TWSB Nutcracker 2023!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know of any plans to switch it up from Septime's Nutcracker? I love it but anyone else surprised that Julie never did her own version? It's so DC-centric I can't imagine it ever changing, but I'm curious!

I would love if they changed it. I really don’t like Septime’s version.

That would be amazing! I'm sure the amount it would cost to switch things up would be considered insurmountable though.

[Anonymous]

They stopped using a cherished (by some) version of the nutcracker in Seattle and started doing Balanchine’s. It was a controversial move. I really hate the DC centric stuff in TWB. But not sure switching to Balanchine is the answer. https://www.npr.org/2014/12/23/371254489/in-seattle-maurice-sendaks-wild-nutcracker-reaches-its-final-act

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remember school is not company. The company is quite diverse, they have worked hard to make it that way.

The school is voluntary sign up, and no mid level ballet school is going to go recruiting students (except for PTP - and I don’t know the demographic breakdown of PTP) - promoting the SE campus is probably the most you should expect.

They have the numbers in the school, even NW is pretty diverse. If no POC kids are auditioning, maybe it's because they're not being seen in the better roles?

Or maybe because they don’t want to make the commitment to Nutcracker? So many families opt out of Nutcracker because it requires such a huge time commitment — this is all families. You start with fewer families of color in general, then you take away all of those families who opt out of Nutcracker then you’re left with way fewer families compared to white families. It’s a numbers game. I disagree with PP about 50% of dancers in “major” student roles needing to be dancers of color. How do you define that exactly? Are you talking about just Black dancers? Or Black and brown dancers? And if brown, which groups — south Asian, too? And what about kids who are mixed race, but don’t present as Black and/Brown? Do they count? Or just kids who are visibly of color? You can see the slippery slope here….

Doing nothing about it is not the answer.

Please tell us exactly what you would do (instead of criticizing)

Look at who is behind the scenes in the audition room, how many people of color are decision makers? It should be at least half. I think Julie made great gains and was a progressive thinker, but maybe they need to find a black Artistic Director. And then do what Hollywood claims to do. Make a clear goal of what you want the cast to look like in an ideal world and look for that during the auditions. I guarantee they'll find what they're looking for, there are plenty of talented black and brown dancers do are being overlooked at both the NW and SE school.

that's not happening in the world of ballet. That many talented black decision-makers with ballet backgrounds and decision-making experience do not exist. What black artistic director (must be a full-on ballet person plus management skills and proven track record at running a company both from a human point and a financial one) would you suggest they hire?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remember school is not company. The company is quite diverse, they have worked hard to make it that way.

The school is voluntary sign up, and no mid level ballet school is going to go recruiting students (except for PTP - and I don’t know the demographic breakdown of PTP) - promoting the SE campus is probably the most you should expect.

They have the numbers in the school, even NW is pretty diverse. If no POC kids are auditioning, maybe it's because they're not being seen in the better roles?

Or maybe because they don’t want to make the commitment to Nutcracker? So many families opt out of Nutcracker because it requires such a huge time commitment — this is all families. You start with fewer families of color in general, then you take away all of those families who opt out of Nutcracker then you’re left with way fewer families compared to white families. It’s a numbers game. I disagree with PP about 50% of dancers in “major” student roles needing to be dancers of color. How do you define that exactly? Are you talking about just Black dancers? Or Black and brown dancers? And if brown, which groups — south Asian, too? And what about kids who are mixed race, but don’t present as Black and/Brown? Do they count? Or just kids who are visibly of color? You can see the slippery slope here….

Doing nothing about it is not the answer.

Please tell us exactly what you would do (instead of criticizing)

Look at who is behind the scenes in the audition room, how many people of color are decision makers? It should be at least half. I think Julie made great gains and was a progressive thinker, but maybe they need to find a black Artistic Director. And then do what Hollywood claims to do. Make a clear goal of what you want the cast to look like in an ideal world and look for that during the auditions. I guarantee they'll find what they're looking for, there are plenty of talented black and brown dancers do are being overlooked at both the NW and SE school.

that's not happening in the world of ballet. That many talented black decision-makers with ballet backgrounds and decision-making experience do not exist. What black artistic director (must be a full-on ballet person plus management skills and proven track record at running a company both from a human point and a financial one) would you suggest they hire?

What was Julie Kent's experience before coming on board as the Artistic Director of Washington Ballet? Why can't Ashley Murphy and Nardia Boodoo be a part of the casting team? If TWSB never lifts up their black students, how will we ever get to the point where this is possible in the world of ballet? Even if you're white, don't do you want your child to be a part of a more equitable school and company?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anything about ballet but this thread is so interesting!

What is it about being a flower page that is so bad? What roles are good and bad?

There aren't many flower pages in each cast. It seems like there's very little dancing and it seems to mostly cast students of color.

Good roles after a 'certain age' = Party Girls, Soldiers, Bunny, Clowns, Little Butterflies, Frontier Girls

Is it typically students of color? Has this been confirmed or is this just speculation??

In my DD’s cast last year, one of the pages was Black, but the others were white. I think there were 4 total if I’m not mistaken. Two on either side of the stage behind the mushrooms.

Given the paucity of black ballet dancers in general, the question isn't "what percentage of bad parts go to black dancers" but rather "what percentage of black dancers get bad parts"
If there are only a handful of black girls, and they are consistently getting flower page type parts, it doesn't matter than some white girls *also* get those parts.

