Ballet Leadership Across the World

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Scene from Garden Blue by Jessica Lang
Photo by Rosalie OConnor
Courtesy of American Ballet Theatre

GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS:
NAVIGATING CHALLENGING TIMES

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Smuin Contemporary Ballet Dancers
Nicole Haskins and Ben-Needham Wood
perform- Helen-Pickett’s Petal (2015)

BLACK, BRILLIANT, AND A BALLERINA, DDP TEAM MEMBER JENESIS WILLIAMS WEIGHS IN ON SYSTEMIC RACISM IN CLASSICAL DANCE

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Smuin Contemporary Ballet Dancers
Nicole Haskins Susan Roemer and Jane-Rehm
Perform Helen Pickett’s Petal
Photo by Chris Hardy, courtesy of Smuin Contemporary Ballet

THE DANCE DATAPROJECT ^® RESEARCH

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Smuin Contemporary Ballet Dancers
Nicole Haskins Susan Roemer and Jane-Rehm
Perform Helen Pickett’s Petal
Photo by Chris Hardy, courtesy of Smuin Contemporary Ballet

DANCE DATA PROJECT ^® ADVOCACY

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“Her Blood a Wild River”
Choreographer: Stephanie Martinez
Costume Designer: Mark Eric
Filmmakers: Elliot deBruyn and Nathaniel Brown

DDP is a proud co-host at this year's
Women in Dance Leadership Conference.

October 13-15, 2022

Chicago, IL

Learn More

2019-2020 Season Overview Now Available
Scene from Garden Blue by Jessica Lang
Photo by Rosalie OConnor
Courtesy of American Ballet Theatre

Download Report
Global Conversations:
Navigating Challenging Times
Smuin Contemporary Ballet Dancers
Nicole Haskins and Ben-Needham Wood
perform- Helen-Pickett’s Petal (2015)

Watch Now
Global Conversations:
The Creative Process
Misty Copeland and Herman Cornejo in Garden Blue by Jessica Lang
Photo by Rosalie O’Connor

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Black, Brilliant, and a Ballerina, DDP Team Member Jenesis Williams Weighs in on Systemic Racism in Classical Dance

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Useful Resources From
The Dance DATA Project ^®
Smuin Contemporary Ballet Dancers
Nicole Haskins Susan Roemer and Jane-Rehm
Perform Helen Pickett’s Petal
Photo by Chris Hardy, courtesy of Smuin Contemporary Ballet

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The Dance DATAProject^®
Research
Boston Ballet performs Petal by Helen Pickett (ChoreograpHER)
Liza Voll Photography
Courtesy of Boston Ballet

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Dance DATA Project^®
Advocacy
“Her Blood a Wild River”
Choreographer: Stephanie Martinez
Costume Designer: Mark Eric
Filmmakers: Elliot deBruyn and Nathaniel Brown

Learn More

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Informing equity through data
analysis, advocacy and programming

Dance Data Project® is a global resource for the study and analysis of major national and international dance companies, venues, and choreographic awards. In addition, DDP surveys ballet competitions, festivals and scholarship programs worldwide. We provide a resource for those seeking information about female choreographers, set, costume & lighting designers, as well composers of classically based dance music.

We also cover recent news (as you’ll see below) and provide an archive of articles related to issues surrounding classical dance, including pay transparency and equity, hiring and and harassment policies. Browse, have a look, and feel free to provide feedback by contacting us on our contact page. Many thanks for visiting.

#WELL SAID

DDP’s #WellSaid campaign compiles notable quotes from a wide array of artists, business leaders, politicians, and more. These words not only inspire the team at Dance Data Project^® to continue advocating for women in ballet, but they often echo our research and illustrate the necessity for fundamental shifts within long standing institutions. With this variety of quotes, whether dance-related or pertaining to other fields, DDP aims to inspire cross-industry collaboration and change to advance art forms and industries past this unprecedented moment in history, creating a foundation for a new and better future in the arts. #WellSaid is an ongoing campaign that can be found on our website and Twitter. If you would like to suggest a quote for #WellSaid, please Direct Message us on Twitter @dancedatap.

“I think women are often self-critical, we doubt ourselves; I certainly did. If I ran a company now, I’d be more attentive to the issue.”

Brigitte LefèvreFormer Artistic Director, Paris Opera Ballet

Nobody wants a smaller, less diverse, less interesting ballet world

Tamara RojoArtistic Director of English National Ballet

And we also have to look at the fact that a lot of the basis upon which we decide what is valuable work has a gender lens to it.

