Beyond the delicately winged foot that goes in and out of favor in ballet’s arabesque, performers may be asked to wing and/or sickle their feet as part of choreography. While winging (toes pointed outward) and sickling (toes pointed inward) involve relatively small ranges of motion, to execute them safely requires proper strength and an understanding of the anatomy of the foot and ankle.

Building a Foundation

Injuries can occur when a dancer puts weight on a winged or sickled foot, because it impacts the alignment of the ankle and can put undue strain on the ligaments and tendons. The ankle is supported by the strong deltoid ligament on the inside, and three weaker ligaments (the posterior and anterior talofibular and the calcaneofibular) on the outside, explains Dr. Tania Burinskas, a podiatrist and former dancer based in Maryland. Her husband and professional partner, foot and ankle surgeon Dr. Justin Lewis, says, “Those areas on the outside are more prone to damage, and [the injury can be] more catastrophic for a dancer than the deltoid ligament, which is usually pretty strong.”

Because of the risk of injury, it’s important to learn how to support winged and sickled foot positions through both strength and technique. Kelly Ashton Todd, who uses winged and sickled feet as artistic choices in her choreography, recommends first focusing on fundamental elements like turnout and foot articulation. “Having solid technique as a foundation is really important,” she says. “Working on turnout and arch support and going through the foot is an important place to start and get really grounded in, before you add sickles or wings.”

Burinskas encourages dancers to avoid overstretching the area, noting that this can often be a precursor to injury. “You’re going to stretch those tendons that are attached to the muscle, but then if you don’t subsequently strengthen them, you’re going to have a beautiful winged foot in the air, but your supporting foot is going to have those stretched tendons and might not have the strength for stability,” she explains.

Steady Steps

To support winged and sickled foot positions, Mullin emphasizes­ the importance of cross-training, encouraging dancers to strengthen their glutes. “Once you have that stability at the top of your leg, you gain so much more stability in the lower parts of your leg, too,” she says.

Lewis and Burinskas add that simple exercises like calf raises at the barre and balancing on demi-pointe are crucial for ankle stability as well. They also recommend a series of exercises­ with a TheraBand to bolster ankle strength (see below).

Mullin has found working with a BAPS (biomechanical ankle platform system) board to be helpful for her own ankle strength. She recommends standing on the device—which is similar to a BOSU ball, albeit much smaller—and moving the ankle in a circle, which helps by strengthening each supporting muscle. She also recommends a stability pad, which is a small, thick piece of foam. Standing on the stability pad, either on one leg or two, can help develop the intrinsic ankle stabilizer muscles. “Developing those little, finite bits of strength is really important as well,” she says.

Todd has found that rolling out the hips, psoas, and IT band has been crucial, because tightness in these areas can affect the kinetic chain and have impacts on the feet. She also uses therapy balls to roll out her feet after a long day of dancing for the same reason. “You have to be doing your physical therapy exercises, rolling out your feet, and strengthening your feet,” she says. “The longevity of a dancer is a forever process.”

Building Strength

Dr. Tania Burinskas, a podiatrist and former dancer, and Dr. Justin Lewis, a foot and ankle surgeon, recommend this exercise to build strength in the muscles that help with winging and sickling:

1. Place a looped or knotted TheraBand around your left foot and the other side of the TheraBand under your right foot.
2. Hold on to the non-looped portion of the band, adjusting tension as needed.
3. Resisting the pull of the TheraBand, wing the left foot, then bring it back to neutral.
4. Repeat with the other foot, and in both flexed and pointed positions.

The post Safety Tips for Winged and Sickled Feet appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Tell us about what drew you to teaching and your early experience. 

I started training at age 10 with Mr. Mitchell at DTH, and I saw how he had a way of getting whatever he needed out of a dancer. He knew exactly what to say. I was so fascinated by that, and it drew me to wanting to be in the front of the room. I started teaching at Lula Washington Dance Theatre, and then did the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet teacher training that summer, 2013. I was on CPYB’s summer faculty from 2018–22, and I also taught for Ballet Academy East. I’ve taken every opportunity I could to teach, like giving community master classes while on tour with DTH. 

What was your exposure to SAB and NYCB as a young dancer?

Growing up at DTH, I thought ballet was for Black people. But then I learned why Mr. Mitchell was famous, and why what he had achieved was so incredible. But I didn’t think those institutions were for me, although I did later audition for SAB twice. 

What was your journey to becoming an SAB permanent faculty member?

Participating in the National Visiting Fellows program was eye-opening. Seeing Katrina [Killian, Children’s Program manager who guides the Fellows] on the floor just so carefully shaping a child’s foot, seeing the pedagogical through-line from Level I to the most advanced, and to the company—it gave me so much respect for the organization. I’d also been worried about how welcome I’d feel, but everyone was so nice to me. 

I stayed in touch with the school when I returned to New York to rejoin DTH the following year, but I was still shocked when Jon [Stafford] called to offer me the teaching apprentice position. He had asked Virginia [Johnson, then DTH artistic director] for permission first because I’d still be dancing for her. That showed respect for DTH and the character of someone I wanted to work for. 

It was good timing that I was ready to retire from DTH when a permanent position opened at SAB. I’d learned so much during my two years as an apprentice, I felt blessed to be able to keep going. 

How do you bring your background into your teaching?

I’m very proud of my career and I love sharing it with the students. Growing up a churchgoer taught me that people are moved by your testimony. Mr. Mitchell used to tell stories about his career, including Balanchine. Talking about NYCB will never be what I have to give, but I have another story to tell them. Sharing my experience with DTH and Mr. Mitchell, and other companies, expands their view of what a career can be. 

What’s most enjoyable to you about teaching at SAB?

It’s a team effort. We talk to each other about where we are in the syllabus; if the students needed more time on a certain thing and I didn’t get to something else, I can pass that on to the next teacher, and we get the kids there together. 

What does the state of diversity efforts in ballet look like to you?

I’m very proud to be Black, but I’ve certainly faced racism in my career outside DTH—just as Mr. Mitchell warned me. So I’m proud to show that programs with diversity in mind are successful and important. If SAB wasn’t living its diversity commitment, I wouldn’t be here. I talk a lot at the school about my ideas for outreach and relating to students with backgrounds like mine. Change can take time, but it’s coming. Look where I am! God is good. The future is bright. 

The post Christopher Charles McDaniel Blazes His Own Path at SAB appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Likes included musings on the profession, such as “the girl who learns to lead as well as follow” (ballroom dancer and teacher Arthur Murray) and “dancers who make it their business to know the history and background of the dance” (ballet dancer and teacher Leon Fokine, nephew of Michel), and tongue-in-cheek commentary, like “a place to spot while doing a set of pirouettes in performance” (American ballerina Karen Conrad) and “audiences of any kind anywhere—they’re the customers so they must be right!” (musical theater duo Grace and Paul Hartman).

As to dislikes: “people who apologize for their dancing and do nothing to correct it” (Murray), “posing for pictures” (Conrad), “American choreography!—except Catherine Littlefield’s” (Fokine), and “people who don’t like dogs” and “gowns that tear and the guy who invented hoop skirts” (the Hartmans).

But perhaps most striking were modern dance matriarch Martha Graham’s responses. She gave thumbs-up to “a dance form which has its roots in the lives, customs, traditions and interests of one’s own people,” “good theatre,” “expert dancing of any type,” “cleanness of line and economy of movement,” and “dancers who have an awareness of today.” On the thumbs-down side: “pretentiousness and artiness,” “any attempt to justify poor dancing by an idea, no matter how good the idea might be,” “those who do not recognize the need of a good technical base for the dancer,” “the dancing of slogans which might be displayed to better effect on banners!” and “self-expressionism.” 

The post TBT: Martha Graham, Arthur Murray, and More Share Their Pet Peeves, 1939 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Bachelor of fine arts dance programs, whether housed in a conservatory or larger university setting, tend to give out letter grades like any other academic degree. But rather than exams and essays, the studio classes that make up the bulk of BFA programs are evaluating students on less tangible benchmarks like artistry, technique, and performance. How much weight are BFA programs really putting on grading—and how much do students’ grades matter during, and after, their time in college?

Progress Over Perfection

Individual dance programs and teachers all have different approaches to grading. Some schools use a pass/fail system, but most employ traditional letter grades. At Florida State University, the rubric for a technique class “can include everything from attendance to looking for improvement, how they are engaging with their artistry, and their technical skills and risk-taking,” says Anjali Austin, the department chair of FSU’s School of Dance. “Everybody improves, but they may be improving at a different rate.”

This holistic view of a dancer’s growth is common in BFA programs, and is a welcome change for some students. “My arts high school had a giant spreadsheet, and they would rate us one through four for turnout and feet,” says Lauren Ciccolini, a senior in George Mason University’s dance BFA program who is minoring in public policy and management. “Coming here, it’s like everyone has a different starting point and a different ending point, and is graded on it. I super appreciate that.”

With less work expected outside of class, attendance tends to play an outsized role in dance grading. “At Juilliard, if I had more than three absences, then my grade would go down a letter,” says Hicks. With so much focus on participation, schools try to accommodate injuries. At FSU, injured dancers spend some or all of the class period in the department’s conditioning studio, rehabbing with a trainer. “It’s almost like we have to switch the course to support the student during the injury period,” adds Austin.

Grades After Graduation

Despite dance departments’ attempts to make their grading policies fair, many students who plan to pursue a performance career enter college with the attitude that their grades don’t matter, especially when it comes to required classes outside of the studio. “I am the definition of someone who was just trying to coast in academics and thrive in dance,” says Hicks. “I didn’t understand why I had to be graded hard on things that I wasn’t going to use in life.”

One answer to that question is scholarships. At FSU, Austin says, eligibility for funding opportunities for students depends on their academic standing. “I love to learn, and I love doing my schoolwork, and then I also need these good grades and a good GPA so I can get more money to go to school,” says Ciccolini, who purposely included schools that offered both dance and academic scholarships in her college search.

Students should also consider their career goals for immediately­ after graduation and down the road. “If they’re thinking about an MFA or other graduate school, then grades are important,” says Austin. FSU offers dance students in their junior year an option to apply into an accelerated master’s program, which grants them both a BFA and an MA in just five years. “By the time they’re sophomores, if that’s in the back of their mind, they’re already thinking about their grades needing to be at a certain level to be accepted,” says Austin. Ciccolini hopes to join a company after graduation, but is still conscious of her transcript, knowing that she might someday want to go back to school for public policy.

Hicks, who holds an MFA in choreography from California Institute of the Arts, doesn’t believe that her undergraduate transcript played much of a role in the admissions process. “It’s a very, very creative school, so it’s an extreme situation,” she says. “But they were focused on an essay about my work and videos of my pieces.” CalArts’ MFA program is entirely pass/fail, which freed Hicks up to focus solely on her creative development. Now that she has guest-taught in university programs—and dreaded being on the other side of the grading process—she wishes all dance programs would consider pass/fail for some classes. “We should only grade on work ethic, and take out the talent aspect of it,” she says. “For me as a learner, and an educator, taking out grades feels more inclusive and open and inspiring. Which are all the things I think art school should be.”

The post Do Grades in BFA Programs Really Matter? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

How did you decide to bring this group of guests onboard?

Alan Cumming has been a longtime friend of the company, and of Paul, as well. I asked him if he’d be willing to play Paul Taylor, and he jumped at the opportunity. He’s going to make Paul’s voice come alive.

