May 6th: Doris Duke Foundation Grant, May 7th: South Arts Individual Artist Career Opportunity Grant, May 27th: Dancemakers Residency, June 1st: Miami DanceMakers
The gender pay gap, as every right-thinking person knows, is a feminist myth. Those figures you’ve seen about white women earning around 80% of what white men make, and black women earning just 61%, are probably wrong. And if they’re not, then, as many conservatives have pointed out, there are rational explanations for the disparity. Such as the fact that, as Jordan Peterson has explained, women are just more agreeable than men, meaning they don’t ask for more money. Which is a very agreeable explanation if you don’t want to confront structural inequality.
While many on the right insist the gender pay gap doesn’t exist, they also appear keen to block legislation that would strengthen equal pay protection and make it easier for employees to share wage information. Which would appear to be a contradictory position. As congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Wednesday “If ‘the wage gap is a myth’ as some allege, then workplaces should have no problem with workers disclosing our salaries with one another.”
Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet followed a news conference in which she, along with other Democrats, re-introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act, which strives to close the gender wage gap by giving women tools to challenge unequal pay. For example, it would stop employers retaliating against workers who discuss their salaries with each other. The bill was first introduced in 1997, but has been repeatedly blocked by Republicans.
While the pay gap has narrowed since 1980, not much progress has been made in the last 15 years. Arguably, one reason for this is the lack of transparency around pay. Most of us don’t know how much our colleagues make, which makes it easier for companies to ignore the issue. Indeed, Lean In’s 2018 Black Women’s Equal Pay Survey found that 50% of Americans aren’t aware of pay gap between black and white women, and hiring managers are also ignorant of the disparity.
https://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.png00dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-02-17 18:23:382019-04-02 10:09:27The Guardian: If the gender pay gap is a ‘feminist myth’, then why not disclose salaries?
It was billed as the biggest legislative game-changer for working women since the Equal Pay Act made it illegal to pay people of different sexes differently for the same job in 1970.
And for once, the hype may not have been overstated. Groundbreaking legislation that forced companies to reveal their gender pay gaps in 2018 for the first time has had an immediate and wide-ranging effect, but companies are likely to come under increased pressure to narrow the gap in 2019, according to data and experts.
Figures from the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) employmenttrends survey show 93% of businesses are taking action to close the gender pay gap and increase diversity in their workforces, compared with 62% who were asked a similar question in 2017. Companies increasingly appear to recognise the business case for building a diverse workforce, with 60% saying it helps attract and retain staff, while half said it increased skills in the workforce.
https://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.png00dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-02-17 18:20:122019-04-02 10:09:34The Guardian: Gender pay gap: companies under pressure to act in 2019
Currently, the World Economic Forum predicts it could take 217 years to close the global gender pay gap, but Zara Nanu, a tech entrepreneur, thinks she can do it in less than 20.
Nanu grew up in Chișinău, the capital of Moldova that was part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. Now, she’s in Bristol where she’s been based for 11 years, tackling pay inequality with Gapsquare, her cloud-based software business.
Gapsquare uses machine learning to analyse a company’s gender pay gap and flag opportunities to close it as they arise. For example, it can highlight when certain employees are not progressing as fast as their peers, as well as when external male candidates are recruited into more senior roles. It can also analyse at department level to see if there are certain grades which are more difficult for women or ethnic minorities to pass.
To date, she’s analysed the wages of more than 270,000 employees in the UK, and Gapsquare counts Vodafone, Condé Nast and Serco among its clients. The company is presenting in France this month, having recently finished a series of meetings and presentations in Silicon Valley, the belly of the global tech beast. “I think America is ready for us,” she says, “maybe more so than the UK. In the Bay area there are so many more women in tech than the UK.”
Nanu points to Soviet attitudes to gender equality as having a formative effect. “We had quotas around women in parliament, quotas around representation of women in any sector. Childcare was free, so my mum could go back to work six months after giving birth. When I came to the UK [in 2007] it felt like, to some extent, I was going back in time in terms of gender equality.”
https://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.png00dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-02-17 18:16:332019-04-02 10:09:47The Guardian: Can software bring women’s pay up to men’s? This tech entrepreneur thinks so
Read the following excerpt from Warnecke’s review praising Penny Saunders’, a featured choreographer by DDP:
Ahead of “Aquatic Hypoxia” is Saunders’ “Testimony,” inspired by Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee and the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford surrounding allegations of sexual assault in 1982.
I don’t know if the use of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s music “Hand Covers Bruise,” the theme from the movie “The Social Network,” was intentionally tongue-in-cheek, or if Saunders just liked it for her piece. Whatever the case may be, this adds a layer of complexity when we consider the role of social media in perpetuating division about current events.