Hannah-Beth JacksonCalifornia State Senator

If the world is to be saved, it will be the women who save it.

Mary CassatImpressionist Painter

The way to build back is to put women straight at the center. Because guess what? They’re already at the center.

Melinda GatesCo-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

It’s important that we all speak up on behalf of each other, and advocate for women to get opportunities at every level. It’s not just not getting the opportunity to get in the door. They’re not getting the opportunities to keep moving through the ranks of the company, and that is about mentoring and advocacy on all of our behalf.

Ellevest Newsletter August 18,2020

Juliette JonesExecutive VP/ Atlantic Records

It’s just a false narrative that has for far too long served as a guiding principle of corporate America. And it has to change. So I don’t mind the slings and arrows because we need to move out of that old paradigm and shift into the 21st-century world we live in.

Hannah-Beth JacksonCalifornia State Senator

Our business culture lives, frankly, in the early-20th century with the Ozzie and Harriet narrative.

Hannah-Beth JacksonCalifornia State Senator

I think it’s very important that the world today be more open to and respectful of the need for working people to be able to prioritize their families, and not just their work.

Hannah-Beth JacksonCalifornia State Senator

Acknowledging and being okay with the fact that if you don’t have the confidence to believe in yourself on your own, that it’s something that you can gain … from having a support system around you. It’s been difficult for me throughout my life. And I know it’s difficult for a lot of young people to accept and understand that you can’t do everything on your own, and you’re going to have days when you’re not strong.

Q&A w/ Misty Copeland

Misty CopelandPrincipal Dancer/ American Ballet Theatre

But I do see a silver lining in all of this. I feel like now is the time for us to stop and breathe … and revamp how we connect with more people, how we reach communities that are not often included. To redefine how we reach people.

Q&A w/ Misty Copeland

Misty CopelandPrincipal Dancer/ American Ballet Theatre

I think we can create theaters in communities where there is no more excuse for not having a venue in these places, and allowing these communities to feel like we’re a part of them.

Q&A w/ Misty Copeland

Misty CopelandPrincipal Dancer/ American Ballet Theatre

Sometimes it just helps to just see somebody that looks like you.

Rissi PalmerCountry Singer, founder of "Color Me Country"

No matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep your head up and handle it.

TupacMusician

Compared with other forms, ballet — the rich uncle on the dance family tree — is where much of the money and institutional power reside.

Gia KourlasDance Critic at The New York Times

This art form that I love is undernourished and undervalued, full of inequity among forms and an uneven balance of power among funders, presenters, choreographers and — always last, though hopefully not for long — dancers.

Gia KourlasDance Critic at The New York Times

The grit in my aesthetic is my agency—my child’s whisper and command for a more humane, liberated and compassionate reality.

Marjani Forté-SaundersChoreographer and Harkness Promise Award Recipient

It is also about lived experiences. In a properly constituted society, women wouldn’t do disproportionate amounts of child care work, but in this society they do. As a result, when you marginalize women from public life or roles in leadership, you are overweighting the experience of the non-primary caregiver — so is it an accident that we did bailouts for big corporations before we did any kind of child care help? If there were more women with young children in the Senate, it’s hard to think the Senate would make exactly the same decisions and have the same priorities it does now.

Anand GiridharadasAuthor of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.”

One of the great ironies of the fashion industry is that while it caters to and profits from women, it has never felt like an industry that supports them.

Carly CushnieFashion Designer

I am on a personal mission to help women, in particular, take charge of their financial lives. We will never have full equality if we don’t have financial equality and I want to help us get there. Let’s face it, it’s not rocket science – anyone can understand their financial situation – you just need the right person to explain it all to you (and maybe a good glass of wine.)

‘Celebrity Hacks’ from Alyssa Rapp’s Leadership & Life Hacks

Tracy ByrnesFinancial Advisor/ UBS

Men are so often paid and compensated on the potential that they show, not necessarily what they’ve done and women are so often paid on what they’ve actually done — which normally I would say, we outperform what our contract was.

Megan RapinoeU.S. Women’s National Soccer Player

In that time there were not often two creators and not many women, either. It was hard for the system to understand that I wasn’t just [Paul Lightfoot’s] muse. Maybe sometimes he was my muse!

