The Blue Riband Podcast

Librettist David James Brock discusses his latest project, Year of the Horse with the band Fucked Up

Amanda Smith - FAWN Chamber Creative and Glenn Gould School

PART THREE: SOME THOUGHTS ON THE DANCE CURRENT AND NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA Back in June, I shared an opinion on social media that garnered quite a bit of attention, merely by asking: how long can we keep this energy going? How long will our performative allyship with the BLM movement be sustained when the media has moved on to the next thing. My bet was that we’d be back our usual patterns of behaviour by September. While September was an arbitrary choice in time, it was also when I initially planned to get an article published that was written by Emily Trace on allegations of racial discrimination made by Nicholas Rose after his experience at the National Ballet of Canada. 2021 presents an unparalleled challenges and opportunities for the performing arts, whereby three of Canada’s top organizations—the NBoC, TSO and COC—are all welcoming new leadership. This is also an opportunity to turn over a new leaf unto better moral leadership. To ensure that their organizations dispense with the usual reactionary corporate reflex when they are given feedback on EDI that doesn’t suit their public image. Emily’s full article is available on Blue Riband (www.briband.com), but I’ve also put together a three-part podcast series to make this story more accessible. Part 1 is a reading of Emily’s article. Part 2 is an extended interview with Rose about his time at the NBoC and his retrospective assessment of their response to his allegations. In Part 3, I summarize interactions with The Dance Current, Huffington Post and other publications whose refusal to publish this story could only be explained by the inconvenience of acknowledging Rose’s grievances.

PART TWO: INTERVIEW WITH NICHOLAS ROSE  Back in June, I shared an opinion on social media that garnered quite a bit of attention, merely by asking: how long can we keep this energy going? How long will our performative allyship with the BLM movement be sustained when the media has moved on to the next thing. My bet was that we’d be back our usual patterns of behaviour by September. While September was an arbitrary choice in time, it was also when I initially planned to get an article published that was written by Emily Trace on allegations of racial discrimination made by Nicholas Rose after his experience at the National Ballet of Canada. 2021 presents an unparalleled challenges and opportunities for the performing arts, whereby three of Canada’s top organizations—the NBoC, TSO and COC—are all welcoming new leadership. This is also an opportunity to turn over a new leaf unto better moral leadership. To ensure that their organizations dispense with the usual reactionary corporate reflex when they are given feedback on EDI that doesn’t suit their public image. Emily’s full article is available on Blue Riband (www.briband.com), but I’ve also put together a three-part podcast series to make this story more accessible. Part 1 is a reading of Emily’s article. Part 2 is an extended interview with Rose about his time at the NBoC and his retrospective assessment of their response to his allegations. In Part 3, I summarize interactions with The Dance Current, Huffington Post and other publications whose refusal to publish this story could only be explained by the inconvenience of acknowledging Rose’s grievances.

Back in June, I shared an opinion on social media that garnered quite a bit of attention, merely by asking: how long can we keep this energy going? How long will our performative allyship with the BLM movement be sustained when the media has moved on to the next thing. My bet was that we’d be back our usual patterns of behaviour by September. While September was an arbitrary choice in time, it was also when I initially planned to get an article published that was written by Emily Trace on allegations of racial discrimination made by Nicholas Rose after his experience at the National Ballet of Canada. 2021 presents an unparalleled challenges and opportunities for the performing arts, whereby three of Canada’s top organizations—the NBoC, TSO and COC—are all welcoming new leadership. This is also an opportunity to turn over a new leaf unto better moral leadership. To ensure that their organizations dispense with the usual reactionary corporate reflex when they are given feedback on EDI that doesn’t suit their public image. Emily’s full article is available on Blue Riband (www.briband.com), but I’ve also put together a three-part podcast series to make this story more accessible. Part 1 is a reading of Emily’s article. Part 2 (forthcoming) is an extended interview with Rose about his time at the NBoC and his retrospective assessment of their response to his allegations. In Part 3, I summarize interactions with The Dance Current, Huffington Post and other publications whose refusal to publish this story could only be explained by the inconvenience of acknowledging Rose’s grievances.

For Week16 of my weekly blog on orchestral recordings on vinyl, Juilliard Bassoonist, Morgan Davison, joins the Blue Riband Podcast to talk about the famous ballet suite, her favourite composer, and her journey to the bassoon. Follow Morgan Davison on Instagram at @morganpractisesbassoon. 

It’s a pleasure to welcome Artistic Director of FFDN, Ilter Ibrahimof, for an podcast interview! The Fall For Dance North Festival opens today and runs till October 18th. Head to ffdnorth.com for more information and to get your $15 ticket which gives you access to the ENTIRE FESTIVAL, plus an exclusive program featuring six Canadian premieres. For the first ever Blue Riband podcast interview, Ilter and I talked about what those first couple months of the pandemic felt like for him and his team, and we go through a selection of programs that caught my eye from this year’s catalogue. We also talk about a social issue that’s dominated 2020 headlines, that obviously being the BLM movement and how it pertains to the dance world.

Piano Concerto No.1, Op.11 1) Allegro maestoso 2) Romanze — Larghetto 3) Rondo — Vivace Links - REMOTE podcast - Alex Ross - The Rest is Noise - Adam Neeley - Music Theory is Racist - Alan Walker - Fryderyk Chopin - Sylvia Plath - Frog Autumn  SONG OF THE WEEK: ‘Niamey Jam’ — Bombino Throwback to: YR3 WEEK5, YR2 WEEK5 Click here for the full 2020/2021 roster of selected recordings