Dancers on the Front Lines of Protest Against Racial Injustices

[Helene]

Amanda Morgan, the first and only black ballerina at Pacific Northwest Ballet, joined the protest.  The following interview in Pointe Magazine includes the video of her speech:

https://www.pointemagazine.com/pnbs-amanda-morgan-is-raising-her-voice-against-injustice-2646183681.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

In the interview, she said, "A lot of people say that we need to hire more Black dancers, and yes, that's important. But we also need to have more Black artistic directors, and Black female executive directors or Black board members. "  This is the same point that J'Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Karen Slack, Morris Robinson, Russell Thomas, and Julia Bullock made in a recent discussion through LA Opera:

In one way, it's sad in many ways ways that Karen Slack looks to dance and theater as having more diverse artistic administration.

(I've started the embedded video at the beginning of the discussion, but the whole thing is important to hear.)

[sandik]

Pacific Northwest Ballet has embarked on a series of discussions focusing on Black, Brown and LGBTQ members of the dance community -- here's their opening session.

[On Pointe]

On 6/16/2020 at 11:38 AM, Helene said:

In the interview, she said, "A lot of people say that we need to hire more Black dancers, and yes, that's important. But we also need to have more Black artistic directors, and Black female executive directors or Black board members. " 

Yeah,  but you need to hire more Black dancers.  First things,  easier things,  first.  Why is it so hard to concentrate on one task?  At this moment in history,  a panel on black,  brown and LGBTQ+ representation is a classic example of mission creep.  (The idea that gay voices are not heard and gay dancers are underrepresented is ludicrous.)

I feel for Amanda Morgan.  As the sole black dancer in that rather large company,  she has now become the PNB avatar of black America,  whether she wants to be or not.  It would be nice if she could just concentrate on dancing.

Edited June 20, 2020 by On Pointe
Further thought.

[Helene]

14 hours ago, On Pointe said:

Yeah,  but you need to hire more Black dancers.  First things,  easier things,  first.  Why is it so hard to concentrate on one task? 

Why is it so hard to do both at once?  Administration positions, for example, come up more regularly and are a lot easier to hire for: there are a lot more applicants in the pool and the skills are transferable: you don't have to have been an accountant or marketing or HR or IT person in a ballet company to do the job in a ballet company.  The "people" roster for PNB, both the Executive Director at the top and the backoffice people (scroll) with bios have worked in all kinds of industries.  Gary Tucker, who is a great Director of Communications, has a film background.  There are far more ballet teachers than professional ballet dancers in a 22-year or so age group at any given time.  Arts organizations look for board members all the time.

They aren't claiming that gay voices aren't heard, but that companies have gay (usually) men on staff and  maybe an Asian woman and call it diversity.

[On Pointe]

1 hour ago, Helene said:

Why is it so hard to do both at once?  Administration positions, for example, come up more regularly and are a lot easier to hire for: there are a lot more applicants in the pool and the skills are transferable: you don't have to have been an accountant or marketing or HR or IT person in a ballet company to do the job in a ballet company.  The "people" roster for PNB, both the Executive Director at the top and the backoffice people (scroll) with bios have worked in all kinds of industries. 

Why is it so hard?  You tell me.   The link for the people roster didn't work for me,  so I have no idea how many visible minorities work in administration at PNB.  But looking at the company photo on their website,  finding the black and/or brown dancers is like playing Where's Waldo.   While you don't have to have a ballet background to do many administrative jobs in a ballet company,  you do have to have a fairly high ballet profile to become the artistic director of a ballet company.  Ballet companies tend to prefer that company teachers have a significant relationship with the company they're  teaching,  like former soloists and principals,  and that's completely legit.  But if the company doesn't hire black dancers in the first place,  those individuals are going to be in short supply.

By all means ballet companies should make an effort to diversify their administrative staffs.  But ballet is a visual art.  If year after year,  there are no visibly black dancers on stage,  the logical conclusion is that black dancers are not welcome.  

[Helene]

1 hour ago, On Pointe said:

If year after year,  there are no visibly black dancers on stage,  the logical conclusion is that black dancers are not welcome.  

I'm certainly not going to argue with that. 

I fixed the staff link, but here it is as a stand-along:

https://www.pnb.org/aboutpnb/staff/

Once black artists are members of companies, though, it would be nice if there was diversity in the administration, whenever they needed to get a costume fitting, had a benefits question, needed to get a blog added to the website.  Even before people grew into Artistic Director roles from within, although being a male former Principal Dancer is the majority ticket, whether being hired directly into the position or by getting there from Associate Artistic Director or artistic staff positions.  Although to become Executive Directors, that is not nearly as true.

The general truism now is that in corporate America, 80-90% of jobs are gotten by connections, not by submitting resumes, when the opposite was true when I graduated from college.  I wouldn't be surprised that if in ballet it was a 98%-to-2% ratio.  You don't get to bring in people from your digital Rolodex if you're not there in the first place.  It can work from both angles, and it's not like the same people have to focus on the same kinds of hires. 

[canbelto]

Alexandra Waterbury has been posting up a storm about how ballet is sexist and racist: