"I realized right away with COVID that people were becoming dancers, in that their spatial awareness was growing. We were literally afraid of each other's presences. We were backing away from each other on the street, remember? … Our bodies were very, very alive, unfortunately with this negative sense of contagion, but nevertheless it was a choreography that was...
"Without visible exemplars, many queer women and non-binary people question their own place within the art form. “Growing up, I felt like I was the only one,” says Kiara DeNae Felder, a queer, non-binary dancer with Montreal’s Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. “I felt like, ‘Maybe there’s a reason I don’t see other people like me.’” - The Guardian
"The story of breaking's meteoric rise to the Olympic stage — it's set to make its debut at the Paris Summer Games in 2024 — involved an unlikely and reluctant partnership between street-savvy breakers and traditional ballroom dancers, an evolution of an urban art form into a competitive endeavor and a lightning-fast education campaign to sell Olympic officials and...
Some of the recommendations are both obvious and overdue: no more yellowface/brownface/blackface, hire more diverse choreographers (but classical choreographers, not contemporary or hip-hop as is the past), tights that match skintones, etc. Other measures will face more resistance, especially the suggested changes in the way the company recruits dancers and students. - Pointe Magazine
Christopher Rudd’s creation is the first romantic same-sex pas de deux in ABT’s history, and one of the first—if not the first—to celebrate queer lust so explicitly in ballet. Such a feat, while to be applauded, is long overdue for a world in which more than half of the men who perform in and champion the artform are members...
"As they announce plans for the spring and summer — mostly digital, garnished with a little outdoors and in-person — many New York dance presenters spoke in recent interviews about what they've been up to and how the pandemic has changed their business. … Even without box-office revenue, most have continued paying artists, sometimes with no expectation of any...
"'There will be no blackface, or yellowface,' Neef told reporters, but works like La Bayadère and The Nutcracker would remain, with possible further changes in choreography and costumes. Behind the scenes, there will be efforts to increase the number of dancers of color who enter the ballet's ranks." - The New York Times
Jean-Daniel Bouchard said although his twin passions may seem like something of a contradiction — farming can be gruelling physical labour and involves plenty of financial mathematics, versus an art form that depends on imagination and creativity — they help him find balance. - CBC
Hire some choreographers. "Choreo-roboticists (that is, roboticists who work choreographically) believe that incorporating dancerly gestures into machinic behaviors will make robots seem less like industrial contrivances, and instead more alive, more empathetic, and more attentive. Such an interdisciplinary intervention could make robots easier to be around and work with—no small feat." - Wired
If Instagram is about selling your moves - and your clothing line, your toe shoe line, your skin care routine, etc. - then TikTok is about being yourself. Kind of. "Casual, confessional and playful, TikTok offers a release for ballet dancers, particularly students, who spend their days chasing impossible perfection. TikTok is a place to laugh about the impossibility,...
The documentary will feature interviews alongside select footage of Tharp’s more than 160 choreographed works, “including 129 dances, 12 television specials, six major Hollywood movies, four full-length ballets, four Broadway shows and two figure skating routines.” - IndieWire
Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell dropped out of Juilliard at age 19 to join the company, where she danced for three years before moving on to 13 years with Ailey. After retiring from the stage in 2005, she got a graduate degree and went home to Baltimore to teach. Now, as HSDC's artistic director, "she is tasked with culling an artistic identity...
A look at how small groups of (properly tested and quarantined) dancers and choreographers got together (at long last!) to make work this past summer at two centers of dance in the Hudson River Valley. - The Washington Post
"Across the city, amateur and professional dancers are donning sneakers, masks and lots of layers to carry on with a familiar ritual that, for many, is essential to maintaining physical and mental health. … For the most part, have endured without interruption, a consistency that speaks to dancers' desire to be physically present together, not cooped up in...
Bijoya Das was a gymnast herself from age 6 until an injury in college led her to switch to dance; she's now a successful commercial dancer and choreographer in the popular music industry. She is also the one who creates the dances for the gymnasts at UCLA whose routines keep becoming hits on YouTube — and that's a job...
