Texas Ballet Theater debuts first commission of women choreographers in 20 years

Why are there so few ballets created by women?

By Marcheta Fornoff, KERA NewsFebruary 24, 2025 12:45 pm, ,

From KERA News:

For the first time in Texas Ballet Theater’s more than 60-year history, the company is presenting a mixed-repertoire production solely choreographed by women.

The program, International Woman, contains pieces from six women and also marks the company’s first newly commissioned works by women in at least 20 years.

“I think it’s long overdue,” said artistic director Tim O’Keefe. O’Keefe officially took over the role in 2023 after serving as associate artistic director for the company since 2002.

Across the United States, fewer than one third of dances performed by the 150 largest professional classical and ballet companies in the 2023-2024 season were choreographed by women, according to the Dance Data Project. The number might come as a surprise to anyone who has dropped a child off at ballet class and noticed that girls tend to outnumber boys by an estimated 20 to one.

What’s behind the disparity and what can be done to address it? KERA News asked five dance professionals to weigh in.

Yfat Yossifor / KERA News

Dancers rehearse a piece choreographed by Alexandra Light on Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at Texas Ballet Theater in Fort Worth.

Barriers for women choreographers 

• Need for ongoing support – “Rarely are choreographers brilliant out of the gate. Finding a way to create opportunities to make those initial dances and keep practicing making dances and providing pathways for that to happen is the way to nurture choreographers. And typically, that has not been where the professional ballet world turns its attention or its resources.” – Elizabeth Gillaspy, professor of classical and contemporary dance at Texas Christian University

• Funding – “The needs of a choreographer include other bodies and space and time. I envy a string quartet that can open a great piece of music and after three or four rehearsals and perform it on stage. Whereas a dance company needs four to six weeks of rehearsal space and people on salary to be able to have a beautiful work of art emerge. Funding in our country is very difficult.” – Janet Eilber, artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company

• The Culture – “If we want change, it has to come from us. You can’t wait for society and institutions to make that change. We have to be more vocal. Ballet dancers are trained to be silent and to listen and to execute because our mode of expression is our body. But if you want something, you have to actually vocalize it and say it out loud and dare to knock on doors.” – Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Belgian Colombian choreographer 

• Power imbalance – “You think of ballet, you think of ballerinas. Usually she’s taking the bow … she’s front and center. But the power, the decision making, the ability to hire other people to push your vision forward has been almost exclusively male. And I think that should change both for creative purposes, but also because it’s just nuts.” – Elizabeth Yntema, president and founder of the Dance Data Project 

Yfat Yossifor / KERA News

Rieko Hatato dances with Jackson Bayhi to rehearse Shibuya Blues Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at Texas Ballet Theater in Fort Worth.

• Time: “[If] you have the goal to do the soloist and the principal roles, you are sewing pointe shoes a lot. … We don’t have time to go into an empty studio and experiment and play with choreography. And I feel like that was my experience. I was just so hyper focused and had the blinders on. I think it helped me get to my position as principal dancer, but it left out room for other pursuits at that time.”  – Alexandra Light, principal dancer at Texas Ballet Theater and emerging choreographer

Yfat Yossifor / KERA News

Paige Nyman dances with Brett Young during a rehearsal of “Shibuya Blues” Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, at Texas Ballet Theater in Fort Worth.

The program for International Woman is expansive. It includes work from some of the dance world’s most well-known choreographers including Natalie Weir of Australia, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa of Belgium and the late American choreographer Martha Graham.

Three local artists were commissioned to create work inspired by Graham’s 1930 “Lamentation” solo. They are Joy Bollinger, artistic director of Bruce Wood Dance, Alexandra Light, principal dancer at Texas Ballet Theater and Nycole Ray, artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre: Encore! 

Classic and neoclassical ballets will always be part of TBT’s mission, O’Keefe said, but audiences should not feel intimidated by a billing with contemporary works. “It’s easier access than you think it is,” he said. “I just want to make sure everybody [thinking] ‘I don’t understand that’ or ‘I won’t enjoy that,’ You will. It’s so phenomenal. The music choices, the movement. It’s uplifting. … You can’t go away not elated.” 

International Woman runs Feb. 21-23 at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth followed by a Feb. 28-March 2 run at Wyly Theatre in Dallas.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the production International Woman runs Feb. 2-March 2 at the Wyly Theatre in Dallas. It’s Feb. 28-March 2.

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This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, The University of Texas at Dallas, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.

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