Dance

“A video of dancers twerking in hotpants at [the dedication of a new Australian warship] … went viral when it emerged on Wednesday. But the music video-style choreography — featuring thumps, thrusts and butt shakes — also came under attack. Conservative lawmakers led the chorus of those calling it ‘inappropriate’. Tabloids splashed headlines slamming military standards. But others found offence elsewhere — projecting shame onto the dancers, and labelling their routine as too ‘sexualised’. That in turn sparked backlash over the policing of women’s bodies.” (And that’s not even all of it.) “So how exactly did this ‘navy twerking’ saga unfold?” Here’s a step-by-step (ahem) timeline. – BBC

Deborah Jowitt: “Inevitable distractions occur when filming (or viewing) dances in this climate. Dog walkers may intrude. A pet cat may decide on a star appearance. Are those two dancers barefoot on gravel? Was getting wet necessary or an artistic choice? Watching performers dancing in their apartments encourages thoughts we should probably suppress. Wow, a really tiny space (wonder how much it rents for). Nice wood floor. Check that stove. Wait a second, what was that picture on the wall? Yet their artistic choices have delighted me, as well.” – Dance Magazine

The University of East London has offered a BA in “Dance: Urban Practice” (as the program is called) since 2007. Carla Trim-Vamben, the program’s director, talks about what exactly the program teaches and what kind of students enroll. – Dance Magazine

“PNB opted for an all-digital 2020-21 season, honoring its commissions from Lang, Donald Byrd, Alejandro Cerrudo, Edwaard Liang and Christopher Wheeldon by filming premieres that they hope will be performed live in later seasons. For patrons, the message is ‘Stream the new dances now, see them live onstage once public health guidelines allow.'” – Dance Magazine

“How are dancers developing performance energy? How can artistry best be communicated through the camera? What is the best angle to present technique? Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Derek Brockington explains that dancing for film is ‘about acknowledging that it’s not going to be the same experience — it’s a different way of dancing.’ Below, Brockington and several other dancers share their takeaways after a year of dancing on camera.” – Pointe Magazine

They might sound like yet another fun thing for young people to have done back in the day, but no. They were even deadly, with reports of at least two dancers dying near the dance floor as others simply passed out. “Dance marathons, also called walkathons to avoid legal and moral scrutiny, were essentially the Netflix dating show of that era. As an emcee entertained the audience with dancers’ biographies over live music, the couples danced, stumbled and dragged each other for weeks on almost no sleep in the pursuit of money and glory.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Real talk: “Kathleen Tiernan, a trainee at Ballet Austin, fears that the pandemic will financially stunt the ballet industry for years to come. ‘I don’t know that I would wanna risk going to one of those small companies that could be very close to shutting down,’ said Tiernan, who is still in auditions season. ‘And I don’t know how they’re surviving because those types of companies were already struggling before the pandemic and already paid their dancers unlivable wages.'” – The Dispatch

“This last year, with the pandemic and its disruptions in terms of routine, discipline, just ordinary day-to-day activities, the body doesn’t know itself at the moment. So I can’t tell you what I can ask it to do until I refamiliarize myself. And I’m in the process of doing that. … Whenever I’ve finished one of these big projects, I’m out of shape, and that’s just a given. So I’ve been in this position before, not at this age, but I know that it is a commitment to get back into shape. It’s not going to happen on its own accord.” – NPR

“These small clubs, called tablaos, have acted as a springboard for generations of flamenco artists in Spain to launch professional careers. … But that intimate setup, designed to pack the audience close to the stage, has left most tablaos unable to reopen even after Spain lifted its most severe pandemic lockdown restrictions last summer. The situation has created an existential struggle for these cherished institutions at the heart of a national art form.” – The New York Times

“Today’s ballet teachers and company directors know that they can no longer simply instruct their dancers to lose weight. But that doesn’t mean they’ve relinquished their rigid, narrow vision of what a ‘good’ ballet body looks like: They simply swathe that ideal in the gauzy, feel-good messaging of today’s fitness culture.” Or they use the aesthetic ideal of “length” as camouflage or euphemism. – The Washington Post

