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DANCE

How Dancing Made The Savannah Bananas Social Media’s Favorite American Sports Team

"The factors driving the Bananas' online success are obvious. In-game clips of players swinging flaming baseball bats, pitching from atop stilts, and performing choreographed dance routines are tailor-made for social media. To reduce the team's popularity solely to its viral antics, however, is dishonest." - The Guardian

For The First Time In Four Decades, San Francisco Ballet Is Having An Open Call For Corps Dancers

"Whether the company's open call for corps members marks a change in relationship with the San Francisco Ballet School is still uncertain." The company is completing a major change in leadership: Tamara Rojo is just finishing her first season as artistic director following Helgi Tomasson's 37-year tenure. - San Francisco Chronicle

Dancing Across (Or Inside?) The Blockchain

Catherine and Ti have devised a coding language by which sequences of human movements are translated into what they call choreographic hashes—code that determines the appearance of a piece of digital art. - Decrypt

This Choreographer Is Incorporating Rock Climbing and Tightrope Walking Into His Work

In a work titled Corps Extrêmes ("Extreme Bodies"), which choreographer Rachid Ouramdane calls "halfway between a documentary and an art piece," involves highliner Nathan Paulin, eight acrobats from Compagnie XY and the Swiss free climber Nina Caprez. - The Guardian

Gia Kourlas Is Giving Balanchine Too Much Of A Pass For His Abusive Behavior

"Far too often, women in ballet have been disbelieved, gaslighted, judged, or blamed for the harms inflicted on them by their abusers. Kourlas continues this trend, but attaches these behaviors to words like 'feminism' and 'freedom' in a way that diminishes them." - Dance Magazine

City Ballet Finally Has An Asian American Woman Principal

Mira Nadon, who's 21: "That's exciting for me to have some responsibility and feel like I can do something to help ... the culture in our company." - CBS

The Contemporary Ballet That Became Modern Taiwan’s National Epic

"Performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Legacy is widely considered to be the first contemporary dance to tell the story of modern Taiwan. It re-enacted the journey undertaken by the 17th-century pioneers who traveled from mainland China, via the choppy Taiwan Strait, before settling on the island." - CNN

After A 15-Month Struggle, The Topless Dancers Of North Hollywood Have Finally Unionized

"Dancers at a North Hollywood topless bar," Star Garden, "will become the only strippers in the United States to gain union recognition after the club's management withdrew challenges to their guild election, the union announced Tuesday. … The strippers join the ranks of the Actors' Equity Association." - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)

Breakdancing Debuts At The 2024 Olympics. Meet Some Of The Hopeful Young Competitors

"Next summer, the best 16 B-boys and 16 B-girls from around the world will face off in solo battles soundtracked by a live DJ on the Place de la Concorde, ... (and) there is a hope that breaking will bring the jolt of a new audience." - The Observer (UK)

The Torch is Passed At Dance Theatre Of Harlem

"As they prepared for the leadership transition, (outgoing artistic director Virginia) Johnson and (successor Robert) Garland spoke with Dance Magazine about their deep, shared history with DTH, their commitment to continuing the work of Arthur Mitchell, and their hopes for the future of DTH's company and school." - Dance Magazine

Lumberyard Is Selling Its Upstate New York Headquarters And Pivoting Away From Dance

The facility only opened in 2018, and by the following year, demand for its technical rehearsal residency was nearly outrunning supply. Then the pandemic hit. Now the organization's Catskill, NY property is for sale, and Lumberyard will focus on including neurodivergent audiences in mainstream theater. Why the change? - Dance Magazine

To The Stress Of Being A Ballerina, Add The Whole Single Mom Thing

"If I have a rehearsal and she’s on spring break from school, for example, the dancers sit in the lobby and have lunch with her or play dolls with her. ... This is my tribe, and my co-workers are like aunts and uncles." - Pointe Magazine

After 33 Years With Nashville Ballet, Artistic Director Paul Vasterling Is Retiring

"During his 25-year tenure as director he transformed the dozen-member troupe into the largest professional ballet company in Tennessee, with 33 dancers and a presence on the national stage." Here's an exit interview with journalist Steve Sucato. - Pointe Magazine

Jacob’s Pillow Reveals Design To Replace Burned-Down Doris Duke Theatre

"The former 216-seat theater of about 8,500 square feet will be reimagined as a nearly 20,000-square-foot, 230-seat, multiuse theater with the same name and in the same location, with improved accessibility and technological features. It is expected to be finished in 2025." - MSN (The Boston Globe)

How Is Broadway Choreography Changing? (A Critics’ Roundtable)

"Jesse Green, chief theater critic, was joined by the dance critic Brian Seibert and the contributor Elisabeth Vincentelli in a discussion about some of the choreographic shifts they've noticed in musical theater. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation." - The New York Times

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