In 1957, Paul had just graduated from Juilliard, and then in 1959, he was a guest artist at New York City Ballet. We’re bringing back these excerpts that are very of a specific moment, so we wanted to acknowledge the community of artists that were all collaborating together at that time. Adrian represents New York City Ballet, and Damian and Alicia represent Juilliard. They’re all great friends in the industry, and it’s an acknowledgement that these institutions still do have close relationships.

Why is it important to you to revive Seven New Dances?

It’s really important that audiences understand that artists are multifaceted, and they grow and evolve and try things. And there’s an investment that needs to be made in an artist’s life and in their career and where they’re going. It’s beautiful to see this process of all the drafts that have to get created for a genius to truly emerge and find themselves. I hope audiences of all ages get to ask themselves questions about what dance is, and where dance is going now.

When Seven New Dances premiered, some asked whether it could even be considered dance. Having spent time reconstructing this work, do you consider it to be dance?

They’re one hundred percent dance. Watching them in the studio feels rebellious even now. The boldness that it took for Paul to create the duet Alicia and Damian are going to perform, that was inspired by John Cage’s 4’33”: The curtain goes up, two dancers are onstage in a pose, nothing happens, and then the curtain comes down. The only thing that happens is that we as viewers are confronted with myriad thoughts, feelings, ideas, questions. It feels very radical to me. What makes it all the more powerful, if my plan works, is that when you see those same [pedestrian] movements to Bach music in Esplanade, it will hopefully make people see Paul’s work in a new way.

The post The Paul Taylor Dance Company Revisits Its Radical Roots in a One-Night-Only Performance appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The then-12-year-old Ribeiro, who starred as Willie Sheridan, the titular tap dance kid, told us: “I’m able to get something inside of me out in tap dancing, just really take it all and put it out into the open. Let my feet do the stuff, you know?” Ribeiro shot to stardom in the wake of the role, though today he is better known as Carlton, from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” and as a recent winner and then host of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Battle (who passed away this year at the end of January)­ was already a bona fide star when he took the showstopping role of Dipsy Bates, Sheridan’s uncle and tap teacher: He’d been the original Scarecrow in The Wiz at age 16, danced with Arthur Mitchell’s Dance Theatre of Harlem,­ and learned to tap and won a Tony for Sophisticated Ladies. “To make yourself part of the particular style is the biggest challenge in working with different choreographers,” Battle said. “I like to dig into what I’m doing, see what the choreographer sees in the step, what gives it that specialness. I think that’s why I was able to pick up tap; it is steps, and there’s a technique, but that’s only half of it. The essence of it is more important.­ I could go out and do steps all night, but it wouldn’t mean anything. It’s that other thing that I always think of as the key. And I really think that’s helped me understand not only tap but other kinds of dancing as well.”

And Weeks, The Tap Dance Kid’s Daddy Bates, was only in his mid-30s but could boast a 27-year career working with the likes of Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Michael Bennett, Michael Kidd, and Matt Mattox. “Show business is my life—I just love the business, all facets of it. But Broadway—dancing—is my first love,” he said. “My only goal is to be working. The dreams change, the work is ever present. And if you can stay healthy enough just to work, I think success and all those dreams that people fathom up will automatically come.”

The post TBT: Alfonso Ribeiro, Hinton Battle, and Alan Weeks Star in <i>The Tap Dance Kid</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Videos with hashtags related to the UDA Nationals amassed hundreds of millions of views on TikTok, comments sections were flooded with fans from around the world, and dancers young and old attempted to replicate the University of Minnesota’s challenging and precise turn sequences, set to Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” Both Aerosmith and Minnesota governor Tim Walz weighed in on social in support of the team.

The newfound fame and accolades were welcome, particularly as these teams don’t often get much recognition: Dance is not formally recognized as a sport under the National Collegiate Athletic Association. But can this viral moment lead to any meaningful changes for collegiate dance teams?

Amanda Gaines, who coaches University of Minnesota’s dance team, hopes that conditions will improve for college dance teams everywhere. “I’d love to see consistency in the support teams are provided around athletic trainers, mental health support, nutritional support, and academic support,” she says. “My ultimate dream is for these athletes to have the opportunity to be scholarship athletes, and for all dance team coaches to get a seat at the table, so they can advocate for their team the same way other sports do.”

The online attention has reinvigorated­ a major talking point in the community: dance’s status as a collegiate sport. Because college dance teams are not sanctioned by the NCAA, dancers are not guaranteed the same perks student athletes receive, such as scholarships and fixed weekly training hours. Additionally, there isn’t a standardization of scoring, which means organizations like UDA and the National Dance Alliance and the Dance Team Union train judges on their own scoresheets.

Christine Zoffinger, head coach of Rutgers University dance team, asserts that NCAA regulation would bring substantial benefits to student dancers. “If dance is a fully fledged sport, the dancers would be seen as athletes, and they’d be awarded the same perks student athletes receive,” she says. “From the dancers’ perspective, that would be a huge plus.”

Danielle Chabot, the coach of Harvard Crimson Dance Team, agrees that NCAA recognition could bring significant benefits on a team level. “It would be wonderful for the NCAA to acknowledge dance and cheer as sports,” she says. “Spirit programs have been historically under-resourced at college campuses. Something as simple as getting priority space for practice can be a struggle at many institutions.”

The challenges inherent in establishing procedures to assign numerical scores to a dance performance provide an obstacle to NCAA regulation. “Part of the reason the NCAA hasn’t adopted dance is because there is no standard of judging,” explains Jennifer Eustice, dance team coach at the University of Iowa. “Gymnastics, for example, has very clear-cut criteria. We don’t have that in the dance team world. The feelings you get when you see a live performance—how do you judge that?” she wonders. “How do you regulate that?”

Dance team coaches are also hoping to see opportunities for more dancers to land name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals. Different states and schools have varying rules about these deals, which allow athletes to receive monetary compensation from companies for the use of their name, image, and likeness. “It’s amazing that this is happening for the big teams,” says Payton Ibos, director of spirit programs at Washington State University. “I hope NIL deals trickle down to the smaller teams too, because that’s how it works for other sports.”

Whether or not recent social media fame will usher in significant change, coaches are thrilled that dancers are being recognized for their skill and dedication. “So many people see what college dance teams do on the sidelines at university events, but they don’t understand how technical, athletic, and passionate the competitive side of our season is,” says Gaines. Eustice hopes that the influx of interest in dance will inspire the next generation to dance in college. “It shows young dancers that there are opportunities out there for them to continue their love of dance,” she says.

Joyce Winter, head coach of University of Central Florida’s dance team, thinks that with a surge of talent, creativity, and dedication among dancers, college dance is poised for even greater success. “We’re just so excited for what the future holds, and hope that college dance continues to boom.”

The post UDA Nationals Went Viral on TikTok. What’s Next for College Dance Teams?  appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Find Your Voice

Venturing into a new art form requires stepping beyond comfort zones and facing uncertainty. This discomfort can be a catalyst for growth, however, fostering adaptability and expanding creative horizons. Many dancers aren’t accustomed to using their voices onstage, so vocalizing for the first time onstage can be intimidating. Wolfe says a willingness to try is important: “When we’re embarrassed about our voice, or feel shame about it, or just feel funny about it because we haven’t used it a lot, we cut off a certain amount of impact and energy,­ even if we’re doing a project that’s completely silent.”

Wolfe recommends dancers practice a series of simple vocal­ warm-ups (see sidebar) to get more comfortable using­ their voice. It can also be helpful to practice delivering a monologue. “Start to listen to yourself saying the words,” Wolfe says. “You can video yourself. If you have someone else, whether that’s a friend or a roommate or a family member, becoming­ comfortable speaking words out loud in front of them is another way to start to become comfortable with your voice, be able to hear yourself, and loosen your inhibitions.”

Draw on Emotion

Learning to act involves exploring a range of emotions and an understanding of how to authentically portray them. Dancers who study acting can tap into a wider range of emotions, enabling them to convey more nuanced and compelling stories through their movements. Bharathi Penneswaran, a New York City–based bharatanatyam teacher, performer, and artistic director of Aalokam, says that paying attention to the way feelings affect the body in day-to-day life can help in expressing the same feelings onstage. “What happens when your body is happy? Do you move your limbs? Do you look very stiff? Or is it just your face that shows the expression?” she asks.

Kristi DeCaminada, a principal character dancer at San Francisco Ballet, adds that it’s important to pay attention to facial expressions when focusing on emotion in dance performance. She recommends using the mirror to gauge whether facial expressions are matching the energy of the dancing, the music, and the story. “The expression on your face can’t be overexaggerated; it has to be natural and believable,” she explains.­ “It has to be something you would do—it has to be your own and how you would interpret that emotion.”

Stretch Your Artistry

Dancers interested in improving their acting can adopt various strategies as a starting point. Enrolling in acting classes, or workshops specifically designed for dancers, can provide a structured foundation. These classes often focus on fundamental principles, such as character development, emotional expression, and improvisation. Wolfe encourages dancers to take part in community theater productions as a way to gain invaluable experience. “If you can get involved with a non-Equity production or a community production, you will learn a ton about how a piece of theater is made,” she explains. “There will most likely be people in the room that have a ton of training, so just being in the rehearsal room in a production of any level will be an acting class in and of itself.”

DeCaminada highlights the value of observing other dancers in rehearsal and onstage, as well as on video. Pay attention to how they interpret a role, infuse each step with emotion, and use the choreography to tell a story. “Watching as much dance as possible, and watching as many movies and as much acting as possible, is so important,” she says.

Warm Up Your Voice

Isadora Wolfe, an Acting for Dancers­ teacher at Juilliard, recommends these vocal­ warm-ups for dancers learning to find their voices:

• Face and jaw massage: Gently massage the chin, jaw, sinuses, and temples with your fingertips. “Part of preparing your voice is relaxing as much as possible, to produce the healthiest and richest sound,” Wolfe says.
• Lip buzz/trill: Press your lips together and blow out slightly, making a buzzing sound. See if you can maintain this sound while changing octaves.
• Humming: Wolfe says humming, whether it’s a scale or your favorite song, is a great warm-up or cool-down exercise that won’t strain your vocal cords.

The post How to Integrate Acting Skills Into Dance appeared first on Dance Magazine.

A Little More Mascara

Dennis Callahan (Monique): I think there were between 800 and 1,000 at the original open call. Scott Salmon, who was the choreographer, was not a New York person. So it was really like a clean slate as far as what he was seeing at these auditions.

David Engel (Hanna): I was only being seen for Jean-Michel [one of the leads]. Then they said, “We need to see you dance and in drag.” I didn’t know why. I came to the final dance call. Everybody else had learned all this choreography. I learned it on the spot.

Dan O’Grady (Odette): It got down to maybe 25 of us at the end. I had never done any drag, but I decided to show up in drag [for the final audition]. It was really, really funny. When I got into the cab, the cab driver got out, opened the door for me, called me ma’am. Then I went into the theater, and they didn’t know who I was. No one else arrived in drag.

DC: From 10 in the morning to 4 or 5 in the afternoon, we did all of the dancing in drag. And at the end of this long day, we were 12 and 12 across the stage.

DE: Basically, it was like the end of A Chorus Line. We were all lined up across the stage. And then they’re like, “Rehearsals start on this date—congratulations.” Everybody’s jumping up and down screaming, and I’m like, “What’s happening? What’s going on?”

