IDEA Newsletter - June 2021 |  View in browser

Pacific Northwest Ballet

June IDEAs

 Each month the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) Newsletter will give you updates from PNB's IDEA Committee and Board EDI Task Force, along with PNB events, resources like workshop opportunities, and book recommendations. 


We want your submissions to include in future issues! 


Celebrating Pride Month at PNB

Pride at PNB

Pride month may be winding down, but keep the celebration going all year long with our Pride playlistsbook, movie, and podcast recommendations from our PNB community, and Pride tees, tanks, and stickers from the Amusements gift shop. And of course we recommend watching the Pride edition of PNB is Listening hosted by Director of Company Operations Kiyon Ross if you haven't already.

Thanks to Major Gifts Officer Jackson Cooper, Corps de Ballet dancer Christopher D’Ariano, Senior Marketing Manager Noel Pederson, and Principal dancer Lucien Postlewaite for sharing their experiences, and to Kiyon for hosting this fantastic conversation.

DanceChance Year in Review

DanceChance Year in Review

For the 20-21 school year, DanceChance offered virtual ballet classes four times per week, taught by PNB School faculty Marisa Albee and Jonathan Porretta. DanceChance virtually visited many of its 21 Seattle Public Schools partner schools, supplementing their distance education with dance exposure. 

DanceChance is excited to welcome students back to the studios for its first-ever summer classes! We are pleased to add a new DanceChance Level III for fall, extending the DanceChance experience from two years to three. A new cohort of DanceChance Level I will be joining in September for the Fall Introductory Session.


Racial Equity Training has begun!

On June 10, PNB hosted our first full-day racial equity training over Zoom for employees led by members of the IDEA Training Sub-committee and facilitated by fellow PNB employees. Thank you to everyone who participated in our inaugural training! 

These trainings center on the documentary RACE—The Power of an Illusiona three-part series which asks a question so basic it’s rarely raised: What is this thing called ‘race’? What we discovered was that many of our conventional assumptions about race—for instance, that the world's peoples can be divided biologically along racial lines—are wrong. Yet the costs of racism are very real, and can even have biological consequences.


Spotlight on PNB's Race & Social Justice Consultant Steve Sneed

Steve Sneed works closely with Pacific Northwest Ballet leadership and PNB's Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee as a race and social justice consultant. He has been consulting with PNB since Fall 2020. 

Keep scrolling for an excerpt of our Q & A with Steve, or visit the PNB Blog to read the full interview.

You've worked for a number of Seattle arts organizations including Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center and Seattle Center. How did you transition from working internally in arts organizations to being a consultant? 

While I was with the City of Seattle I had the opportunity to work with a lot of consultants and always thought once I retired I could provide consultant services. I was able to witness all of the various ways consultants approach their work and serve clients. It can be very specialized work. In 31 years with the City of Seattle, I was able to learn so much. I gained knowledge from all of the trainings, conferences and learning opportunities the city offers. We complain about it, but the trainings are of great value. The Race and Social Justice training and work was really designed to prepare me to take the learning somewhere beyond the walls of the City of Seattle.

How has your approach to arts work in Seattle changed over the course of your working life? What aspects have stayed the same?

I tell people I am doing the same work now that I was doing when I was 15 years old. The basic nature of the work is the same. Working with people, using creativity, working with people, using my God-given talent, working with people. What has changed is my skill level as I grew and learned more and sharpened my skills. I was able to work in high-demand, professional environments. I am a percussionist, actor and theatre director. When I was 15 all I wanted to do was play my drums. As I got older I understood I liked the entire industry, and only playing my drums for a living was not gonna work for me. I began to see how I could be involved in the entire industry, and keep playing my drums, occasionally.

What are you watching, reading, and/or listening to?

I am currently reading Frederick Douglas by David W. Blight, Mediocre, by Ijeoma Oluo and I just finished Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. Isabel Wilkerson is an amazing writer. Her other book, The Warmth of Other Suns, is outstanding! During Covid I have come to learn there is a lot of good TV out right now. There are so many documentaries to watch. The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby is a curriculum with the video series. Very good.


Join PNB's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee as an at-large member!

We're encouraging “at-large” membership in our EDI Committee in an effort to include and make use of the many valuable perspectives, life experiences and skill sets of our larger PNB community. 

Some examples of ways that “at-large” members could participate include: generating and bringing ideas; offering to help with specific committee needs (ie. language translation); supporting specific events (ie. extra hands on deck for Community Engagement events); submitting stories that could be shared in newsletters.

Contact Communications Subcommittee co-leads Lia Chiarelli (she/her) at lia@pnb.org or Maris Antolin (she/her) at mantolin@pnb.org for more information!


PNB is Listening

PNB is Listening is a collaboration between PNB artists and staff, highlighting diverse voices in our community. 
Since its start in June of 2020, the series has featured panel discussions covering women who choreograph, a reflection on the life of dancer and choreographer Albert Evans, LGBTQIA+ voices in ballet, and more! 

Click here to explore the series and watch each episode.

Coast Salish peoples Land Acknowledgement

Did you know?

PNB's IDEA Committee reads the following Indigenous Land Acknowledgement at the start of every meeting: 

We would like to acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Coast Salish Peoples and that we occupy this land. This acknowledgement does not take the place of authentic relationships with Indigenous communities, but serves as a first step in honoring the land we are on.

The purposes of Land Acknowledgements are to recognize indigenous peoples and resist the erasure of their histories. You can read more about Indigenous Land Acknowledgements in this Teen Vogue article, and find more resources at Real Rent Duwamish, and the Seattle University library.