Equal Movement Rights

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dance against the machine: Crystal Frazier leads a rehearsal of MontSzh, an all-female hip-hop dance group taking part in ñWomen Hitting the Wall.î

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

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A new project examines gender gaps in the dance field.

by Deni Kasrel

Rehearsing in a studio space at Weston Fitness Center in Center City, the group known as Montäzh gets down and funky in a hip-hop house kind of way. The dancers do the “snake,” stretching arms out, diving to the floor then rippling legs and torso in a wavy motion. They crouch their bodies low to the ground, then spin in a circle for a move called the “cannonball.” Both are standards of hip-hop dance, but this group puts a twist on what most expect from a hip-hop ensemble -- Montäzh is an all-female company.

\"People often ask how it\'s different for men than women in hip-hop,\" comments Montäzh co-director Crystal Frazier. \"But I don\'t think it\'s different. Just because a man goes to the floor and he can do flips and twirl around, a woman can do the same thing.\"

Frazier observes there\'s a strong perception that women are less physical dancers than men. That mindset cuts across many modes of dance besides hip-hop. This widely held belief is but one example of a multitude of gender gaps in the realm of dance addressed in \"Women Hitting the Wall,\" a performance and panel discussion presented by The Gender Project, at the Community Education Center this weekend.

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Also this issue:

Razzle Dazzle
-David Anthony Fox

Faith in Freedom
-David Anthony Fox

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Ghost World
-Janet Anderson

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-Susan Hagen

April 18-24, 2002

art

Equal Movement Rights

dance against the machine: Crystal Frazier leads a

rehearsal of MontS<caron>zh, an all-female hip-hop dance

group taking part in ñWomen Hitting the Wall.î

dance against the machine: Crystal Frazier leads a rehearsal of MontSzh, an all-female hip-hop dance group taking part in ñWomen Hitting the Wall.î

Photo By: Michael T. Regan

A new project examines gender gaps in the dance field.

by Deni Kasrel

"People often ask how it's different for men than women in hip-hop," comments Montäzh co-director Crystal Frazier. "But I don't think it's different. Just because a man goes to the floor and he can do flips and twirl around, a woman can do the same thing."

Frazier observes there's a strong perception that women are less physical dancers than men. That mindset cuts across many modes of dance besides hip-hop. This widely held belief is but one example of a multitude of gender gaps in the realm of dance addressed in "Women Hitting the Wall," a performance and panel discussion presented by The Gender Project, at the Community Education Center this weekend.

The project comes to Philadelphia following stints in New York and Chicago. Its format features performances by five local dance acts -- Renée Robinson-Buzby, Grace Mi-He Lee/Genghis Dance Company, Montäzh, Ju-Yeon Ryu and Melanie Stewart -- combined with narrated statistics supporting the notion that while women far outnumber men in dance, men receive a lopsided amount of the juicy fruits of fame and fortune.

In preparation for the Gender Project's Philadelphia appearance, dancer/choreographer Ariel Weiss Holyst conducted research looking into the distribution of funding, teaching, presenting and performing opportunities for dancers here in the city. Her findings (based on data from the last five years) indicate that while males make up but 13 percent of the dance population in the area's schools and major dance programs, men hold 39 percent of the faculty or teaching positions. Employment by gender in the two largest local dance troupes -- Philadanco and Pennsylvania Ballet -- is split down the middle. Of 244 dance acts of national repute brought to the city during those five years, 158, or 65 percent, were directed by malesMale -directed companies netted 40 percent of the company/organization grants doled out by local funders. And then there's the statistic that really gets Holyst's goat; of the eight $50,000 Pew Fellowships in the Arts grants that went to choreographers since 1992 , only one was awarded to a woman. The trend is clear, she says, "the more money, the more men."

A narrator (Janis Brenner) reveals these and many more statistics throughout "Women Hitting the Wall." There are also slides with quotes drawn from one-on-one interviews with performers and others in the dance community. According to JoAnna Mendl Shaw, a New York-based dancer/choreographer who co-founded The Gender Project, the narration "is like an ostinato -- it's the relentless barrage of information against which you see these performances." Yet Shaw says the Gender Project is not out to "do a drum-beating diatribe. We purposefully created a dry, unemotional format to house this in. We let the statistics speak for themselves."

That barrage of information frames the five performances, each of which, in one way or another, ties in to the topics at hand. For instance, a section concerning the different career and life choices women often face is followed by a piece by Renée Robinson-Buzby about her personal experiences in motherhood. A segment posing the question "If this were a man performing, would you see it differently?" features Montäzh's house/hip-hop-based movement. Ju-Yeon Ryu's piece about Korean comfort women focuses on gender inequities instilled by male-controlled social structures.

Connections between the dance and the narration are largely abstract. Gender Project directors considered asking artists to create work directly addressing issues brought up via the stats and quotes, but decided that constituted overkill. Then, too, Holyst says, "part of it is to just present women's work." Even so, this is not merely a showcase, she explains. "It's about asking questions and presenting some real information and using performance as a vehicle to do that."

The evening concludes with a panel discussion moderated by Robin Leidner, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania. Shaw notes thus far the post-show proceedings have proven quite dynamic. "You're asking people to examine some really long-held assumptions that go very deep in terms of how they organize their thoughts about society in roles and power structures," she says.

Conversation and queries invariably turn to why men tend to have a leg up in a field that, based on sheer numbers, is dominated by women. Are men more aggressive than women? Do women tend to sell themselves short? Is there an unspoken "gay mafia" in the funding community that favors men over women? How do cultural values play into the dance gender gap? What are the larger implications to the disparity that carry over to society at large?

The questions may vary, but one thing remains the same at any Gender Project production: Audiences are surprised by the statistics.

That surprise may well extend to some of the dancers at the Philly performance. Robinson-Buzby is currently neutral on the gender gap issue. "I've never felt threatened by men in any of my environments," she asserts. "I think for women, the best rise to the top. It's survival of the fittest... maybe this show will rouse my insights."

The Gender Project: Philadelphia Women Hitting the Wall, Sun., April 21, 7:30 p.m., $12, Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Ave., 215-387-1911; related workshop “Gender Generated Movement,” Sat., April 20, 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m., CEC; to pre-register call 215-545-2212, ext. 1.




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