DC: After the others left, they had the 12 of us gather around the piano and sing “There’s No Business Like Show Business” in real short-clipped piano voices. [Composer] Jerry Herman said, “This is the style of La Cage’s opening song, ‘We are What We Are.’ ” It was such a cool moment to be around the piano with Jerry and [music director] Don Pippin, all of us in drag.

Not a Place We Have to Hide

DE: The very first day of rehearsal, [director] Arthur Laurents said, “We are not doing this apologetically. We are proudly playing these roles.”

DO: He gave us all storylines. Some were more developed than others, but we all had a bit of one. He really instilled in us that we were important to the story.

DC: Though I don’t think any of us had any experience doing drag, I don’t think any Cagelle would say it was hard. The atmosphere in the room was so supportive and nurturing that none of us felt any fear of being judged.

DO: I remember Arthur working on “I Am What I Am” with George Hearn [who played Albin], a straight man. The amount of pride and dignity that Arthur conveyed not just to George but all of us was very powerful. It moves me even just to think of it now.

DC: The Cagelles were given the last bow. When does that ever happen? We each just took a humble bow as ourselves. The sound of the audience was unbelievable.

Sometimes Sweet and Sometimes Bitter

DE: We had a whole warm-up area in the basement, and at intermission, we’d dress up, we’d be ridiculous. We just kept creating and playing.

It was the best of times. And it was the worst of times.

DO: I first started hearing about the “gay cancer” when we were in Boston. Nobody knew what it was.

DE: I remember thinking to myself, if I went to a gay bar, I would hold my breath. You just didn’t know. It was everywhere, and if you tested positive, it was a death sentence, definitely. And you could go quick.

DO: I think David Cahn [Chantelle] was the first of us Cagelles who got sick and left, then John Dolf [Nicole].

DC: I don’t remember any conversation between the rest of us about the boys being sick. I think it was sort of a feeling of: If they wanted to talk about it they would, and they’re not, so neither should we. And maybe there was also a fear.

DO: We felt the loss from the inside, and I think that’s what sort of led us to start thinking about the Easter Bonnet competition. Howard Crabtree and the other costume folks did these silly Easter bonnets, and we had folks donate. In the beginning it was just the cast, the crew, and the orchestra.

DE: We did the Easter Bonnet pageant in the basement and a Queen of Hearts pageant for Valentine’s Day, both just among ourselves, and raised money for Gay Men’s Health Crisis. The next year we decided to bring the Easter Bonnet pageant onto the stage and invited other casts to come—A Chorus Line, Cats, there were a few companies. I remember when they flipped over the cards at the end, we had raised $17,000. I was sobbing, sobbing.

DO: I think we needed a sense of agency. Because there was no hope. There really wasn’t. Our friends were dying, and we couldn’t do anything about it. But we could dress up and act silly and ask people for money.

DC: Teddy Azar was instrumental in the whole look of the show makeup- and wig-wise. He was one of the first in the company to come down with AIDS. He was at St. Vincent’s, and David [Scala, who played Phaedra], Sam [Singhaus, Clo-Clo], and I got some nurse drag with these giant hypodermic needles and resuscitation devices, just ridiculous stuff, and we went down there. People who worked there came up to us and said, “Could you please come bring some of this joy into some of the other rooms?” And we went in and out of these rooms, these three big old drag queens in nurse drag, and it was joyous. The whole thing was joyous.

DE: I had plenty of hard losses, but the hardest was [executive producer] Fritz Holt. At the show that night, we silently got in place, and one by one we turned around in the opening number and we all started singing “We Are What We Are.” But then one by one voices were dropping out. We just couldn’t sing. We were all crying. The cast members in the wings on both sides were singing for us, trying to keep it going.

We Are What We Are

DC: When we would turn around one by one in the opening number, you could feel, physically, this sort of crossed-arm, furrowed-brow feeling from the audience. They were probably wondering if maybe we’re too close, we’re going to get [AIDS].

By the end of the show those same faces were leaning into the stage, wide-eyed. I left every night thinking, Wow, I think I was part of something that changed what people think about homosexuals.

DE: I came out to my mom when I was 18, and she really struggled with it. She couldn’t understand what she had done wrong. And it was La Cage that turned her around. It let her know that you can have love and family being gay. She became a mother to all of my gay friends that had parents that disowned them. They adored her, and she loved all of them.

DC: From the beginning my parents saw something in me. They would take me to the Muny Opera, to the Starlight in Kansas City, and nurtured that in me. But at the same time I didn’t ever feel like I needed to tell them I was gay. I thought the words and the situation would hurt them. And they knew.

When they saw the show, that was my way of being able to tell them and show them that I was going to be okay.

DO: La Cage changed my life. I got to work with Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman and Arthur Laurents and Fritz Holt and Barry Brown and Don Pippin, and George Hearn and Gene Barry [Georges] and Merle Louise [Mme. Didon]. I also learned so much from Linda Haberman [Bitelle] and Jennifer Smith [Colette]. The work ethic, the creativity, and the artistry was like nothing I had ever been exposed to.
DC: At the 40-year reunion, we sang “The Best of Times.” There were two older gentlemen sitting next to each other in the audience, and they were bawling. And I thought, god, this show affected more people than we will ever know. It’s so special to have been a part of something like that.

The post <i>La Cage aux Folles</i>’ Cagelles, 40 Years Later: Something About Sharing, Something About Always appeared first on Dance Magazine.

It’s true that her journey into dance was intertwined with higher education: She double-majored in dance and politics at Oberlin College and earned her MFA in choreography at UCLA. Her thesis work looked at salsa as a way to express social­ resistance in the debate around immigration. The Cuban­ American daughter of two labor union organizers, Alvarez had also seen her mother transition into academia, which made it feel familiar and accessible.

It hasn’t always felt inviting and inclusive, however. “I was constantly fighting to legitimize the ways that I danced, and the ways that I moved, and the things that I was interested in studying,” she says. When it came to exploring social dance practices outside of ballet and modern and how she wanted to move through the world as an artist, Alvarez says, “I found myself having to really push back and advocate and argue with people that it mattered.”

After she graduated, Alvarez focused on art and activism the way she envisioned it. After some early adjunct-teaching gigs in dance departments, she shifted her focus to cultivating her own work, accepting occasional guest-choreographer and visiting-artist opportunities instead. “It felt like the field wasn’t ready yet,” she says.

Years later—after carving her own path, building a thriving company, and receiving recognition for her work—she found the job opening at UCSD. “It literally was describing who I am as an artist,” she says. “When I got the job description, I was like, ‘I think they’re ready.’ ”

She’s so glad they were. “I’ve always had deep, deep love for learning, deep love for teaching, deep love for inquiry and curiosity,” she says. “So much of my own artmaking practice is about asking questions and grappling with the world, and there is no better place to be doing that than inside of a university.”

Making Way for New Stories

Alvarez’s parents instilled in her a drive to make the world “a better, more loving, and just place,” she says, and she wanted to do it through movement. “I have a deep belief that choreography is community organizing,” she explains. “You’re imagining and creating worlds, and you’re redefining the ways in which we think about the world and think about ourselves within the world.”

That, in an oversimplified nutshell, is the philosophy she brought with her to UCSD at a moment when the “Dance” part of the Theatre and Dance Department in particular was in transition. “I fell in love with the blank canvas that I saw,” she says, along with the students and colleagues she met. It gave her the freedom to start building something new.

In her first year, she taught courses on the politics of partnering, introduction to dancemaking, and what she calls “ancestral technologies,” exploring the wisdom of one’s ancestors embedded in social dance practices. She hired nearly a dozen new lecturers to teach classes in forms as diverse as traditional hula, flamenco, capoeira, Filipino folk dance, West African dance, Afro-Cuban dance, tap, jazz, contact improvisation, and more.

She also did a lot of listening, and heard a common refrain­ about people being isolated in their own silos. She established a weekly “Connection Jam” where anyone and everyone is welcome. “We’re gonna get down, we’re gonna dance, we’re gonna sweat, and we’re gonna move together,” Alvarez says. “We’re gonna practice joy.”

Another new tradition has all the technique classes gather at the end of the quarter to share what they’ve been doing with their peers. It was so popular the first quarter they did it, in a small black-box theater, that they moved to the Epstein Family Amphitheater the next time around.

“Ana María’s presence in the department is wholly inspiring and palpably positive, and she has forged a strong sense of community,” says faculty member Jade Power-Sotomayor, explaining that Alvarez led the way in cleaning out the dance office and putting up new posters all over the building, “literally making way for new bodies and new stories.”

Connecting Campus and Company

The new role at UCSD came with a serious commute and a major balancing act. Alvarez still lives in Los Angeles with her family and continues to work as an artist with CONTRA-TIEMPO and beyond. It’s only possible to juggle, she says, because CONTRA-TIEMPO horizontalized its leadership structure—with Alvarez as artistic director running the group with three other directors. She splits her weeks between campus and company and plans intensive projects for academic breaks.

There are no silos here, either. “Because I have this access and connection to a professional dance company that is making work, that is touring, that is running summer programs, that is doing regular local gigs,” she says, “my students also have access to that.” Early on, Alvarez invited company members to San Diego to lead a Connection Jam so her students could meet and engage with the pros. In recent months, Alvarez has been working with a group of students to explore and deepen the physical language of ¡azúcar!, her latest piece for CONTRA-TIEMPO, to culminate in a performance with other faculty choreography at Winter Works on March 15 and 16. When CONTRA-TIEMPO comes to UCSD to perform ¡azúcar! in April, those students will become the community cast that shares the stage with them.

“I’m just so excited to be anywhere she is,” says Norma Ovalle, who graduated last year but is participating in the process as an alum volunteer. “I didn’t necessarily grow up seeing that there’s a possibility for somebody like me to pursue this,” she says. But that changed when she met Alvarez. She’s now working toward an associate’s degree and a future in dance.

Coming up a few years behind her, Vrisika Chauhan, a junior­ who has a background in Indian classical dance and also didn’t always feel like she belonged, decided to declare dance as a second major. “My perspective on what dance is has truly shifted,” she says, thanks to Alvarez. “She has helped so many students, including myself, feel seen.”

The post Ana María Alvarez Redefines the Dance Program at UC San Diego appeared first on Dance Magazine.

While dance is often considered inextricably linked to music, the absence of music can open a unique space for exploration. Three artists share their experiences and advice for dancing in works without music.

Tune In to Your Senses

Most dancers are accustomed to navigating a work through its music, whether planning complex movement patterns onstage or predicting a partner’s location leading up to a big lift. Without music as a guide, dancers instead often rely more on other senses, like sight, but they are still listening. Sam Black, Mark Morris Dance Group’s company director, suggests that the heightened sensations and subtle adjustments made while dancing in silence have a lot in common with what happens when performing with live accompaniment. Because live music varies slightly each time it’s performed, dancers have to adjust accordingly in the moment. “We’re always looking around, we’re always listening very closely to cues,” he says. “That is even more true in a piece where we don’t have musical cues or anything to listen to except each other’s breathing and footsteps.”

Connecting with your senses in a deep way is something that will likely take practice. Black recommends gathering a group of dancers and practicing walking across the floor together, shoulder to shoulder, focusing on tuning in to your own senses, as well as the energy of the group. “The only goal is to stay in line, just walking shoulder to shoulder across the studio,” he explains. “There’s no prescribed amount of time that it’s supposed to take, and you’re not walking in rhythm.”

Establishing a deep awareness of the sounds and placement of the other dancers can also help with distractions, which you may be more apt to notice in the absence of music. “If somebody is coughing in the audience, or if somebody sneezes or there’s rustling, you just have to remain in that super-focused space,” says Emilie Gerrity, a principal dancer with New York City Ballet. Incorporating a mindfulness practice focused on your senses can help make the process of tuning in easier come performance time.

