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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" SKETCH Series 2013 | photo: David DeSilva

Louisville Business First: “I know that theater always comes back,” Louisville Ballet’s new executive director shares hope for performing arts rebound

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By Sarah Shadburne

19 October 2020

After arriving in Louisville on March 12 with her Derby hat, a few cocktail dresses and a couple pairs of jeans, Nichole Gantshar was officially named executive director of Louisville Ballet on August 12.

Gantshar joined Louisville Ballet initially on an interim basis, after most recently serving as executive director of Rochester City Ballet in New York. She works alongside Artistic Director Robert Curran, who had previously been both executive and artistic director for the dance company since 2015.

Gantshar said she had admired Curran’s work from afar and being that she arrived at the beginning of a global pandemic, she dreaded that their first conversation would be about whether to cancel shows due to the coronavirus.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh should we cancel the upcoming show? I need to talk to Robert about that when I get there, that’s going to be an awkward first conversation to have,’” Gantshar said in an interview. “But you know what, it was the first conversation he had with me. He brought it up before I did.”

Gantshar said if her profession was basketball and not ballet, Curran would be a point guard for his ability to read the evolving pandemic situation and employ the right play. She said her job is giving him the tools to execute his vision.

Read the full article here.

Dance Teacher: Ballet West Academy’s New Director on Dream Building During COVID-19

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By Haley Hilton

19 October 2020

Evelyn Cisneros-Legate is bringing her hard-earned expertise to Ballet West. The former San Francisco Ballet star is taking over all four campuses of The Frederick Quinney Lawson Ballet West Academy as the school’s new director.

Cisneros-Legate, whose mother put her in ballet classes in an attempt to help her overcome her shyness, trained at the San Francisco Ballet School and School of American Ballet before joining San Francisco Ballet as a full company member in 1977. She danced with the company for 23 years, breaking barriers as the first Mexican American to become a principal dancer in the U.S., and has graced the cover of Dance Magazine no fewer than three times.

As an educator, Cisneros-Legate has served as ballet coordinator at San Francisco Ballet, principal of Boston Ballet School’s North Shore Studio and artistic director of after-school programming at the National Dance Institute (NDI). Dance Teacher spoke with her about her new position, her plans for the academy and leading in the time of COVID-19.

Congratulations on your recent appointment! What does this hiring mean to you?

For me, it’s kind of the pinnacle of my after-dancing career. To join a wonderful, large organization with such a fantastic reputation in the industry is really rewarding. To have used all my experience with San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet and NDI—all of that comes together to give me the experience I need for this.

Read the full article here.

The Guardian: Tamara Rojo: ‘Despite everything, it’s a very creative moment’

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By Lyndsey Winship

12 October 2020

Tamara Rojo may be a great tragic dancer on stage, but in person she is far from the voice of doom. “The performing arts and dance have survived millennia,” she says, sitting in her office looking out onto a floor of empty desks. “They’ve survived pandemics and hundred-year wars and all kind of disasters. Getting together to share stories is intrinsic to humanity. People will gather, live performance will continue to exist.” Just maybe not quite in the way we’re used to, yet.

Ballet is finally putting its pointe shoes back on for a live audience. This month there are performances by the Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet – and English National Ballet, where Rojo is artistic director, has just announced two live shows. In November, a live version of their upcoming digital season will feature five new short ballets at Sadler’s Wells, and in December there’s a slimmed-down version of The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum. Christmas isn’t quite cancelled after all.

There will be some drastic differences to pre-Covid shows, with less than half the usual audience (423 at Sadler’s instead of 1,400, and 1,100 at the Coliseum, where ENB usually sell out 2,300 seats). Will it be worth their while financially? “We are trying to find a way to not lose money, that’s all we want to do at this point,” says Rojo. “I passionately believe we need to restart the sector and rehire choreographers and technicians and lighting designers and composers and film-makers so that the engine starts moving, even if it doesn’t make financial sense.”

Making sure there’s still an industry on the other side of this pandemic is Rojo’s main concern. ENB had to furlough 85% of its workforce and many of the staff took pay cuts (20%-25% for most, more for Rojo herself). They haven’t replaced nine dancers who left this year, so the company is reduced in size. But on the upside, ENB’s swanky new Docklands building has seven studios, so there is plenty of room for distancing, and the biggest doubles as a stage, so they can broadcast from there. She thinks the UK’s larger and more established dance companies will be OK in the long term, but it’s the independent artists and freelancers and those working backstage who are in trouble.

