#junior x robison

[tanuki-yuki]

heard that drawing a Miku was a rite of passage for artists and I think I haven't drawn her since I was a child, so I did, but with a twist....

[gramilano]

La Sylphide, English National Ballet, photos by Dasa Wharton

Dasa Wharton took her camera to the London Coliseum to capture the English National Ballet’s latest double bill: Song of the Earth and La Sylphide

Song of the Earth

Choreography – Kenneth MacMillan Staging – Grant Coyle Designs – Nicholas Georgiadis Lighting – John B. Read

Dancers included: Tamara Rojo (The Woman), Joseph Caley (The Man) & Fernando Carratalá Coloma (The Messenger of Death)

Singers – Rhonda Browne (contralto) & Samuel Sakker (tenor)

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Financial Times – Clement Crisp

At the heart of the piece, Rojo’s tremendous incarnation of the Woman. It is a role she dances by right, but here the full intensity of her grand gifts — the lustrous forms of the dance, her emotional power and musical sensitivities, her integrity as an artist — gave the choreography a marvellous eloquence. Her dancing spoke MacMillan’s thoughts, honoured his vision, told his truths. Caley was very fine, his dancing sincere and brave in outline — he has found a grander self in this new company. Carratalá Coloma — clear, strong, sensitive in musical responses — was a watchful, inevitable Messenger.

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The Sunday Times – David Dougill

As the Messenger of Death, an artist of the junior ranks, Fernando Carratala Coloma, was outstanding: he gripped us from his first soaring leaps over the stage, with lithe athleticism and dramatic subtlety.

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The Guardian – Judith Mackrell

As the Woman, Rojo is physically extraordinary, articulating both the delicate chinoiserie and stark expressionism of her choreography with a compelling, musical authority

Song of the Earth, English National Ballet, photos by Dasa Wharton

The Stage – Anna Winter

Both male and female ensembles capture the choreography’s sculptural stylisation with the restraint it demands. At the centre of it is Tamara Rojo, who lends a fine ferocity to the role of the Woman. With each inflection of the wrist she seems to embroider the air, measuring out time with a blend of rage and resignation.

Song of the Earth, English National Ballet, photos by Dasa Wharton

The Arts Desk – Hanna Weibye

Freshness fairly reeks from Fernando Carratalá Coloma, who has only just joined the company as an Artist but performed the Messenger of Death on opening night (in place of an injured Aaron Robison) with impressive vigour and precision. A fitting counterpoint to Coloma’s freshness is Rojo herself as the Woman, bringing her worlds of age and experience to bear in playing a character who must confront death. Rojo’s wide, solemn eyes seem to be fixed on a horizon beyond our sight and her every move is deliberate and meditative; where the capers of the supporting dancers give the piece its song, she is its connection to the earth.

Song of the Earth, English National Ballet, photos by Dasa Wharton

La Sylphide

Original Choreography – August Bournonville Producers and Stagers – Eva Kloborg, Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter & Frank Andersen Designs – Mikael Melbye Lighting – Jørn Melin

Cast included:

Jurgita Dronina – The Sylph Isaac Hernández – James Anjuli Hudson – Effy Daniel Kraus – Gurn Madge – Jane Haworth

La Sylphide, English National Ballet, photos by Dasa Wharton

The Sunday Times – David Dougill

As James, the Scotsman enticed away from his wedding by the Sylph, with fatal results for them both, the Mexican star Isaac Hernandez adds another handsome role to his repertory, dancing with brio in Bournonville’s exhilarating solos. The Russian-born Jurgita Dronina, precise and lilting in her dances, captures the innocence and capriciousness of this creature of the air. Jane Haworth seethes and gloats as the cursing witch Madge, relentless in vengeance; while Anjuli Hudson as the jilted Effie and Daniel Kraus as Gurn, who marries her on the rebound, give well-judged accounts.

With a stylish company performance, including the spirited Scottish reels, to Herman Severin Lovenskiold’s lively melodies, La Sylphide is welcome back to ENB.

