It’s hard to drive through the Valley without seeing a building or sculpture that’s been touched by the hands of Bill Tonnesen. As a landscape architect, designer, and artist, Tonnesen has been a visible presence in the metro Phoenix creative scene for two decades. He’s well known for his eclectic plans and projects, some of which, like a Phoenix memorial to the Jewish Holocaust, never moved from concept to reality, while others flourished, like the Lavatory, a provocative, “toilet-themed” immersive art museum that opened in November 2018 and often attracts younger people who post photos of the experience on social media. He’s been written about in the New York Times, Arizona Republic, and Phoenix Business Journal. People who have met Tonnesen describe him as wickedly intelligent, odd, and imposing. (In a self-published book, Tonnesen: Twelve Months to Fame and Fortune in the Art World, Tonnesen once said he resolved to be the world’s “third most famous artist” within a year.) Control is important to Tonnesen, and he has a lot of it – both creatively, in the local art scene, and financially, owning properties throughout metro Phoenix.
For at least a decade, rumors of sexual harassment have followed the 66-year-old artist. People long have accused Tonnesen of using his position in the arts world to exploit the young, vulnerable women with whom he often surrounds himself. Last week, a Facebook post describing one such incident went viral in the Phoenix community, generating thousands of views and hundreds of shares and comments. The Lavatory has since temporarily closed, and Tonnesen’s own Instagram has been deleted.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/13141955/DDP_logo_Primary.png26524000Isabelle Vailhttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngIsabelle Vail2019-09-09 07:32:182019-09-09 07:32:19Phoenix New Times: More Than a Dozen Women Accuse Art Maven Bill Tonnesen of Sexual Misconduct
SOUTH AFRICAN choreographer Dada Masilo’s Giselle is bringing ballet into the 21st century. The Soweto-born choreographer and dancer has taken the classic favourite and thoroughly shaken it up so audiences can anticipate the unexpected.
The original ballet, which premiered in Paris in 1841, tells the story of innocent peasant girl Giselle who falls in love with the disguised nobleman Albrecht. When she discovers the truth about her lover and that he will never be hers, Giselle is consumed with grief and dies of a broken heart.
When a remorseful Albrecht visits Giselle’s grave, he evokes the wrath of the Wilis (the spirits of girls who have been betrayed in love) and they exact a heavy penance. Masilo, whose reinterpretations of other classics including Romeo and Juliet, Carmen and Swan Lake built her an international reputation, felt driven to create a new Giselle.
“It’s the challenge of looking at the ballet from a different perspective and dealing with issues that are relevant now,” she said. “In these stories we are dealing with power struggles, war, greed, domestic violence, rape.
“These are the things I see every day. I’m revisiting the classical ballets to tackle these issues and to start a dialogue with people. To ask, ‘What are we doing about this?’ I begin with study of the original work. It’s important to know the rules before breaking them.
“In the traditional ballet there is a clear narrative, but the characters are rather two-dimensional.
“We have some of the best costumes. Come, look,” Tatyana Mazur says as she guides me to the back closet of the small dance studio she runs with her husband, Roman Mazur, in the corner of an unassuming strip-mall in Buffalo Grove, Ill.
Inside, I am met with an explosion of velvet, tulle and satin. The dozens of dresses, tutus and elaborate headpieces stored here comprise a rare collection of Soviet-era dance costumes, still in use more than 40 years after they were made.
12 years ago, when I was 14, I wore one of these costumes. The bodices, bejeweled with hundreds of hand sewn sequins stood in stark contrast to the minimalist costumes of modern ballet productions. The faux gemstones may have seemed large and gaudy up close, but onstage they subtly caught the stage lights, illuminating dancers as they moved. Every decorative element was exaggerated to be visible from the last row of any theater.
Many of the pieces in Tatyana’s collection are delicate and noticeably weak from years of wear. Decades of sweat stains have discolored the fabric lining and the once vibrant satin has faded to pastel. The velvet pulls at the seams, worn-out and frayed. Columns of sizing hooks leave a record of differently shaped Russian, Ukrainian and now American dancers.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/13142244/1819_CltBallet_SUBS_Instagram1080_2.jpg10801080dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-09 07:28:312019-09-09 07:28:32New York Times: Want to Feel Like a Russian Ballerina? Start With the Tutu
New York Times: Dallas Opera Cancels Gala Starring Plácido Domingo
By Michael Cooper
5 September 2019
The Dallas Opera canceled its big-ticket March 2020 gala concert with the opera star Plácido Domingo on Thursday amid new accusations that he had sexually harassed multiple women.
