May 6th: Doris Duke Foundation Grant, May 7th: South Arts Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant, May 27th: Dancemakers Residency, June 1st: Miami DanceMakers
"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery
Up to date announcements of company seasons, featured artists and special programming as well as grant of awards such as Princess Grace, or artistic appointments
The Seattle Times: 6 dance performances to catch in the Seattle area in fall 2019
By Moira Macdonald and Megan Burbank
18 September 2019
A classic pointe-shoe ballet; a weekend of work examining masculinity, queerness, race and gender; and an array of new choreography all over town — yes, it’s fall in Seattle and the dance is begun. Here are a few highlights of the season.
…
Locally Sourced
Here’s a welcome rarity at Pacific Northwest Ballet: an evening of all-new work, all from local choreographers. Presenting world-premiere ballets will be Eva Stone, founder/producer of CHOP SHOP: Bodies of Work; Donald Byrd, artistic director of Spectrum Dance Theater and a Tony Award-nominated choreographer (“The Color Purple”); and PNB corps member Miles Pertl, whose work has been seen at the company’s Next Step and PNB School performances. Stone’s work, “Foil,” will be set to music by female composers from centuries past (Nadia Boulanger, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann); Byrd’s, called “Love and Loss,” is set to music by Emmanuel Witzthum, and Pertl’s (as yet untitled) is scored by Jherek Bischoff. Nov. 8-17; Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle; tickets from $37; 206-441-2424, pnb.org — M.M.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/13141413/Pacific-Northwest-Ballet-School-instructor-Eva-Stone-with-inaugural-year-students-of-%E2%80%9CNew-Voices-Choreography-and-Process-for-Young-Women-in-Dance%E2%80%9D-class.-Photo-%C2%A9-Lindsay-Thomas.-.jpg8321450dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-19 09:58:142019-09-19 09:58:16Pacific Northwest Ballet Presents Eva Stone’s Choreography & It Features Music By Women, Too
Ballet Hispánico, the nation’s premier Latino dance organization, returns to the Apollo stage on Friday and Saturday, November 22 and 23, 2019 at 8:00pm with a program that continues its commitment to staging works by female, Latinx choreographers. Ballet Hispánico is sponsored by GOYA, which has sponsored the company since 1977.
In the World Premiere of Tiburones, Anabelle Lopez Ochoa reimagines the world of the The Sharks (from the award-winning musical West Side Story) from a Latinx and gender fluid perspective. Ochoa will embrace non-gender specific roles while deconstructing stereotypes and giving new life to an ever-appropriated cultural icon.
In this restaging of Nací (2009), choreographer Andrea Miller draws from the duality of her Spanish and Jewish-American background and employs her distinctive movement style to investigate the Sephardic culture of Spain, with its Moorish influence and profound sense of community, despite hardship.
Con Brazos Abiertos (2017) is a fun and frank look at life caught between two cultures. Michelle Manzanales utilizes iconic Mexican symbols that she was reluctant to embrace as a Mexican-American child growing up in Texas, to speak to the immigrant experience. Intertwining folkloric representations with humor and music that ranges from Julio Iglesias to Rock en Español, the work brings life to a Latino dilemma.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/13141431/Scene-From-Mammatus-Choreography-by-Annabelle-Lopez-Ochoa-Courtesy-of-Joffrey-Ballet-Photo-by-Cheryl-Mann5.jpg34854790dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-19 09:53:222019-09-19 09:54:04Broadway World: Anabelle Lopez Ochoa Presents the World Premiere Of TIBURONES As Ballet Hispánico Returns To The Apollo Theater
Dance Magazine: BalletX is Taking All the Right Risks
By Lauren Wingenwroth
In a sensual, troubled duet to the music of Amy Winehouse, dancers Chloe Perkes and Zachary Kapeluck channel the late singer’s fraught relationship with fame, performance and love. They embody the haunting gravity of her story—while wearing enormous pairs of bunny ears.
On paper, Trey McInytre’s Big Ones sounds like it shouldn’t work. But risky choices are par for the course at BalletX, and this risk pays off. Founded as a summertime pickup troupe in 2005 by Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan when they were dancers at Pennsylvania Ballet, BalletX is dedicated to performing new work—and lots of it. Its repertory boasts a whopping 76 world premieres in 14 years.
With just 10 dancers, it’s a model of what is possible for small contemporary ballet troupes—and it embodies many of the ideals that larger companies are striving for today. It commissions lots of women. Half of the company members are dancers of color. The work pushes ballet in new directions, whether through innovative story ballets or genre-bending collaborations. It’s deeply rooted in its Philadelphia community, and has fostered an open company culture rarely found in ballet.
And by embracing what Cox, the company’s artistic and executive director, calls “the good, the bad and the ugly” that comes with commissioning new work, BalletX has developed a daring, inventive repertory—and a national and international following.
DDP Founder Liza Yntema helped underwrite BalletX’s latest world premiere, The Little Prince, choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Read Yntema’s interview with BalletX Artistic Director Christine Cox here!
