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Ballet & feminism


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I share this at the risk of getting attacked.  Getting back to the article, there are several points being made.  However, when it comes to a lack of women in ballet or having their voices heard, I would comment this:

Off the top of my head:  Directors:  Karen Kain, National Ballet of Canada (Not to mention National Ballet of Canada was co-founded by Celia Franca);
Aurelie Dupont, Paris Opera; Tamara Rojo, English National Ballet; Lourdes Lopez, Miami City Ballet; Julie Kent, Washington Ballet; Patricia Barker, Royal New Zealand; Virginia Johnson, Dance Theatre of Harlem; Victoria Morgan, Cincinnati Ballet; Judith Jamison, Alvin Ailey; Emily Molnar, Ballet BC,; Suzanne Farrell, Suzanne Farrell Ballet; Hope Muir, Charlotte Ballet; Patricia McBride, Associate Artistic Director, Charlotte Ballet; Sol Leon, NDT; Ingrid Lorentzen, Norwegian National; Dorothy Pugh, Ballet Memphis; co AD, Carinne Binda, Sacramento Ballet; Diana Byer, New York Theatre Ballet; Kathryn Bennetts, former AD of Flanders; Monica Mason, former Royal Ballet; Barbara Weisberger, founder of PA Ballet; E. Virginia Williams, founder of Boston Ballet; Mary Day, founder of Washington Ballet; Barbara Riggins, co-founder of what is now Orlando Ballet; Patricia Blair, Associate Artistic Director Ballet Chicago; Kathy Thibodeaux, Ballet Magnificat; and numerous smaller companies and projects founded and/or run by women.  

Choreographers:  Cristal Pite, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Martha Graham, Twyla Tharp, Agnes De Mille, Bronislava Nijinska, Trisha Brown, Judith Jamison, Ninette de Valois, Yagpin Wang, Aszure Barton, Jessica Lang, Gemma Bond, Hope Boykin, Isadora Duncan, Pina Bausch, Lauren Lovette, Mia Michaels, Sonya Tayeh, Cathy Marston, Carolyn Carlson, Debbie Allen, Andrea Schermoly, Katherine Dunham, Marguerite Porter, Marie Agnes Gillot, Susan Stroman, Natalia Makarova, Gillian Lynne, just to name the well-known ones.  

Additionally, there are numerous female Associate Directors, Executive Directors, School Directors and Ballet Mistresses.  

 

 

Edited by its the mom
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I think the point that most people make about women directors is not that they don't exist, but that they don't exist for the most part, at MAJOR companies, even though many of those were founded by women. NBOC, ENB, and Paris Opera are currently (and recent) exceptions.  So up against all the Charlottes and Memphises and Sacramentos, there are the following MAJOR companies run by men:

San Francisco

Pacific Northwest

ABT

Boston

Houston

Birmingham Royal
Bolshoi

Mariinsky

Hamburg

Stuttgart

Berlin

Dresden

Munich

Dutch National

La Scala

Vienna

Czech National

Australian

NYCB (well, we'll see...)

 

and maybe major-ish, or less well-known but nonetheless big companies

Scottish

Northern Ballet

Sarasota

Arizona

Polish National

Estonian National

Hungarian National

Toulouse

Bordeaux

Compania Nacional de Danza (Spain)

etc.

 

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Thanks for the lists. The NYCB currently has one woman on its artistic management "team" - that's a first though. And doesn't mean that the mindset has really changed, yet. As KBarber says, "we'll see..."

Edited by pherank
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I realize that, but how many of those companies have either women Associate Artistic Directors or women Executive Directors?  I believe I forgot PNB was once co-directed by Francia Russell, and Margaret Barbieri co-directs Sarasota.  Sasha Waltz will co-direct Staatsballet.  Madeleine Onne (formerly Royal Swedish and Hong Kong) ... I think I read somewhere that she is taking over Finnish National.  Rachel Beaujean is Associate Artistic Director of Het.  Boston, ABT, and PA Ballet have women Executive Directors.  Those are the three I know off the top of my head.  I also forgot Amy Seiwert and Karen Brown.  

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4 hours ago, Quiggin said:

I think the policy on speculation is to be fair to everybody and provide some basis for the speculation..

Does this count as basis? 1 rabbi said there is no such thing as coincidence 2 logic 3 experience. 

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1 hour ago, its the mom said:

I realize that, but how many of those companies have either women Associate Artistic Directors or women Executive Directors?  I believe I forgot PNB was once co-directed by Francia Russell, and Margaret Barbieri co-directs Sarasota.  Sasha Waltz will co-direct Staatsballet.  Madeleine Onne (formerly Royal Swedish and Hong Kong) ... I think I read somewhere that she is taking over Finnish National.  Rachel Beaujean is Associate Artistic Director of Het.  Boston, ABT, and PA Ballet have women Executive Directors.  Those are the three I know off the top of my head.  I also forgot Amy Seiwert and Karen Brown.  

I'm not criticizing - it's an excellent list, and when we look at the organizations surrounding the A.D.s there are many, many women involved filling all manner of roles. But yes, males prevail at the highest ranks, especially in certain cultures.

Nina Ananiashvili would be another one to mention: she is A.D. of the State Ballet of Georgia.

Edited by pherank
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19 minutes ago, pherank said:

I'm not criticizing - it's an excellent list, and when we look at the organizations surrounding the A.D.s there are many, many women involved filling all manner of roles. But yes, males prevail at the highest ranks, especially in certain cultures.

Nina Ananiashvili would be another one to mention: she is A.D. of the State Ballet of Georgia.

How could I forget her!

 

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In general, historically, women have been in the majority in schools and studios -- companies that grew out of those institutions generally began with female leadership, but often were transferred to men as time passed and they grew.  There are plenty of exceptions to that model, but overall, it's the standard story.

Part of this comes from the dynamics of non-profit organizations -- traditionally, boards of directors are more likely to be run by men as their aggregate budgets increase.  Things get more interesting when you look at companies when they get to the division between artistic director and executive director.  Pacific Northwest Ballet's current ED is a woman -- she came up through the organization and was promoted to this job when the previous (long-serving) ED retired.  She has commented several times in public that when she attends meetings with her colleagues from other companies she is one of the only women in the room.

There have been studies run on gender equity in non-profit management -- I don't know how many are specifically about dance, but there are a few out there.

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