“The situation cannot be sustained much longer. The loss of talent and skill breaks my heart,” she says. “The UK’s creative industries are the best in the world, consistently reinventing themselves and at the forefront of everything, it’s the reason for so many of us to be here.” She’s also worried about the ballet world internationally. Talking to directors and dancers in the US, she fears the lack of public subsidy there could mean even big institutions disappearing. “Nobody wants a smaller, less diverse, less interesting ballet world,” says Rojo.

Read the full article here.

Huron Daily Tribune: Wave of ‘Nutcracker’ cancellations hits dance companies hard

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By Andrew Welsh-Huggins

12 October 2020

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — For many, it’s not Christmas without the dance of Clara, Uncle Drosselmeyer, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Mouse King and, of course, the Nutcracker Prince.

But this year the coronavirus pandemic has canceled performances of “The Nutcracker” around the U.S. and Canada, eliminating a major and reliable source of revenue for dance companies already reeling financially following the essential shutdown of their industry.

“This is an incredibly devastating situation for the arts and in particular for organizations like ours that rely on ticket sales from the Nutcracker to fund so many of our initiatives,” said Sue Porter, executive director of BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio.

“The Nutcracker” typically provides about $1.4 million of the company’s $2 million in annual ticket sales, against a $7 million budget. That money goes to school programing and financial aid for dance class students, Porter said. It’s the first year since 1977 that the company isn’t staging the ballet in Ohio’s capital.

The cancellations have meant layoffs, furloughs and salary cuts, with companies relying heavily— sometimes exclusively — on fundraising to stay afloat. Beyond their financial importance, “Nutcracker” performances are also a crucial marketing tool for dance companies, company directors say.

Children often enroll in classes for the chance to dance in the performances as mice, young partygoers and angels, among other supporting roles. For adults, the shows are sometimes their initial experience watching live dance.

“It tends to be the first ballet that people see, the first time they experience attending a production, that thrill when the curtain goes up, the hush of the crowd,” said Max Hodges, executive director of the Boston Ballet. “So for that reason it’s a key part of the pipeline in welcoming audiences into the art form.”

After deciding to cancel this year’s live performances, the Boston Ballet will use archived footage of past performances for a one-hour version to be shown on television in New England. The annual $8 million in “Nutcracker” ticket sales accounts for about 20% of the company’s annual budget.

The pandemic has cost the arts and entertainment industry about 1.4 million jobs and $42.5 billion nationally, according to an August analysis by the Brookings Institution.

The economic vulnerability inherent in arts organizations is exacerbated when they rely on a major seasonal event — like “The Nutcracker” — for large portions of revenue, said Amir Pasic, dean of the School of Philanthropy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

One silver lining is the opportunity for organizations to improve their online offerings, which could also help open up markets to younger consumers, he said.

That’s the case in Toronto, where the National Ballet of Canada is contemplating future hybrid programming that offers tickets for in-person “Nutcracker” performances and less expensive tickets for those who want to watch it online. The company canceled its “Nutcracker” in August.

“We’re going to build into our model regular capture of content to build a more robust catalogue,” said Executive Director Barry Hughson. “So when we face this at some point in future — hopefully a long way away in the future — we will have solved that part of this equation.”

The cost of the digital equipment needed to record broadcast quality performances has been a sticking point for companies in the past, said Amy Fitterer, executive director of Dance/USA, a dance service and advocacy organization. Now, companies are working on ways to access such equipment to prepare for a hybrid future of performances, she said.

Other cancellations this year include performances by the New York City Ballet, the Charlotte Ballet, the Milwaukee Ballet, the Sacramento Ballet and the Kansas City Ballet, which is forgoing about $2.2 million in ticket sales.

Making it through this season is tough enough, but “if this goes beyond next year, then I think we’ve got some serious issues to attend to,” said Jeffrey Bentley, the Kansas City Ballet’s executive director.

