Drew Posted October 13, 2017 Share Posted October 13, 2017 For an October 10 article by Gia Kourlas in NY Times that Dirac included in Links-- "When two Men Fall in Love on the Ballet Stage and Why it Matters"--Ratmansky was asked to comment on the Facebook discussion: "Mr. Ratmansky, whose work richly engages tradition, wrote in an email that he didn’t mean to offend or impose a ban. 'But there are gender roles in traditional ballet,' he said. 'In other words, men and women are of equal value but have different tasks.' "He continued: 'Being passionate about ballet traditions, its present and future, I wanted to continue discussing gender roles in ballet, but hesitate now. There are so many things one could discuss around this topic. I agree that the rules are there to be broken, that’s how art evolves. And I myself have enjoyed playing with these conventions. But I personally choose to work within a tradition because I find it too beautiful and historically important to be lost.'" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/arts/dance/same-sex-duets-justin-peck-lauren-lovette-new-york-city-ballet.html?_r=0 Link to comment
DanielBenton Posted October 13, 2017 Share Posted October 13, 2017 Lauren Lovette with "Not Our Fate" has made Ratmansky's point somewhat moot. As George Balanchine says in Solomon Volkov's Balanchine's Tchaikovsky, "The feeling is important, not the object". Link to comment
Drew Posted October 13, 2017 Share Posted October 13, 2017 (edited) 8 hours ago, DanielBenton said: Lauren Lovette with "Not Our Fate" has made Ratmansky's point somewhat moot. As George Balanchine says in Solomon Volkov's Balanchine's Tchaikovsky, "The feeling is important, not the object". I am pleased to read all the praise for Lovette's work, and cannot wait to see it, but I think she is hardly alone right now. (I see a very limited range of works and I can still think of ballets by Scarlett and Peck that are ballet-based and absolutely changing the kind of sex/gender stories ballet tells and how it tells them. Including a very striking male/male pas de deux in the former's Vespertine.) On FB people have recalled two men kissing in a ballet by Macmillan from decades ago and, speaking from my own experience, I believe Nijinska's Les Biches merits a mention in the pre-history of today's ballet choreographers' interest in moving beyond normative gender roles etc. [Edited to add: I'm sure people with more extended knowledge of choreography from around the world can give other examples, even restricting oneself to ballet.] This does not take away from Lovette's accomplishments and originality. But there is a context for it in the ballet world even if a minimal one. There is also a context for the traditions Ratmansky wishes to honor--even if his words are not always as pertinent as his choreography. Balanchine has plenty in common with those traditions too ("ballet is woman")...It's great for ballet to extend beyond Balanchine's preoccupations--but his career as a whole (and I think he is the greatest choreographer of the 20th century) does not exactly cut against many traditional balletic ways of handling gender--onstage or off. Edited October 14, 2017 by Drew Link to comment
Mashinka Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 Bejart once said the opposite I believe, that dance was man. Jorge Donn dancing his Bolero in the midst of a corps de ballet of men remains one of the most sexually charged things I've ever seen. Link to comment
dirac Posted October 14, 2017 Author Share Posted October 14, 2017 7 hours ago, Mashinka said: Bejart once said the opposite I believe, that dance was man. Jorge Donn dancing his Bolero in the midst of a corps de ballet of men remains one of the most sexually charged things I've ever seen. "Dance" isn't ballet. And women often had little to do in Bejart's company (although Farrell danced Bolero and I think other women did as well). Both Ashton and Balanchine in their time were creatively preoccupied primarily -- not exclusively -- with women. Link to comment
Mashinka Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 Ballet is dance though and although Bejart gave prominence to the males the females in the company were all strong personalities in their own right. Link to comment
Drew Posted October 14, 2017 Share Posted October 14, 2017 (edited) The conversation about these issues becomes very different when you focus on ballet (which is dance, but not just dance) and on ballet tradition--certainly that is what Ratmansky cares about... I care a lot about the specificity of ballet and its traditions too, so I am sympathetic to Ratmansky -- without necessarily thinking there is not the potential for more capaciousness within ballet than his first facebook post allowed. Edited October 15, 2017 by Drew Link to comment
dirac Posted October 15, 2017 Author Share Posted October 15, 2017 Quote The conversation about these issues becomes very different when you focus on ballet (which is dance, but not just dance) and on ballet tradition Thank you, Drew, you said what I meant to say and much better. I also am in fundamental sympathy with what Ratmansky is getting at, even if by his e-mail he does seem to be feeling plenty of sympathy for himself. Quote Ballet is dance though and although Bejart gave prominence to the males the females in the company were all strong personalities in their own right. Still, it was very much a man's company. When Farrell joined, Mejia asked Bejart over dinner what she was going to dance since he didn't see much there for her, and Bejart said he wanted to make new pieces for her (which he did). Link to comment
Helene Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 Rebecca King Ferraro and Michael Sean Breeden interviewed Lauren Lovette when they were all in Vail last summer for their podcast, "Conversations on Dance." In it she talks a lot about becoming a choreographer, women in choreography, and how she came to make her latest work in Vail. She also talks about becoming a vegan, which interested me as a skating fan, since one of the buffest and most dynamic female pairs skaters, Meagan Duhamel, is also vegan. Link to comment
vipa Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 9 hours ago, Helene said: Rebecca King Ferraro and Michael Sean Breeden interviewed Lauren Lovette when they were all in Vail last summer for their podcast, "Conversations on Dance." In it she talks a lot about becoming a choreographer, women in choreography, and how she came to make her latest work in Vail. She also talks about becoming a vegan, which interested me as a skating fan, since one of the buffest and most dynamic female pairs skaters, Meagan Duhamel, is also vegan. I found that statement about being a vegan interesting. She spoke about her increased stamina since changing her diet. Quite a contrast to Megan Fairchild who, in a podcast, expressed the opinion that meat was needed as part of a dancer's diet. I remember that because I'm a vegetarian and thought she was ill informed! Link to comment