Emphasize Artistry

Dancers also draw artistic inspiration from the music, such as dynamics and emotions. These still exist in silent works, but they might need a bit more accentuation without the aid of a score, Gerrity says. “Because there’s not that added element of music, you really have to draw your audience in,” she explains.

When rehearsing for Jerome Robbins’ Moves, which is performed in silence, Gerrity says it was helpful for her to remember the dynamics of a certain step or section through sensory-based cueing. She says the rehearsal director offered mental imagery as artistic inspiration, describing which moves felt “hot” in temperature, or which step felt like a “shock.”

Dancers can incorporate this strategy by asking their directors or teachers for insight into the intention or feeling of the work, or by taking time to explore it on their own. Black recommends practicing a simple phrase to different kinds of music, paying attention to the tones and feelings each song brings forth. Acknowledging and challenging these natural inclinations can be helpful when it comes to performing without music. “I do think it’s natural that music is an indication, often, of emotion or mood. But the opposite of that is: Just because something doesn’t have music doesn’t mean it’s devoid of feeling or emotion,” Black says.

Dance as One

While it’s always important to stay attuned to other dancers, dancing in a group without music makes this even more vital. “You have to stay on the same wavelength, the same breath pattern, the same energetic movement,” says Leslie Andrea Williams, a member of the Martha Graham Dance Company. “That requires not doing too much to stand out or be beyond the pack. It’s about feeling that collective energy.”

To practice moving as one, Williams recommends an exercise inspired by Graham’s Steps in the Street, which is partially silent. In a group of dancers, establish a rhythmic pattern each dancer can repeat to themselves mentally. (The Graham dancers use a syllabic pronunciation of “silent walks.”) Then, walk backwards with your eyes closed, using this particular beat—and the sounds you hear from other dancers—to guide your movements. “You try to create the sound—and then the silence in between—without looking at anyone,” she explains.

Black also recommends the group of dancers learns a simple movement phrase without counts. Then, covering or facing away from the mirrors, perform the phrase together, trying to stay in unison. Face different directions for an extra challenge. He says this exercise will help develop “the ability to key into what other people are doing. You have to be able to make real-time adjustments, but you’re so keyed into each other and so attentive that it actually ends up being easier because you don’t really have to do as much—it’s almost like catching the current and just riding on it.”

The post The Art of Dancing Without Music appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Béjart, who played the role of The Poet (who directs the characters, who largely rebel against him), said of it, “It’s a difficult ballet because it’s not story. It’s visions, and sometimes so many visions happen in so little time in so many different places on the stage that you cannot absorb all of them at one sitting….It’s constructed like a movie, more or less, and like a symphony….The dream is coming and, more and more the dream is destroying the structure of classical music and classical ballet, as though dream and the subconscious are stronger than the rigid structure of ballet, and they destroy it….But the real story of the ballet is the fight between the creator and the interpreter. When it starts, [dancer Jorge] Donn and I are both sitting, like fighters, in the ring which is made from broken classical ballet barres. It’s a fight.”

By Stoop’s estimation, in addition to Donn as the Hero (who “is many personalities, including a rock singer and a clown and, at the end, becomes born again as the Poet”), the characters in that “fight” also included a young girl, a wife, novelist George Sand, Dionysius, Zarathustra, Pegasus, an eagle, a serpent, three Muses, a group of rugby players, and some motorcyclists. And, Stoop concluded the list, “There’s a great deal of death around, too.” 

The post TBT: Maurice Béjart’s “Difficult” Ballet <i>Dichterliebe</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.

When Collins was interviewed for Dance Magazine’s February 1954 issue, she was in her third season with the opera while using her downtime to prepare the concert-dance programs she toured around the country during the off-seasons. She recalled auditioning for Léonide Massine as a teenager and being offered a place with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, which she turned down because “for the corps de ballet, he said he’d have to paint me white.” After, she said, she “cried for an hour. And went back to the barre.”

Asked how she resolved her dual training in ballet and modern dance, she said: “There is no conflict. You need both to extend the range of the body. The illusion you communicate while dancing depends on what you feel about your dance. For instance, I love Mozart. For that I need elevation and lightness, which I’ve learned from ballet. I love spirituals, too, and for that there is modern dance and a feeling of the earth.” 

The post TBT: Why Black Ballerina Janet Collins Turned Down the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Working With Words

Before, during, or after class or rehearsal, feel free—and even encouraged—to talk through your needs with your dance partner. Discuss what’s going smoothly, what needs improvement, and how they can provide optimal support. Open communication not only establishes a foundation for successful collaboration but also makes it easier to stay on the same page onstage.

Mikaela Santos, a dancer with Atlanta Ballet, explains that it’s important to communicate discomfort with your partner, even though it can be daunting to offer feedback that could be perceived as negative. “I’ve definitely had times when something is uncomfortable for me and I didn’t have the guts to tell my partner,” she says. “Tell your partner straight up, be honest with them, and just tell them ‘Can we work this out?’ ”

If your partner is having a hard time understanding your point of view, Martín Rodríguez, co-founder of Ballet Nepantla, a New York City–based contemporary Mexican folklórico company, says that using metaphors or simple phrases can help alleviate confusion.

Let the Body Talk

Because it’s less easy to talk onstage, dancers often rely on nonverbal communication methods like touch, pressure, and eye contact to speak to their partner without making a sound. Developing these communication skills can prove a bit more elusive than verbal language, though, so it’s important to start working on them before opening night.

To familiarize yourself with using weight and resistance as a form of communication, Rodríguez and his dance partner Maria Gracia Perez Munoz, also a performer with Ballet Nepantla, recommend a simple weight-sharing exercise in which dancers hold each other’s arms while leaning away from one another (see sidebar). Perez Munoz notes that this exercise can also be done by leaning into your partner instead of leaning away. To level up, experiment with varying the points on the body from which you apply and receive pressure. “Start looking for points of support, where both bodies touch,” she explains. “You can either slide through the skin or roll, which means changing the points of support all the time.”

The eyes also can serve as a powerful means of communication for dancers onstage. Once you establish a strong connection with your partner, eye contact becomes a way to deepen that bond. “You look to the eyes first to know what you’re going to do, like a telepathic communication,” Perez Munoz explains. “And then the body does something.” Simple in-class exercises, such as maintaining eye contact while working on improvised or choreographed phrases, can help bolster this skill.

Listening In

Whether your communication is verbal or nonverbal, it’s important to actively listen to your partner, tuning in to their needs, preferences, and ways of moving. According to Patric Palkens, one of Santos’ partners at Atlanta Ballet, listening can mean anticipating your partner’s choreography, so you can ensure you’ll be there to support them when they need it. Using the context of a classical ballet pas de deux, he explains: “Because you’re standing behind her and she doesn’t turn around to watch you, you have to watch her.”

Listening to your fellow dancer will also help build trust, which is an essential part of a successful partnership. Perez Munoz says exercises like trust falls can help with this, and she also recommends an exercise where one partner leads the other through space. “A person closes their eyes, and the other person is leading them through space by putting a hand on their back and holding the other,” she says, explaining that it is the responsibility of both the leader and the follower to make sure they stay in contact.

Palkens, Santos, Rodríguez, and Perez Munoz all agree that being a good partner is a process. It takes time to learn how to move with and anticipate the needs of another dancer, especially while also navigating the myriad demands of a dance performance. “If you don’t click in the beginning, and the communication doesn’t happen naturally, I think that with time you adjust,” Perez Munoz says. “Once you get to know what your partner likes, then you’re going to be able to lead or follow in a way they feel comfortable with.”

Sharing Weight

Ballet Nepantla dancers Martín Rodríguez and Maria Gracia Perez Munoz recommend this exercise to get comfortable communicating with your partner nonverbally.

The post How Working on Communication Skills Can Strengthen Your Partnering appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Expect to Adapt

Willow Dixson, a current junior at Union County Academy for Performing Arts and a student at Rahway Dance Theatre in Rahway, New Jersey, had studied ballet, tap, modern, and jazz before her teacher suggested she try a five-week musical theater intensive in New York City. “I’m a shy person at heart, so having to sing, act, and really emote while dancing was far out of my comfort zone,” Dixson says. She learned choreography from a range of shows, including Hamilton, Moulin Rouge!, and The Prom. “It showed me how I could apply my previous training to something new, like my jazz background helping me with the sharp movements and isolations in Hamilton.”

Unexpectedly, Dixson walked away from the summer with a passion for musical theater and newfound confidence. “Adapting to a new environment over the summer made the transition into high school smoother, and I later pursued dance captain and choreography roles in my high school’s theater productions,” she says.

Only Take What You Need

While throwing yourself into a new style or environment over the summer can be a great way to reinvigorate your training, for some students, it can also be confusing. “It depends on the age and maturity level of the student, but it can be frustrating for someone to tell them to do something—like a turn preparation or port de bras—differently than how they’ve practiced at home,” says Racheal Nye, director of Oklahoma City Ballet’s school and studio company. “That’s where studio owners or mentors should come in to help students keep an open mind before they go, and when they return, sort through what they’ve learned to fit it into the larger picture of their training.”

Reed Neuser dove into the life of a Radio City Rockette during a week-long summer intensive, her first experience with precision dance. “There were so many new layers on top of the choreography that I had never had to consider before, like spacing, details, and dancing in a uniform group,” she says. Although Neuser’s now primarily a contemporary and modern dancer in New York City, she still operates on principles developed over that summer. “It taught me how being strong can help you in any dance style, as well as the importance of discipline and attention to detail in a professional environment,” she says.

Stay Realistic

Although branching out into a new style can improve how you approach your core style, it’s important to manage your expectations after a hiatus from your regular training regime. For advanced students on the brink of a professional career, “ballet is so refined and specific that even taking a couple weeks off can set you back,” says Erica Fischbach, director of Colorado Ballet Academy. “Many of our students pursue intensives in slightly different styles, like Alonzo King LINES Ballet or Complexions Contemporary Ballet. But if they want to try a totally new style that’s going to broaden their artistry, we encourage them to tack that onto the beginning or end of other summer studies.”

No matter what reason you choose to attend a certain summer intensive, keeping your “why” in mind can help you get exactly what you want out of the experience. “Our year-round students work really hard for long hours, so summer may be the only time to try something new simply because it’s fun, or it’s important to them culturally, and not necessarily to achieve something,” says Nye. “And who knows—students may draw upon a summer experience they had way down the line in their professional careers.”

The post Should You Try a Summer Intensive in a New Dance Style? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

A Taste of Undergrad Life

The college dance student experience encompasses much more than just studio time. It also includes residential and social life, interacting with nondance students, relationships with faculty, and approaching dance from an academic lens. Like many college intensives, “our summer program is based off of, and structured in relationship to, the BFA program,” says Boston Conservatory at Berklee associate professor of dance Kurt Douglas. “It emulates what a first-year student would experience.”

Students in Berklee’s Summer Dance Intensive, for example, are offered a range of technique classes as well as the chance to work with visiting choreographers. “The students get a chance to really immerse themselves in the choreographic process, which is one of the big elements of the conservatory program,” says Douglas. At Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, in addition to movement-based classes and improvisation, students at its Summer Institute are exposed to “workshops focusing on critical dance studies, speaking and writing, formulating feedback, and looking at contemporary artists,” says UArts School of Dance associate dean Jen McGinn. “There’s a larger understanding of dance as an academic subject that a lot of them are not as familiar with from their previous dance training.”

