Back in June, I shared an opinion on social media that garnered quite a bit of attention, merely by asking: how long can we keep this energy going? How long will our performative allyship with the BLM movement be sustained when the media has moved on to the next thing. My bet was that we’d be back our usual patterns of behaviour by September. While September was an arbitrary choice in time, it was also when I initially planned to get an article published that was written by Emily Trace on allegations of racial discrimination made by Nicholas Rose after his experience at the National Ballet of Canada.

2021 presents an unparalleled challenges and opportunities for the performing arts, whereby three of Canada’s top organizations—the NBoC, TSO and COC—are all welcoming new leadership. This is also an opportunity to turn over a new leaf unto better moral leadership. To ensure that their organizations dispense with the usual reactionary corporate reflex when they are given feedback on EDI that doesn’t suit their public image.

Emily’s full article is available on Blue Riband (www.briband.com), but I’ve also put together a three-part podcast series to make this story more accessible. Part 1 is a reading of Emily’s article. Part 2 (forthcoming) is an extended interview with Rose about his time at the NBoC and his retrospective assessment of their response to his allegations. In Part 3, I summarize interactions with The Dance Current, Huffington Post and other publications whose refusal to publish this story could only be explained by the inconvenience of acknowledging Rose’s grievances.