That’s not to say that the Kavanaugh hearings were more divisive than those of Justice Clarence Thomas, which are often referenced as a historical parallel due to allegations of sexual harassment by Anita Hill. Saunders makes the comparison, too, weaving in memorable bits and pieces of audio from both — Thomas’ “And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves,” and Illinois Senator Dick Durban’s “I want to know what you want to do,” for example — in “Testimony’s” opening sections.
Saunders is especially good at painting the space with large groups of dancers; in this case, it’s 10 women and nine men, all dressed in ties and trousers. In the beginning the narrative is subtly, but uncomfortably demeaning toward the women — their gestures are soft, submissive and doubtful compared to the posturing of the men as they puff their chests and raise a dismissive hand. Saunders extends the dancers’ gorgeous lines by having them pull at their ties every which way. It’s not morbid, but a self-inflicted choking quite often comes to mind.
By the end, the men have gone and to be honest, I hardly noticed them leave. This is obviously the point, having the company’s women perform a gorgeous passage of gestures in which they figuratively and literally hold space. I wouldn’t call “Testimony” a political piece, per se; rather, Saunders beautifully lays bare the strength and resilience of women without pandering to any particular platform on an issue which deeply divided our country, now and a generation ago.
https://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.png00dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-02-17 18:14:332019-04-02 10:09:54Art Intercepts: IN ‘MOVEMEDIA,’ GRAND RAPIDS BALLET COMMITS TO BALLET FOR AND ABOUT ‘NOW’
Saunders is the choreographer-in residence at Grand Rapids Ballet and receives support from New York City Ballet Choreographic Commissions Initiative. She was the recipient of the 2016 Princess Grace Foundation Choreographic Fellowship. In the 2018-2019 season, she will collaborate with The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, Ballet Idaho, Seattle Dance Collective, The Grand Rapids Ballet, and SALT Contemporary Dance in residency at The University of Utah (see her upcoming works following the interview).
PS: When I was listening to the [Kavanaugh] hearings on the radio, I was immediately thinking, “Wow, this could make an interesting piece.” There were just so many overlapping elements to it. First of all, it seemed like such a show! Everyone involved knew there would be no resolution, no new evidence was coming out even with the additional FBI investigation, and there was missing information–a key person was not coming forward.
There we were though, all of us listening to their every word, watching their every action as they talked about their darkest and most vulnerable moments. I hated myself for listening so intently…it felt like one of those awful reality shows! Then the after discussions began: “Well, I found her to be really believable…” blah, blah, blah. [I thought] there has to be a better way than this! We had already experienced the Anita Hill/ Clarence Thomas hearings years before. So similar and so heartbreaking. I suppose making a piece about these hearings was my personal way of digesting it all, and ultimately, I am asking the audience to consider the way in which we hear women. Are we really listening well enough?
LY: Any future works you are already choreographing in your head?
PS: I am constantly choreographing in my head. I wish I could get it to stop sometimes! But yes, I usually mull over ideas for future projects for a while and create little choreographic wish lists and playlists of music for each. I like to think of myself as a professional daydreamer.
LY: You said something fascinating when we were talking, that you prefer to find younger dancers who, “Haven’t decided what is beautiful yet,” so essentially, they don’t have a pre-existing notion of how they should look. Can you elaborate a bit more?
PS: Yes, what I find (in the ballet world especially) is that people hold on to their ideas of beauty and what looks good on their body because they have had to for many years. I find it hard to undo those things, those physical habits can be so ingrained, that I often find it easier to work with younger dancers who have had less time in the studio “perfecting” those ingrained physicalities so there is more room for my input.
The relationship a dancer has with the floor is key to the unfolding of their story.
-Penny Saunders to Liza Yntema
LY: We also talked about pointe work; you have choreographed for it, although I haven’t seen any of your pieces en pointe. Can you describe why and how you choose to set a work with pointe shoes or not and how that changes technique and what you look for in dancers?
PS: I wouldn’t say it is my preference, but I have become more and more comfortable creating that type of vocabulary with every new commission that calls for that element.
At first, I found it intimidating because the last ten years of my career was spent at Hubbard Street where socks are the most common footwear. With time and some experimenting though, I have found that making work en pointe can be quite fun.
For me now, it becomes another tool in my tool box. For certain characters or certain stories, pointe shoes can make the most sense, and for others it might need to be barefoot, high-heeled, or what-have-you. It is just another option I appreciate having when I am trying to create distinct characters – the relationship a dancer has with the floor is key to the unfolding of their story.
LY: You mentioned Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. You came up through this company, with Glenn Edgerton, one of the most forward thinking and inclusive Artistic Directors. How do you think that shaped you as a dancer and choreographer? Have you experienced negative reaction to women taking on leadership positions?
