April 30th: South Arts: Professional Development & Artistic Planning Grants, April 30th: South Arts: Express Grants, May 6th: Doris Duke Foundation Grant, May 7th: South Arts Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant, May 27th: Dancemakers Residency, June 1st: Miami DanceMakers
Dance Data Project® Founder & President Liza Yntema wrote an OpEd for The Philadelphia Inquirer about Pennsylvania Ballet’s decision to honor their female founder with a three-program series of works choreographed entirely by men.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/13135400/YR27MK3KEJEYRAYHCSLDYEON4Q.jpg9331400dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2021-03-31 10:54:412021-03-31 15:48:43The Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania Ballet dishonors women by erasing them from their new season | Opinion
“Men who kill women do not suddenly kill women, they work up to killing women.”
— Caroline Criado Perez, author of “Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men”
Sarah Everard in London. Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan and Daoyou Feng in Atlanta.
Eight women, two continents apart, killed in the space of two weeks. The suspects in both cases are men.
In London, Ms. Everard disappeared while walking home from a friend’s house, and was found dead a week later. A police officer was charged with kidnapping and murdering her.
In Atlanta, a gunman stormed three massage parlors and shot and killed eight people — seven of them women, six of them Asian — raising speculation that the attack was racially motivated. A suspect was arrested that same evening.
While the details of the two cases differ significantly, experts suggest that the current available evidence points to a potential commonality: misogyny. And, in light of the two events, activists in Britain and in the United States have urged the authorities to treat misogyny as a greater threat to national security, even upgraded to the level of a hate crime.
In the days after Ms. Everard’s body was found and protests calling for deeper social change grew across the United Kingdom, the British government announced an experimental pilot program (though there is no fixed start date yet) that would categorize cases of gender-based violence and harassment motivated by misogyny as hate crimes.
“Across the country, women everywhere are looking to us not just to express sympathy with their concerns, but to act,” Baroness Helena Kennedy, a member of the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament, said during a debate on the policy. “Stop telling them to stay at home and be careful, and start finding those responsible for the violence.”
To read the full article, click here. You can also get the In Her Words newsletter in your inbox, by signing up here.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/13140405/Screen-Shot-2019-12-17-at-12.41.18.png5321018dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2021-03-29 10:20:432021-03-29 10:20:43The New York Times In Her Words: Misogyny Fuels Violence Against Women. Should It Be a Hate Crime?
In 2018, Zoé Emilie Henrot and eight other dancers suddenly found themselves unemployed when their Twin Cities–based company transitioned to a school-only model just weeks before their season was supposed to start. They had two options: go their separate ways or band together. Joining forces, they created Ballet Co.Laboratory, an artist-led company in St. Paul, Minnesota, with an inventive repertoire and an unconventional business structure. Since its founding, Ballet Co.Laboratory has presented original works like Nutcracker in Wonderland (a new spin on the holiday classic), The Snow Queen and Remembering the Little Prince, as well as premieres by emerging choreographers. The company’s dual-contract structure also provides its dancers with administrative employment, whether in management, communications, development or teaching—a framework that became especially useful in keeping the dancers employed during the pandemic.
Pointe sat down with Henrot, the company’s artistic director, to talk about Ballet Co.Laboratory, its recent Laboratory II performances, and how the company’s distinctive structure helped prepare its dancers to face pandemic challenges head-on.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/13140405/Screen-Shot-2019-12-17-at-12.41.18.png5321018dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2021-03-29 10:04:492021-03-29 10:04:49Pointe: Ballet Co.Laboratory’s Unique Business Model Has Kept Its Dancers Securely Employed Throughout the Pandemic
On Thursday, March 25th, the Philanthropy Women team welcomed attendees and honorees alike to the first Feminist Giving IRL Top Tier Awards Ceremony. Celebrating the exceptional leadership of the interviewees from the past year, this year’s FGIRL Top Tier winners are Elizabeth Yntema (Dance Data Project), Dr. Tessie San Martin (Plan International USA), and Sara Monteabaro (MIT Solve).
The FGIRL series started two years ago, inspired by Gloria Steinem’s idea that “people should be linked, not ranked.”
“I wanted to be able to show a huge collection of diverse women,” said Editor-in-Chief Kiersten Marek. “All of the women we’re celebrating today, I see as the solution to breaking the silence and sharing that truth.”
Elizabeth Yntema on Gender Equity in Dance
Yntema describes a “glass cliff syndrome” in the dance world, where women are “pushed into” leadership because no one else is willing to step up. Her “Aha!” moment comes from sitting in a ballet theater and realizing 70% of the audience was female, as well as 70% of the donors to the program–however, female choreographers were missing from the industry.
“I’m Scottish and Dutch and tend to get really mad when people say, ‘Go over there, sit down, write a check, look pretty, and don’t leave your lane,’” she said. Yntema set out to build out a database of female donors, choreographers, and leaders within the dance industry–what would eventually become the Dance Data Project.
When asked “Why ballet?” Yntema identifies two main reasons this is her target area: Ballet is “where the money is in dance,” and the lack of female representation is something Yntema feels like she can fix.
She stressed that she wants to make an impact in climate change, gender violence, and any number of social justice issues, but knows that she can enact real change in this industry.
“Once people realize that this art form, which is occupied by women at every level, is populated with unfunded and underfunded women, there will be real change,” Yntema said. This turned out to be an overestimation, and her efforts have now switched to advocacy and education programs to bolster women in the dance industry.
Read the full recap here and watch the Top Tier Awards panel here.
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— Megan Rapinoe, a professional U.S. Soccer player
Megan Rapinoe is a two-time World Cup champion who has played to sold-out stadiums around the globe; what she has in common with nearly every American woman is that she’s underpaid.
