After Öhman left the Berlin State Ballet in December 2019, however, the ballet mistress reportedly demanded that Lopes Gomes do just that. It's an explosive topic since whitefacing, or making Black people appear white using make-up, violated the ballet's house policy under former artistic director Johannes Öhman, as other people of color also dance in the company.
The ballet mistress is said to have repeatedly racially discriminated against her, for instance, by demanding that Lopes Gomes apply white makeup for Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake. The French dancer has been working at the Berlin State Ballet since 2018 - as the first and to date only Black member. "During those two and a half years, I was under the supervision of a ballet mistress who said that ballet should not take me because I am Black and a woman of color in a 'corps de ballet' is something that is not aesthetic, not homogeneous," Lopes Gomes told DW in December 2020. "She made racist jokes and comments." Chloe Lopes Gomes had complained publicly that she had repeatedly heard racist comments from her ballet mistress. Worldwide, the case of the dancer had caused quite a stir. "In the current situation there is also a great opportunity for change, it's a wake-up call," she added. "I regret the experiences of discrimination described by Chloe Lopes Gomes, which we take very seriously and are thoroughly dealing with."
"I am pleased that we were able to reach an agreement today and thus end the legal dispute," said Christiane Theobald, the company's acting artistic director. Whether these were linked to racist motives would have had to be proven in court. The ballet company had originally justified the non-renewal of the ensemble dancer's contract on artistic grounds. Now the State Ballet and the dancer have agreed to a court settlement: The ballerina will stay with the State Ballet for another year and receive a compensation payment of €16,000 ($19,240). She felt discriminated against because of the color of her skin. Poulo’s conscious lyrics about community concerns speak to the distinctive identity of her broadly-flung people.Since December 2020, all state ballet employees have been able to anonymously get in touch with an external contact to report their own experiences and perceptions on the topic of discrimination.Ĭhloe Lopes Gomes filed a lawsuit in 2020 against the expiration of her temporary contract. This is a relatively rare example of Malian Peulh music played in a modern, cosmopolitan context, reflecting the mixed society of Dilly, where Bambara, Soninke and Peulh-speaking people live among each other. Shapeshifting layers of rhythm and woody overtones match Poulo’s commanding voice in a jocular yet deliberate dance. On Poulo Warali, she and her band combine the hallmarks of Peulh music-warm flute floating over cross-rhythmic n’goni (lute) riffs and resonant calabash gourd hand percussion-with broader Malian sounds like lightly-distorted guitar and a heavier, rollicking inertia. After several locally released tapes and CDs, this record is Poulo's first internationally-distributed record.
#Awa singer series
So, set in motion by a surprising series of events, young Poulo's entree into the music world was auspicious as she gained popularity across the region. Coulibaly herself was brought into music by forces outside her control when a regional music contest required an entry from her village and she was chosen to be a singer. But Poulo's mother's co-wife is Inna Baba Coulibaly, who is a celebrated singer most Malian music fans know. It's not very common to find a female singer performing publicly among the Peulh. Awesome Tapes From Africa is proud to release Poulo's newest recording of highly virtuosic folk-pop, fresh from the studio, broadcasting her vision of Peulh music beyond the grazing grounds and central markets of her remote home region in southwestern Mali. Awa Poulo is a singer of Peulh origin from Dilly commune, Mali, near the border with Mauritania.
0 kommentar(er)
