It is curious that ABT, with its new found commitment to trying to play a leadership role in diversity community outreach and bringing greater numbers of black dancers to ballet companies (aka Project Plie), has decided to yank its relatively young Nutcracker production from Brooklyn, New York, the borough that has the largest black population in the U.S. city with the largest black population in the country, and transplant it to Costa Mesa in Orange County, California where there are almost no black people at all.
They’re fleeing Brooklyn and its nearly one million black residents and moving to Costa Mesa where there are only 1,719 black residents. That’s 1,719.
It is true that Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center where ABT will dance and have its brand new school (a sister school to its JKO school in NYC) draws its audience from the much larger surrounding Orange County area. So, let’s look at OC.
In a May 2013 article, OC Weekly ran the numbers and found that OC ranks "as one of only two metro areas in the nation's 25 largest with an African-American population of less than 5 percent—and we'd clock in at a pathetically low 2.1 percent. Of all of OC's many embarrassments, this is by far the worst—2.1 percent?” Wikipedia’s entry which was extracted from U.S. Census Bureau Statistics, shows a lower 1.7% as the black population of Orange County. And Orange County isn’t just not black; it’s white, rich, and Republican. It's hard to see how Project Plie will have much bend in the knees in OC.
While ABT may express its undying love for Brooklyn, the fact is that it is fleeing the community whose demographics it claims it wants to attract for its audience and company, and is taking up residence in a white, rich, Republican community.
Even though ABT may be quitting Brooklyn, it will go out in a blaze of diversity lip service. This December it has scheduled three Nutcracker performances where the leading role of Clara is danced by the company’s lower tier soloist who is a self-proclaimed black person with a self-propagandizing machine that buys media at the rate of a congressional candidate. On Wednesday she will be selling and signing copies of her Firebird book at BAM after her performance in order to help keep her coffers full.
Any mainstream media types who might want to search through the highly-orchestrated pandemonium on that official press day in order to ask Kevin McKenzie about the decision to trade poor black Brooklyn for rich white OC might have a hard time finding him. Word around is that he's fleeing Brooklyn a few days early so that he can catch a performance of Ratmansky’s new Paquita in Munich.
18 responses to “Commitment to principles”
I don’t know why ABT is investing in a sister school when, so far, they have not had ANY notable graduates from JKO. All of the dancers whom came from Studio Company that they love to claim as “alumni” have only trained there for 1-2 years. Their actual training came from elsewhere. And from the video’s I’ve seen from JKO students on Youtube they aren’t even as good as my local ballet company’s school, Houston Ballet Academy. And we are regional! lol
As for the company moving from Brooklyn, that is ABT’s loss. Again. Notice how NYCB’s Nutcracker is well attended while ABT is all but giving away tickets. Instead of reaching out to the Brooklyn local community and having a non-outdated advertising campaign to get people interested in their production, ABT has all but relied on 25 year old advertising tropes, thinking that people will just show up with only seeing sporadic t.v. commercials. And besides, since ABT does not allow ANY of their dancers or productions to be filmed, who in the hell wants to see them anyway? Other than die hard ABT fans, no one knows who in the world Sarah Lane or Stella Abrera are, much less their dancing.
And the move to a predominately white area isn’t surprising. Project Plie is nothing but a marketing gimmick to get some publicity for a company slowly becoming irrelevant. They were never genuinely interested in getting more black dancers.
I don’t know why ABT is investing in a sister school when, so far, they have not had ANY notable graduates from JKO. All of the dancers whom came from Studio Company that they love to claim as “alumni” have only trained there for 1-2 years. Their actual training came from elsewhere. And from the video’s I’ve seen from JKO students on Youtube they aren’t even as good as my local ballet company’s school, Houston Ballet Academy. And we are regional! lol
As for the company moving from Brooklyn, that is ABT’s loss. Again. Notice how NYCB’s Nutcracker is well attended while ABT is all but giving away tickets. Instead of reaching out to the Brooklyn local community and having a non-outdated advertising campaign to get people interested in their production, ABT has all but relied on 25 year old advertising tropes, thinking that people will just show up with only seeing sporadic t.v. commercials. And besides, since ABT does not allow ANY of their dancers or productions to be filmed, who in the hell wants to see them anyway? Other than die hard ABT fans, no one knows who in the world Sarah Lane or Stella Abrera are, much less their dancing.
And the move to a predominately white area isn’t surprising. Project Plie is nothing but a marketing gimmick to get some publicity for a company slowly becoming irrelevant. They were never genuinely interested in getting more black dancers.
I don’t mean to defend ABT, but the demographics in OC are more diverse than often realized. 34% Latino. 19% Asian. 47% identify as white/not Latino. Many Latinos identify as mixed race, including white. This according to the Census Bureau:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06059.html
In 2008, President Obama received 48% of the OC vote and by 2010, Republican registration was down to 43%.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/us/politics/30orange.html?_r=0
Or see Fox news: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/24/republicans-losing-stronghold-on-orange-county-calif/
I don’t mean to defend ABT, but the demographics in OC are more diverse than often realized. 34% Latino. 19% Asian. 47% identify as white/not Latino. Many Latinos identify as mixed race, including white. This according to the Census Bureau:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06059.html
In 2008, President Obama received 48% of the OC vote and by 2010, Republican registration was down to 43%.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/us/politics/30orange.html?_r=0
Or see Fox news: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/24/republicans-losing-stronghold-on-orange-county-calif/
Haglund,
Were you at the Saturday matinee of the Nutcracker? If so, do you plan on posting a review? A few things seemed off, but I am new to ballet. Your reviews are educational experiences for me; they help me know what to look for and how to view the performance.