The Dallas company, where the Spanish-born Mr. Domingo made his United States debut in 1961 on his way to opera stardom, became the third major American institution to cut ties with him over the recent allegations, joining the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Opera. Mr. Domingo is still scheduled to sing later this month at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; the Met has said it was awaiting the outcome of an investigation by the Los Angeles Opera into the allegations against Mr. Domingo, the company’s general director.
Dallas pulled the plug on its gala after The Associated Press, which reported the first round of mostly anonymous allegations against Mr. Domingo last month, published a new report Thursday in which a singer named Angela Turner Wilson went on the record and accused Mr. Domingo of reaching into her robe and grabbing her bare breast during a makeup call when they were appearing together in Massenet’s “Le Cid” at the Washington Opera in 1999.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/13141955/DDP_logo_Primary.png26524000dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-09 07:26:312019-09-09 07:26:33Dallas Opera Rightfully Takes Action Following Allegations of Sexual Harassment by Domingo
The great choreographer George Balanchine famously said, “Ballet is woman.” But an overwhelming majority of top jobs in classical dance on both the artistic and executive side are held by men, and the artistic vision presented — to a female-dominated audience — is similarly male, including re-treads of sexist stereotypes and an alarming number of ballets that include scenes of sexual violence and degradation.
I founded Dance Data Project four years ago to document and raise awareness about the lack of opportunities for female choreographers as well as the gender imbalance in artistic and administrative leadership in dance organizations. Our research has found that women hold only three of the artistic director jobs in the largest 10 companies in the U.S. (their combined revenue of $435 million exceeds the next 40 combined by approximately $125 million). Despite the fact that girls outnumber boys 20 to one and pay most of the fees in ballet schools, and despite the audience and donor base being 70% women, female artistic directors are paid 68 percent of what their male counterparts earn. The imbalance is even more pronounced when it comes to what you see on stage. For the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 seasons of work in the top 50 ballet companies in the U.S., a stunning 81% and 79% (respectively) of work is choreographed by men.
In 2018–2019, 70% of entire evening programs are exclusively male, and in the upcoming season 62% are — in other words, an exact inverse proportion of audience and donor base to works seen on stage. Eighty-three percent of the most prestigious pieces, full evening ballets, will be by men.
I started DDP because as an audience member and a donor, I couldn’t fathom why all the works I saw were male, why the leadership and commissions and even the panels of experts at company pre- and post-show discussions I have attended featured men only. I sat at a dinner not too long ago, and every single choreographer in a long list mentioned as important, a worthy inspiration for the men on stage, was another man.
Why should we care? Well, ballet globally is a multibillion-dollar industry. In the U.S., tens of thousands of girls and women go off to class, perhaps only a few times, many on an almost daily basis. They are being trained in a culture that enforces compliance, silence, and unquestioning submission to authority. And ballet is just one art form that perpetuates an “impresario” system with little accountability or transparency, and almost no recourse for victims of discrimination or violence. Opera, symphonies, and theater have also been plagued by lack of opportunities for women (especially women and girls of color) and violence against the vulnerable.
Ironically, it was women who originally were the powers in ballet in the United States. As Sharon Basco noted in her 2015 article “Where Are the Women in Ballet?” of the eight ballet companies launched in 1963 with a $7.7 million Ford Foundation grant, most were helmed by women who were ballet school directors. As the budgets grew, however, the women have been pushed out. That is now true even at ballet schools as salaries have risen. When I asked Alexei Moskalenko, assistant artistic director of the Youth America Grand Prix, why the overwhelming majority of the judges at the prestigious international scholarship competition are male, he said, “Well, that is because all the big ballet schools are run by men.”