Sol LeónChoreographer and Former Artistic Advisor/ Nederlands Dans Theater

A lot of practices need to be questioned in ballet culture. It’s also societal expectations like motherhood & family. We’re seeing this now in the pandemic where overwhelmingly it’s women who are leaving the workforce bc they are the ones who are taking care of their families.

Bradford ChinDance educator, choreographer, performer, and researcher

I know that women are more inclusive than mercurial, more patient than impatient, are more respectful than abrasive.

Christine Lagarde President of the European Central Bank

You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

Michelle Obama Former First Lady of the United States

Ballet is a very traditional art form and is generally cautious about change, but I think this pandemic has pushed us forward in terms of how to reach our audience. Events of the last few months have also forced us to ask bigger questions and made us aware of ways we can be more inclusive and make people feel more a part of it.

Francesca HaywardPrincipal Dancer at Royal Ballet

I wish that an artistic director would announce the end of season programming, that anodyne calculus designed to appeal to a dwindling subscriber base. The older white demographic has long been the economic backbone of the American theater. But for reasons financial, cultural and democratic, the future depends on a more inclusive embrace.

Charles McNultyTheater Critic, LA Times

Companies that don’t have a venue and therefore aren’t burdened by significant overhead may have an advantage in winning back reluctant theatergoers and in converting new ones. Work that can’t be found elsewhere, that is tailored not to the general marketplace but to specific communities, offers unique incentive.

Charles McNultyTheater Critic, LA Times

In the theater of the not-so-distant future, companies that place artistic imperatives over institutional obligations will be better situated to reach new audiences. If this means fewer offerings of higher quality, I think the tradeoff will be welcome. Why should the arts follow the madness of the rest of the economy in worshipping an ever-expanding GDP? The days of business plan theater are over.

Charles McNultyTheater Critic, LA Times

But ballet is beset by serious ailments that threaten its future in this country: American dancers are less likely than ever to hold the top rank in American companies. African Americans have dismal prospects of inclusion — of all of the nation’s performing arts, none is more segregated than ballet. And the companies are so cautious in their programming that they have effectively reduced an art form to a rotation of over-roasted chestnuts that no one can justifiably croon about.

Sarah KaufmanDance Critic, The Washington Post

Ballet suffers from a serious lack of confidence that is only growing more and more paralyzing.

Sarah KaufmanDance Critic, The Washington Post

Nowadays, the shaky economics of ballet drive the field continuously toward a standardized repertoire.

Sarah KaufmanDance Critic, The Washington Post

“I turned upon her and caught her by the throat. I did my best to kill her. . . . Had I not killed her, she would have killed me.”

Virginia Woolf, of the self-abnegating voice in her headWriter

Where is the creativity in arts leadership, and who is championing change? Now is the chance to make significant and lasting changes industry wide. For the first time in recent history, all of the arts share a common problem, which presents a transformative opportunity to seek a new business model that can benefit all genres and move the industry into the twenty-first century.

Zenetta S. DrewExecutive Director, Dallas Black Dance Theatre

We’re not crying because we can’t get into these spaces, we’re just saying what it’s like for us,” she said. “We don’t want special treatment. We just want the opportunity.

Catina SmithFounder, Just Call Me Chef

There’s been moments that I’ve said, ‘I’m done with this,’ but I think, ‘If I stop, then how’s the next generation going to get there?’

Tanya HollandExecutive Chef and Owner, Brown Sugar Kitchen

There are moments in real time when you’re offering something — on a stage in a dais, in an interview — where you become aware: ‘I’m going to experience a lot of vitriol for this’…I have to say, for this particular moment, I had not anticipated that because it was a framing that I have used many times before.

Ayanna PressleyU.S. Representative for Massachusetts

[I have] an interesting relationship with the word ‘power,’ and all I can think of is I just hope in my lifetime, I can help more women make more money. Financial stability is freedom.

Reese WitherspoonActress

We have to turn to our many talented girls and women to tackle the challenges we face today.

Mariya Gabriel Bulgarian politician

For dancers who exercise agency, crossing or confronting a ballet master can result in retaliation like verbal belittling or intimidation, and being presented as a “problem” to the director, affecting casting and ultimately their career trajectory.

Theresa Ruth HowardDEI Consultant and Writer

This is an idea whose time has not only come, but one that is an elegant solution to the epidemic we’re in right now.

Kirsten GillibrandNew York Senator on Paid Parental Leave

If you can teach, you can coach. As far as the women, it was time. It was time for that door to be knocked down and allow them because they’ve been putting in time, and they’re very, very qualified. The ones we have are overly qualified.

