Mickaella Dantas: "It took me a while to consider working with my prosthesis, since it has a limited range of flexibility. I struggled with resistance and balance, and was frustrated by the way the leg could fall off when I sweat. It causes daily soreness. I didn't have the self-discipline at first to develop dance movement with it. But...
Typically, it's an intermediary—a manager, a producer, a critic—who labels something as "world dance." The term denotes exoticness, authenticity—and it sells. It's also problematic and limiting. - Dance Magazine
Sophia Kim, former comptroller for the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C., "gambled with funds she was overseeing as the academy’s comptroller. Over nine months in 2018, investigators say, Ms. Kim wrote checks to herself and used her academy bank card 120 times to withdraw cash and pay off losses at the MGM Grand Casino near her home in Temple...
Cygnet School, based in Canterbury, "is designed to bridge a gap that Bourne had noticed between young people who excel in dance at a grassroots level and those who are able to proceed with vocational training. 'A lot of the young people who were coming to us for auditions were quite raw – the talent was there but they...
Russell Janzen: "This is the longest I have danced with someone else in quite some time, and after running it in this first rehearsal I am winded. … happy we're back but disappointed by how impersonal it feels to dance masked. I had been anticipating that the return to this work would be emotional, precious, but with...
Gia Kourlas: "Generally, it doesn't feel fraught, but at the same time I am aware of the sensitivity it takes to write about the body and how easily something could be misconstrued. I don't want to hurt someone — and that's not to say that I haven't — but I try my best not to be cruel. And while...
His charm was colossal and effortless, his love for many people effusive and happy. I keep coming across poems and messages he sent me. They were signed “Your Jacques.” How lucky was I? Everyone who knew him has similar tales to tell. How lucky were we. - Alastair Macaulay
"Pointe spoke to four U.S. ballet companies — Milwaukee Ballet, Orlando Ballet, Avant Chamber Ballet and Columbia City Ballet — about how they have cautiously made their way back to live audiences. For each, the road back to the stage meant a combination of lessons learned throughout the pandemic, adhering to government and health and safety policies,...
"Performances during the tour will take place outdoors on a custom-built stage designed to unfold from an 18-wheeler truck. At each stop, 20 members of the company will perform a 50-minute show comprising four pieces." - The New York Times
Reactions such as choreographer Alexei Ratmansky's social media post that claimed "Cancel culture is killing" are deeply harmful - they place "a burden of guilt on victims who may have come forward during the investigations, at a time when the ballet world is finally reckoning with the way it has normalized abuse over time." - Dance Magazine
After the shootings in Atlanta, the already planned 10,000 Dreams Virtual Choreography Festival transformed into something that Asian American ballet dancers and choreographers have been missing and wanting for years - community. "There was a deep moment where we sort of were committing to building a network, building a community, taking up space, being loud, being bold. This festival...
"Each Permanent domestic stamp, designed by Stéphane Huot, features a dynamic image of its subject in performance. Karen Kain almost breaches the borders of the three-by-four-centimetre stamp as she flies through the air as the Black Swan in a 1977 photograph by Andrew Oxenham. Fernand Nault is equally airborne in a 1947 outdoor photo shoot on Montreal’s Île Sainte-Hélène."...
"Some factors that helped the studio persevere? A landlord who is postponing the studio’s $22,000 monthly rent payments, PPP loans totaling more than $110,000, the launch of a subscription-based platform for dance tutorials, and the studio’s nearly 30-year legacy and global brand with franchises in cities including Las Vegas, Nashville and Shanghai." - Los Angeles Times
"The ballet world is filled with stories of dancers who first pointed their toes as toddlers and became professionals as teenagers. But what about those who started ballet as teenagers — and then realized that they wanted to make it their career? Their experience can be as thrilling as it is overwhelming, and also inspire a bit of panic."...