PS: You know, I think that I have been extremely lucky. In my dance career I jumped around a lot – different styles and companies – which gave me a sense of ownership over my own path. I loved experiencing new things and being creative, and the people I worked for loved that too. I had no idea that I would become a choreographer; it still surprises me some times, but I can’t imagine doing anything else at this point. I love it, and it drives me crazy–the perfect combo. I am so grateful that I always felt supported.
LY: I am constantly amazed at just how hard physically and mentally everyone in the dance world works. Not just the dancers, but the choreographers, Artistic Directors, Ballet Masters, etc. How does the difficulty change when you are also mom – I know you and your husband trade off – are you provided tools: child care, places to nurse a baby, or flexible hours?
PS: I think that being a mom adds to the experience in so many ways. Not only do you feel love more intensely, you feel everything more intensely!
Now that my son is a little older, I am able to relax into it a bit more, but at first it was hell! Being a freelance choreographer is a job that takes me many places, where I have to spend quite a lot of time away from home. As a mom, I just can’t do that. I wouldn’t want to. Thank goodness my husband understands so completely the roles that I juggle – he juggles them too. Organizing our calendar is a ridiculous endeavor sometimes, but we love what we do and we whole heartedly understand and appreciate what it means to parent a child. We have had to set boundaries with our time, and we have had to learn to not say yes to everything. Being home, or at least together wherever we are is our biggest goal. Our 5-year-old son has more frequent flyer miles than most adults!
LY: The Big Question – How do you keep ballet relevant, important, and consistent to diverse audiences, or do you feel that’s not really your role? What is the future of ballet given the fact that government funding is dwindling and audiences are aging?
PS: I think that the role of the arts in this world is under-appreciated. It is one of those things that we think that we can live without, therefore we treat it as this extra expense reserved for the elite.
It is our job as artists to continue reengaging the world by making work that has relevance and shares an honest voice that invites the audience to participate and reconnect. There is a special type of magic that happens when a room full of people share an experience together –– by connecting to the art that they are witnessing, they are able to connect with one another.
There is a special type of magic that happens when a room full of people share an experience together –– by connecting to the art that they are witnessing, they are able to connect with one another.
-Penny Saunders to Liza Yntema
LY: The Other Big Question – How can DDP best serve you, women like you, and the little girls I saw in pink tutus in the studio with their noses pressed up against the door as Grand Rapids rehearsed?
PS: Exposure is a big issue for me. I often make work on smaller companies, which I love, but very often there are no professional photographers/videographers or critics. This makes it difficult to share my work with the world. If more directors could see my pieces performed live, I think I would have a better chance at getting new commissions in larger companies.
Most companies I work for do not take their shows on the road either, so the one weekend of shows is all I get. If there are no good quality videos or photos to share with other directors or festivals, then my work goes relatively unseen. Emerging from this pattern is what I am working on now…
Upcoming Projects for Penny:
April 11th – 21st : SALT Contemporary Dance in residency at The University of Utah (premiere) June 6th – 9th : NWA Ballet Theater (remount) July 12th – 14th : Seattle Dance Collective (remount) October 18th – 20th : The Grand Rapids Ballet (premiere) October 11th – 13th : Indiana University (remount) October 24th – 27th: The Dayton Ballet (remount) November 1st – 3rd : Ballet Idaho (remount) February 7th – 9th : Diablo Ballet (remount) April 2nd – 5th : Dayton Ballet (remount) April 16th – 19th : Pointe Park University (remount) April 17th – 19th : Oklahoma City Ballet (premiere) May 7th – 10th : Tulsa Ballet (premiere) May 22nd – 24th: Whim W’Him (premiere) July 8th – 19th : BalletX (premiere)
Saunders’ biographical information was obtained from Grand Rapids Ballet and upcoming projects were provided by Saunders.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/13142416/GrandRapidsLY.jpg15362048Elizabeth Yntemahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngElizabeth Yntema2019-02-17 13:46:112024-03-12 19:22:03Meet the Choreographer: Penny Saunders
Lia Cirio is taking on a new role: choreographer. Cirio has joined Boston Ballet’s ChoreograpHER initiative, which gives female company members the opportunity to produce and present original works of choreography. Our Founder, Liza Yntema, recently signed on as Lead Sponsor of the program.
A principal dancer for the company, Ms. Cirio has danced her entire career with Boston Ballet’s, first joining the main company in 2004. As one of the inaugural participants, she has choreographed alongside dancers Hannah Bettes, Jessica Burrows, Lauren Flower, Sage Humphries, and Haley Schwan in the six-piece program.
Cirio’s work for the initiative is her choreographic debut, and diverges from the classical work she is often seen performing as a dancer. The piece, entitled Sta(i)r(e)s, is set to music by a female composer, Carolina Chocolate Drops. Four dancers perform in the piece, featuring a male couple and a mixed-gender couple.
