2018 Dance Forum: Creating Dance In and For Today’s Society
Relevance, community, place-based work, and truth telling were the topics discussed at Dance/USA’s 2018 Dance Forum. The event focused on examples of work that represented the future of the dance field in different ways. Read on for more.
Overcoming Blind Spots in Striving for Diversity
Despite the increased numbers of minority-focused artistic ventures, it is still whites who primarily decide which people and works will be produced or receive mainstream exposure, said Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s Zenetta Drew. Read on.
Cleo Parker Robinson, 2017 Dance/USA Honoree: For Decades She Has Been Driven By the Mission of Inclusivity
In June, Denver dance artist Cleo Parker Robinson joins the roster of Dance/USA Honorees. She has been hailed as a champion for the arts, civil rights, and community engagement. Read about this dance leader and her eponymous company.
Dyeing to Match: Dancewear for Everyone
Dyeing to Match is a national awareness campaign about the lack of new dancewear for darker skin tones. This is an issue of equity and diversity; the dancewear industry produces things that they say are nude but that always are a shade lighter than the skin tones of many of our students and dancers.
Weaving a Future for Inclusive Dance
Judith Smith cofounded AXIS Dance Company in Oakland, Calif., as one of the first contemporary dance companies to create and present dance on dancers with physical disabilities who used wheelchairs, prosthetics and crutches performing alongside nondisabled dancers. In May 2016, AXIS brings together physically integrated dancers and dance companies, presenters, dance service organizations, and funders with expertise in this area for the first time since 1997.
Staying Relevant in a Changing Neighborhood
How can arts organizations more fully reach and engage their communities and audiences? Learn how Philadelphia’s Fleisher Art Memorial revamped its programs in the face of changing neighborhood demographics. Read on for more.
Expanding Possibilities
As I navigate my identity as a black, female artist, I’m especially
interested in creative efforts that prioritize cultural equity and
embody more empowering models of community participation, writes dancer and dancemaker Katrina Reid. Read on for more on opening up possibilities for women choreographers of color.
REAL TALK: Race and Dance at the Dance/USA Conference
During the Dance/USA 2015 conference held in Miami from June 17-20, race
and diversity were hot topics featured in multiple breakout sessions.
Designed as freeform discussions between panelists and audience members,
the Dance/USA breakout sessions provided an excellent forum for the
sometimes personal and emotional experiences surrounding the topic of
race in the dance world. Two consecutive sessions, collectively titled
“Race and Dance Townhall: REAL TALK,” were held Thursday, June 18.
Marketing Misty: Missed Opportunity or Business as Usual?
The much anticipated announcement of Misty Copeland’s promotion to
principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre was heralded with
media fanfare – a breaking news banner across the
homepage of The New York Times, coverage on the major television news networks, and a hastily arranged, widely viewed press conference. But
the actual press release from American Ballet Theatre was routine.
Arriving as expected at the end of the season, it presented company
promotions in the order of position and alphabetically, meaning that
Copeland’s name was second, behind fellow new principal Stella Abrera.
There was no mention of Copeland’s place in history as the first
African-American principal ballerina at the company. Read on for Karyn Collins exploration as to what’s in store for Copeland beyond the media hype.
Bringing Down Barriers
A discussion on expanding the boundaries of inclusiveness featuring illustrious members of the first generation of non-white arts leaders, among them Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Arthur Mitchell, Ballet Hispanico founder Tina Ramirez and dancer, choreographer and actress, Carmen de Lavallade on the increasing necessity for arts managers and organizations to create arts programs and field arts administrators who “look like America.” Read author/editor Robert Bettmann’s report on this 2015 panel of experts, exclusively in From the Green Room.