Bruce AriansHead Coach, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

These women aren’t working from home; they’re living from work.

Bonnie HammerNBCUniversal Content Studios Chair

Are you walking? Are you moving through time and space? Then you are dancing.

Twyla TharpChoreographer

Without accountability and transparency, pledges aren’t enough. There must be an emphasis on addressing the reasons that women do not have access and opportunity in the industry.

Dr. Stacy L. SmithFounder & Director, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California

I like playing complicated people. I didn’t get into this to be a handbag to a man’s story.

Christina MiliotiActress

It’s not enough to shatter the glass ceiling. You have the clear the glass.

Julie Kedzie

Female leadership is more necessary now than it ever was. We need to allow someone with the insight and perspective of someone who has been kept out of the halls of power, to create more inroads for other people

Jeri Lynne JohnsonFounder & Artistic Director of Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra

There are some really amazing women out there. I look at it and I think: ’Wow, its 2021. What are we waiting for?’

Speranza ScappucciItalian conductor

“Let this moment resonate with women across the world….It’s time for you to claim your power. Claim your voice, sing your song, tell your stories. It will make us a better place. Your turn.”

Debbie Allen-while accepting the Governer‘s Award at the Emmy’s

We owe it to younger dancers not to stay silent.

Georgina PazcoguinNYCB Soloist and Author, "Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina"

About The Dance Data Project^®

We promote equity in all aspects of classical ballet by providing a metrics based analysis through our data base while showcasing women led companies, festivals, competitions, venues, special programs and initiatives. We focus on artists of merit: choreographers, photographers, lighting, costume, set designers, and commissioned composers.

We invite you to learn more about our organization, mission, our methods, and the results of our decades of advocacy.

Learn More About Us

Research & Data

We encourage you to collaborate with us—let us know about special initiatives, or call our attention to areas for study or a company, artist, festival, competition or venue we haven’t discovered yet. We want to know what topics you think are important for further, in-depth research. Drop us a line. Our latest research is looped in below.

Global Ballet Leadership Report

Published On: 12/09/21

Since 2019, Dance Data Project® (DDP) has annually produced its Artistic and Executive Leadership Report, analyzing the gender distribution of leadership at the largest U.S. ballet companies, which DDP defines as organizations that have both roots in classical ballet and professional performing companies. This Report expands that research to analyze the gender distribution of leadership at ballet companies around the globe.

For this study, Dance Data Project® compiled a list of 125 ballet companies, supplemented by DDP’s list of the Largest 50 U.S. Ballet Companies, which is updated annually and published in the Artistic and Executive Leadership Report. Together, this is a sample of 175 ballet companies from 56 countries, representing the most prominent ballet companies around the world. To combat the Eurocentrism of ballet and DDP’s own bias as a U.S.-based organization, additional time was given to researching ballet companies in Asia, Africa, South America, and Central America. DDP advisors were also consulted to provide as complete a survey as possible.

The Report’s key findings include:

Of 179 artistic directors of major ballet companies, 59 are women (33%), while 119 are men (66%), and 1 is gender expansive (0.6%).
Similarly, of artistic directors of the Largest 50 U.S. ballet companies, there are 15 women (29%) and 36 men (71%).
Of the artistic directors at the largest 26 ballet companies globally, each with 75+ dancers, 9 are women (35%) and 17 are men (65%).
In each of the years 2018 – 2021, men have accounted for the majority of newly appointed artistic directors.
Three of the seven announced new artistic directors for 2022 and later are women (43%), a higher rate than any of the years 2018 – 2021. (Subject to change as more transitions are announced for 2022, 2023, and 2024.)

View the Report

Global Resident Choreographers Data Byte 2022

Published on: 1/25/2022

With this Data Byte, Dance Data Project® examines the role of resident choreographers at prominent dance companies for the third year annually. For the first time, this research analyzes 270 companies, a significant increase from the 143 companies previously studied.

View Data Byte

DDP Announcements

Oct 13, 2021

DDP Finds Massive Funding Gap Between Contemporary Dance V. Ballet in the U.S. but Determines Leadership of Contemporary Dance Companies is Much More Gender Equitable

Dance Data Project® (DDP) today released its third annual Artistic & Executive Leadership Report, doubling the scope of ballet companies surveyed to 100 and, for the first time, including compensation analysis for associate artistic directors and other highly paid individuals, in addition to previously surveyed artistic and executive directors.

