The hybrid of dance, costuming, satirical mimicry and other ingredients that has provided community to several generations of Black and Hispanic queer people is featured in a new HBO Max competition show, Legendary, that hopes to do for voguing what RuPaul's Drag Race did for drag. - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Siphe November, who's 23 and has risen through the ranks to become the youngest principal dancer in the National Ballet of Canada's history, "has incredible technique, ... passion he brings to each movement and a magnetic pull that draws you in while he’s onstage." - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Says the choreographer, who grew up in the country and has family there, "When I am in the studio, I am fully focused on the dancers and the ballet. I can still do that. But I have not choreographed since the war started." - The New York Times
"Griffin was teaching jazz dance in the styles of Eugene Louis Faccuito and Gus Giordano, two white jazz dancers considered pioneers in the field. Griffin alleges the program's director of education said he should be teaching choreography like Garth Fagan, a Jamaican modern dance choreographer, instead." - The Kansas City Star
Half of Laura Fernandez's family is Ukrainian, so when the then-Stanislavsky Theatre first soloist heard her Russian peers describe "the destruction of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as a 'liberation,'" she knew she had to go. - The Guardian (UK)
That's a summary, but: "Latinos age 55 and over who participated in a culturally relevant Latin dance program for eight months significantly improved their working memory compared with peers in the control group who attended health education workshops." - Neuroscience News
Theresa Ruth Howard, guest curating at the Kennedy Center, "envisioned gathering an international lineup of dancers for something that’s rare in the traditional ballet world: to work in a space where being Black is the norm rather than the exception." - MSN (Washington Post)
Or, as the announcement puts it, he will become "artistic director laureate" in July after 19 years at the Fort Worth company's helm. Associate artistic director Tim O'Keefe will succeed Stevenson, at least temporarily, as acting artistic director. - Fort Worth Magazine
Australians claim American reality TV is ruining kids' costumes. "They’re wearing less and less and less, and they’re getting shinier and shinier and shinier – and more see-through." (But is that a problem with the dancers or the beholders?) - Sydney Morning Herald
And he gave it just as he has retired from the company, chastened by and repentant for the act that got him in trouble but still loved by the audience and grateful for his career. - The New York Times
As a private entrepreneur without official sponsorship, Diaghilev made his way with an astute combination of connoisseurship and the ability to cultivate an inner circle of wealthy patrons. He kept Nijinska busy making new ballets for the repertory. - Hudson Review
Laura Fernandez, who studied and then danced at the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg before becoming first soloist at Moscow's Stanislavsky Theatre, has family in Mariupol. "I would tell my friends in Moscow and they would say, 'No, it's fine, they're not killing those guys, they're saving them'." - The Guardian
Golden State Ballet first took the stage late last year, reviving the now-defunct California Ballet's staging of Nutcracker, but this week the company presents its first original program, a four-piece mixed bill including a world premiere commissioned from choreographer Andrea Schermoly. - The San Diego Union-Tribune
Although the city had repealed its Cabaret Law, a 1926 regulation that made it illegal to host dancing, singing or musical entertainment without a license, zoning law restrictions left many establishments unable to permit dancing. - The New York Times
What many of the 600,000 patrons who annually pass beneath its iconic red windmill entrance probably don’t know is that the Moulin Rouge is not quite as quintessentially French as you might think. - Toronto Star