As in college, hard work is tempered with socializing. At both Berklee and UArts’ summer programs, dancers live in dorms alongside students participating in other arts programs, and partake in planned trips and activities together in the evenings and on weekends. McGinn says that the residential life at UArts pushes high school students to gain an important sense of independence and responsibility that will help them prepare to move away from home. “We’re in the center of Philadelphia, and they’re treated like adults in the sense that though they have an RA and a curfew, they’re walking from building to building down the city streets, and making sure they’re making it to mealtimes,” she says.

Preparing for the Future

The question on many students’ minds when considering a college summer intensive is if it will increase their chances of getting into that school. “It definitely helps us know them differently and better, just because we have so much more time with them,” says McGinn. For rising high school seniors attending UArts’ Summer Institute, participation in the program itself counts as an audition to the BFA program. Berklee handles things a bit differently, holding an audition for the BFA program during the summer intensive’s third week. “The first two weeks they’re able to use studio space to rehearse, and this way they don’t have to come back to reaudition during the year,” says Douglas.

While some students attend a college summer intensive with the goal of matriculating into that school, others might have their sights set on getting a BA outside of dance or auditioning for companies. Summer students in UArts’ program attend a mandatory two-hour seminar called Dance After High School, which helps them figure out the options available to them after graduation. “We get in as much as we can,” says McGinn. “Do you even need to go to college? What’s the difference between a BFA and a BA, the difference between being on a dance team versus being a major or a minor? It’s less to steer them in any one direction than to be a resource.”

Douglas agrees that whatever your dance goals are for the future, a college intensive can help. “In this collegiate space, the goal is to educate students so that it’s not just about this particular technique, or this choreographer’s style,” he says. “You’re getting a 360-degree experience of what it means to be a dancer in the world today.”

The post Why High Schoolers Should Consider a College Summer Dance Program appeared first on Dance Magazine.

“I’d call it musical-comedy dancing,” Marge recalled of their style in the July 1976 issue of Dance Magazine, “somewhere between ballet and ballroom, with a little hoofing thrown in!” The couple’s kids-next-door charm made them an in-demand act, booking nightclub, television, and film appearances, including the Jack Cole–choreographed Three for the Show, a slew of movies under the auspices of a seven-year contract with MGM, and a short-lived 1957 sitcom loosely based on their careers.

Gower was also a successful Broadway director and choreographer (with Marge acting as his assistant when not busy raising their children), earning a 1963 Dance Magazine Award and eight Tonys for musicals like Bye Bye Birdie, Hello, Dolly!, and, posthumously, 42nd Street.

The post TBT: Marge and Gower Champion’s First <i>Dance Magazine</i> Cover appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The Virtual Advantage

Before the coronavirus pandemic, auditioning in person was the norm. But now, many summer programs offer a video option. “We’ve always looked at video submissions,” says Michelle Manzanales, director of Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance. “But during COVID time we sharpened our skills, because we went from just a few video submissions to a lot of video submissions.”

While nothing will replace being in person, Manzanales says, there are certainly advantages to auditioning via video. “You can do multiple takes, and really try to send your best,” she says. Robert Fulton, co-founder of the audition, training, and job database The Ballet Scout, adds that if you do decide to go the video route, spending money on a professional videographer isn’t necessary. “You can use apps for editing, and you can use your phone for the photos and videos,” he says.

Maximize Your Time

If you do have your heart set on auditioning in person, there are plenty of ways to get the most out of your investment. “There are a lot of different group auditions coming out nowadays,” says Fulton. “There’s the National Summer Intensive Audition tour, and the National Master Audition, which has 13 different companies attending.” Manzanales adds that Ballet Hispánico participates in the Regional Summer Intensive Audition at the Center of Creative Arts in St. Louis and Scouting Dance México, just a few of the other opportunities out there to be seen by many schools at once.

Manzanales also says that you may already be attending events throughout the year—like competitions, conventions, and master classes—that can count as summer intensive auditions. For example, last year New York City Dance Alliance handed out scholarships for Ballet Hispánico’s summer programs at each of their conventions, and Manzanales gave out scholarships after teaching a master class for the American College Dance Association Northeast Region. “Sometimes those things aren’t as widely publicized,” she adds. “But look and see if there are opportunities for things you’re already going to with your school that you can take advantage of.”

Travel Smart

If you’re not used to life in a big city but have your heart set on a four-week program in Miami or Toronto, Manzanales believes that there can be a lot of value in visiting a location before committing. If you do plan on traveling a long distance to audition, Fulton recommends carpooling and sharing a hotel room with a friend or classmate to cut costs.

If you know you’ll be in a certain city on a given weekend, find out what other auditions are happening then that you can attend. Some websites, for example, can help you search for auditions by time frame and location. “You are totally fine to do multiple auditions in one day and in one weekend,” says Fulton. “If you are used to dancing three or four hours a night, that’s two audition classes back-to-back.”

Be Your Own Advocate

When planning your summer intensive audition season, both Manzanales and Fulton suggest using your networks—and asking for help. “You can reach out to a school. It does not hurt,” says Fulton. “A lot of times they’ll waive an audition fee, or maybe connect you with a helpful family who would be able to provide housing.” Manzanales also frequently sees dancers make their own peer-to-peer connections on social media.

Manzanales says students have more power than they think. “Exercise your student voice,” she says. “Let your current directors know the schools you’re interested in, and even if they don’t have a connection, if the director reaches out, that might be a new relationship for them to forge for their students that can be very beneficial.”

The post Cost-Effective Planning for Summer Audition Tours appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Not necessarily. “Dancers need a variety of experiences and perspectives in order to fuel their artistry,” says Jonathan E. Alsberry, director of summer intensives at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. That said, any summer study program is already a way of stepping out of your year-round training comfort zone, and there are benefits to returning to a familiar setting. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind as you make your summer plans.

The Case for Returning

“It’s an adjustment to go away for the summer, especially when you’re young,” says Denise Bolstad, managing director of Pacific Northwest Ballet School. “Attending a program you’ve been to before can help you feel comfortable, and perhaps less homesick. You can be more confident in your dancing because you know your surroundings and what’s expected of you.”

There are also interpersonal benefits. “Going back helps you solidify relationships,” says Jordan Lang, co-artistic director of Westside Dance Project in Laguna Hills, California. “When you work with someone for a second or third time, you know each other better.” Faculty members may be able to offer you more targeted feedback, and when you’re in a cohort with many of the same dancers, you can dig deeper in rehearsals and onstage—as well as in your friendships. In other words, returning to the same intensive “isn’t only about showing your face again,” Lang says. “It’s about reconnecting with people and fostering relationships.”

The Case for Branching Out

“It’s important to gain information from different places, especially if you want to join a mixed-rep company,” Alsberry says. He cautions young dancers against keeping their focus too narrow: “Interacting with different artists and trying different styles helps you find your unique voice.”

Bolstad encourages students to look at what might be missing from their year-round studies, as well as from prior summer intensives, so they can find ways to fill the gaps. For example, “If you need stage experience, look for a summer course that has a big final performance.”

Leaving your comfort zone can pay dividends down the line. “As dancers, we embody all of the voices that have influenced us,” Lang says. “When you’re auditioning, it reads in a room who has had exposure to many voices. Companies take notice when you’ve given yourself the ability to jump from work to work and to navigate different environments.”

The Gray Areas

You don’t have to sacrifice familiarity for the sake of diversity. “It’s okay to have your ‘summer spot,’ as long as you have a sense of progression,” Lang explains. “Is there a rotating faculty? Will you work with new choreographers? Are you moving up to the next level?” If a beloved program is no longer facilitating your growth, it may be time to study elsewhere.

Alsberry notes that should you choose to spend multiple summers at the same intensive, they don’t have to be consecutive. “Come to us as a teen, and then go try a different city or style of dance,” he says. “Whenever you return, we’ll remember you and recognize how far you’ve come.”

If you specialize in one dance genre, that may impact your summer intensive choices. For example, ballet dancers may only have five to seven years of summer study before they begin auditioning for trainee programs and the like, Bolstad says. She feels that by their late teens, serious ballet students should home in on one training path—“but with a plan B, should plan A not work out,” she advises. “Keep a couple doors open.”

Regardless of genre, Alsberry recommends looking beyond technique and artistry when assessing what each program offers. “What type of community do you want to be a part of?” he asks. “Do you see yourself growing in this space?” As you decide whether to go back or to branch out, put your development—as a mover, as an artist, and as a human being—first.

The post If You Love a Summer Intensive, Should You Go Back Year After Year? appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Dance often takes inspiration from music. But what happens when your creativity is stirred by an art form that is less straightforward to translate into dance? Or what if you’d like to create based on another form, but aren’t sure quite where to begin?

Deepen Your Understanding

Stefanie Batten Bland, a multi-hyphenate dance artist and the founding artistic director of Company SBB, encourages dancers and choreographers to invest time and energy into learning about the medium they’re inspired by. Or, when creating work inspired by or in collaboration with another artist, to learn as much about that artist and their unique process as possible. “Reach out. The first step is contact,” Batten Bland advises. “Take the chance. Call them up, send them an email, find them on the ground, send them a DM.”

Duckler has been creating site-specific work since 1985 and uses sites themselves as inspiration. She says the learning phase is also an important part of her process, explaining that her research needs change based on the source of her inspiration and the site where her work will take place. Her creative process prioritizes getting to know the local community and learning about the history and use of the sites. “All of the content that we create is always made on site,” she says. “We don’t create something in a studio and then move it to a different place, so we really mine the location and the site for its content.”

Look Carefully

When generating inspiration, it’s important to observe with a keen eye and an open mind. Duckler says that “acts of noticing” are a key element of her creative process. This practice helps her to “develop awareness and consciousness of ourselves, of each other, of our relationship to where we are in space, and the objects that are in space.”

Particularly in site-specific works, Duckler recommends doing a 360-degree scan of the space you’re creating in, taking time to notice things that you may have glossed over. Then, talk with fellow dancers, choreographers, or collaborators about what they notice, acknowledging differences in perspective and seeing where inspiration can grow. This skill can also be useful with cross-disciplinary collaborations, as it can help you to understand and appreciate different points of view.

“Active observation is something that can be really developed, and then harnessed,” Duckler says. “And then to have conversations about those things, too, is really helpful.” Continue having these types of conversations throughout the creative process, Duckler urges, and even through the performance phase. Hearing different audience perspectives can be illuminating, and even creatively generative.

Clarify Your Why

For Batten Bland, a key element of making an interdisciplinary work inspired by multiple art forms is understanding your reasoning for creating in this way. “The maker should really know why they’re outsourcing and how that will benefit them,” she explains. “If they realize that [a particular form] is the complementary medium, dive in feet first and get as wet as possible.”

Being clear on why you’re creating a work with multidisciplinary inspirations can bring clarity during the creative process, too. Not only will you be able to collaborate more effectively with other artists or with their artwork, but you’ll also be more in touch with your own goals and what you hope to accomplish with the work. “If the maker knows why they’re doing it, then that symbiotic alchemy manifests naturally in the research,” Batten Bland says.

The post How to Draw Inspiration From Nondance Mediums appeared first on Dance Magazine.

These are some of the questions of the moment in the ballet program at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, which is staging new productions of The Nutcracker and La Bayadère this school year. Both ballets have come under fire for resorting to reductive, Orientalist caricatures—with La Bayadère all but disappearing in its full-length form from American stages.