DDP Talks To…

Choreographer Profile: Hope Boykin

Choreographer Profile: Hope Boykin Tell us a bit about your background, as a dancer, a company member, but now also as a choreographer. I was born in Durham, NC. Studied with Jennifer Potts and Nina Wheeler. They both were very supportive of me, and worked to introduce me to as much dance as possible. I received my first of three scholarships from ADF (American Dance Festival) where my eyes were opened to modern dance, the pioneers, and the importance of history and the ability to make change with the art I love. Those experiences prepared me for what was to...

Full Interview

DDP Talks To Tess Sinke (Creative Director) & Andrew Hoekstra (Executive Director) - Deos Contemporary Ballet

DDP Talks To: Tess Sinke (Creative Director) & Andrew Hoekstra (Executive Director) Deos Contemporary Ballet Tess, tell us about your background/personal story. I was four when I saw The Nutcracker for the first time. I fell in love. I have a vivid memory of the first time I ever choreographed something in my mind. On my way home from pre-ballet, my mom played “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper. Over the years with a little persuasion, my sisters became my first ballet troupe. For career day in middle school, no one understood how my black sweater, dance sneakers and clip...

Full Interview

Photo Credit: Rosalie O’Connor

DDP Talks To Laurel Winton (Founder & ED) - DanceAspen

DDP Talks To: Laurel Winton (Founder & Executive Director) DanceAspen Photo Credit: Rosalie O’Connor 1. Tell us about your background/personal story. I grew up in San Francisco and was raised in the Haight Ashbury by an artist mother and lawyer father. I fell in love with dance once I started performing in the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker and received a full merit scholarship as I progressed in the School. I danced for Pennsylvania Ballet for one year (now Philadelphia Ballet) before joining the Joffrey Ballet for five years. I competed as a senior soloist in the International Ballet Competition in...

Full Interview

DDP Talks To... Sanna Nordin-Bates

DDP Talks To… Sanna Nordin-Bates about Perfectionism and Autonomy in Ballet In this DDP Talks To… interview, DDP Founder & President Liza Yntema sits down with Associate Professor Sanna Nordin-Bates of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences. Sanna shares her insights, based on extensive research, on the perfectionistic qualities of ballet dancers and how we can encourage autonomy in an environment that frequently leads to conformity. You can learn more about Sanna and her research here....

Full Interview

DDP Talks To... Jennifer Sommers

DDP Talks To… Jennifer Sommers about Houston Ballet’s Commitment to Student Safety This DDP Talks To… walks through Houston Ballet’s initiatives to support and protect its students. With attention paid to both summer intensive safety and policies for year-round students, this interview serves to wrap up the summer and give students, parents, and companies a framework to follow for the new school year. How do you prioritize student safety during the summer program? During the summer (and the school year!) our responsibility is to the dancers as whole people The reason they are coming here is to develop their physicality...

Full Interview

Resources

2020/2021
Season Updates

An up-to-date listing of domestic
and international company
programming statuses.

Learn More

Covid-19 Resources

A frequently updated list of resources regarding how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting those in the arts, and ways to mitigate the troubles caused.

Learn More

Scene from Rock-a-Bye, Choreography by Penny Saunders, Courtesy of BalletX—Photographer: Candice DeTore

Ballet Leadership Across the World

2020-2021 SEASON OVERVIEW NOW AVAILABLE

GLOBAL CONVERSATIONS:
NAVIGATING CHALLENGING TIMES

BLACK, BRILLIANT, AND A BALLERINA, DDP TEAM MEMBER JENESIS WILLIAMS WEIGHS IN ON SYSTEMIC RACISM IN CLASSICAL DANCE

USEFUL RESOURCES FROM
THE DANCE DATA PROJECT ^®

THE DANCE DATAPROJECT ^® RESEARCH

DANCE DATA PROJECT ^® ADVOCACY

DDP is a proud co-host at this year's
Women in Dance Leadership Conference.

October 13-15, 2022

Chicago, IL

2019-2020 Season Overview Now Available

Global Conversations:
Navigating Challenging Times

Global Conversations:
The Creative Process

Black, Brilliant, and a Ballerina, DDP Team Member Jenesis Williams Weighs in on Systemic Racism in Classical Dance

Useful Resources From
The Dance DATA Project ^®

The Dance DATAProject^®
Research

Dance DATA Project^®
Advocacy