{"id":162,"date":"2016-03-11T21:16:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T21:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=162"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:29","slug":"162","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2016\/03\/11\/162\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to MoBBallet Ezine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to MoBBallet Ezine<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"Photo
Theresa Ruth Howard, Founder and Curator of MoBBallet.org.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My Name is Theresa Ruth Howard and I am the Founder and Curator of MoBBallet.org. In June\u00a0I was invited to sit on the Race and Dance Townhall: REAL TALK panel at the Dance\/USA\u00a0conference in Miami. (http:\/\/www.mybodymyimage.com\/danceusa-conference-miami<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In\u00a0preparation, I had the opportunity to have some wonderfully inspired conversations with their\u00a0executive director Amy Fitterer, and Denise Saunders Thompson the Executive Director of the\u00a0International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD). Though I was nervous before the panel\u00a0began, thanks to familiar faces of friends and colleagues like Jennifer Stahl (Editor in Chief of\u00a0Dance Magazine), Lane Harwell (Executive Director of Dance\/NYC) and Anjali Austin (former\u00a0DTHer and associate professor at Florida State University) my anxiety was quick to ebb. Once\u00a0started the session was a riveting and courageous conversation about ballet, race, and diversity.\u00a0I was pleased to see the executive directors of Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Fransico Ballet and\u00a0Charlotte Ballet in attendance. I chose the end of the session to launch MoBBallet.org. From the\u00a0onset there was great excitement, interest and support from the dance community in that room\u00a0and at large. Thanks to that platform MoBB was launched into the universe like a rocket.<\/p>\n

Afterwards there was a great flurry of excitement and enthusiasm. To be honest, it was\u00a0overwhelming, and though I was bursting to \u201cget something out there\u201d the gravity of what I was\u00a0setting out to do started to register. I knew that I would have one chance to get this right, and\u00a0having a vision would not be enough. I would need a comprehensive plan, the strongest team I\u00a0could assemble, and resources. Making certain that MoBBallet\u2019s presentation is impeccable\u00a0was imperative, and that takes time.<\/p>\n

MoBB\u2019s mission is to preserve the contributions of Blacks in Ballet by creating digital profiles of\u00a0their experiences in the dance world, the Roll Call is a fluid roster of professional ballet dancers\u00a0(past and present) that can be used a resource for journalist, dance students, dance enthusiasts\u00a0and in divergent academic curricula. This is our digital initiative, our tangible mission is to\u00a0support and create the next generation of Black ballet dancers, while helping to shift the\u00a0aesthetic ballet so that it reflects not merely the country we live in, but the people who dance it.\u00a0Where our digital initiative is being developed, MoBB has hit the ground running in creating\u00a0change in the ballet world.\u00a0Our first Ezine issue focuses on the \u201cDiversity issue\u201d and features some of the grassroots work\u00a0MoBB has been involved in since our launch. We bring you our coverage of the International\u00a0Association of Blacks in Dance\u2019s First Annual Ballet Audition for Women of Color. In January\u00a0MoBB played an integral part in the planning and execution this historic event. It took place\u00a0January 24th, the weekend the great snowstorm that hit the East coast, but so great was the\u00a0dedication of all of the directors and participants, that very few were unable to attend. Prior to\u00a0the audition there was a two hour dialogue about the \u201cDiversity\u201d problems in ballet with the 15\u00a0artistic directors of ballet companies, MoBB was honored to sit along side the indefatigable Joan\u00a0Myers Brown, Denise Saunders Thompson and Amy Fitterer to help facilitate that discussion. It\u00a0was the first time a conversation like this was had. Both the Black dance community and the\u00a0Ballet community are part and parcel of one another, but seldom intimately interact. This was a\u00a0huge first step to creating a working relationship between the two communities. It was such and\u00a0overwhelming success that it was decided that moving forward we would plan a ballet caucus to\u00a0delve deeper into the conversation with a broader audience, and work to build a bridge between\u00a0the ballet world and the black dance community. MoBB had the pleasure of documenting this\u00a0historic event and creating what is our inaugural video.<\/p>\n

We feature two articles about diversity initiatives; Diversity is the New Black is my contribution to\u00a0the January issue of Dance Magazine, written from the perspective of a Black student entering\u00a0the very white world of ballet , and how that feels, while challenging ballet organizations to\u00a0confront that when creating programing. New York Times writer Gia Kourlas’ Push for Diversity\u00a0in Ballet Turns to Training the Next Generation, highlights 3 juggernauts organizations (New\u00a0York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater and Miami City Ballet) and their answers to creating a\u00a0diverse student body. Finally we offer Dance Theatre of Harlem: 40 Years of Firsts, an overview\u00a0of the touring exhibition presented with the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts and\u00a0the California African-American Museum. This is a brief illustration of the depth of talent, beauty\u00a0and artistry that made Dance Theatre of Harlem a premiere American ballet company that\u00a0produced hundreds of Black Ballet dancers all of whom have a story to tell\u2026.<\/p>\n

We look forward to bring you more and hope that you will grow with us!\u00a0Join the MoBB!
\nLooking Forward,<\/p>\n

Theresa Ruth Howard
\nT\u2019ruth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to MoBBallet Ezine My Name is Theresa Ruth Howard and I am the Founder and Curator of MoBBallet.org. In June\u00a0I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-zine"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}