Some companies that canceled are offering online streams of a past performance, such as Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet. Others are offering in-person performances of a sort, such as Atlanta Ballet’s “Drive-In Movie Experience” allowing patrons to watch a filmed past performance from their car.

Still others are proceeding, for now, with plans for live performances. The Eugene Ballet in Oregon canceled its normal four-state tour but expanded its stage offerings from four to 10 performances, with a socially distanced audience of 500 in a 2,500-seat auditorium. The company is shortening performances to 70 minutes, reducing the number of student participants and going without a live orchestra.

“We’re just all trying to be resilient, and our dancers are champing at the bit to get in the studio and start rehearsing things,” said Eugene Ballet Artistic Director Toni Pimble.

Of the 50 dance companies with the largest annual expenses surveyed by the Dance Data Project, only eight were proceeding with in-person performances. Others either canceled, planned to offer streaming versions or still haven’t made an announcement.

Read the full article here.

Chicago Tribune: In ‘painful’ decision, Joffrey Ballet of Chicago cancels 2020-21 season

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By Chris Jones

1 October 2020

The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago said Thursday that it has canceled its entire 2020-21 season at the Lyric Opera House.

The canceled programing includes the world premiere of Cathy Marston’s “Of Mice and Men” and the Joffrey premiere of George Balanchine’s “Serenade” (slated for Feb. 17-28, 2021), as well as the Chicago premiere of John Neumeier’s “The Little Mermaid” (April 21-May 2, 2021). Previously, Joffrey had canceled this fall’s production of Kenneth MacMillan’s “Manon” (Oct. 14-25) and the first staging at the Lyric of Christopher Wheeldon’s “The Nutcracker” (December 5-27), typically a huge source of revenue for the company and a highlight of the holiday season in Chicago, drawing tens of thousands to the Loop.

The Joffrey said that the decision, sparked by the COVID-19 crisis, will cost the non-profit institution in excess of $9 million at the box office. A philanthropic fund, dubbed the Joffrey Crisis Stabilization Fund, has been set up to address the disparity and cover basic operations costs through the fall of 2021. The ballet said the fund currently has raised about $7 million toward its $12 million goal. The company has not laid off its company of dancers, guaranteeing their existing contracts through next May.

Read the full article here.

The Salt Lake Tribune: Ballet West will start letting dancers wear tights and shoes in their own skin color

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By Sean P. Means

1 October 2020

Ballet West dancers soon will be wearing tights and shoes that more closely resemble their own skin color — an effort to push back against a white bias in the ballet world going back decades.

“I believe a more diverse and inclusive organization is a stronger Ballet West,” Adam Sklute, Ballet West’s artistic director, said in a statement issued by the troupe Thursday. “It is time we hold a mirror to ourselves and examine how our art form — and how Ballet West — can do better in dismantling systems that do not foster equity, and to institutionalize structures that do.”

The Salt Lake City-based troupe announced a series of policy changes to make Ballet West’s studio and stage “more welcoming to dancers of color.” These changes are:

• Ballet West will no longer allow makeup that indicates a race or ethnicity other than the dancer’s own.

• The troupe will no longer use historic “paling” body makeup for women in works — “Swan Lake” and “Giselle” are mentioned — whose major roles are traditionally depicted as pale white.

• The company will provide tights and shoe straps that more closely match the dancer’s skin tone.

Read the full article here.

Pointe Magazine: “My Plate Is Full”: Sofiane Sylve on Her New Leadership Roles at Ballet San Antonio and Dresden Semperoper

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By Claudia Bauer

28 September 2020

Sofiane Sylve had huge plans for 2020: Departing her post as a principal dancer at San Francisco Ballet, she embarked on a multifaceted, bicontinental career as ballet master and principal dancer at Dresden Semperoper Ballett, and artistic advisor and school director at Ballet San Antonio—and then COVID-19 hit, sidelining performances and administrative plans at both companies. But ballet dancers are nothing if not resilient. In her new leadership roles, Sylve is determined to help shepherd ballet through this challenging time—and transform it for the better. Pointe caught up with her by phone while she was in Dresden.

You started these amazing new positions, and then COVID happened. How have you had to adapt?