Figures indicate declining and aging audiences for classical dance (a study by the Wallace Foundation found that only 3% of millennials had seen a classical ballet performance in the previous 12 months) and a real audience appetite for works by and the vision of women. Yet, the system is self-referential, with the hiring for plum commissions doled out on a who-knows-whom basis that reinforces an old boys’ network unchecked by outside rigor or opinions.
In giving the keynote address at Positioning Ballet 2019, the second Ballet Working Conference, an international symposium in the Netherlands, Theresa Ruth Howard, the founder and curator of MoBBallet (Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet), recommended a “12-step recovery program” for ballet, noting toxic ballet culture in which multiple reports of violence against women and lack of opportunities for leadership have been ignored. Howard, as so many critiques have detailed, cited a hierarchal system that enforces unquestioning obedience, particularly from women.
That certainly resonates with my experience. It is commonplace to hear artistic directors of the largest, most influential companies freely opine publicly that women cannot be choreographers, for the most risible, blatantly illogical reasons, including “Women don’t want to choreograph, they just want to have babies and dance” (told to me at a company fundraiser) or this gem from a recent gala, reported by a woman well known for her advocacy for women in finance: “Women cannot choreograph because they are used to being lifted on stage, so they cannot see what’s going on behind them.” Nope, not making it up. Alexei Ratmansky, who as the in-house choreographer for American Ballet Theatre has immense influence, stated on Facebook in 2017 that there is no equality in ballet, and he is fine with that, it is simply part of the tradition and the way things are.
There are some notable and encouraging exceptions in the big companies. An extraordinary and unprecedented 100% of world premieres announced this summer to be featured in American Ballet Theatre’s 2019–2020 season will be work choreographed by women. ABT stands alone among the big companies by investing so heavily in new work. ABT’s Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie has made a multiyear, multilevel commitment to bringing new voices to the stage by working with female choreographers from every level — black box short pieces to full evening main stage productions. This alleviates the anxiety I have heard from so many female choreographers that if they don’t hit it out of the park every single damn time, they will never work again.
However, the most innovative work, which will keep classical dance relevant and younger audiences excited, is being done outside of the big companies, by the second companies in big cities or by regional ballets staging more interesting “contemporary ballet” by women. Smaller companies led by women — BalletX in Philadelphia (Christine Cox), the Cincinnati Ballet (Victoria Morgan) and Dayton Ballet (Karen Russo Burke), the extraordinary Amy Seiwert at Sacramento Ballet, the 40-year veteran Stoner Winslett of Richmond Ballet, as well as newcomer Hope Muir in Charlotte — are producing great work to enthusiastic audiences.
Dance Data Project’s July report did find an encouraging trend: Women are obtaining more commissions to create for the shorter, mixed repertory programs in top 50 companies. Thirty-eight percent of single-act world premieres announced to date for the 2019–2020 season will be by women. In the past season, 2018–2019, 45% of the non–main-stage world premieres were choreographed by women. But both trends underline what dance scholar, Barnard Professor Lynn Garafola has noted: that companies are unwilling to trust women with big, expensive productions.
But to really address disparity in leadership in ballet, we need to change how girls in ballet are encouraged to think of themselves: not as fungible automatons, but as future artists. Eva Stone, who has been a teacher and choreographer for 30 years, persuaded Peter Boal, the artistic director at Pacific Northwest Ballet, to start an intensive in choreography for 14- to 16-year-old girls. Programs like these are critical because girls become serious about ballet at about the same time that they stop speaking in class: a double cultural whammy. And in a lovely gesture, completely upending typical ballet norms, Boal offered up his own choreography to the class for critique and feedback.
So what can we do?
Female audiences, donors, and students continue to support an art form that routinely marginalizes women in all respects. The best chance for real change is for audiences to insist on equity, and to invest their money in companies that are paying women fairly, hiring more women in leadership positions, and showcasing the work of women choreographers. Even female board members who are senior executives at banks and venture capital and accounting firms with active diversity programs often don’t push back. One exception is Alison Quirk, a member of the board of trustees of Boston Ballet. She and another female board member advocated for the establishment of ChoreograpHER at Boston Ballet, a program that showcases choreography by female company members.
