"On social media, it's easy to get lost in videos of this bygone athletic art. Clips from its Olympic appearances as a demonstration sport — at Calgary in 1988 and Albertville in 1992 — surface frequently on YouTube and TikTok, to the fascination of dance and sports enthusiasts." - The New York Times
Dancer and planetary science PhD student C. Adeene Denton: "Getting to set the first site-specific work on the International Space Station (was) a big pipe dream of mine … before I studied enough astronauts to realize that most of them beat me to it." - Dance Magazine
"Four hundred volunteers working for up to 72 hours as 'field cast participants' during this weekend's Super Bowl LVI halftime show will be paid $15 per hour" — minimum wage, for one of the most lucrative annual sports events in the world. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Don't panic: this school isn't connected with the St. Petersburg company now known as the Mariinsky, although its first directors came from there and aimed to reproduce its teaching methods. This Kirov Academy, in DC, was founded by none other than Rev. Sun Myung Moon. - The New York Times
Jason Brown, a 27-year-old American, probably won't get an individual medal at these games because he doesn't have a consistent quadruple jump. Yet, writes Laura Cappelle, the quality of his movement is extraordinary: "Every step is three-dimensional, … perfectly timed to either the melody or the bass line." - Dance Magazine
Teenager dance students and their teacher will likely be sentenced to hard labor, and their parents may be expelled from the ruling party after "the Anti-Socialism Inspection Group caught a dance instructor in her 30s who was teaching foreign-style disco dances." - Radio Free Asia
He combined movement and words in ways that could be stimulating or jolting, focusing on family or fantasy, or delving into Ionesco, Shakespeare, or Aristophanes. - Dance Magazine
Choreographer David Roussève has always situated his work at "the intersection of choreography and social activism," finding that he can help create empathy with the characters the audience is watching. But after a policeman in South Carolina shot Walter Scott, Roussève wondered if even that was enough. - Dance Magazine
The company, always oriented more toward the abstract works of Balanchine and his artistic successors than toward story ballets, has performed only an abridged one-act version of the Tchaikovsky classic before now. And this version, by Alexei Ratmansky, is based on notation of the 1895 Petipa/Ivanov original. - The New York Times
That's the challenge choreographer Cathy Marston took on for San Francisco Ballet, where her new work, Mrs. Robinson, is now premiering. In a Q&A, she talks about why and how she did it. - Pointe Magazine
The pandemic smothered everything, wiping Battle’s calendar clean, and crazy as it sounds, it helped him. The shutdown provided space, and the racial reckoning, a spark. Battle dusted off some of his older works. And for the first time in years, he created a new one. - Washington Post
Bonelli succeeds David Nixon, who ran the company — based in Leeds but touring more than any other ballet troupe in the UK — for 21 years. - SeeingDance
Much more than a kerfuffle - it's about skill, rehearsal, and money. The half-time dancers "frame the action. And in a space as vast as a football stadium, that’s paramount. They bring structure to the stage; like a corps de ballet, they complete the picture." - The New York Times
The position of resident choreographer, while it does not exist at every company and varies between organizations, represents job stability, resources, and artistic opportunity for choreographers, who otherwise tend to operate as freelancers or gig-workers. - Dance Data Project
