aurora
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Posts posted by aurora
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11 minutes ago, Stage Right said:
I don't think it is ever correct to "body-shame" someone else in any context. I don't think I said that. What I did say is that it isn't really possible to blame one person's behavior as THE CAUSE of someone else's anorexia, as much as we might like to. It's just too complex an issue. And though many dancers have been "body shamed" by directors, not all develop anorexia. I once danced in a small company in Canada, where even I, a naive 23-year-old, could tell that the director (a woman) was actively promoting and rewarding extreme thinness in the dancers. At least two were anorexic. But I didn't develop anorexia. My roommate did. Why? Who knows?
who says he caused anorexia? Not that NYT article. Where are you getting this?
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1 minute ago, Stage Right said:
Again I'm coming late to the thread, but I must comment on the sentence about dancers possibly starving themselves for Martins. If we say that is true, it is also then true of the director of every other ballet company that exists or has ever existed. Anorexia is a known problem within the dance world, and within the wider world too. Sure, dancers in NYCB become anorexic, but, the vast majority do not. Anorexia is a multi-faceted disease with multiple causes, some physical, some psychological. Yes, the culture of thinness in ballet contributes to it, but that is not unique to ballet. Many young dancers who go into ballet are probably more likely than the average population to develop the disease, but I am not sure one can blame that susceptibility on the director.
As I understand it, he was accused of berating and bodyshaming people.
You can tell a dancer that they need to lose weight without doing either of those things. Their feelings may be hurt, but dancers know the deal.
I remember an uproar here over Macaulay's review mocking Jennifer Ringer's weight--I'm not sure why people are bending over backwards in this thread to let Martins off the hook.
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3 minutes ago, Balletwannabe said:
I wonder how the victim of the alleged incident is feeling about all of this support of Gomes. They probably expected to be praised as brave and courageous for speaking out; as all other victims of the meetoo movement have been.
It is a question worth asking, but since no information at all has been offered up to the public, it is hardly a surprise that people aren't willing to write off a beloved dancer (and among his peers, friend clearly) without any knowledge of what happened.
I also would point out not all victims of the metoo movement have been treated to nothing but accolades.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/10/asia-argento-harvey-weinstein-italian-backlash
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11 hours ago, balletforme said:
From official press releases/ letters
Martins: general, non-specific allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct in the past . .. at both the Company and the School.
Martins denied allegations
Gomes: a highly concerning allegation of sexual misconduct occurring 8 years ago. . . . .ABT does not tolerate the alleged behavior.
Gomes?
We have no idea what occurred and Gomes makes no statement.
You ignored all the following more specific accounts of abuse by Martins.
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2 minutes ago, fondoffouettes said:
While that has been the trend over the past, say, 10 years, the company seems to finally be correcting this pattern. This year we have a corps member dancing Solor, and another one cast in the lead in Whipped Cream. In general, yes, they are still more conservative with casting than NYCB, but the company is finally giving meaty roles to some soloists and a few corps members.
Agreed.
Moreover as has been noted before, the difference in rep plays a large role in the difference in casting policy between ABT and NYCB.
You'll notice that in mixed bill pieces, ABT does give leads to soloists and corps members with regularity. Carrying off a full length, however, both in terms of stamina and stage presence is another matter. I'm not saying people shouldn't bemoan dancers they love not getting a shot, but having sat through Hammoudi in full lengths (or Cory Stearns, esp. early on) I'd say a conservative approach is not necessarily horrible.
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29 minutes ago, FITTB85 said:
This is my takeaway from all the NYCB issues over the last month… Ballet dancers need media training. First Robbie Fairchild doesn’t know how Instagram works and now Kathryn Morgan is throwing around dangerous, incriminating language.
I am SHOCKED Kathryn said the word rape. Granted she said “I do not believe PM raped anyone.” But honestly, no one has said that word yet, until her video all statements have been about “sexual abuse”. These dancers need some actual PR training to know that you keep silent or you give a form statement, ex: “I have only ever had professional and supportive interactions with PM. I applaud the women who have the strength to publicly discuss their experiences, I hope this comes to a quick and justifiable conclusion, congratulations and good luck to interim team.”
She has the right to express herself like any other individual in this country. She doesn't work for NYCB and I thought she was quite careful not to be incriminating.
She said she had been getting many questions--I assumed her bringing up the word rape was in response to questions she had received.
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5 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:
The Union. I don't know how up to the task AGMA might have been in the early 90s, but they are alert to the issue now: AGMA ESTABLISHES A SYSTEM FOR MEMBERS TO REPORT CONDUCT THAT CREATES A HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT. This is one reason why unions are important — or at least should be. As institutions, they likely have some catching up to do as well.
On a different note: I still remember Kelly Cass; she was a genuinely lovely and talented dancer.
PS: One important aspect of the AD's job is the management of the company's relationship with the union. The Board will likely have that in mind when the consider their next course of action.
This thread is so large now I apologize if this is old news but the AGMA has responded re: the Martins allegations with a call for people to contact them if they experienced any harassment.