This was my third viewing of Ratmansky’s version! He has created some wonderful moments. The little mouse had the children around me audibly laughing, which was very sweet. The Dance of the Snowflakes moves from light and joyful to intense. I love that he introduced the danger element of a snowstorm. It’s there in the music! I had just never heard it before.
I wanted to fall in love with the dancing of Sarah Lane and Joseph Gorak, as I have been reading your writings over the last year. Both had some beautiful moments, but together seemed – tentative? However, I hope that someone else more knowledgeable than I will write about it soon while some of the dances are still in my head. I so want to root for Sarah!
Haglund,
Were you at the Saturday matinee of the Nutcracker? If so, do you plan on posting a review? A few things seemed off, but I am new to ballet. Your reviews are educational experiences for me; they help me know what to look for and how to view the performance.
This was my third viewing of Ratmansky’s version! He has created some wonderful moments. The little mouse had the children around me audibly laughing, which was very sweet. The Dance of the Snowflakes moves from light and joyful to intense. I love that he introduced the danger element of a snowstorm. It’s there in the music! I had just never heard it before.
I wanted to fall in love with the dancing of Sarah Lane and Joseph Gorak, as I have been reading your writings over the last year. Both had some beautiful moments, but together seemed – tentative? However, I hope that someone else more knowledgeable than I will write about it soon while some of the dances are still in my head. I so want to root for Sarah!
J2, thanks for the references on OC voting. I extracted the idea that the area was Republican from this link which says OC politics are dominated by Republicans and that the county hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since FDR:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,_California
It’s true that there are significant Latino and Asian populations there, but that isn’t who ABT is trying to attract with its Project Plie. The company has had no problem attracting qualified dancers of Latino and Asian descent who became bona fide stars in the past few decades. So that isn’t their focus, regardless of what they might claim. The inability or unwillingness to recruit and develop black dancers at ABT was exclusively a problem during Kevin McKenzie’s tenure. Anne Benna Sims, Shelly Washington, Nora Kimball, Keith Lee, Carlos Acosta, Carld Jonaissant all were outstanding black artists who ABT’s previous artistic directors brought into the company. Instead of building on the fine work of the previous ADs, McKenzie dropped the ball and now the company is trying to make itself appear progressive while it cleans up his mess.
J2, thanks for the references on OC voting. I extracted the idea that the area was Republican from this link which says OC politics are dominated by Republicans and that the county hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since FDR:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County,_California
It’s true that there are significant Latino and Asian populations there, but that isn’t who ABT is trying to attract with its Project Plie. The company has had no problem attracting qualified dancers of Latino and Asian descent who became bona fide stars in the past few decades. So that isn’t their focus, regardless of what they might claim. The inability or unwillingness to recruit and develop black dancers at ABT was exclusively a problem during Kevin McKenzie’s tenure. Anne Benna Sims, Shelly Washington, Nora Kimball, Keith Lee, Carlos Acosta, Carld Jonaissant all were outstanding black artists who ABT’s previous artistic directors brought into the company. Instead of building on the fine work of the previous ADs, McKenzie dropped the ball and now the company is trying to make itself appear progressive while it cleans up his mess.
Rhesa, thanks for stopping by H.H. It took me a little while to get the Nutcracker review up, but I incorporated the performances of Sarah, Stella, and Misty into one.
Rhesa, thanks for stopping by H.H. It took me a little while to get the Nutcracker review up, but I incorporated the performances of Sarah, Stella, and Misty into one.
Tiffany (5 comments up), ITA with your comments. ABT’s marketing is almost worse than no marketing at all.
Tiffany (5 comments up), ITA with your comments. ABT’s marketing is almost worse than no marketing at all.
I don’t know how ABT expects to sell tickets in OC. The Segerstrom Center can’t even fill the house for Bolshoi or Mariinsky performances.
I don’t know how ABT expects to sell tickets in OC. The Segerstrom Center can’t even fill the house for Bolshoi or Mariinsky performances.
That’s a good point, Dreamer.
If ABT can fill the house with Sleeping Beauty next March, maybe people will be inclined to come back for Nutcracker. On the other hand, if they fill the seats using the guest artists that they intend to use in New York, nobody will be interested in seeing plain old ABT house dancers during Nutcracker. Boy, they have screwed themselves royally during these past several years.
That’s a good point, Dreamer.
If ABT can fill the house with Sleeping Beauty next March, maybe people will be inclined to come back for Nutcracker. On the other hand, if they fill the seats using the guest artists that they intend to use in New York, nobody will be interested in seeing plain old ABT house dancers during Nutcracker. Boy, they have screwed themselves royally during these past several years.
I noticed the review, Haglund! And a big thank you! I visit your site regularly, so that I can be better educated when I go. Your website it a treasure trove for NYC ballet.
I noticed the review, Haglund! And a big thank you! I visit your site regularly, so that I can be better educated when I go. Your website it a treasure trove for NYC ballet.