Helene Posted December 14, 2017 Share Posted December 14, 2017 I forgot the link to the interview: http://conversationsondancepod.com/2017/12/04/lauren-lovette-new-york-city-ballet-principal-dancer/ Link to comment
Helene Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 Pacific Northwest Ballet teacher Eva Stone, who has taught a young women's choreography classes to the summer program students in 2017 and 2018, will start teaching the course year-round to upper-level students at Pacific Northwest Ballet School:http://www.kuow.org/post/pnb-launches-program-foster-female-choreographers I'm very glad this program is being expanded, so that the students can learn and experiment over a sustained period. Link to comment
sandik Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 I'm very pleased to see this program and think that Eva S will do an excellent job with these young women. I'm looking forward to a day when we don't need to make a special place for women in this endeavor, but we aren't there yet. Link to comment
BalanchineFan Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 (edited) On 4/26/2017 at 10:47 AM, Helene said: Victoria Morgan at Cincinnati Ballet. Tharp has done three new works for PNB between 2008 and 2013: Opus 111, Afternoon Ball, and Waiting at the Station. She did a one year artistic residency in Seattle. Her availability is limited when she's working on her own projects, like Broadway work that subsidizes other work. However, the chances that she would have gotten ballet commissions at ABT or NYCB had she not had success as a modern choreographer with her own company I think are slim to none. Interesting conversation on the dearth of opportunities for women choreographers in ballet. I've been enjoying reading it, even though a lot of it is over a year old. I couldn't find the Alastair/Luke Jennings twitter thread. That seems to have disappeared. Tharp got her commissions at ABT and NYCB because of her work for the Joffrey. Deuce Coupe, specifically. She got the Joffrey commission because of her modern dance work. I point that out to say that I believe commissions from ABT and NYCB were even harder for modern dance choreographers to get then. Tharp's success paved the way for a lot of people, even if the path remains restrictively narrow. While I appreciate some of the traditional aspects of classical ballet, I don't see them as a reason to deny women choreographers commissions. Women can still dance on pointe, men can carry them around (if the choreographer says so), and women can choreograph it all. I don't see how any of Ratmansky's comments provide any reasoning for denying commissions to women choreographers, even if he might see the reasoning. Edited July 31, 2018 by BalanchineFan Link to comment
sandik Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 You're right when you point to Tharp's work with the Joffrey and Deuce Coupe as her open door to the next part of her career -- Joffrey, who took Diaghilev as a role model when it came to repertory development, was looking for the newest work he could find, and Tharp represented the downtown world to him. If I remember the discussion about Ratmansky correctly, his objections were more about gender roles in performance than they were about who stands in the front of the studio in rehearsal. He had some fairly lame things to say about breaking traditional roles in ballet ('men should lift the women and women should get the flowers' was a part of it), but I think the strongest evidence against what seemed like a slapdash comment is his own work, which often reaches far beyond the 19th century conventions. Link to comment
Helene Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 I just noticed this while reading about Northern Ballet's touring mixed program: Quote Morgann Runacre-Temple was choreographer in residence at Ballet Ireland for six years creating five full length ballets including Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Carmen and Coppelia. She creates dance films and recently choreographed the award-winning Curing Albrecht with English National Ballet and Manchester International Festival. Link to comment
Helene Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Eva Stone is taking on two elephants in the room: 1. "The dearth of female choreographers, she says, often leads companies attempting to level the playing field to grab an established dancer and say, “You! You’re a woman! Choreograph something!” 2. Something Balanchine often tried to dispell, that choreography is a result of innate artistic genius through a year-long class at Pacific Northwest Ballet School in which she teaches the craft of choreography to the young women of the Professional Division. They presented their solos a few weeks ago: https://crosscut.com/2019/02/teen-choreographers-hope-break-ballets-glass-ceiling?fbclid=IwAR25HBgmzwIK73koBk2pJAl8QVvJMcojS4iPr9H9AnvjrykEq_8SSsXfU4M Link to comment
Helene Posted July 1, 2021 Share Posted July 1, 2021 Former PNB soloist and filmmaker Margaret Mullin is now Associate Artistic Director of Ballet Tuscon: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQy9NEngikd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link She quotes (at least part) of the press release in her Instagram post. Tucson is where her roots are. Link to comment
sandik Posted July 2, 2021 Share Posted July 2, 2021 9 hours ago, Helene said: Former PNB soloist and filmmaker Margaret Mullin is now Associate Artistic Director of Ballet Tuscon: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQy9NEngikd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link She quotes (at least part) of the press release in her Instagram post. Tucson is where her roots are. Good for her! Link to comment
volcanohunter Posted June 8, 2022 Share Posted June 8, 2022 Alberta Ballet is aiming for gender parity among choreographers. Its next season includes the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in Lila York's The Handmaid's Tale, a triple bill of ballets by Cathy Marston, Alysa Pires and Helen Pickett, and a full-length version of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa's Botero. On the men's side there is Edmund Stripe's Nutcracker, Complexions performing works by Dwight Rhoden and Christopher Anderson's production of Giselle. An earlier production of Giselle had been staged by a woman, but I suppose AD Anderson has to earn his keep. Like many younger companies, Alberta Ballet was founded by a woman, Ruth Carse. And as with many other companies, all her successors have been men. https://www.albertaballet.com/2022-23-season-line-up Link to comment
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