Ballet is behind the times and tone deaf. It’s not going to change unless those of us sitting in the seats, board members, critics, and audiences force it to do so. If you want to make an affirmative effort to support female artists, here are some names, besides Twyla Tharp, to look for: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Jessica Lang, Crystal Pite, Helen Pickett, Pam Tanowitz, Melissa Barak, Amy Seiwert, Gemma Bond, Gianna Reisen, Lauren Lovette, Stephanie Martinez, Toni Pimble, Celia Fushille, Virginia Johnson, Penny Saunders.
Liza would like to note that Celia Fushille, Virginia Johnson, and Toni Pimble are three artists she would move up from the “names to look for” list at the end of this Op-Ed and relocate to the paragraph detailing female artistic directors. (See paragraph beginning with, “However, the most innovative work, which will keep classical dance relevant and younger audiences excited, is being done outside of the big companies, by the second companies in big cities or by regional ballets…”.
These women are leading extraordinary companies and initiatives. Celia Fushille leads Smuin Ballet, which was founded by a man but now heavily supports the addition of female work. A founding member and principal dancer-turned-artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, Virginia Johnson is also a leading advocate for African-American girls (and boys) entering the ballet world. Toni Pimble leads Eugene Ballet with major inclusion of female work (much of it her own), setting a standard for companies of the same size in the U.S. to commission more women and level their ratio of male v. female work in every season.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/13142534/IMG_1020.jpg504800Elizabeth Yntemahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngElizabeth Yntema2019-09-06 11:53:432019-11-25 14:44:14Women’s Media Center Features DDP Founder’s Op-Ed
FLOCK, a company founded by a male/female duo of former Hubbard Street Dance Chicago dancers is evidence of the support and mentorship that HSDC artistic director Glenn Edgerton provides his dancers. Co-founder Alice Klock, in particular, has a history of support in her choreographic endeavors from the company. Klock was the winner of Hubbard Street’s International Commissioning Project and was the company’s choreographic fellow in 2017. Co-founder Florian Lochner, too, was a fellow in 2017.
The two branched out together to form Flock that same year, and the company’s mission is rooted in the equity and inclusion that is difficult to find in larger dance companies.
“It is a priority of ours to create work in which the roles of everyone in the creation are balanced. We are very conscious of the tendency in dance to fall back on traditional gender roles. We construct all of our pieces to avoid these and to open up to new definitions of what it means to be vulnerable or strong. When teaching we find a way to invest in everyone in the room equally as we believe everyone has something individual and powerful to share. ”
Watch the Dance Magazine feature of the pair and their company, FLOCK, below:
This is the second entry to my diary, and as my week in residency at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Emerging Female Classical Choreographer Initiative has come to a close, I am looking back on this incredible week reflecting and absorbing all the new information, people and experiences. I was given advice that I cannot wait to put into action starting out in my career, and as a young choreographer.
Walking up to the incredible Sydney Opera House on the first day and every day after that, I was feeling very special and thinking about all the great artists and people who have walked into the same house. Once I arrived at the stage door on the first day, I was introduced to Rehearsal Room 77. A beautiful, cosy studio which I would call my creative space for the week. I was able to focus solely on being a choreographer and putting myself into that mindset, which time hasn’t allowed in the past because of being a dancer taking my main focus during my 5 professional years.
I was able to work with 4 pre-professional dancers and 1 understudy who are all students of Tanya Pearson Coaching Academy. It was interesting for me to work with students and have the freedom to give them my ideas and I admire how much they threw themselves into my piece. It was also a challenge for me to be able to communicate and adapt my ideas in a way which their bodies understood.
As director of the World Choreography Institute, I am often asked if choreography can be taught. My answer is an emphatic “maybe.”
Nature versus nurture in choreography presents the argument: Can creativity be taught, or is it a gift? The jury is out, with research and vociferous opinions coming down on both sides. I tend to come down on the side of “it’s a gift,” and that inspired artistic creation cannot be taught. Structural technique, and methods of analysis, rehearsal, and experimentation can — and should be — taught. Especially in choreography.
Why especially? Because it’s not done. Not enough, anyway. The reasons for this are multifaceted, complex, and exist as much by habit as by economics and logistics. The lack of choreographic training exists in all dance genres, each with its own particular issues, but all tending to put choreographers in the position of producing too many works in too little time.