In Dresden, La Bayadère can’t happen because of the amount of people in the cast, and the costumes and wigs. BSA had to cancel October’s Don Quixote. We’re not sure Nutcracker is going to happen. I can’t have it on my conscience to have 25 dancers in a room, even if I do everything in San Antonio that Germany has been doing. In Germany, you have to wear a mask everywhere you go, and you can’t use the dressing rooms. They open the studios five minutes before you can go in, it’s only an hour class, they shuffle you out and clean for the entire hour. You need cleaning staff 24/7—no U.S. company has a budget for that.

How are you juggling these pivotal responsibilities at two companies—not to mention the travel?

I wanted my plate to be full, and it’s full, and I’m loving it. But with COVID, the travel is very difficult—I can get into Texas, but I could get stuck because of travel restrictions. I am on Zoom all day; I’ve hired BSA dancers and ballet masters on Zoom, and we do a lot of classes online. You see people in their homes, they see me running around with my dogs. In a way, it’s made us seem more human to each other.

Read the full article here.

Cincinnati Business Courier: With Covid-19 protocols in place, Cincinnati Ballet returns joyously to the stage

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By Janelle Gelfand

24 September 2020

This weekend, Cincinnati Ballet will be one of the first dance companies in the nation to return to the stage since the Covid-19 lockdown. Three performances, the first in more than six months, sold out in an hour. An added fourth show sold out in five minutes.

It’s a cautious return – outdoors at Sawyer Point’s P&G Pavilion before a socially distanced audience and with myriad precautions for the dancers.

Each performance is free and will seat about 350 people, in circles from the same household.

Artistic director Victoria Morgan and two of her leading dancers – principal dancer Melissa Gelfin De-Poli and soloist David Morse – couldn’t contain their joy about returning to the studio and the stage.

“It’s a relief, it’s a joy, it just feels so right,” Morgan said. “Even though you sweat and you pant and you’re in a mask, I haven’t heard a single complaint. The dancers are really ready to take it on again. We’re desperate just to be there with our audiences and to feel that energy.”

For the past few weeks, Cincinnati Ballet dancers have been back in the studio, preparing for a fall season that most other companies have abandoned due to the coronavirus. Preparations have been complex, to say the least. They are rehearsing an art form with a large amount of personal contact. For that reason, the “Ballet in the Park” program will consist mainly of solos and pas de deux.

It is a mixture of new works and company favorites such as excerpts from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Don Quixote” and Morgan’s own “Black Coffee,” which Morgan choreographed to the music of k.d. lang.

Read the full article here.

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly’s 2020 fall dance season has abandoned all the rules – here’s what to expect

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By Nancy G. Heller

26 September 2020

Lucky for the rest of us, artists are unstoppable. In the face of seemingly insurmountable COVID-19-related restrictions, dancers have been working with filmmakers for the past six months to find exciting new ways to continue creating and sharing their creations. Thus, we can look forward to a surprisingly robust fall 2020 dance season, even as we are looking from home.

Two extraordinary, and very different, highlights of this season are available right now, online: The Philadelphia Matter, 1972/2020 by New York-based modern dance pioneer David Gordon (through Oct. 4, details at fringearts.com) and the first installment of BalletX Beyond (ongoing at balletx.org), an all-digital subscription series from the local contemporary ballet troupe.

In Gordon’s hour-long film, he collaborates with his longtime professional and life partner, British dancer Valda Setterfield, plus videographer Jorge Cousineau, to create a rich visual and aural collage, with images assembled into an ever-changing patchwork of various-sized rectangles that cover the screen — like a Zoom meeting gone berserk.

It centers on three of his signature pieces: Song and Dance (inspired by Gordon’s childhood love of Hollywood musicals), Up Close (an intimate, loving, and ultimately devastating duet made for him and his wife), and Chair (which evolved from the carefully calibrated exercises Gordon invented to help his wife recover from a terrible injury).

But the film also invites viewers to deeply explore some of the most basic questions related to dance on film: What are the differences between the filmed performance of a dance that was originally conceived for live theater and dance that was always intended to form part of a film? How about dance “numbers” in movie musicals?

Read the full article here.

DDP’s new 2020-2021 Season Status Updates resource featured in The Dance Edit

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25 September 2020

The Dance Data Project has compiled an index of ballet companies’ 2020–21 season status updates, with information on cancellations and virtual programming. (dancedataproject.com)

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