New York Times: Pandemic Will ‘Take Our Women 10 Years Back’ in the Workplace
/0 Comments/in #YesThisIsAnArtsStory/by dancedataWHO: Innovations in addressing violence against women in the context of COVID-19
/0 Comments/in Pay Equity, Transparency and Safety/by dancedata25 November 2020
The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, marked every year on 25 November, is a global advocacy effort aimed at preventing and eliminating violence against women. Women worldwide continue to face unacceptable levels of violence.
WHO estimates that nearly 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner. The COVID-19 pandemic has further contributed to increasing risks of violence, particularly domestic violence against women.
From 25 November to 10 December, during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, WHO and partners will be raising awareness about the global need to prevent and respond to violence against women, and provide support to survivors.
Join us
On 26 November, join WHO, representatives from select countries and partners for a virtual panel discussion on “Innovations in addressing violence against women in the context of COVID-19”. Hear how countries and partners are implementing innovative ways to continue to provide services for survivors of violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speakers to include: WHO Deputy Director General Zsuzsanna Jakab and representatives from Ministries of Health and service providers in Argentina, India, Iraq and Spain.
Register for the virtual event
Read the full article here.
New York Times: Stitched Into Neighborhoods, Dance Studios Battle to Stay Open
/0 Comments/in #YesThisIsAnArtsStory/by dancedataHyperallergic: Metropolitan Museum Issues Second Round of Layoffs and Furloughs, Reducing Staff by 20%
/0 Comments/in #YesThisIsAnArtsStory, Other Arts & Related Fields/by dancedataHyperallergic: After SFMOMA Cuts Salaries by 20%, Employees Call Out Major Loans Granted to Executives
/0 Comments/in #YesThisIsAnArtsStory, Other Arts & Related Fields/by dancedataHyperallergic: In Abrupt Announcement, Philadelphia Museum of Art Closes and Furloughs Staff
/0 Comments/in #YesThisIsAnArtsStory, Other Arts & Related Fields/by dancedataStance on Dance: Thinking about Western Dance Culture
/0 Comments/in Pay Equity, Transparency and Safety, News/by dancedataAn Interview with Bradford Chin
by Emmaly Wiederholt
16 November 2020
Can you tell me a little about your dance history – what shaped who you are today?
My name is Bradford, and I use he/him/his pronouns. I am a San Francisco native, which is becoming increasingly rare and comes with its own privileges. I did not take my first ballet or modern classes until I was a freshman in college at Cal State Long Beach. I started as a pre-med biology major. I was introduced to and encouraged to dance at the end of high school by Nina Mayer, but as far as what people would consider “formal training” in Western dance culture, it wasn’t until college. Somehow, I got into the program when I auditioned to minor, which happened to be the same audition to major, and then I switched.
I had a very conservative Christian upbringing coupled with my experience as an Asian American. Undergrad, for me, was a lot of struggle, both internally and externally. I was trying to navigate my sexuality without having role models or support. Doing that alone, along with not having familial support on my new dance journey, was really hard. But it also felt like the right path, and those experiences informed my interest in the minoritized student experience in Western dance culture. I didn’t have the vocabulary to iterate or understand the questions I was dealing with at the time. It’s only after I’ve graduated and continued with this line of work that I’ve been able to contextualize it.
As a freelance choreographer, my questioning revolves around Western dance performance practices, conventions of Western dance theater, why we do the funny things we do, what is it about the choreographer/dancer/audience relationship, etc. Unpacking that led me into questioning how educational practices in dance continue to perpetuate those practices in performance.
I have had the privilege of working with marginalized student populations, like students from very low-income households, people of color, and people with disabilities, which has significantly impacted my pedagogy and how I consider equity in dance. I’m currently a dancer and teaching artist with AXIS Dance Company, a physically integrated dance company which is one of the world’s leaders in inclusive dance education. Physically integrated means we have dancers with and without physical disabilities.
All these experiences continue to build on my questioning of Western dance practices, and now I’m going into the next iteration of these research interests: How does inequality impact the aesthetics of Western concert dance?
Read the entire article here.
Ludwig van Toronto: IN MEMORIAM | With The Passing Of Patricia Beatty Canada Has Lost A Titan Of Dance
/0 Comments/in News/by dancedataBy Paula Citron
21 November 2020
Choreographer, educator, writer, collaborator, producer, dancer – Patricia Beatty’s influence has touched generations of contemporary dance artists who work in every corner of this country. Inspired by American dance pioneer Martha Graham, Beatty became a pioneer of modern dance in Canada. She is credited as being among the first to introduce Graham technique to this country.
As a youngster, the overly energetic, Toronto-born Beatty was sent to Jean Macpherson’s creative dance classes for children, followed by ballet studies with Gladys Forrester and Gweneth Lloyd. As Beatty told me in a 1998 interview, she felt hemmed in by ballet’s autocratic system. Her liberation came when she attended Bennington College in Vermont whose liberal arts curriculum stressed creativity. Although she had never seen contemporary dance, Beatty enrolled in the dance program as a performance and choreography major under teacher William Bales. She also attended the summer programs at Connecticut College, where the New York modern dance luminaries gathered.
After graduation she studied at the José Limón School, but switched to the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, mentored by Bertram Ross and Helen McGehee. As she said, “I became enamoured with the modern dance principle of internal, organic movement. I changed from Limón to Graham technique because I needed to be more grounded than was possible with the lighter Limón style.”
Read the full article here.