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2013 Alvin Ailey Performance
ENNIORIZZI |PHOTOGRAPHY
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"Wow, that was great!" was the opinion of the little girl sitting next to me at the Legros Cultural Arts Women in Dance performance in NYC last week. "I want to be a dancer!" I thoroughly agree with her. I was also especially impressed by her enthusiasm given the challenging aesthetic and emotional range of the performances that stirred it. The all-female-choreographer program delivered many and multi-faceted punches, and the word that seems to best sum it up is "diverse." Yet, something consistently not presented was a vision of prettiness coddled by princes. If there were an agreement among the pieces presented, it was: life is complicated.
"We want that diversity," says Chantal Legros, Founder and Executive Director of LCA, "And that creativity." The Women in Dance program is part of a larger project, the Women in the Arts Series. "Women are not as visible in positions of power in the arts. Many women want to be artistic directors or hold executive positions. There are opportunities, but in my experience working with artists, a lot of women don't know how to find or pursue them," Legros explains.
The Women in Dance project supports female choreographers, many of whom are artistic directors of their own companies, by providing them with performance opportunities, rehearsal space grants, and invaluable mentorship and business training. The mentors are established women in dance, including Camille Brown, Sidra Bell and Danielle Gee (now the Curator for NYC's Summerstage).
Click here to read more about the Woman in Dance project and how it celebrates and supports womens' careers and aspirations.
by Tamara Johnson
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