Bourne’s 2017 research found that across four major British ballet companies — the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the Northern Ballet, the Royal Ballet and the English National Ballet Company — 2.2 percent of employed dancers were Black. - The New York Times
The accepted definition of “choreographer” is the person who composes the physical steps—not necessarily completely on their own, but the majority of the movement creation stems from that individual. So when the process is more of an exchange, other terms could help. - Dance Magazine
"Haneen Hossam, a social media influencer, was arrested in 2020. ... Prosecutors had accused her of promoting human trafficking by allegedly exploiting minor girls to gain material benefits with dance videos. It wasn't clear how the videos were related to human trafficking." - AP
Behind the bright lights and pulsing music, some dancers say they were sexually assaulted, harassed and manipulated by the company’s powerful founder and famous teachers and choreographers, according to a joint investigation by The Associated Press and the Toronto Star. - Seattle Times (AP)
“To be the nation’s ballet company, to be one of the leading arts organisations in the country, we have to not only do a complete arc of work that encapsulates dance in general – and not just classical ballet – but we also have a responsibility to set the bar." - The Age (Melbourne)
Ashton Edwards, a 19-year-old apprentice at Pacific Northwest Ballet, has been dancing on pointe in class as a matter of course, performs both male and female roles, and will be in the corps of swans in the company's upcoming run of Swan Lake. - The New York Times
"The story is old, the steps are old, and that's all part of Swan Lake's endurance – it's a classical ballet. So how does a ballet company make their Swan Lake different from the Swan Lake next door?" Here's how four prominent choreographers have differentiated their versions. - New York Observer
And so experts are helping them, along with athletes from other arenas entirely, learn to avoid injury. Aside from the art, the biggest difference: "There's no other athlete who spends as many hours training." - ABC (Australia)
"Russia's invasion of Ukraine has upended ballet, as prominent artists shun Russia's storied dance companies; theaters in the West cancel performances by the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky; and dance in Russia, which had opened up to the world ..., seems to be turning inward again." - The New York Times
"Intimacy work for screen and theater doesn't entirely translate to dance. In those fields, intimacy directors choreograph sexually charged scenes by setting the performers' moves in advance, but for existing dance works, the choreography mostly can't be altered, which limits their potential input." - The New York Times
For 25 years, an enterprising Texan named Nancy Henderek has been bringing major artists to her hometown for a three-day festival with "bite-size samplings" (hence the name) from multiple works and companies on each program. And she helps edit some of those works herself. - The New York Times
"The dance company announced Thursday that Alejandro Cerrudo, 41, will be its next leader. Cerrudo has worked as a dancer and choreographer for 24 years, most recently as resident choreographer at the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle." - The Charlotte Observer
The disparities between the dance and tech communities can seem pretty vast, yet the two have found an odd, contemporary synergy in NFTs: non-fungible (as in, one-of-a-kind) tokens (as in, a thing). - Dance Magazine
I’m struck by what the company could accomplish with a leadership choice that looks to the future of ballet. A choice that makes a strong statement about representation and progress, and acknowledges a new generation of artists — and potential audience members. - Washington Post
