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DANCE

Dancers’ Contracts Aren’t Year-Round. So How Do They Survive The Weeks They’re Not Paid?

Generally speaking, dancers are on break during the summer — but also at the end of December after “The Nutcracker” and during the first few weeks in January. Off-season jobs are competitive and usually involve travel. - San Diego Union-Tribune

Ancient Dance Floor Designed To Sound Like Thunder Is Discovered In Peru

"Found at the site of Viejo Sangayaico, 200km southeast of Lima, the floor was built into an open-air platform sometime between AD1000 and AD1400. It then continued in use under Inca rule, from 1400 to 1532, and perhaps during the early years of the Spanish conquest." - The Art Newspaper

The Little Red Barn Where Some Of The World’s Best Ballet Dancers Grow

The Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet was founded in Carlisle, a college town in the south-central part of the state, in 1955. The school has produced so many good performers that people joke that there's something in the water. - MSN (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

At 50, Carlos Acosta Is Returning To The Stage Of London’s Royal Ballet

"I was playing with doing the balcony pas de deux of Romeo and Juliet but that would have been way too much. I have to do it in a way that I can still walk off, and you don't have to call an ambulance." - The Observer (UK)

Susan Jaffe On Reinventing ABT

When it comes to the classics, one of the biggest hurdles to bringing new audience members to the ballet is that people are initially intimidated by the art form. They think they’re supposed to know what’s happening, but they come and witness an entirely foreign vocabulary where dancers use their bodies to express a story. - Playbill

A Major Art Gallery Is Now Representing A Choreographer

"Dancer Sarah Michelson has inked representation with David Zwirner, which has plans to show new work by her at its new Los Angeles location in 2024. … Yet much of Michelson's work for David Zwirner will take the less conventional form of a residency program for the gallery." - ARTnews

Why The Death Of Newspaper Dance Reviews Has Big Impacts On The Field Of Dance

Critical dialogue in dance today takes many forms, none in short supply. But reviews of live dance performances, in print or online, in publications with at least a few thousand readers, do not exist in most media markets. - Dance Magazine

Translating A Stately, Centuries-Old Confucian Ritual Dance Into 21st-Century Performance

For their US debut, Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theater and stage director Kuho Jung have adapted the "il mu" dance from the royal Jongmyo Shrine, combining it and other ritual movement with contemporary dance to create the stage work One Dance. - The New York Times

When COVID Shut Down Performance Venues, One L.A. Dance Artist Had A Clever Idea For The Empty Stages

Named after the one lightbulb that stays on in unoccupied theaters, the Ghost Light Residency gave a single dance artist (to maintain social distancing) 20 hours over five days to work on any project, using the stage, lights, sound or anything in a shuttered performance space. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Every Two Years, Indigenous Peoples Of Northeastern Australia Gather Together And Dance

"Since its inception in the early 1980s, the Laura Quinkan Indigenous Dance Festival has brought together Indigenous communities from across Cape York, the Torres Strait and beyond. … Many non-Indigenous Australians and international tourists also (come) for the opportunity to engage with living Aboriginal culture." - The Guardian

The New Feminist Dance Novels

Two recent novels put romantic longing and steamy couplings alongside discussion of body politics, feminism and #MeToo in ballet. First Position, written by ex-American Ballet Theatre (ABT) dancer Melanie Hamrick and published by Mills & Boon, is being billed as Black Swan meets 50 Shades. - The Guardian

When Dance Was Shorter (Iconic Short Dances)

Full-length ballets are popular. But sometimes it's the fleeting miniature that leaves an indelible impression. - Wendy Perron

Though Ravaged By The Pandemic And Real Estate, The Bay Area’s Flamenco Scene Hangs On

More than two years without performances or paying students, combined with soaring costs for both renters and owners, drove several of the senior figures in in metro San Francisco's flamenco scene out of the region entirely. But the ones who've stayed aren't giving up. - San Francisco Chronicle

One Dance Principal’s Mission Is To Be ‘As Human As Possible’ In Classical Ballet

American Ballet Theater principal Cassandra Trenary says, "I’m trying to find a balance between being the most human and the most stripped down and keeping it like a classical ballet. That’s an interesting struggle." - The New York Times

Dance Everywhere (Except On A Stage)

Each performance produced by Duckler and her company, Heidi Duckler Dance, transforms spaces not traditionally used for dance into something new, as the choreography engages with themes of that environment. - LA Downtown News

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