On 16 March, English National Ballet along with Sadler’s Wells hosted Inspiring Women in Dance, part of the Inspiring Women Campaign.
A hundred female students from secondary schools and colleges had the unique opportunity of gaining inspiration from powerful women in dance, including our Artistic Director Tamara Rojo, Gitta Wigro (Co-Director of Independent Dance), choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and international lawyer and Inspiring Women champion, Miriam González Durántez. Coinciding with She Said, our new triple bill of ballets created by female choreographers, the day was a resounding success. Have a read of Tamara Rojo’s inspirational opening speech:
“In some industries, businesses are putting quotas in place to say how many women they should be employing. I never used to be pro-quotas for women in dance. I had always thought success in dance was based on merit – that if you had the talent and worked hard, you would get the opportunities deserving of your talent and hard work.
However, I have learnt over the years that even if you are talented and give 100% to everything you do, the opportunities you deserve are not always there for you.
I realised that something had to be done, that I needed to go out and to create more opportunities, especially for women.
Unless we create those opportunities, the world doesn’t make them happen.
That is one of the reasons why I have created the programme She Said, to give three very talented female choreographers the opportunity to create new work for English National Ballet for Sadler’s Wells stage. I wanted to make work from the point of view of women, because in my whole career I had never been part of a new ballet created by a woman – and maybe that was because there were not enough opportunities for them.
My message for you today is to fight for those opportunities and to value yourselves.
Do not underestimate your potential. And when you reach it, go out and create the opportunities for the next generation after you.”
The female students also took part in a creative workshop inspired by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s new piece Broken Wings, which focuses on the life and work of iconic artist Frida Kahlo, being created for She Said.
She Said is on at Sadler’s Wells, London on 13 – 16 April 2016. Book your tickets for She Said here.
Find out more about the Inspiring Women Campaign here.
For images of the day, please visit our Flickr gallery here.