under payments’. Now the gap is nearer to £7,000. But for me it has never been about the actual salary. It has been about equal pay.”

Read the full article in The Guardian.