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/13142533/IMG_0096.jpeg400300dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-18 15:26:422019-09-18 15:29:45Dance Magazine Puts BalletX on Its Cover
New York Times: All the Ways to Fall for Dance This Autumn
By Gia Kourlas
12 September 2019
September
2019 CROSSING THE LINE FESTIVAL The French Institute Alliance Française’s annual festival — 11 performances, along with a gallery exhibition — embraces artists of different disciplines; this edition is the first programmed by Courtney Geraghty, who took over as the institute’s artistic director in 2018. Established artists, including Peter Brook and Germaine Acogny, will present new works, while Isabelle Adjani makes her New York theatrical debut in “Opening Night,” directed by Cyril Teste. Jérôme Bel returns to the festival with a commissioned portrait of Isadora Duncan in the form of a solo for Catherine Gallant, a New York dancer, historian and teacher who has long explored Duncan’s work. Stefanie Batten Bland modernizes Stanley Kramer’s 1967 film “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” in “Look Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and François Chaignaud excavates the rituals of Western theater in “Думи мої — Dumy Moyi,” an intimate solo. Through Oct. 12; crossingtheline.org.
2019 WHITNEY BIENNIAL The biennial includes two dance performances: “Brendan Fernandes: The Master and Form” mixes ballet and S&M culture with a sculptural installation of five structures, including 10 hanging ropes and a cage. The props function as both a help and a hindrance to the performers, who hold positions as a test of endurance (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through September). And in “Madeline Hollander: Ouroboros: Gs,” Ms. Hollander creates a site-specific performance inspired by the Whitney’s flood mitigation system; her choreography mimics the path of the barrier (Sept. 19). whitney.org.
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.pngdancedata2019-09-16 09:54:392019-09-16 09:55:12More Female Work Coming to NYC This Fall
Nashville Ballet is excited to bring world-renowned Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and London-based Director Nancy Meckler‘s beguiling performance of A Streetcar Named Desire to the heart of the South in November 2019.
For the first time ever, Tennessee Williams‘ legendary tale will be performed by a United States-based ballet company on one of the South’s premier stages. Considered Williams’ greatest work, A Streetcar Named Desire dramatizes the life of Blanche DuBois, an aging Southern belle who is forced to leave her aristocratic life and flee to a dilapidated New Orleans tenement after facing a series of tragic losses.
“This ballet represents the perseverance of women who have felt unheard,” said Meckler. “People often assume that female-led performances are fairytales; however, A Streetcar Named Desire is a fictional representation of the challenging reality female artists face in making their voices heard. I hope it will show aspiring artists, particularly choreographers, that women have the right to come out of the shadows and find success – even in what used to be a male-dominated industry.”
For the second time this year, Nashville Ballet will bring yet another boundary-pushing performance to Polk Theater. This adaptation is unique as the story will unfold through the singular perspective of Blanche DuBois. With Lopez Ochoa’s masterful choreography, audiences can expect a new interpretation of Williams’ work; one that humanizes the timeless tragedies of societal expectation and victimization, both of which still ring true for women today.
New York Times: 6 Dance Performances to See in N.Y.C. This Weekend
By Gia Kourlas
5 September 2019
JUSTIN CABRILLOS at the Chocolate Factory Theater (Sept. 7, 7 p.m.). As part of a creative residency curated by Blaze Ferrer, this choreographer will offer a work-in-progress showing of “As of It,” which press materials describe as a “physical kaleidoscope of trance and emotion.” As he writes on his website, Cabrillos, who will appear with the performers Maira Duarte and Matt Shalzi, views the body “as a run-on sentence.” To see that in action, check out this free public showing. R.S.V.P. to blaze@chocolatefactorytheater.org. chocolatefactorytheater.org
CO-LAB DANCE at Manhattan Movement & Arts Center (Sept. 6-7, 7:30 p.m.). Lauren Post, a member of American Ballet Theater, directs this group in an evening of new works by Xin Ying, Gemma Bond and Danielle Rowe, who choreographs her piece to a new score by Alton San Giovanni. Eight dancers from Ballet Theater — Zhong-Jing Fang, Carlos Gonzalez, Isadora Loyola, Tyler Maloney, Rachel Richardson, Jose Sebastian, Courtney Shealy and Cassandra Trenary — will grace the stage, along with Erez Milatin of New York Theater Ballet. The program will include music performed by the Momenta Quartet and a short film choreographed by Trenary for herself and the Ballet Theater soloist Calvin Royal III. colabdance.org
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/13141301/Scene-from-Sketches-rehearsal-Choreography-by-Duncan-Lyle-Courtesy-of-Co-Lab-Dance-Photo-by-Luis-Pons-1-1.jpg256320dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-09-09 07:34:262019-09-09 07:34:27The NY Times Gives a Shoutout to Co-Lab Dance, Led by Lauren Post
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
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:
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