12. Made in Our Century.
Two recent works by Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, pictured above, lead off the first and second hours of this
final class. They exemplify some of the themes that have preoccupied artists in the new milennium. In one, The
Seasons Canon, she looks back at the art of past while carrying the weight of the present. The other, Flight
Pattern, addresses a global tragedy of the present day, acknowledging despair but also offering a glimmer of hope.
Not all work by contemporary women is this dark; there has also been room for smiles and laughter, and the class will
end in an explosion of color. We shall link the sixteen artists by the theme of journeys, whether metaphorically
through memory and time, or literally in the sense of creative people born in one continent and moving to another. rb.
The script, videos, and images will be posted immediately after class.
Here are brief bios of the composers and choreographers considered in the class, listed in order of birth—but note
that the list does not include singers or dancers who were not also creators of independent works. All the
biographies of women featured in the course are collected in the BIOS link
on the syllabus page.
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Pina Bausch, 1940–2009. German choreographer.
Pina (Philippine) Bausch trained with the German Expressionst choreographer Kurt Joos, then after two years at the Julliard in NYC returned to take over his company. In 1970, she founded Tanztheater Wuppertal, a company which enabled her to develop her style of visceral movement, intense emotion, and the use of non-traditional elements, such as the rain in Vollmond or an entire stage covered with soil in The Rite of Spring.
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Mona Hatoum, 1952– . Palestinian sculptor.
Born in Lebanon to exiled Palestinian parents, Hatoum was caught in London when the Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975. Using that as a base, she has "traveled extensively and developed a dynamic art practice that explores human struggles related to political conflict, global inequity, and being an outsider." [Wikipedia]
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Judith Weir, 1954– . English composer.
Dame Judith Weir was born in Cambridge to Scottish parents. Using a comparatively conventional musical language in new ways, she has written operas, orchestral, and chamber works, and has had a distinguished career as a teacher. She was appointed Master of the Queen's Music (composer laureate) in 2014.
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Carol Ann Duffy, 1955– . Scottish poet.
Dame Carol Ann Duffy was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2019, the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly gay person to hold that position. "Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence in accessible language." [Enc. Brit.]
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Unsuk Chin, 1961– . South Korean composer.
After studying in her native South Korea, Chin won several international awards, which supported further study in Germany, where she has remained. The striking musical language of her concertos for violin (2004) and cello (2009) has been honored by further awards, and in 2007 her opera Alice in Wonderland with text by David Henry Hwang was premiered in Munich.
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Berlinde de Bruyckere, 1964– . Flemish sculptor.
"De Bruyckere specializes in sculpture in various media including wax, wood, wool, horse skin and hair. Since the early 1990s many of her major works have featured structures involving blankets. Their use is symbolic both of warmth and shelter, and of the vulnerable circumstances such as wars that make people seek such shelter." [Wikipedia]
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Alice Oswald, 1966– . English poet.
Alice Oswald studied Classics at Oxford, and later became a professional gardener; she is currently Oxford Professor of Poetry, arguably the highest honor for a British poet. Although she has published nine collections and won numerous prizes, her most famous work is Memorial (2011), subtitled "an excavation of the Iliad."
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Roxanna Panufnik, 1968– . English composer.
Roxanna is the daughter of Polish emigré composer and conductor Sir Andrzej Panufnik, and studied in London at the Royal Academy of Music. She has had a number of significant commissions for vocal and choral music (including for the coronation of Charles III), and has written an opera. Her Three Paths to Peace, a synthesis of the musical styles of the three Abrahamic religions, was written for the World Orchestra for Peace in 2014 and premiered in Jerusalem.
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Crystal Pite, 1970– . Canadian choreographer.
Pite began work as a dancer with Ballet British Columbia and then spent several years with Ballet Frankfurt. She returned to Canada as a choreographer in 2001, and in 2002 founded her own company Kidd Pivot, for which she continues to create new works, in addition to managing a burgeoning career in Amsterdam, Paris, London, and many other centers.
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Nkeiru Okoye, 1972– . American composer.
Born in New York, Okoye has an African American mother and a Nigerian father, and he childhood was divided between both countries. No stranger to the large stage, she has writen an opera on the life of Harriet Tubman, and several projects commissioned by US symphony orchestras.
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Melissa Lee-Houghton, 1982– . English poet.
Selected by the Poetry Book Society as a "Next Generation Poet," Lee-Houghton has won or been shortlisted for most major British poetry awards. Her uncompromisingly honest writing deals with her own problems as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, mental illness, and drug addiction.
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Njideka Akunyili Crosby, 1983– . Nigerian American painter.
Crosby is a Nigerian-born visual artist working in Los Angeles. Through her art Akunyili Crosby "negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America and her native Nigeria, creating collage and photo transfer-based paintings that expose the challenges of occupying these two worlds" [Smithsonian citation]. She was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant in 2017.
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Warshan Shire, 1988– . Somali poet.
"No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark," writes this Somali/Kenyan emigrant, who became the Young Poet Laureate of London then moved to Los Angeles. Her online poem "For Women Who Are Difficult to Love" caught the attention of Beyoncé, who commissioned a set of linking poems for her 2016 album Lemonade.
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Katarina Janeckova Walshe, 1988– . Slovakian painter.
Raised and trained in Bratislava, Katarina Janeckova met and married an American and moved with him to Corpus Christie, TX. Her colorful and often deliberately cartoonish work explores the confusion she finds in her new land, as well as her own womanhood.
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Sherrie Silver, 1994– . Rwandan choreographer.
Silver was born in Rwanda and returns there regularly combining humanitarian projects with dance. She has created numerous dances for Hollywood, including mst famously This is America, with "Childish Gambino" (Donald Glover).
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Amanda Gorman, 1998– . American poet.
Gorman sprang to national attention by delivering her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of President Biden in 2021—the youngest inagural poet ever at 22. She studied sociology at Harvard, and became the first National Youth Poet Laureate. An activist, her poetry focuses on feminist and racial themes.
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