There’s a perceived “zero-sum game, where it feels like we either respect the heritage and the canon and the tradition, or we respect the experience of people of color,” says Phil Chan, co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface. “Both of those things can happen at the same time.” Chan, who has long advocated for eliminating outdated and offensive Asian stereotypes from ballets, will stage the reimagined Bayadère in Bloomington with dance historian and musicologist Doug Fullington. “It is through this process that the work can remain alive and radical and relevant,” adds Chan.

That concept resonated deeply with Sarah Wroth, a professor and chair of the ballet department at IU. It couldn’t be more fitting for these projects to find a home at an academic institution, Wroth says, that sits at the intersection of scholarship and stage and has the time and resources to experiment. And the new productions offer an educational opportunity that students are thirsting for. “Young dancers today know what they want to be doing with their art form,” says Wroth. “They know what they want it to be creating in society. And I think it’s hard for them if they don’t get to see and feel that progress.”

A New Nutcracker

When Wroth returned to her alma mater as an educator after a 14-year career with Boston Ballet, the department was still using the same Nutcracker sets and costumes she remembered from the early aughts. The faculty decided their Nut needed a revamp—and that their colleague Sasha Janes was the choreographer for the job.

Janes’ vision bridges the acts so that they feel like one whole rather than two separate ballets, as is often the case in The Nutcracker. The Act I Christmas party is set in an embassy. The guests are delegates from various countries, wearing traditional dress and bearing gifts from home. “Rather than seeing this Victorian thing where all the men are in brown suits and women are in the same dress but different colors, I think we see individuals,” Janes says. “Because that’s the world we live in, right?”

Drosselmeyer—who in Janes’ production is a woman—helps stir Marie’s imagination. The rest of the ballet brings back characters from the party. The severe butler becomes the Mouse King. The ambassadors from Norway become the Snow King and Queen. Mother Ginger brings her charges from the local orphanage. The Chinese divertissement eschews upturned fingers and racist makeup and becomes a dance revolving around the delegates’ gift of silk.

This Nutcracker also uses technology, combining physical sets with projections, to transport its audiences and push the ballet forward. “Nutcracker is our one stronghold on American tradition,” Wroth says. “We just need to keep making choices for the betterment of it.”

A Better Bayadère

As soon as The Nutcracker wraps, IU students will dive into Bayadère rehearsals. Chan mentioned his and Fullington’s concept—which has been brewing for at least five years—when he gave a lockdown-era Zoom talk for the department. Wroth jumped on it: Could they bring that Bayadère to life at IU?

“My favorite creative prompt is asking myself the question: ‘What else could it be?’ ” Chan says. “Like when you’re a little kid and you have a pen, but it’s not just a pen. It could be a rocket ship or a lightsaber or magic wand. How can we apply that kind of thinking to a work like Bayadère?”

Instead of reproducing a French-born, St. Petersburg-based ballet master’s imagined India, Chan and Fullington are setting their love triangle during the golden age of Hollywood. Though they’ll re-create much of Marius Petipa’s choreography based on notations from 1900, the tale is reminiscent of quintessential American musicals like Singin’ in the Rain, Chan says, “if Nikiya was like Debbie Reynolds and Solor was Gene Kelly, and Lina Lamont, the sort-of princess, was this Gamzatti character.” In this telling, Ludwig Minkus’ score is reorchestrated in the style of a Gershwin musical, the Golden Idol is a dancing Oscar statue, and the iconic Kingdom of the Shades becomes an Art Deco fantasy à la Busby Berkeley.

“With the flip in the storyline, the beauty of the dance remains and the questionable plot dissolves,” says senior Ruth Connelly. Fellow senior Aram Hengen adds that IU’s learning environment is the perfect place for this change to begin:­ “It’s a lab, basically.” Both are excited to see ripple effects­ beyond their campus.

Chan, Wroth, and their colleagues are too. “All I’m saying is, ‘Let me show you just one other way to do it,’ ” Chan says. “Everybody benefits if we get more Bayadères. That’s the beauty of this form. It can take reimaginings.” The stories we tell have to reflect us, even when it comes to the classics, Chan says, and the stakes are high: “We’ve got to figure out a new way to do that for this new, more diverse, younger generation—or else we are doomed.”

The post Indiana University Removes Offensive Caricatures in New Productions of <i>The Nutcracker</i> and <i>La Bayadère</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The December 1958 story—and that month’s cover, above—showcased some of the photos of Goslar that Playhouse Pictures used for reference for a series of animated recruitment trailers commissioned by the U.S. Navy,­ which won a gold medal for the best complete television animated film of 1957 from the New York Art Directors Club. The film is the story “of a young man who wants excitement from life. His Fairy Godmother, bumbling, turns him first into a chicken, then into a horse, then into a medieval knight—and, of course, none of these are what he wants. Then she reaches triple-hard to transform him with a touch of her wand, and in her enthusiasm whacks him, getting him what he wants—a chance to join the Navy. The wand flies wildly off, Fairy Godmother explodes into thin air.” 

The post TBT: Lotte Goslar Modeling a Hapless Fairy Godmother for an Animated Cartoon appeared first on Dance Magazine.

While dancing barefoot may present unexpected challenges, requiring dancers to strengthen different muscles and pay extra attention to foot health, it can also inspire new ways of approaching movement.

Recalibrate Muscles

For dancers accustomed to performing in shoes, dancing barefoot might require engaging less-used muscles. “The way you approach movement is going to be different,” says Khalia Campbell, a dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Dancing barefoot offers an increased connection with the floor that Campbell says has changed the way she shifts her weight, and it can affect balance and alignment, as well.

Dancing without shoes also demands greater engagement from foot muscles, necessitating changes to both warm-up and conditioning routines. Blumenfeld utilizes a series of exercises inspired by a former ballet instructor to get the minuscule foot muscles firing and to find articulation, including stretching each toe individually before pressing each one into the ground with as much strength as possible. She also does foot and ankle exercises with a TheraBand and sequences of tendus. Exercises like arch lifts and doming can also help develo­p the intrinsic muscles of the feet.

Foot Fitness

Shoes provide support and cushioning, so it’s important to take extra care of the feet when dancing barefoot. In the studio, feet should be clean and free of cuts, blisters, or infections that could worsen without shoes. Over time, calluses will naturally develop. While they serve as a protective barrier and can help with turning and gliding, excessively thick calluses may reduce the ability to feel the floor.

The conditions of a studio or stage floor can have a different impact on bare feet. Campbell notes that turning on a sticky floor in bare feet can make a knee injury more likely: “Your foot is going one way and your knee can go the other way because of the friction from the floor.” For a sticky floor, Campbell recommends strengthening the glutes and other turnout muscles, so as to rely on musculature, as opposed to joints and other connective tissue, for support.

A bit more self-care is also a requirement when dancing barefoot. “It’s important that you take the time and learn the things that you need to do to stay well,” Bagley says, adding that a calf stretch is an important addition to warm-up. Rolling out the feet with a tennis ball, massaging them, and/or soaking them in warm water and Epsom salt can reduce muscle tension and soreness after a long day of dancing.

Allow Artistry to Blossom

Dancing barefoot can provide new perspectives on even the most familiar of movements. For So Young An, a dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company who used to be a member of the Korean National Ballet, transitioning to dancing barefoot opened up a whole new realm of creative possibility.

“Graham is about gravity, so you really have to connect to the floor and feel the earth,” she says. “That doesn’t mean always sinking down. I can use ballet technique in the upper body to lift up, but my legs and feet really connect to the ground and it expands my lines.”

Campbell, too, says she feels an increased artistic expansiveness when dancing barefoot. “When I transitioned to dancing barefoot fully, I noticed there’s a sense of connectivity to the floor and to the ground,” she says. “And, also, I feel like when I dance barefoot it gives me access to be more expressive with my body.”

The post Tricks and Tips for Getting Comfortable Dancing Barefoot appeared first on Dance Magazine.

For Maria Haralambis—a dancer, dance teacher, Pilates instructor, and kinesiologist also known as The Dance Scientist—the answer is an emphatic yes. “Dancers are high-performing athletes,” she says.

According to Haralambis and other experts, dancers have a lot to gain from seeing themselves as athletes—and training more like it. Advances in sports science over the last several decades have revolutionized the way most athletes train. By contrast, dance training has remained relatively unchanged. For many years, the same was true for other “artistic athletes,” like gymnasts and figure skaters. But, recently, they’ve leapt far ahead of dancers when it comes to incorporating science-backed methods into their training programs.

Many in the dance world are resistant to change, and in a way that’s not surprising: When perfection is the standard, and tradition counts for so much, it can feel risky to try anything new. And confusion over whether dancers are athletes also goes both ways. “A lot of people in the sports performance and conditioning world don’t really respect dance,” says Present Tense Fitness co-owner Jason Harrison, a strength and conditioning coach who works with professional dancers from companies including New York City Ballet and the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company.

So, yes, dancers could learn a lot from the field of sports performance. But athletes could stand to learn a few things from dancers, as well.

Dancers Should Be Lifting Weights

It’s time to break the dance-world stigma around strength training. All of the experts interviewed for this article agreed: Adding weight lifting into cross-training routines is one of the most important things dancers can do to increase longevity and reduce risk of injury.

First, let’s bust the biggest myth once and for all: Lifting weights is not going to make you bulk up. “In order to actually increase muscle bulk, you need to train specifically to get larger, and you need to be in a calorie surplus,” says Julia Iafrate, DO, a dance and sports medicine physician at NYU Langone Health who has worked with professional dancers from ballet to hip hop. In other words, to get bigger, you’d have to dedicate a lot of time to weight lifting and eat a lot of protein—so much that it would probably feel difficult. And even the idea that “bulk” is bad is rooted in sexist and racist attitudes that the dance world should work to get rid of, says Harrison.

A common misconception among dancers is that strength exercises need to look exactly like dance movements in order to translate properly to improvements in class or rehearsal. But that’s not the case. “Strength training improves the resilience of your connective tissue throughout your entire body,” says Rena Eleázar, DPT, a physical therapist and sports performance coach who has worked with a wide range of dancers and other athletes, and is a competitive weightlifter and hip-hop dancer herself. Strength training is actually a good opportunity to work muscles that don’t get as much work in dance class, says Iafrate, who notes that it also builds stability, which is especially important for hyperflexible dancers.

That said, there’s always room for some dance-specific movements to help you work toward a particular goal, says Harrison. For example, he recently added some interval-style petit allégro training into his sessions with one client to help her prepare for a season with a new ballet company.

Dancers Should Learn That Less Can Be More

Here’s a statement that might sound sacrilegious but is very likely true: You’re dancing too much.

In dance, “more is better” tends to be the driving ethos. But the truth is that “you do not need to do the exact same jeté over and over again without changing any of your strength or biomechanics,” Iafrate says. “After a certain point, you will not change the dance move.” There’s only so long your body—and brain—can really produce its best effort.

If incorporating better cross-training means replacing or shortening some of your time in class, you might actually find that to be a useful change. Dedicating time to cross-training “is not losing technique time—it’s maximizing what you’re working on in class,” says Haralambis.

You may even need to reduce your overall active time. “Based on the current literature, we know that your risk of injury goes up if you’re doing any athletic activity for more than 16 hours a week,” Iafrate says. “Dance tends to blow that out of the water.”

