Celebrating International Women's Day
Celebrating International Women’s Day with the Modern Pin-Ups
photography : amanda olivia photo
The Modern Pin-Ups from Georgia submitted this piece for International Women’s Day and as a celebration of the 100th anniversary for women’s voting rights. They cite the shoot as “a call for women to create amazing communities and work together.”
From the organization (edited for brevity and clarity) :
We are more than a dance performance company, we are a group of women fighting for community, transparency, vulnerability, and support.
If you’re not from Georgia, you’ve likely never heard of us : we’re The Modern Pin-Ups, a non-profit dance performance company through DanceFx Athens.
A few words from director Grace Bagwell-Adams :
I knew I wanted to create a group of women who would have some performance opportunities and tap into this idea of empowering women through dance. I told Allison Hayn, the director of Dancefx, and she said “Do it!.” Allison encouraged and empowered me to get the Modern Pin-Ups going. About 10 years ago, we had our first “performance.” The following February, we hosted our first show—the annual Spread the Love event, and the Modern Pin Ups were official.
Over the last nine years, the group has continued to evolve and become bigger and brighter than I could have ever imagined. When you create a group like this, the beauty of the process is not knowing completely what it will look like in a year, five years, or even ten years later. Since the group’s birth, dozens of women have auditioned and performed with us from vastly different walks of life and levels of dance experience. The Modern Pin-Ups is so much more than a dance company—it is a community. We tie our performances to community organizations initiating change— like the Athens Area Homeless Shelter and Project Safe—so that we aid in reaching people outside of our group and continue investing in our broader community.
The women in our group have been through it all together— from daily events and happenings to life-altering events, from professional failure to accomplishment. We’ve experienced joy, grief and everything in between.
When I married my husband, Clayton—my biggest supporter, went through pregnancy and the birth of my first child, Bonnie, and lost my mom to cancer this past year, these women were there for me. They are each beautiful, kind, and fierce, and they consistently inspire and humble me. I am grateful for their courage and dedication in creating this community together, and now that I have a daughter of my own, I know I must continue with the group. I want her to see that a community of women like this one can be life-giving.
About the photos :
We are putting on a full length theatre performance this Spring to showcase the evolution and beauty of our group and to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Women’s Rights to Vote. We are crafting new pieces that tell our story as a company and bringing back favorite pieces from the past 10 years. Inspired by the Women’s Movement, our photoshoot showcases the beauty and strength we hold as women.
We utilized green, yellow, and purple elements to highlight the strong women who came before us.
Purple = loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause
White = the emblem of purity, symbolizing the quality of our purpose
Gold = the color of light and life, like the torch that guides our purpose, pure, and unswerving
As a group, we encourage each other and our community to recognize the voices of the women around us. We hope our performances and support of each other help make our little Georgia community that much stronger.
We hope that this International Women’s Day you surround yourself with your own group of “Modern Pin-Ups”.
“Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.” -Nora Ephron