As a crowd marched in Bogotá against poverty and police violence, three twenty-something queer folks whose dance video had gone viral a couple of weeks earlier were urged by their fellow demonstrators to go right up to the riot police on the stairs at Plaza Bolívar and work it. And they did. - The New York Times
An investigation reveals psychological abuse, abuse of power, nepotism, and "serious pedagogical dysfunctions" at the Rudra Béjart School, "leading the Board to terminate the contract of the director, Michel Gascard and his wife Valérie Lacaze, manager of the school." (Article in French; translation available using Google Translate.) - FranceInfo
Leslie Cuyjet has recently created a dance "so conceptual and personal. Moriah Evans and Yve Laris Cohen — who curate Dance and Process, an incubator that affords choreographers the space and time to develop work — were impressed. Evans said she admired the nuances of seemingly simple gestures in the piece, as well as its 'delicate shifts,' which 'contain...
And this didn't happen once, bad as that would have been. The company says "two black dancers had people scream racial epithets at them while driving by, and it happened on two separate occasions last week." - KSL
"Even in Petit's home country, his works haven't been staged with great regularity. Nor do companies seem especially interested in resuscitating any of the dozens of full-length works or shorter ballets he created over the course of a long career. It's a curious schism: Despite the relative obscurity of much of Petit's work, he remains much-revered in France, where...
"The Australian Ballet forfeited $32 million in ticket revenue for 2020, a pandemic blow that it has only survived thanks to an outpouring of community and government support, plus a decision to raid its reserves and sell off investments. … It bucks the trend of many other major arts organisations including Victorian Opera, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and...
As one of the very few women to lead a major ballet company, Morgan championed women choreographers long before the rest of the dance world turned its attention to the lack of equity for women in the field. It has not been unusual for more than half of a season’s offerings to be choreographed by women. - Cincinnati...
"For Lovette, becoming a choreographer was something she grew into. 'When I was 18 and I had just joined the New York City Ballet and the corps, I remember doing a piece next to Justin Peck … and I thought, 'That's a choreographer. I'm not. I'll just stick to dancing. I don't think I have what it takes.' And...
Patrick Makuakāne understands well the value of the traditional dances passed down through generations. ("I love those little gems. They're like family heirlooms … they're very precious and you understand they don't need to be changed and their inherent value is just the way they are.") But that doesn't mean that, in his longtime base of San Francisco, he...
"Before Halprin, American dance was cast in Graham's regal mold, presented formally onstage, and performed by highly trained bodies that acted out the choreographer's vision in a rarefied movement language. Halprin's rebellion was to declare that any movement, performed with presence and intention, could be a dance, and anybody could be a dancer." - San Francisco Chronicle
"When asked to describe the energy at this month's Youth America Grand Prix Finals, judge Sascha Radetsky had one word: 'Stratospheric.' More than 800 dancers from around the United States … competed onstage at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa … from May 9 to 16. And after months of cramped kitchen-counter barres and delayed Zoom...
Dancers can spend their whole careers seeking out a rich mind–body connection. Achieving that sense of integration can be incredibly satisfying, leading to better physical and mental health, and a more holistic performance quality. But what happens when that connection goes too far, leading to anxiety or obsession instead of artistic fulfillment? - Dance Magazine
Dancer Jennifer McCloskey first realized her medium was TikTok in 2020, during the shutdown. "On her feed, McCloskey seamlessly blends comedy, criticism of ballet culture, and how-to videos. Her mission is to whittle away at toxic ballet culture one TikTok at a time — all while having a little fun, of course." - Elite Daily
Kalamandalam Gopi, who's about to turn 84, has been studying and performing the dance-drama form from the Indian state of Kerala for 70 years, taught generations of performers, and set new standards in the genre's stage makeup, gestures, and use of facial expressions. To celebrate his 80th birthday, he chose to perform one of the most demanding roles in...
"I danced some fabulous ballets and fabulous roles. And yet there’s hundreds more like me — thousands maybe. We might be exceptional in one way: You reached the top level of your career, and you have these pinnacle moments onstage. But at the end of the day, we’re all a gang. We’re all a crew, we’re all a posse...
