Sexism in dance: are conspiracy theories missing the point?
Do Britain's top female choreogrpahers have to be twice as good as their male counterparts to get to the top? Ismene Brown can't find the supporting evidence.
I’m bemused by the outburst of claims that female choreographers are under-represented, held back, or discouraged by ‘institutionalised sexism’ from unveiling their contributions to the richness of British dance.
Only a fortnight ago I was thinking about what to write for my first 2016 piece, and this was the very question on my lips. Why was English National Ballet doing a special all-women choreography programme in 2016 as a protest statement when so many of the best things made in dance last year and the previous year were by female choreographers? But I decided I’d keep that powder dry until ENB come to the stage.
However, this weekend Luke Jennings, the Observer’s campaigning dance critic, let rip about ‘a gender imbalance so egregious, and of such long standing, that it shames the British dance establishment’... Keep reading on The Spectator
I’m bemused by the outburst of claims that female choreographers are under-represented, held back, or discouraged by ‘institutionalised sexism’ from unveiling their contributions to the richness of British dance.
Only a fortnight ago I was thinking about what to write for my first 2016 piece, and this was the very question on my lips. Why was English National Ballet doing a special all-women choreography programme in 2016 as a protest statement when so many of the best things made in dance last year and the previous year were by female choreographers? But I decided I’d keep that powder dry until ENB come to the stage.
However, this weekend Luke Jennings, the Observer’s campaigning dance critic, let rip about ‘a gender imbalance so egregious, and of such long standing, that it shames the British dance establishment’... Keep reading on The Spectator