Billy Bell, who is a visual spectacle designer and computer engineer as well as a dancer and choreographer, combines movement, architecture and computer code to create fire-and-fountain displays for the likes of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. “”When you’re choreographing on a fountain, the equipment itself is your dancer,” he says. “However, that dancer, that equipment, is fixed in space. It’s not going to move. It’s hundreds and hundreds of pounds and bolted to cement underneath eight feet of water.” – Dance Magazine

“[Competitors] are preparing for the Italian Championships in Rimini in July and as such are allowed to keep practicing, given that the government considers their activity in the national interest. It’s the same allowance that has enabled other federally recognized competitive athletes to keep training in Italy even during the latest round of virus-related closures.” – AP

“In much of the dance world, the process of becoming successful as a choreographer can seem frustratingly oblique. On Broadway, however, that path is surprisingly linear and well defined. Most people end up following a sequence of positions that includes becoming dance captain of a show, then assistant choreographer, then associate choreographer and, finally, main choreographer. What boosts you from one rung of the ladder to the next is a combination of initiative, networking and, of course, creativity.” – Dance Magazine

Mya Johnson is 15 and Chris Cotter is 13 – and they’re Black. A white TikTok influencer took their dance, and other viral dances from the site, to Jimmy Fallon … without any credit for the choreographers. A comparison of the influencer’s “challenge” and the kids’ dance moves went just as viral. Cotter, at 13, is gracious about it all: “I wanted both of us to be getting lifted up and maybe even collabing in the future and just getting together and going up to the top together.” – Slate

Good old-fashioned letters, it turns out. Choreographer and educator Suchi Branfman has been running her Dancing Through Prison Walls project with inmates of the California Rehabilitation Center at Norco since 2016. She was not going to let the pandemic make her abandon her students, but they didn’t have access to Zoom. So they started writing to each other. Garnet Henderson reports on how they made it work. – Dance Magazine

Ballet is often seen as the glorification of women -but, wherever it stands now, it condoned and encouraged the sexual trafficking of women for most of its history: a factor to which no history of ballet has given enough attention. – Alastair Macaulay

“We were demonstrating that we were still there, that we were still dancing, that we still wanted to dance, that we were still those people that engage in practices that are not Zoom-able, and that the things that we offer the world are not essential. We’re demonstrating that our bodies are these things that are meaty and fleshy and sweaty and vulnerable. And we’re continuing to demonstrate why we need to be in each other’s presence.” – Columbus Live

In most places, the pandemic has put a stop to large-scale corps dancing. Yet, even when the virus is finally under control, there’s reason to wonder about the future of large groups of ballet dancers beyond revivals of old classics: few contemporary choreographers make use of more than small groups. Laura Cappelle looks at why that is and why it matters. – Pointe Magazine

“Western classical ballet is still a very unfamiliar art form in India. But in the last few years, promising talent has begun emerging, often in dancers from disadvantaged or working-class families with no prior association with Western classical music or dance.” And one particular instructor in Mumbai has made a huge difference. – Pointe Magazine

“Now, against all odds, programs are rising from the ashes to bring you meaningful training and performance opportunities both in person and online. We asked four prominent competition/convention directors to give you the inside scoop on what to expect from this season. … First: Things are going to be OK.” – Dance Spirit

“Planning and executing a virtual season in the midst of a pandemic presents many challenges, not least how to stream or record original programming at a technically polished standard without going beyond the confines of the studio. That problem has now been solved with the retrofitting of the largest studio, called Prima, as, in effect, a well-equipped television studio.” – Toronto Star

Monica Thomas: “I spent time watching the robots move to get a sense of joint flexibility, etc. I then made a dance on my body to act out each part. I hired dancers to learn this choreography, which allowed it to be put together in one sequence for filming. I gave a video of the whole dance to Boston Dynamics, as well as each robot’s part.” And that was just the beginning. – Dance Magazine

“The company announced on Thursday that McKenzie, 68, will continue to oversee programming and performances through 2022 while a search for a successor begins this summer. … A former principal dancer with the company, McKenzie is a direct link to the founders of Ballet Theater, which was formed in 1939 by Richard Pleasant, and partially financed by a dancer, Lucia Chase.” – The New York Times

Devynn Emory, 40, sees nursing as “not so far away from dancing,” they said in a video interview. “It’s really just another understanding of how the body works.” – The New York Times