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3 minutes ago, Balletwannabe said:
The implications of that would have been serious, I understand. But there was that option.
That doesn't detract from her point that in a company that size there should have been some mechanism in place for employees to complain about abusive behavior.
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16 minutes ago, Balletwannabe said:
"no where to go, no protection"? The police perhaps? And why was this charactized as sexual assault when the description suggests otherwise? So many questions...
My impression is that this wasn't the case that triggered the investigation.
And I think you underestimate how easy people find it to report their bosses, who have been in control of them since they were literally children, to the police.
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11 minutes ago, California said:
Martins is taking a leave of absence from both NYCB and SAB, according to this new story from the Washington Post:
and we now have a named accuser, former NYCB soloist Kelly Cass Boal, wife of Peter Boal.
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2 hours ago, balletforme said:
The likely scenario (and really what is being alleged) is a pattern of a series of relationships that may have advantaged certain dancers or retaliated against others. I agree that it is hard to prove because there is so much casting at NYCB and, in the end, casting is subjective. Also, you would need people to come forward with specific incidents, which is unlikely.
In terms of harassment, the offended person needs to clearly tell the offender to stop (or get HR to do it on their behalf). If the offender is told--please don't say x, please don't hug him, please remove the pin up poster from your tool kit, please do not have conversations that are sexual in nature when x person can overhear--and the offender does it again, a case for sexual harassment is made. I doubt that a) any dancer has come forward to confront Martins and b) if ask to stop some type of behavior Martins would not--he is too smart.
That simply isn't true. The very fact it is perceived that a boss is favoring his sexual partners can be considered sexual harassment by other workers. This does not involve telling the offenders x or y. And while we don't know the particulars (if indeed there are any) in this case, that is not an essential part of indicating what is sexual harassment. No one needs to say to their boss "don't take your penis out in front of me." I should not have to say to a supervisor at work "please don't kiss me on the head," as it should go without saying.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/employees-can-sue-over-co-workers-sex-with-boss/
(see "favoritism as sexual harassment")
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13 minutes ago, soubrette_fan said:
As food for thought....how about Sarah Jessica Parker?
How about no.
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17 hours ago, fondoffouettes said:
It's the same as the banner image at the top of this page:
https://davidhkochtheater.com/Season-Tickets/17-18-Season/American-Ballet-Theatre.aspx
I have to admit I found nothing unusual about the photo; it didn't give me pause when I received the brochure in the mail. It's well-composed and conveys that it's a season of (mostly) contemporary works. Copeland, like Murphy, has breasts that are larger than those of many female dancers, but to me, this photo isn't exploiting that fact or trying to use it as a selling point.
I had the same reaction.
It is certainly not an amateurish image (as I believe it was described earlier in the thread), and if the suggestion is simply that showing Misty in a leotard top (not a particularly revealing one) = Hooters, that is pretty offensive.
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16 hours ago, Fleurfairy said:
That's wonderful. I'm glad that ABT took him back, most times ballet companies don't give you another shot.
Yes, and it isn't the first person who has left and returned to ABT (and I'm not talking about "stars" for whom you might expect a bit more flexibility if they left and then wanted to return).
Sean Stewart, a stalwart of the corps, originally joined in 1997, left in 2002 and returned in 2008.
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4 hours ago, canbelto said:
Tucked neatly away in a small corner of the Misty Copeland story is that she suffered several injuries when she was a soloist and was never really the same dancer (and still isn't). ABT is maybe the worst company in the world to become injured -- unless you're Julie Kent or David Hallberg or Herman Cornejo, ABT's reaction to injuries is either "buh-bye" or "have fun dancing the peasant pas de deux until you retire."
Except that isn't what Misty is doing... (and according to reports of her non-recovered technique perhaps it *should* have been).
Or Stella for that matter, though it was for a time.
They have also been (seemingly) accommodating of frequent injuries of late for Gillian Murphy, and why wouldn't they be.
I'm just not seeing the factual basis to support the above statement.
Part had *some* injuries lately but we really don't know what happened (I'm as upset as anyone about it) and I don't think there is much evidence that her injuries are the reason, or the main reason, for her being pushed out. Injuries certainly weren't the main issue for Xiomara or Paloma.
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26 minutes ago, Fleurdelis said:
The issue is, in the old Soviet Union, people were forced to declare their ethnic group and stick to it, so something like what you suggest could have been easily done back then. Thankfully, this practice has been abandoned since the 1990s, and now people are free to choose for themselves what type of ethnicity they feel they most belong to, and to even refuse to be categorized and judged based on their ethnicity. You can still more or less figure out people's backgrounds based on their names (except for the ladies who get married, and take their husbands' last names), as well as sometimes (and this is a VERY slippery slope) their appearance. But you may find that this topic is a lot more complex and diverse than simply slotting people into white, black, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander boxes, which, unlike some people in the US might think, does not come even close to covering all the ethnic diversity that exists in the world.