In a promo video for ChoreograpHER, Cirio says it best:
“The future is female and this is one step to show that we can stand up and be powerful.”
Watch her discuss the process of creating Sta(i)r(e)s in the video below:
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/13142426/Lia_ChoreograpHER_2018bTrisolini-6.jpg20033000Isabelle Vailhttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngIsabelle Vail2019-02-15 19:44:102019-07-11 16:06:35Meet the New Choreographer: Lia Cirio
For nearly two decades, Ryan Adams, one of the most prolific singer-songwriters of his generation, has been heralded as a mercurial creative genius and a respected industry tastemaker.
Equal parts punk-rock folk hero and romantic troubadour, Adams, 44, has 16 albums and seven Grammy nominations to his name. He has overseen music by Willie Nelson, written a Tim McGraw hit and recorded with John Mayer.
He has also taken a special interest in the trajectory of female artists, especially younger ones, championing them onstage, across social media and in the studio, where his stamp of approval can jump-start careers.
Some now say that Adams’s rock-star patronage masked a darker reality. In interviews, seven women and more than a dozen associates described a pattern of manipulative behavior in which Adams dangled career opportunities while simultaneously pursuing female artists for sex.
https://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.png00dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-02-14 12:42:242019-04-02 10:10:04New York Times: Musician Ryan Adams dangled success. Women say they paid a price.
Dancers from Bangarra Dance Theatre perform at the Harris Theater.
An inclusive season is in the works for the Harris Theater in Chicago. A frequent venue for dance in the Windy City, the theater’s upcoming season will feature many female choreographers and companies supportive of the artists.
Work by Pina Bausch, Martha Graham Dance Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre is at the top of our list to see. View the entire seasonal program here.
Maya Salam’s article for the New York Times’ In Her Words column touched on the growing exposure of young girls to tech and how it levels the playing field (or doesn’t) for their future opportunities in the field. Read the following excerpt:
Research by the Girl Scout Research Institute, out this week, drove that point home — showcasing through a survey of 2,900 girls and boys ages 5 to 17 (along with their parents) how access to smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming devices helps put girls on par with boys when it comes to tech, or exceed them in some respects.
Among the study’s most fascinating takeaways:
Boys play games for fun, while girls use tech to learn. The vast majority of children use their devices to watch videos and movies, listen to music and to play games. But while boys are more likely than girls to play games for fun — 81 percent versus 72 percent — girls are playing to learn, the study found. Girls also read books and articles on devices more than boys do, 40 percent compared with 28 percent. And girls are more inclined to use technology to create something new, whether it be videos or coding projects; to discover a new talent or interest; or to connect to social issues.
Still, boys remain more confident in their skills. Even if girls are spending more time learning, it’s boys who are more likely to believe they are the tech experts of their families, 53 percent versus 38 percent of girls. Parents may have something to do with that: In the study, they tended to give sons more credit for figuring out new technology on their own while reporting that their daughters learn technology from someone else, whether it be a parent, sibling or friend.
https://ddp-wordpress.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/13142440/TechGirls.jpg720720dancedatahttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngdancedata2019-02-13 08:07:132019-04-02 10:10:16New York Times: Girls Get Tech. They Just Need Others to Believe It.
Pacific Northwest Ballet has created a year-long course dedicated curating female choreography from an early stage in a dancer’s career. New Voices, as it is called, is funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation – known to support women in dance – and was first tested as an aspect of PNB’s summer program.
To Pointe Magazine, Artistic Director of PNB Peter Boal had this to say:
“I do post-performance Q&As, and questions I hear so frequently are ‘Why aren’t there more female choreographers?’ or ‘What can we do to ensure there will be more?’ As I think about this issue, I keep going further and further into the pipelines of empowerment, support and opportunity. It was natural for me to think, Oh, I could be a choreographer. And I don’t know if women in classical ballet have felt that.”
Boal even went on to admit that he does not have enough female choreographers featured in his upcoming season. It is essential for leaders to admit those instances in which they could do better and change their programming in the future to reflect their determination to be more equitable.
The New Voices program is a remarkable step in the right direction for this leading company and supports the commitment Boal makes in his discussion with Pointe. As the program unfolds, DDP will follow closely to see the emerging choreographers with a new voice and opportunity. This is just the beginning for creative young women in a leading ballet school.
Read the interview with Boal and report on the initiative in Pointe Magazine.
https://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.png00Isabelle Vailhttps://www.dancedataproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DDP_logo_Primary.pngIsabelle Vail2019-02-11 18:01:592019-02-12 22:01:26Pacific Northwest Ballet’s New Voices: Choreography and Process for Young Women in Dance