The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University has announced the creation of the Virginia B. Toulmin Fellowship for Women Choreographers. The program was designed to expand opportunities for women in ballet, a field where men make up a large percentage of ballet leadership and choreographers.
The Center for Ballet and the Arts was launched in September 2014 by former ballet dancer and historian Jennifer Homans with funds from a grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Each semester the center hosts a variety of ballet artists and scholars. The new fellowship program will insure that a woman is among the center’s fellows.
The fellowship will provide a stipend of $35,000 for one semester of study for three fellows over a three-year period. The fellows will be provided with office space, studio space, access to university housing, and the opportunity to be part of a community of artists and choreographers.
Alexander C. Sanger, a trustee of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, said that “we are proud to give female choreographers the opportunity to collaborate with the other fellows at the center so that the works they create can be of the highest possible caliber and can attain the audience they deserve.”