Category: dance

“What would dance-specific sexual harassment training and policies look like? How can we protect freelancers working outside an institutional setting?” Lauren Wingenroth spells out the issues.

Will silicone putty change the injury profiles for dancers on pointe? One former dancer, now a designer in the Bay Area, thinks it can – and after she approached some elite ballerinas on Instagram, they agree.

For instance, time to radically reimagine the ballerina and her agency: “That would begin with addressing the various stages of female puberty instead ignoring it. Her blossoming womanhood would not be treated as plague. Instead, ballet would develop a system of support for girls during a time when their bodies seem to be rebelling against them and their susceptibility to eating disorders and chronic body image issues is at its peak. The ballerina could have breasts, hips and muscles and look as strong as she indeed is. She could be different shapes, sizes and shades as well.”

Roman Baca, who trained in ballet before deploying to Fallujah, has founded Exit12 Dance Company, “a small troupe with a goal of inspiring conversations about the lasting effects of violence and conflict. Through Exit12, he began to get involved in art and healing for military veterans.” (includes video)

Andrea Miller, the Met Museum’s current artist in residence (she’s the first dancemaker in the post), talks to Brian Schaefer about creating Stone Skipping, her site-specific work for the muesum’s Temple of Dendur.

“Neuroscientist Agnieszka Burzynska … and her team looked at 40 female college students: half highly trained in modern dance, and half non-dancers. They had the subjects do various tasks – from watching dance videos to remembering the location of dots on a screen – and used scanners to look at their brain structure and activity. Here’s what they found.”

Former NYCB corps member Sophie Flack: “I have known some of you for a long time, so I’m telling you this as a friend: by posting on social media your sadness for Peter’s downfall, you are siding with an abuser. You are discrediting the men and women who’ve come forward, an extraordinarily difficult thing to do outside the ballet world, and career suicide when it’s done while still ‘inside.’ Even if you were to discredit each and every allegation, Peter’s documented crimes are inarguable, and would be fireable offences in any other setting.”

“Wilhelmina Frankfurt, a former NYCB ballerina and currently a dance educator, joined [Alyona Minkovski] on ‘Salon Talks’ to discuss Martins’s legacy and reveal new claims against her former director.” (text and video)

Chase Johnsey “says that he no longer believes the company” – the travesti troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo – “stands for openness and gender freedom. He claims that he and other dancers have been mistreated, sexually harassed and discriminated against for appearing too feminine in classes and rehearsals, adding, ‘We’re being bullied for expressing our femininity and we’re being given ultimatums just because we don’t live up to some masculine idea of what a gay man is.” (includes video)

The 38-year-old dancer, who has been with San Francisco Ballet for 18 years and founded and directs the contemporary company SFDanceworks, succeeds Patricia Barker, now at the Royal New Zealand Ballet.