Dancers Should Taper Before Performance

Sports performance coaches also talk a lot about “periodization,” which refers to a training plan that progresses in a measured way over time, helping to maximize performance and minimize the risk of injury. Athletes’ training plans also generally involve a “taper,” or a reduction in overall workload for a certain period leading up to a big event, allowing time for recovery.

This is pretty much the opposite of how dancers tend to approach training, pushing hardest in rehearsal immediately before, and even the week or day of, a big show. “It’s almost like, if you can survive the process, then congratulations, you get to perform,” says Harrison. Teachers and directors should instead consider having dancers “peak,” or train the hardest, a few weeks before a performance or competition, and then taper.

If all of this sounds like a radical departure from what you know, keep in mind that dance is different these days, too. “We’re asking our dancers to be able to do so much more than they were 20 or 30 years ago,” says Haralambis. “More acrobatic and athletic movements are more and more common in dance.”

Ideally, dancers, teachers, and even directors shouldn’t be on their own to figure all of this out. “A truly modern and progressive approach to dance would have room for strength coaches who think all day about strength, athleticism, resilience, and conditioning for dancers,” says Harrison, pointing to The Royal Ballet as an example of a company that is embracing this model.

What Athletes Can Learn From Dancers

Though dancers may be prone to overdoing it, our attention to detail can also be an advantage. The strong focus on technique in dance training may reduce the risk of some types of injury.

Researchers at the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, for instance, found that dancers are less likely than other athletes to experience one of the most common sports injuries: tears of the ACL, a knee ligament. That’s despite the fact that dance is full of the kinds of movements most associated with ACL tears, particularly single-legged jump landings. The study also found that, in most cases, there was no difference in the rate of ACL tears between male and female dancers, whereas in other sports, female athletes are significantly more likely to experience this injury. The researchers theorize that dance technique, with its focus on controlled jump landings, reduces the risk of injury and knocks out that gender disparity.

So technique really does matter. And many professional athletes know this, having turned to dance for help improving their agility, coordination, and balance. Numerous professional football players have taken ballet classes to learn to move with more finesse—NFL player Steve McLendon once said that ballet is “harder than anything else I do.” Basketball legend Kobe Bryant even took up tap dancing to strengthen his ankles after a sprain.

Dance has a lot of other sports beat when it comes to our focus on neuromuscular control and technical execution. Where other athletes are ahead of us is in following more carefully designed training plans and prioritizing their recovery. Clearly, we have a lot to learn from each other.

The post What Dancers Can Learn From Sports Performance Training appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Burchfield says these questions help reorient students’ capacity to put their thinking first. At UArts’ School of Dance, students in the BFA program are emboldened with agency, artistry, and a fine-tuned ability to advocate for themselves in the professional world.

Cultivating Artists With Agency

Around 75 BFA students graduate from UArts’ School of Dance each year. For each of those dancers, their education starts and ends with their agency. “We don’t tell them, ‘You have to be ___, you have to be ___,” Burchfield says. Instead, dancers’ futures are shaped by students themselves.

“A lot of encouraging agency is encouraging students to speak to their own experience, to ask questions,” says Shayla-Vie Jenkins, assistant professor of dance and former performer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. In her classes, student curiosity is a priority. “A lot of times it’s turning toward a classmate and working through the material together,” she says, “and then I encourage questions and elicit feedback in the moment.”

This approach, Burchfield says, is not to be confused with an unstructured or non-rigorous curriculum. All students must enroll in courses which expose them to UArts’ full spectrum of dance faculty and performance opportunities, many of which take on the rigor of a conservatory approach. In first and second years, these courses compose UArts’ Foundation Series; for the latter years, it’s Portfolio & Research.

How dancers learn to find themselves within this structure is what makes a difference. “People ask things like, ‘How do you prepare them for the real world?’ ” Burchfield says. “I always like to say, ‘Well, this is the real world.’ If a student really wants to be a filmmaker and a dancer, that is the real world. So then what does that mean? You’re going to have to divide your time; you’re going to have to figure out where you need it.”

A Curriculum Built on Reflection

During the school year, dance majors gather every five weeks for reflection. “It’s a kind of intentional pause,” Burchfield says, explaining it as a time for students to move outside of their everyday experiences and ask, “What have I learned?”

In the first and second years, these reflections occur when the dancers rotate teachers while staying in the same classes, exposing them to the breadth of UArts’ diverse faculty while still carving out time to notice their own artistic growth.

During the reflections, which are facilitated by associate dean Jen McGinn, faculty are not present, giving students the freedom to be honest with each other, and also themselves. Wendell Gray, a 2015 UArts alumnus, says these pauses gave him the space to pay attention to how he was growing as an artist.

“You see other people’s agency in real time. You see how people are learning ideas and taking control of what they do,” says Gray, who is now a Brooklyn-based artist and choreographer, currently working with Joanna Kotze, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Miguel Gutierrez, and others. His professional work remains directly influenced by his time at UArts. “It’s amazing, talking about what we do and how it extends to areas of philosophy and wisdom, understanding ways of being,” he says.

When Representation Is Not an Afterthought 

UArts’ pathway to student empowerment is aided by the diversity represented within the School of Dance as well as the Philadelphia arts district that the school calls home.

“Our student population is majority students of color,” Burchfield says, adding that the faculty makeup is similarly diverse. “Being in Philadelphia, it reminds me that America is made of diversities and differences—racially, ethnically, economically,” she continues. “There is an intentionality in our pedagogy. It’s an intention in the choices we make about who sets work on our students, who is teaching dance history—all of it. There is a social practice embedded in the dance practices.”

Burchfield also notes the city’s strong history of queer acceptance, and she emphasizes that UArts reflects such attitudes in the affirmation of its students and faculty.

Using Performance as Education

In third- and fourth-year students’ Pedagogies of Performance classes, the dancers ask questions such as, “How can you use this as a practice of intention? How can you think about what it’s like to move toward something you don’t recognize as familiar?” Burchfield, Jenkins, and Gray all agree: It’s experiences like these that teach students how to pay attention.

“I’m not just there to replicate the steps and to do them well,” Jenkins says. “I’m also being engaged physically and I’m also engaged critically in whatever the content is. I have an opinion. I have a point of view I can express.”

The resulting atmosphere, Burchfield says, cultivates a spirit of risk-taking that stays with students long after they’ve become alumni.

“Usually there’s no right or wrong,” Jenkins says. “It’s about the process. It’s really about the process.”

Joining the University of the Arts Family

Burchfield encourages anyone interested in UArts’ School of Dance to check out the program’s free Winter Dance Series, in person in Philadelphia November 30 through December 2 (or via its virtual broadcast online December 12 and 13—see @uartsschoolofdance for more details). This year’s program will feature BFA students in works by Bill T. Jones, Dinita and Kyle Clark, Gary Reagan, Katie Swords Thurman, Mark Caserta, Gary W. Jeter II, Jesse Zaritt, Juel D. Lane, Sydney Donovan, and Uwazi Zamani—many of whom are full-time UArts faculty members.

Audition workshops for UArts take place both in person and virtually. During the sessions, current students join the group of auditioners for a holistic approach to class.

Gray encourages prospective students to approach the process without too many nerves. “They really looked at me,” he remembers of his own audition. “I felt that desire. I just felt like a person.”

Learn more about the BFA application process here, as well as UArts’ MFA in dance.

The post How University of the Arts Teaches Dancers to “Pay Attention Differently”—and Why It Works appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Tune In to Your Senses

Visualization cues often draw from the world outside of dance to bring new understanding to a step or phrase. Because­ of this, it’s important to take notice of sensory experiences beyond the studio and consider how these observations can bring texture and nuance to dancing. “Connect to the textures of the world, the feeling of the world, the feeling of ‘If I’m cold or if I’m hot, it will look different in my body,’ ” Ben Ezer explains.

Ranee Ramaswamy, the founder and co-artistic director of Ragamala Dance Company, says that incorporating visualization allows dancers to breathe life into each step by pulling from their own experiences. “The most important thing is to identify what you intend to see,” she says. “Recognize and show what you see, see what you show, and feel what you see in a way that might also be seen by the audience.”

Investigate the “Why”

Honing your powers of visualization can help you explore the impetus for your movements—their purpose, as well as their form. “In ballet, if I’m straightening my leg, I will not just think of straightening my leg, but I will try to imagine what the behavioral aspect is—why did I stretch my leg?” Ben Ezer says. She adds that, during tendu it can be helpful to visualize your bones pulling outside the flesh, “so the goal of the tendu is not to arrive to this clear form, but to keep lengthening your leg.”

Ramaswamy explains that visualization allows performers to consider the details of the story they’re sharing. In bharatanatyam, which is her specialty, this comes after years of practice—both inside the studio, with dance, and outside the studio, with topics like mythology, philosophy, and psychology. 

“It’s not just walking through a garden and showing a tree or a waterfall,” she explains. “There is also a more complex way of visualizing. For example, if there is a line of poetry [you’re portraying] that says ‘Accept me at all times,’ where nature becomes a metaphor for love, then it takes on heavier visualizing.”

Draw Upon Acting Skills

Visualization can feel similar to acting, Ramaswamy and Ben Ezer say. If you don’t have an acting background, using this skill might feel unusual—but taking moves from an actor’s playbook can be beneficial for dancers. Ramaswamy encourages dancers to build on the foundation of their sensory experiences while honing acting skills, too. This can help make the world onstage feel more like the reality we experience offstage. “If you’re showing a little ball of butter, you have already felt the butter, you have rolled a piece of butter, you have held the butter,” Ramaswamy explains. 

Acting doesn’t mean overdramatized or exaggerated movements, Ramaswamy reminds dancers. “It has to be convincing to you, truthful to you so that it’s truthful to the audience.” 

The post 3 Ways to Incorporate Visualization Into Your Dance Practice appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The Colombian American artist-activist had a knack for creating works that polarized critics, some of whom dismissively labeled his choreography, often about the Black experience, as too undisciplined and Pomare himself as an “angry” young man. “How many critics really understand the discipline it takes to erase all white influences,”­ Pomare wondered, “and yet dramatize precisely the world the black artist is struggling to escape from?”

Though his style and subject matter varied widely, as a choreographer he is perhaps best remembered for his pieces drawn from observations of urban America—like the controversial Blues for the Jungle (1966) or his signature solo Narcissus Rising (1968)—as well as 1967’s Las Desenamoradas, his haunting adaptation of Federico García Lorca’s play The House of Bernarda Alba. “I don’t create works to amuse white crowds,” he told Dance Magazine, “nor do I wish to show them how charming, strong, and folksy [Black] people are — as whites imagine them — [Black people] dancing in the manner of Jerome Robbins or Martha Graham. Instead I’m showing them the [Black] experience from inside: what it’s like to live in Harlem, to be hung-up and uptight and trapped and black and wanting to get out. And I’m saying it in a dance language that originates in Harlem itself. My audiences […] sense this and identify with it in a way no white man ever identifies with most white works.”

The recipient of a 1974 Guggenheim Fellowship and the first director of Harlem Cultural Council’s Dancemobile project, Pomare led his company, which toured widely in the U.S. and abroad, until his death in 2008. 

The post TBT: Eleo Pomare on Making Work for Black Audiences appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Fast-forward two years and Lawrence, now a senior, arrived­ again on campus, this time a couple of weeks before classes started, for an intensive for another of FCD’s annual repertory projects: Lucinda Childs’ 1979 Dance 1, with music by Philip Glass and decor by Sol LeWitt. “It’s sort of the other end of the spectrum,” Lawrence says. The iconic postmodern piece is quite different from Zollar’s celebration of Black women’s bodies and beauty in all forms. “My goal for dance throughout college was to chase it as far as I could and see where it could take me,” she says. The wide-ranging repertory works, enabled by the unique Five College Consortium program, played a significant role in that journey.