La Sylphide, English National Ballet, photos by Dasa Wharton

The Arts Desk – Hanna Weibye

Dronina’s fleet, precise footwork and perfectly inclined head are a joy to a ballet geek’s heart, while her mime should be a joy to everyone, not only for its entirely believable emotion, but for the tiny details that make her a sylph through and through.

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The Stage – Anna Winter

Jurgita Dronina, also a principal at the National Ballet of Canada, makes for an expressive Sylph, demonstrating the fleet footwork, fluttery fingers and softly-angled upper body carriage that’s characteristic of the Danish Bournonville style. As James, Isaac Hernandez shows off compass-point control of the calves through sets of ecstatic beaten steps

La Sylphide, English National Ballet, photos by Dasa Wharton

The Independent – Zoë Anderson

Jurgita Dronina is all innocent mischief as the sylph. She’s less steady in the balances, but captures the character’s supernatural airiness. Isaac Hernandez makes a headstrong James, dancing boldly and acting vividly, though he’s still developing the upper-body ease of Bournonville style. As Effie, Anjuli Hudson moves effortlessly from mime to dance and back again, giving the character real heart. Jane Haworth brings a sardonic edge to Madge the witch, while Precious Adams shines as a solo sylph.

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The Guardian – Judith Mackrell

Isaac Hernández’s James does look like a man worth fighting over: his beautifully filleted beats and bounding jetés are among the evening’s highlights.

As the titular spirit Sylphide, who seduces mortal James away from his intended bride, Jurgita Dronina is appealingly light-spun: her arms are pretty, her footwork skimmingly fast; emotions flit across her face with sweet transparency.

La Sylphide, English National Ballet, photos by Dasa Wharton

Photo Album: English National Ballet dances Song of the Earth and La Sylphide Dasa Wharton took her camera to the London Coliseum to capture the English National Ballet's latest double bill: 

[kfleck-blog1]

Labor Post

Reference Articles:

Nakamura – The Unwanted Labour of Social Media: Women of Colour Call Out Culture as Venture Community Management”

Brown – Great Read Edgy Blogger Sensation SciBabe Takes the Lab Coat off Science (2015)

Duffy – The romance of work: Gender and aspirational labour in the digital culture industries (2015)

Tokumitsu – In the Name of Love: Elites embrace the “do what you love” mantra. But it devalues work and hurts workers. (2014)

Key Concepts:

Nakamura – digital labour and free labour

Brown – going viral

Duffy – Aspirational labour: “a forward-looking, carefully orchestrated, and entrepreneurial form of creative cultural production” (p. 7)

Tokumitsu - Do What You Love (DWYL)

Lecture - Immaterial labor: “activities involved in defining and fixing cultural and artistic standards, fashions, tastes, consumer norms, and public opinion…” (Cote & Pybus, p.2)

Social Media Platform Focus: BuzzFeed Youtube Channel

Two major ideas generated from reading this week’s articles, are first, that aspirational and immaterial labor in the digital environment is gendered, and secondly, that the ability to create viable income from this labor is more readily available to individuals who have greater resources and means than the general populace.

One of the people I saw appear regularly on BuzzFeed was Safiya Nygaard. Formerly a Junior Producer at BuzzFeed, in 217 she quit and began her own YouTube channel. While there she created and produced the “Ladylike” series for BuzzFeed. According to Nygaard, she quit because she wanted to continue creating new content, but on her own, as anything she created while working for BuzzFeed then belongs to BuzzFeed. Therefore, “Ladylike” continues to put out new videos on the BuzzFeed channel without her. While I continue to watch and enjoy “Ladylike” I also decided to follow Nygaard’s channel. Although now technically no longer a part of the accounts I am following for this project, I felt that she still brings an interesting perspective on gendered, immaterial labor.