Ethnicity is complex in the US as well. People here often do not neatly fit in one box either, and despite your assertion, no one (or very few) Americans would argue that those boxes you listed cover all the ethnic diversity that exist in the world. For one thing, you omitted Native Americans...
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6 minutes ago, Fleurdelis said:
I am Jewish from Russia myself. So, I can tell you quite a bit about the unpleasant past and the present, but this would be way too off-topic for this forum and will have nothing to do with the ethnic makeup of the Bolshoi's ballet company.
You made it a point, seemingly, to negatively compare the US and Russia vis-a-vis this issue--hence the turn this conversation took.
I'm not "Jewish from Russia" because that side of my family was forced to flee 100+ years ago...
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35 minutes ago, Fleurdelis said:
The explanation is quite simple, it is because Russia never enslaved people of other races by the millions, so the ethnic makeup of the country reflects this.
One of the reasons for diversity in the US is our horrible history of slavery, but it is certainly NOT the only one.
The fact that the US was a beacon of hope for people fleeing things like the pogroms in Russia --meant to eradicate minority groups like the Jews who fled Russia FOR the US is a much nicer reason for diversity in the US and, ahem, lack of diversity in Russia.
So yeah, they didn't enslave people but perhaps we can not glorify a place with their own unpleasant past and racist present.
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3 minutes ago, canbelto said:
Well since it's sort of come out in the wash how important it is for dancers to find sponsors, Part, Vishneva, and Shevchenko were all sponsored by the same person -- Theresa Khawly. When Part said the "gave her contract away" it's not hard to deduce that Khawly's funds were simply moved to give Shevchenko the promotion and raise.
Stella Abrera however is sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Shen, who have no other dancers on their sponsorship.
Not sure that follows, since it means Khawly has gone from sponsoring 2 principals and a soloist to (as far as we know), 1 principal....
I would have imagined it wouldn't have been necessary to eliminate Part to make her accounting work out, in fact she now is paying less than previously.
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23 minutes ago, nanushka said:
I disagree, personally. I think of numerous male dancers as being quite beautiful.
My problem with "handsome" is that, historically, it has been used as an adjective to describe women who "are not feminine in the way I [the speaker] think they should be." I think it's used for a dancer such as Part precisely because she is not delicate and conventionally sylph-like. In other words, I think it's an insult (by those who think in that narrow-minded way) disguised as a compliment.
I also find it odd since she is an exceptionally beautiful woman.
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6 hours ago, Natalia said:
Yes, it was very obvious even from way up in Row A of the Balcony. Maybe the stress of the afternoon was affecting her.
The dancing itself went beautifully; just one small misstep in the finish of the 2nd of two slow pirouettes en dedans in the "flute variation" in the Tema e Variazioni, which she corrected awkwardly but quickly. All else went well. The seven quick lifts with Blaine went well.
I thought she was less smiley than Shevchenko on Weds.
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3 minutes ago, nanushka said:
I agree pretty much completely with everything else you say, FauxPas, but this part seems rather extreme. The exact quote from Veronika on FB is "you can do whatever you want!" I agree that's the wrong approach to take, but I have seen no evidence that she's behaving like "a petty prima donna."
Yeah I took it as a rather dramatic throwing up of hands in frustration and anger at the entire situation: "do whatever!!" with the annoyance yes directed at abt who I'm sure she's mad at, but I'm guessing she doesn't really want to have to talk a crazed supporter out of a tree right now either.
I mean if I was in her shoes the last thing I'd want was to have to beg my fans to not make a fuss. I hardly took it as encouragement, although if I had been in her shoes I would probably have made the effort to try and quell the protest.
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3 minutes ago, Kaysta said:
She definitely does. I just don't want to deal with crazy protesters, as I'm allergic to big, rowdy crowds.
I'm fine with them booing McKenzie if he goes on stage. I'm fine with showering Veronika with flowers and applause.
But what bothers me is when folks put down other dancers because they are angry about Veronika. If you read some of the postings on that petition, some have a tendency to belittle ABT's other dancers because they are upset with the Part situation. I have no problem with people stating they think Veronika is the best female principal at ABT, I just don't like when some have to put down others to try and raise Veronika up.
I'm with you. But remember it isn't a large number of people and rudeness like that in PERSON by a few individuals is harder to pull off.
But I completely agree, and said it before. No reason to put down any dancers (new principals is who I mentioned before, but others either) because of what has happened. they aren't to blame.
That is why I think it is important that people who are planning to be positive don't get scared off by a few bad apples.
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18 minutes ago, Kaysta said:
This craziness is making me reconsider even attending the performance.
Don't do that. Go and be vocal in your enthusiastic support for Veronika. That's my plan. Be positive and enthusiastic. She deserves it, no?
I'm fine with them booing McKenzie if he goes on stage. I'm fine with showering Veronika with flowers and applause.
Peter Martins Sexual Harassment Allegations
in Ballet News & Issues
Posted
As do I (as I said before), and I don't believe a director saying in a frank way that it would be best if a little weight was lost is what people are making an accusation out of.