Creating choreography poses more problems than making new work in any other art form. Painters need canvas, paints, and brushes. Playwrights need paper and pen, or the contemporary equivalent. Composers need knowledge of notation, an instrument, or the ability to hear music in their head. They can work alone. Choreographers need bodies and space. Space is expensive, and dancers should be. And that’s prohibitive, often causing choreographers to premiere works before they are fully cooked.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/13141955/DDP_logo_Primary.png26524000dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-05 13:27:512019-09-05 13:27:54My Times: Arts Beat: Teaching choreography can be a conundrum
Cincinnati Ballet is opening its season with innovative premieres in their Kaplan New Works Series. Year-after-year the evening program brings new works to the stage before excited audiences. Including women in this tradition is a trend for artistic director Victoria Morgan; this year her Kaplan roster is no exception.
The press release for the program detailed the lineup: “The Kaplan New Works Series brings raw, powerful contemporary ballet to the Aronoff Center for the Arts for 11 performances September 12-22. This year’s New Works includes six world premieres.Celebrate the start of the Season with a mix of innovative dance interpreted by some of today’s most talented choreographers, including a trio of female powerhouses. Heather Britt, Cincinnati native and choreographer-extraordinaire, celebrates her 10th anniversary choreographing for Cincinnati Ballet with her emotional piece, When I Still Needed You. She’s joined by internationally renowned choreographer Andrea Schermoly with Swivet, and Sarah Van Patten, longtime San Francisco Ballet principal dancer, presents her new work, Skylight.”
Cincinnati Ballet’s 2018 Kaplan performance included new works from Jennifer Archibald, Taylor Carrasco, Mia Michaels, David Morse, and Myles Thatcher. Thanks to this and other performances including female choreographers, the company was on DDP’s top 10 list for the 2018-2019 season (read the July report here). The announced works for its upcoming season’s programming placed Cincinnati Ballet again on this list for the 2019-2020 season. A stunning 56% of the company’s works announced so far for this season will be choreographed by women, and Cincinnati Ballet is one of the only five companies leading the way with the most inclusive programming in both seasons.
The DDP team looks forward to coverage of this innovative programming in the press and celebrates Morgan and Cincinnati Ballet for another season of empowering (and commissioning) women.
About Cincinnati Ballet
Since 1963, Cincinnati Ballet has been the cornerstone professional ballet company of the region, presenting a bold and adventurous array of classical, full-length ballets and contemporary works. Under the artistic direction of Victoria Morgan, Cincinnati Ballet has become a creative force within the larger dance community, commissioning world premiere works and exploring unique collaborations. With a mission to inspire hope and joy in our community and beyond through the power and passion of dance, Cincinnati Ballet reaches beyond the stage in programs that allow every person in the region to be part of the continued evolution of dance through exhilarating performances, extensive education outreach programs and top-level professional ballet training at Cincinnati Ballet Otto M. Budig Academy.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/13141244/Photo-2-Choreographer-Andrea-Schermoly.png9361583Isabelle Vailhttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngIsabelle Vail2019-09-05 10:20:362019-09-05 10:24:54Cincinnati Ballet Brings Female Work to the Stage in 2019-2020 Season Opener + SIX WORLD PREMIERES
The Illinois Department of Labor is gearing up to help business owners with the new ‘no salary history’ law, which takes effect Sept. 29. The measure prohibits employers from asking applicants what they made in a previous job.
Under the measure, asking about salary history as a way to determine pay could result in a fine.
Michael Kleinik, director of the Illinois Department of Labor, said he’s taking the necessary steps to educate employers and help them avoid those penalties.
“Most companies would have to redo their application process. Probably most applications ask what the past salary is, so they have to get away from that.”
In case of a violation, the Illinois Department of Labor would investigate.
Kleinik said there is additional information on their website. A hotline is available at 312-793-6797 to help answer questions. Kleinek said he’s also working on preparing workshops and other outreach events across the state.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/13142018/Asset-2.png296600dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-03 09:04:372019-09-03 09:04:39NPR Illinois: IL Department Of Labor Prepares For ‘No Salary History’ Rollout