If the page and the bunny are roles for black girls, how are the white girls who get these parts supposed to feel? We shouldn't be labeling these roles as black roles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just remember school is not company. The company is quite diverse, they have worked hard to make it that way.

The school is voluntary sign up, and no mid level ballet school is going to go recruiting students (except for PTP - and I don’t know the demographic breakdown of PTP) - promoting the SE campus is probably the most you should expect.

They have the numbers in the school, even NW is pretty diverse. If no POC kids are auditioning, maybe it's because they're not being seen in the better roles?

Or maybe because they don’t want to make the commitment to Nutcracker? So many families opt out of Nutcracker because it requires such a huge time commitment — this is all families. You start with fewer families of color in general, then you take away all of those families who opt out of Nutcracker then you’re left with way fewer families compared to white families. It’s a numbers game. I disagree with PP about 50% of dancers in “major” student roles needing to be dancers of color. How do you define that exactly? Are you talking about just Black dancers? Or Black and brown dancers? And if brown, which groups — south Asian, too? And what about kids who are mixed race, but don’t present as Black and/Brown? Do they count? Or just kids who are visibly of color? You can see the slippery slope here….

Doing nothing about it is not the answer.

Please tell us exactly what you would do (instead of criticizing)

Look at who is behind the scenes in the audition room, how many people of color are decision makers? It should be at least half. I think Julie made great gains and was a progressive thinker, but maybe they need to find a black Artistic Director. And then do what Hollywood claims to do. Make a clear goal of what you want the cast to look like in an ideal world and look for that during the auditions. I guarantee they'll find what they're looking for, there are plenty of talented black and brown dancers do are being overlooked at both the NW and SE school.

that's not happening in the world of ballet. That many talented black decision-makers with ballet backgrounds and decision-making experience do not exist. What black artistic director (must be a full-on ballet person plus management skills and proven track record at running a company both from a human point and a financial one) would you suggest they hire?

What was Julie Kent's experience before coming on board as the Artistic Director of Washington Ballet? Why can't Ashley Murphy and Nardia Boodoo be a part of the casting team? If TWSB never lifts up their black students, how will we ever get to the point where this is possible in the world of ballet? Even if you're white, don't do you want your child to be a part of a more equitable school and company?

[phone] to infinity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't this an overblown response to a few students getting assigned the wrong role?

No. There is a ton of discontent at SE. I think they could lose a large chunk of the students there. For the first time, the privileged kids who go there (mostly whites families from Capitol Hill) realize that they are getting the short end of the stick. I think quite a few of them will not return — some will decamp for NW, but others for different schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't this an overblown response to a few students getting assigned the wrong role?

No. There is a ton of discontent at SE. I think they could lose a large chunk of the students there. For the first time, the privileged kids who go there (mostly whites families from Capitol Hill) realize that they are getting the short end of the stick. I think quite a few of them will not return — some will decamp for NW, but others for different schools.

This gets threatened every year, but it does not happen. I’m have an upper level kid at NW who’s getting plenty of short stick, but we’ve got no better options so here we are

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't this an overblown response to a few students getting assigned the wrong role?

No. There is a ton of discontent at SE. I think they could lose a large chunk of the students there. For the first time, the privileged kids who go there (mostly whites families from Capitol Hill) realize that they are getting the short end of the stick. I think quite a few of them will not return — some will decamp for NW, but others for different schools.

This gets threatened every year, but it does not happen. I’m have an upper level kid at NW who’s getting plenty of short stick, but we’ve got no better options so here we are

I have a brown upper level student in NW too and it's not great. She, along with her very few brown peers are overlooked, don't get offered the same performance opportunities to their white counterparts and generally go about unseen... I have no doubts it's much worse at SE. We've been looking elsewhere for the last year and still searching. So far Seber seems the most promising, but I haven't gotten enough feedback to trust the same won't happen there. We had already made the leap from another studio years ago to twsb for its diversity and commitment to equity and inclusion, but if I had a dime...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn't this an overblown response to a few students getting assigned the wrong role?

No. There is a ton of discontent at SE. I think they could lose a large chunk of the students there. For the first time, the privileged kids who go there (mostly whites families from Capitol Hill) realize that they are getting the short end of the stick. I think quite a few of them will not return — some will decamp for NW, but others for different schools.

This gets threatened every year, but it does not happen. I’m have an upper level kid at NW who’s getting plenty of short stick, but we’ve got no better options so here we are

Not like this. I am a parent at SE. My kid doesn't even dance in the Nutcracker because we travel for Christmas. I have never seen parents this worked up. Ironically, it is mostly the white parents who aren't used to feeling like second class citizens. It is basically all anyone talks about during class at Levels 1-3 at this point.

[Anonymous]

If anyone finds a place with high-level ballet training for black dancers please post. We will drive for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If anyone finds a place with high-level ballet training for black dancers please post. We will drive for it.

http://akhmedovaballet.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If anyone finds a place with high-level ballet training for black dancers please post. We will drive for it.

Maryland Youth Ballet in Silver Spring. Extremely high level training. Produces dancers who continue professional training post-graduate every year. Goal is to help every dancer become their best. Cannot say enough about the good things that came my dancer's way when they switched from TWSB to MYB.

[Anonymous]

Well this thread has certainly taken a turn...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well this thread has certainly taken a turn...

Can we start over with Nutcracker Warm Fuzzies?