           Nygaard’s most well-known work is “Ladylike”. Although some videos are shot to be empowering for women or to advocate for the struggles of women of color, or other social movements, majority of the videos pertain to gendered topics. Majority of their videos are focused on beauty products and fashion, or the entertaining differences between genders within those two categories. Even after leaving Buzzfeed, Nygaard has continued focusing her videos on trying difference beauty products or making videos on her “everyday life”, often as she interacts with beauty and fashion.

While the content Nygaard generates is focused within the feminine, I was curious as to what kind of income she might be getting. While it is difficult to find any concrete numbers for what exactly BuzzFeed pays or what a YouTuber makes, Glassdoor estimates that a Junior Producer at BuzzFeed (the position Nygaard held at the time) would make about $50,000 a year. Edwards wrote an article for Business Insider in 2015 about YouTuber incomes. For someone of Nygaard’s status (popular but not a massive star) after the costs of having a channel are removed, Nygaard might have a net income of about $14,000. I do not know if she has a job outside of the digital world, but if she does not, she is generating a lot of value without really seeing any compensation for her labor.

During my readings, a video I had watched from BuzzFeed came to mind. Entitled “Can you Pass One Of The Hardest South Korean Tests?” the video has three co-workers answer some questions from the 2011 South Korean SAT-equivalent foreign language section. The video was shot to showcase the self-image and self-worth issues students encounter in academia. However, after reading the articles, specifically during readings of Nakamura and Tokumitsu, I noticed that the three workers chosen were Yale, Stanford, and UC Berkeley graduates. Again I recognize they were used to highlight the difficult of the exam, but I also saw that they were great examples of individuals who had success in digital production. Therefore I decided to investigate the BuzzFeed staff a little more.

I looked into the education backgrounds of some of the BuzzFeed workers who appear (or formerly appeared) regularly on the channel. Additionally I have listed how much the cost of “Tuition and Fees” for a year at each of school would be (as of 2016).

           Ned Fulmer (who was in “South Korean Test” video): Yale x $49,480

           Eugene Lee Yang: USC x $52,283

           Gaby Dunn: Emerson College x $42,908

           Allison Raskin: USC

           Keith Habersberger: Illinois State University x $14,061-$25,168 (In-State or Out-State)

           Chris Reinacher: UCLA x $13,409-$40,091

           Ella Mielniczenko: Emerson College

           Quinta Brunson: Temple University x $15,688-$25,994

           Justin Tan: UCLA

           Zach Kornfeld: Emerson College

While I was looking at the people I saw on the channel regularly, I became curious about the people listed on the “About BuzzFeed” under the “Our Team” heading. These are the company executives.

           Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO: MIT x $48,452

           Greg Coleman, President: New York University x $49,062

           Dao Nguyen, Publisher: Harvard x $47, 074

           Allison Lucas, General Counsel: Northwestern University & Fordham University of Law x                     $49,073

           Lenke Taylor, Chief People Officer: Northwestern University & Carnegie Mellon University x                $52,310

           Carole Robison, Chief Communications Officer: Colgate University x $51,955

These listed individuals are the ones who included their educational background in their pop-up information bubble, directly on the page.

Please keep in mind that I did not look into each individuals financial situations specifically, nor do I wish to diminish their educational accomplishments. Also I am not asserting that these statistics are inclusive of all BuzzFeed employees, these are simply the ones I was interested in looking into due to their level of publicity.

But for the majority of people, attaining a college degree is lucrative, let alone managing to get one from a university which costs, at minimum, $15,000 a year. As most people lack both the educational and financial resources to accomplish this, it is indicative that a majority of people are also unlikely to have access to the materials even needed to accomplish their goals in digital media. Access to a computer, photography and videography capabilities, as well as the skills necessary, like being able to write competently (blogging), or use technology and software programs, are often unattainable for the general populace. In light of this, I find the additional “+18 offices and 1,300 employees around the world! Join the team” tag at the bottom of the executive page a little awkward.

P.S. – In case you were curious, Nygaard is a Stanford graduate (x $47,940)