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"The Devil Ties My Tongue" by Amy Seiwert performed for the SKETCH Series, 2013. Photo by David DeSilva. Courtesy of Amy Seiwert's Imagery

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City Ballet appoints four-member interim team to oversee artistic operations

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New York City Ballet has announced that a temporary leadership team will oversee the company’s artistic and administrative operations while an independent investigation continues into sexual harassment allegations against current chief Peter Martins.
The four-member interim team includes ballet master and former NYCB dancer Jonathan Stafford, resident choreographer and soloist Justin Peck, and ballet masters Craig Hall and Rebecca Krohn. All four have long-standing ties with the company.

In a statement, NYCB board chairman Charles Scharf said “it was the board’s absolute priority to provide ongoing support and stability for the Company’s extraordinary artists. We are confident that with this interim team, working in collaboration with Executive Director Katherine Brown and the Company’s entire staff of artistic and administrative personnel, NYCB will have the leadership, guidance, and resources it needs to continue to create the unparalleled artistic product that our audiences expect.”

City Ballet announced earlier this week that Martins asked for and was granted a temporary a leave of absence while an independent firm looks into the credibility of an anonymous letter that alleged abuse by the 71-year-old ballet chief. Martins has denied any wrongdoing.

NY Times: Dance Luminaries weigh in on the conspicuous absence of female choreographers

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Author: Gia Kourlas

“’Listen, I’ve lived in a women’s world my whole life,’ said Peter Martins, the ballet master in chief of New York City Ballet. ‘The last thing we are is sexist here.’

At the same time, the lack of female choreographers is glaringly obvious at City Ballet and other major ballet companies.

There is Twyla Tharp, the rare woman to succeed as an important choreographer in the ballet world, but few others. (Ms. Tharp, who prefers to be recognized as a choreographer, not a female one, declined to comment for this article.)

[ More on the underrepresentation of women in ballet choreography ]

People in the dance world have different ideas about the reasons behind the dearth of women in a field where, as Mr. Martins points out, women predominate in number. Certain issues, though, come up again and again.”

Read the complete article here