Pathways to Performance Choreographic Program (PTP):
MoBBallet’s (Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet) next focus is on Black ballet choreographers and those of color. In keeping with MoBBallet’s 360˚ approach to transforming the field of ballet, the Pathways to Performance Choreographic Program (PTP) cultivates and mentors Black choreographers (and those of color) who specifically work in the ballet idiom. Additionally, PTP supports contemporary choreographers who are interested in exploring the ballet idiom, while also assisting established but overlooked creators in breaking through the glass ceilings that have hindered their advancement in the dance world. PTP provides them with concrete opportunities to create and present their work on prominent stages.
Our mission is to ensure that the ballet field does not pigeonhole Black choreographers into subcategories like “modern” and “contemporary.” Therefore, PTP is specifically designed to nurture and develop choreographers whose primary language is ballet and who create work en pointe.
Moreover, PTP serves as an incubator and platform for professional and pre-professional ballet talent, offering dancers the opportunity to engage in a creative process with Black creators. They also receive personal coaching and guidance in a mentally and spiritually supportive environment that centers Blackness and acknowledges the impact of being Black in the predominantly white space of ballet. PTP provides a space for healing through art, helping participants navigate the cognitive dissonance of loving an art form that has only recently begun to consciously acknowledge their presence. Founder Theresa Ruth Howard also provides insights on navigating the rapidly changing landscape, activating one’s activism in a safe and strategic manner, and building community. We are not unicorns, and we are not alone. We are the Village.
June,2023 Jacob’s Pillow joined the Kennedy Center in partnership to support MoBBallet’s Pathways to Performance in making its performance debut. In addition to presenting the program, each institution provided PTP with choreographic residencies to support our choreographers in building works. In March 2024, PTP participated in our second Pillow Lab which produced works by Pathways Fellows Meredith Rainey (Where They Meet) and Portia Adams (Faintly Seen).
Celebrating Juneteenth at PBT with Corey Bourbonniere and Reframing the Narrative
Interview: Kennedy Center showcases Black ballet in ‘Reframing the Narrative’ initiative
Press Release: Pathways to Performance: Exercises in Reframing the Narrative
Review: About Last Night…A Chance to Dream •by Marcie Sillman And Another Thing Substack Jul 05, 2024
Review: ‘Pathways to Performance’ Spotlights Black Ballet at the Kennedy Center The Georgetowner • by Hailey Wharram July 8, 2024
Review: PATHWAYS TO PERFORMANCE at Kennedy Center: A too-short ballet festival at The Kennedy Center of outstanding new works •by: Emily Berger Jul. 05, 2024
This was an extension of her 2017 Dance Magazine Op-Ed, Op-Ed: Why We Need To Confront Bias in Dance Criticism. one of the areas Howard is planning to address is that of dance criticism in the field, with the new MoBBallet Dance Writers Convening
The prevalence of cultural biases in dance criticism has historically placed artists of color in the field at a disadvantage (choreographers, dancers, directors, dance organizations of color). In conjunction to the Pathways to Performance debut. MoBBallet held the Dance Writers Convening to address racial and cultural bias and the lack of cultural competency in the field. The convening was designed to enlighten, educate, and include dance writers and editors in conversations regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. Howard facilitated an important dialogue about systemic, cultural, and implicit biases inherent in dance criticism, providing the tools needed to help writers and editors identify them in their work to stay on par with the shifting landscape of the field and the world at large. LEARN MORE
Pathways to Performance Choreographic Program (PTP)
Where it Started
PTP is an amalgam of initiatives of Howard and MoBBallet, providing opportunities for Black ballet students, professionals and choreographers through the MoBBallet Symposium and a curatorial passion.
When Howard was offered the opportunity to curate a program for the Kennedy Center in June 2022 she created the Reframing the Narrative Residency for which she commissioned Donald Byrd to create a 20 minute work on eleven international Black identifying ballet dancers.
Donald Byrd’s “From Other Suns” | A World Premiere Ballet from The Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center produced their first ever documentary about the process:
Reframing the Narrative: Blacks in Ballet | A Kennedy Center Digital Stage Original
Press:
Washington Post –Creating a space for ballet dancers ‘where Blackness is not an issue’
Andscape: A ‘Blackout’ at the Kennedy Center unites Black dancers from historically white ballet companies
MOBBALLET SYMPOSIUM: Motivation, Innovation, Activation (MIA)
The pilot program of PTP assembled a diverse panel of artistic mentors Donald Byrd, Jennifer Archibald, and Helen Picket to share their expertise experience and working choreographers. They facilitated this singular process using our MoBBallet Choreographer’s Curriculum provides the building blocks to help develop and elevate budding choreographers’ work, in addition to the tools to network and navigate the industry which included: choreographic concepts and structure, movement vocabulary, studio and time management, contract negotiation and more.
Three companies Ballet Austin, Nashville Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet attended the final days of the Symposium to observe the Choreographic Fellows work in studio with our advanced dancers and our final informal showing. As a result The Royal Winnipeg Ballet commissioned Fellow Portia Adams (Ballet de Monte Carlo) to set a solo for students of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Aspirant Program, and Meredith Rainey was commissioned by Royal Winnipeg Ballet to set a work on the company in January. Bound premiered as a part of their Fast Forward Program in March 2022.
Pathways to Performance Fellow Portia Adams was commissioned to set a work on Royal Winnipeg Ballet Aspirant Students. She reset the work on one of her fellow dancers at Ballet de Monte Carlo
PILLOW LAB – MARCH 10-19 2023
For the Fall 2023 Pillow LabHoward tapped 2021 Guggenheim Fellow Christopher Huggins. Huggins will be in process with international Black dancers, some of whom participated in the Kennedy Center’s Reframing the Narrative residency curated by Howard, for which she commissioned Donald Byrd to create From Other Suns.
The dancers in this Pillow Lab residency are: Precious Adams, Corey Bourbonniere, Josh Bodden, Princess Gates, Jonathan Philbert, Miranda Silviera, Raquel Smith, and Tyrone Walker.
The Pathways to Performance Choreographic Program (PTP) Pillow Lab will provide an opportunity for Huggins, who works internationally and does not have a traditional “home base” to work, with a highly selective group of ballet artists outside of a traditional company setting to investigate his aesthetic in a ballet vernacular and specifically working on pointe. In 2015, he set In the Mirror of Her Mind on Dance Theater of Harlem, dipping his toe into the ballet space, but he was not afforded another opportunity to investigate the possibility of commuting his dynamic contemporary work into a balletic context. Pathways to Performance offers him a risk-free environment to explore. In addition budding dancer Miranda Silveira was able to take the time and space to stretch into finding her choreographic voice.
Residencies like the Pillow Lab will help PTP to build an evening of works that will be presented at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater in July 2024.