DANCE DATA PROJECT® RELEASES FIRST LOOK 2022-2023 REPORT – ONLY 27% OF WORKS PROGRAMMED FOR THE 2022-2023 SEASON ARE CHOREOGRAPHED BY WOMEN, A DECREASE FROM 29% LAST SEASON

Northfield, IL | December 5, 2022 | Dance Data Project® (DDP) today released its second full First Look report, examining the gender distribution of choreographers for the Largest 150 U.S. ballet and classically influenced companies in the current 2022-2023 season. Previously, the First Look report has been included as part of DDP’s Season Overview report. However, as DDP continues to expand its research from examining the Largest 50 companies to the Largest 150 companies, a second report was needed to include the most detailed findings.

Overall, DDP found that the Largest 150 companies are continuing to program more works choreographed by men, consistent with the past four seasons of research. Of 1075 announced works for the 2022-2023 season amongst the Largest 150 U.S. ballet and classically influenced companies, 27% are choreographed by women, which is a further reduction compared to the 2021-2022 season (29% choreographed by women).

When closely examining the types of programmed works, DDP found that only 21% of full-length works programmed for the 2022-2023 season by the Largest 150 companies are choreographed by women.

NOTE: The Largest 10 U.S. ballet companies did not program any full-length works by women for the 2022-2023 season — all are choreographed by men. Only 4% of full-length works are by women in the Largest 25. 

“It is particularly concerning that there has been a decrease in the number of female-choreographed works this season as compared to previous years,” said DDP Research Coordinator Jenna Magrath. “We are also looking closely at what kinds of works women are being commissioned to create. With so few full-length works programmed for the 2022-2023 season choreographed by women, female choreographers continue to be siloed into creating shorter works for less lucrative commissions.”

For the 2022-2023 season, 44% of world premieres are choreographed by women within the Largest 150. The Additional 50 (companies with budgets ranked #101-150) commissioned the highest percentage of world premieres by women (47%), while the Largest 10 commissioned the least (36%). By comparison, only 20% of non-premieres are choreographed by women within the Largest 150. This highlights the lack of persistent effort by companies to continue programming women-choreographed work into future seasons after their work originally premieres.

“The largest companies, with the most resources at their disposal, are consistently choosing to program fewer female choreographers than smaller companies, with far smaller budgets,” said DDP Founder & President Elizabeth “Liza” Yntema.

She continued, “Our forthcoming Gender Equity Index will be taking a close look at these largest-budgeted U.S. companies to see how they are using their resources to support women in the workplace through codes of conduct, sexual assault/harassment policies, and programs designed to remove barriers for women to rise to leadership and choreographic opportunity within the industry.”

This January, DDP will release the first-ever Gender Equity Index for the U.S. dance industry. Combining company self-submitted responses and DDP’s own proprietary research, companies will be awarded based on their commitment to pursuing gender equity in the field. Learn more about DDP’s Gender Equity Index here.

To inquire about sources, operational definitions, or methodologies for this report, or to learn more about DDP’s research in general, please contact Research Lead Rebecca Ferrell at rferrell@dancedataproject.com.

The First Look 2022-2023 Report is available on the Dance Data Project® Research Page or by download below.