“Keeping track of these female-founded ballet companies is vital in understanding the pivotal and often unknown role of women in shaping the American ballet sector,” said DDP Research Consultant Aanika Khansaheb. - Dance Data Project
"Unlike Black Swan, the darkly funny Abigail — which follows a band of kidnappers as they discover that their prisoner, supposedly an adolescent ballet student, is actually a centuries-old vampire — doesn’t aim for profundity. But entertainment-world depictions of ballet, even in campy romps like Abigail, carry weight." - The New York Times
“Moving the organization forward would depend not only on the art that the company produced, but also on the legacy through its alumni. And that is a huge thing.” In April, an alumni platform will go live, a place, he said, “where we could galvanize and connect and become a community.” - The New York Times
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A total of 353 dancers from across the globe held the position, known as going “en pointe,” to beat the current Guinness World Record of 306, said Youth America Grand Prix, the group that organized the tutu-centric turnout. - New York Post
Larry Goodman, a board member, stepped in as interim CEO after founding chief exec Michael Krasnyansky resigned and his wife, artistic director Gladisa Guadalupe, was fired. The board has now anmed him to the position on a permanent basis. - WKYC (Cleveland)
FKA twigs (née Tahliah Debrett Barnett), the British singer/songwriter/actor, studied ballet and contemporary dance, including Graham technique, throughout her childhood and teen years. This week, at artistic director Janet Eilber's invitation, she'll perform "Satyric Festival Song." As she tells Gia Kourlas, it's a highlight of her entire career. - The New York Times
Last month a production in Seoul starring Bolshoi prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova was called off following protests. This week, another show featuring 12 Bolshoi principals was cancelled a day before opening. One banner held by protesters read "Purchasing tickets for Russian performances = Purchasing missiles that will kill civilians." - AFP (Yahoo!)
After six years dancing with the Philadelphia Ballet, Emily Davis moved to Glasgow in 2021 to do a PhD degree in dance health. Her focus is how dance classes can help patients with multiple sclerosis — of which Scotland has one of the world's highest incidence rates. - BBC
The series E-Moves is 25 years old now, and one of its "intended effects has been to take choreographers who work mainly ‘downtown,’ in white-dominated dance institutions, and bring them ‘uptown’ to Harlem." - The New York Times
"Emily told us to 'start walking' — all of us, in any direction, or all directions, as she and Matt called out instructions. … With everyone gradually picking up on the same gesture and then letting it transform, by the end of this ever-morphing exercise we were dancing en masse, already unified." - Literary Hub
"Miami City Ballet management has begun an aggressive, coordinated union-busting campaign against their dancers, the majority of whom are fighting to unionize. … Furthermore, MCB management is trying to circumvent the legal process by denying their dancers the right to a union election." - American Guild of Musical Artists
"There were no success stories of male exotic dance troupes in Singapore, where the nightlife industry isn't as vibrant as in the US. But I wanted to introduce a new perspective on exotic dance that didn't quite exist (here), and at the same time reduce the stigma surrounding the genre." - Business Insider
"With breaking making its first Olympic appearance at the Paris Games later this year, pole dancers feel it could soon be their turn to be in the limelight, although it could come at the cost of losing the spirit of the discipline." - Reuters
"Don’t expect the august perch to change (La)Horde’s approach. The collective’s three millennial co-founders share a generational view forged by 1990s video stores and 2000s Queer nightlife, and fed by a plugged-diet supercharged by social media." - Variety
"Peck, who has created almost 40 works for NYCB and other ballet companies around the world, is ambitious to bring modern dance to bigger, more diverse audiences on both stage and screen,” and the speedy opening of Illinoise on Broadway is just part of that. - The Daily Beast