On Wednesday, Ms. Rapinoe testified during a hearing held by Representative Carolyn B. Maloney to examine economic harm caused by gender inequalities, particularly for women of color.
Today is All Women’s Equal Pay Day, Ms. Maloney said. But it’s not Equal Pay Day for all women.
Black women would have to work until Aug. 3, 2021, to earn what men made in 2020. For Latina women, the date doesn’t come until Oct. 2.
“This is a disgrace,” Ms. Maloney said. “And it has long-term consequences for women and families.”
Wage discrimination isn’t limited to any one sector or income level.
Take Ms. Rapinoe, whose fight for equal pay has become something of a calling card for the U.S. women’s team, and who played a central role in the team’s lawsuit on unequal pay filed in 2019.
“One cannot simply outperform inequality,” she said. “Or be excellent enough to escape discrimination.”
If it can happen to me, she said, “it can — and it does — happen to every person marginalized by gender.”
In Her Words looked at the history of Equal Pay Day, the reasons for the wage gap and what can be done to close it.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/13140405/Screen-Shot-2019-12-17-at-12.41.18.png5321018dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2021-03-25 14:17:112021-03-25 14:17:56The New York Times In Her Words: In 25 Years, the Pay Gap Has Shrunk by Just 8 Cents
By Makhaila Anderson, Queens University News Service
As a dancer, Raven Barkley understands the power of gestures, symbols and movement. All literally guide her life’s journey. She says the poetry of Amanda Gorman and the election of Kamala Harris as vice president show young people of color — all people, really — that they can dream big.
“We still have a lot more work to do as a nation but this is definitely a start,” Barkley, who performs with the Charlotte Ballet, said in a recent interview. “I’ve seen a change in the confidence of our younger generation and how the stars in their eyes light up knowing that they can do that too. They can be in these leadership roles, they can sit at the table, they can discuss the topics that need to be discussed to make a change in our society.”
“I am a firm believer that representation matters,” she said. “If we don’t see women of color or even people of color in these positions, these leadership positions, then we don’t see what the possibility is.”
African-American mentors play a significant role in Barkley’s life. She trained at the Dance Theatre of Harlem in New York City, a company founded by Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer in the New York City Ballet. The Harlem company is the world’s first Black classical ballet company, and she credits its leaders, Andrea Long, Virginia Johnson, and Robert Garland, for their role in mentoring her.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/13140405/Screen-Shot-2019-12-17-at-12.41.18.png5321018dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2021-03-25 13:59:012021-03-25 14:18:23QCityMetro.com: Charlotte Ballet’s Raven Barkley on the power of mentoring
Dance Data Project® (DDP) today announces the release of Global Conversations: From the Ground Up, the fourth round in a series of virtual interviews. Round 4 re-imagines a more sustainable and equitable system for teaching, marketing, and branding ballet and features 10 conversations with a roster of majority women leaders of national dance and presenting service organizations, as well as artistic and executive directors, dancers, and choreographers.
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For Women’s History Month, Ladies of Hip Hop (LOHH) and Dance Data Project® (DDP) are coming together to highlight the contributions and lives of women in Hip Hop and ballet that are often overshadowed.
Margaret Fuhrer:
Well, I am sad to say that our next segment is not going to make us any less angry. It concerns another under-covered aspect of the pandemic’s effects on the arts world. Liza Yntema and Hannah McCarthy from the Dance Data Project®, more friends of the pod, they recently wrote an article about why the “shecession”—which is a maybe too cutesy, but we’ll go with it, term for the way COVID-related job losses have pushed more women than men from the workforce—that’s hit the arts community especially hard. And there’s been a lot of talk bigger-picture about the pandemic’s disproportionate effect on women. There’s been a lot of talk about how the arts and culture sector has been devastated by the pandemic. But we have to start talking about how those two problems are connected. Because women are overrepresented in our field. And if the arts are going to make a real comeback, post pandemic, securing and ensuring better support for women in the arts and particularly for women of color is going to be a really important part of the puzzle.
Lydia Murray:
The blog post pointed out that women are overrepresented in the working class of the arts world, and gave the example that 65% of lower and mid-tier employees in the arts and culture sector in New York are women. And men tend to be in leadership positions, and they tend to have better pay and better job security. And the burdens of home, elder and childcare tend to disproportionately fall to women. Without support, women’s careers are going to lag, especially given the effects of the pandemic. And this has been reported for some time now, but of the net 140,000 jobs that were lost in December of 2020, all were held by women. And the jobs in the arts that were most vulnerable to furlough or layoff were primarily held by women of color, typically making minimum wage with no benefits or jobs security. This is kind of a stats-heavy intro, but the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that two in four mothers, and three in four black mothers, are breadwinners for their families, which really underscores the importance of paid family leave.
Courtney Escoyne:
I think also, especially looking at the statistics in terms of men largely being in more leadership positions than women, it’s not just that that doesn’t make sense for the representation of our field—the fact that there is no comprehensive childcare leave, like paid childcare leave, that actually largely is going to be what is preventing women from being able to go into those positions. Not because they can’t do both, but because the people who are making the decisions about who to hire are likely to have these implicit biases that, Oh, someone who is male and doesn’t have a child that they’re responsible for caring for, is going to be able to devote more to the organization. Whereas women might go off and have babies. It’s like we’re 50 years ago in how this is being thought about.
And the solution is so obviously there needs to be comprehensive childcare made available just across the board to everyone, not just women, but men as well. Men need to be incentivized to stay home if they have a kid at home. There’s just so many things here that even though this doesn’t on the surface seem like an arts world story, this is affecting the way that our leadership is going forward, and continues to affect it.
To listen to the episode, click here. You can find a transcript of the episode here.