A Sum Greater Than Its Parts

Five College Dance, like the Five College Consortium, does more together than each institution could alone. The Consortium is a collaboration involving four liberal arts colleges (Amherst,­ Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire) and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. FCD similarly serves as a centralizing force for five distinct dance programs. “Some are small and intimate, some are big and grand,” says managing director Melinda Buckwalter. “It challenges the students to find what they want. And maybe what they want is at another campus than they’re matriculated at, but that’s okay.”

For students, professors, and staff alike, the five-fold dance hub is a draw, combining the unique environment of a small liberal arts school (or, in UMass’ case, a large public university with a BFA track) with a diversity of offerings and robust community beyond their campus bubbles. Even next to some of the country’s bigger dance departments, says Angie Hauser, a dance professor and director of the MFA program at Smith, “Five College Dance can really stand up both on the programming level, curriculum level, and the diversity of faculty and forms.”

Students take courses and audition for performance oppor­tunities across all five campuses, with “travel packages” of back-to-back classes organized to simplify schedules. There are professors specializing in everything from ballet to African diasporic dance, as well as joint lectures and master classes from visiting scholars and artists, a shared production management team, and an abundance of shows.

The way students sometimes shuttle back and forth “feels very much of the real world, when you’re doing different gigs,” Hauser says. The annual repertory project in particular—which wouldn’t be possible without pooling resources—gives students a glimpse into professional life. “It probably is the best way we offer our students to feel what it’s like to be a dancer when it’s your job,” Hauser says.

A Repertory Tradition

One of the first things Caitlin Scranton did upon returning from her junior year abroad was slip on her pointe shoes to audition for George Balanchine’s Serenade, a collaboration between Smith and Mount Holyoke in the FCD spirit. A Smith Class of 2005 alum and member of Lucinda Childs Dance Company who visited her alma mater this summer to set Dance 1, Scranton has now been on both sides.

The list of FCD projects in the years since spans styles and decades, featuring major 20th-century works and more recent pieces by contemporary artists. Occasionally, a dance will be reimagined or a new one created for the students. FCD students have performed works by Trisha Brown, Mark Morris, Merce Cunningham, Ohad Naharin, Bill T. Jones, Bebe Miller, and Camille A. Brown, among others.

Championed for years by Jim Coleman, former FCD chair and retired Mount Holyoke professor, the repertory projects allow students to step into the past and present of dancemaking and engage with material in the deep way that preparing for performance demands, Hauser says. Plus, she says, it gives the community a chance to see live works they may only have read about or watched on video.

Childs’ Challenge

Lucinda Childs’ rep has been on the program’s wish list for years. What makes Dance 1 special “is how brilliantly tied to the music it is,” Scranton says. “The patterns and rhythms that Lucinda is able to shape with the way she’s put phrases together is just incredibly beautiful.”

Dance 1 isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s complex and mathematical. It requires dancers to learn movement phrases that feel impossibly fast, then gives them scores that tell them when to enter and with which phrase. They must count Glass’ meter-changing maze of a composition like the fate of the piece depends on it, because it does—the music offers little by way of guideposts if they get lost.

“I have never before been challenged by a dance piece in the way Dance 1 has challenged me,” says May Saito, a junior BFA student at UMass. “After every section we learned, we all felt that it couldn’t get more complicated—and then it did. Even when we aren’t running their cast, everyone stands on the side counting and offering support.”

Scranton had seven days before the fall semester to teach dancers—with all five schools represented—the choreography before leaving them in Hauser’s hands for twice-weekly rehearsals leading up to performances before and after Thanksgiving. “Dance 1 hones your efficiency: You really have to pare down your movement in order to get the task done,” says Scranton, who will return to coach leading up to the performances. “It can transform your dancing. I hope that they soak in that they can do hard things that they maybe think that they can’t do. That nothing is insurmountable.”

On the last day of the intensive Lawrence attended, students did a full run in the studio with a small audience from the FCD community. Professors filtered in as dancers warmed up, got some jitters out, and huddled to review counts. “And then we just did it. When it was over, I personally was shocked,” Lawrence recalls. “I didn’t know that I had it in me. It was triumphant.”

The post Five College Dance Groups Five Distinct Dance Departments Into One Unique Program appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Communicate Early and Often

According to Heidi Knight, owner of Heidi Knight School of Dance in Huntsville, Alabama, open communication is key—and that process begins as soon as the guest choreographer sets foot in the studio. In Knight’s school, the plan always includes an assistant, generally a studio staff member.

“That teacher is there during the entire choreography process so someone aside from the students is hearing the intention of the piece and learning the details,” Knight says. “I also make sure we get great videos while our guests are here and share them all with our dancers.” And Knight takes time to talk to the choreographer about specifics, gathering information about their preferences and big-picture vision.

Once the Choreographer Leaves

When it is time to fine-tune, Knight is aware of the importance of knowing when to stop. “The assistant cleans the details of the choreography, but if we perfect too much, the work becomes stagnant, and the intention gets lost,” she says—a particular problem when the choreographer is no longer around to help the dancers recapture the original magic.

If necessary, Knight checks in with choreographers during this process, and often tries to send recent videos or schedule a FaceTime rehearsal. “This way, if they see something that isn’t quite what they intended, we can all get back on the same page,” she says. “This helps us honor the integrity of the piece, and it’s encouraging to the dancers, too.”

Professional choreographer Morgan Burke, who sets numbers for studios and high schools around the country each year, recommends that dancers pay special attention to guest choreographers’ stylistic and movement choices—and their own habits.

“Each choreographer’s work should look different,” he says. “And as you get used to a number, it’s a normal part of the process for whatever a dancer’s Achilles’ heel is—a lack of using plié, for instance—to start showing up instead of the movement that was provided.”

When Change Is Good

Danielle Braithwaite, owner of Variant Movement in San Juan Capistrano, California, says sometimes choreographic changes are necessary—because, ultimately, coaches and instructors know the dancers best. “Always be up front with guests about the possibility of changes, and when they are made, it should be done delicately,” Braithwaite says. “The motivation behind the routine should be honored.”

For Braithwaite, that means formations, body angles, and subtleties in timing can shift, but the overall vision of a number remains the same. She also believes it’s important to wait a while before making changes, to allow dancers to digest new movement before altering it.

While small changes may be inevitable, the challenge of new movement is also a path to growth. “Remember that it’s fine to feel uncomfortable at first—good, even,” Burke says. “Before you decide something isn’t going to work, sit with it a little longer. That’s how you become versatile.”

Ultimately, Knight suggests that dancers, teachers, and choreographers remember that everyone involved in this creative process has the same goal. “We all want the dancers, the studio, and the choreographer represented well,” she says. “Be open to new ideas, and collaborate with each other through the process.”

The post How to Clean a Guest Choreographer’s Work While Maintaining Its Integrity appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Roy wrote that Shankar was “endowed with such sensitive arms and hands that he is able to paint the Mudras in the air with artistic necromancy,” adding that the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova, who partnered with him for two of her “Hindu ballets,” described him as having a “perfect dance body.” After working with Pavlova in the 1920s, Shankar established his own Paris-based troupe in 1931 and spent the next seven years touring extensively before resettling in India and opening the Uday Shankar India Cultural Center in 1938. (It closed in the wake of World War II and was reestablished in Kolkata in 1965.)

Though Shankar did not have any formal training in Indian classical dance, his style—an interpretation of traditional Hindu dance combined with Western theatrical sensibilities, which came to be known as Hi-dance—is credited with increasing public interest in Indian dance in India, Europe, and the U.S. “My responsibility is great,” Roy recalled Shankar telling him in 1933. “Well, my name is Shan-Kar [sic]; and Shan-Kar is another name of Siva, and Siva as a dancer is known as Nataraj—the god of the dance—the cosmic dancer. So you see I bear a great name; and whatever I have within me, I have to give my very best as a humble offering at the feet of Nataraj.”

Shankar was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, the highest honor conferred by India’s national performing arts school, in 1962. He died in 1977 at age 76. 

The post TBT: The “Artistic Necromancy” of Uday Shankar appeared first on Dance Magazine.

With a degree program unmatched in its flexibility, dance students at Marymount can craft a course of study uniquely suited for their interests. Students can choose from four concentrations in both the BFA track (ballet, modern, jazz, and choreography) and the BA track (body, science, and motion; dance and media; dance studies; and teaching dance arts), and can even add other majors, minors, or concentrations. One of the department’s most popular concentrations is choreography, as the school offers a plethora of opportunities for students to develop their artistic voices.

Enter Dancers at Work, or DAW, the department of dance’s biannual showcase of student choreography and performance. Held in the college’s Great Hall, one of the largest studios in Manhattan, DAW consists of two separate weekend programs and features both BA and BFA dancers and choreographers.

Choreographing for DAW is a semester-long endeavor grounded in collaboration, creativity, and practical application. In creating their own pieces, students learn firsthand what it takes to be a professional choreographer, from leading a rehearsal room to coming up with costume designs, and everything in between. Mounting a five-to-eight-minute piece can be overwhelming, which is why the first weekend of DAW performances is designed to support first-time choreographers. Pieces in the second program have added technical elements including lighting and costume design, adding other elements of challenge.

Guidance Along the Way

Each DAW choreographer is assigned both a faculty and a music mentor who can assist with anything from creative roadblocks to securing music rights. “Early on, my mentors helped me by solving problems like how to use everybody effectively, or account for the orientation of the audience,” says Gabe Katz, a 2018 graduate with a BFA in dance (choreography concentration) and a minor in studio art. “As my compositional skill set grew, they were more interested in challenging my perspective, and pushing my work to a place where it felt the most authentic to me.”

Throughout the semester, DAW assignments offer choreographers structure and a chance to refine their vision. “We all start with so many ideas that we want to bring to life,” says Melissa Guerra, a BFA dance major (choreography concentration) who’s also pursuing a BA in communication and media arts and a minor in business management. “The assignments for costuming, music editing, and more make sure we’re checking off every task at the proper time.”

After submitting initial project proposals, student choreographers refine their ideas with their mentors. According to Bella Mittenthal, a recent BFA graduate with concentrations in choreography and modern and a minor in graphic design, “I’m now applying to present at different shows and showcases and the process is very similar, so I don’t get overwhelmed when I need to write out my ideas or explain what I’m trying to create.”

Seeing the Big Picture

DAW isn’t just about choreography—students are tasked with orchestrating every aspect of their work, from costuming to set design. Thus, dance students are required to take a course in stagecraft their freshman year that gives them a glimpse into several of these fields. “I’ve ended up working with my stagecraft professor twice now postgrad, which is a credit to Marymount recruiting teachers who are active professionals,” says Katz. “I might not be an expert in lighting or sound, but thanks to stagecraft, whatever venue I’m working in, I know the right terminology to communicate with professionals.”

Choreographers are also encouraged to collaborate with other Marymount students outside of the department of dance. In her latest DAW program, Guerra says she “was able to work with a student who knew a lot about lighting and directing—he came to a few of my rehearsals, and we talked about different lighting choices and what messages I could convey,” she says. “Because of that collaborative experience, I feel a lot more comfortable articulating myself.”

As students experience Marymount’s liberal arts curriculum in tandem with their technique classes, they investigate the social, political, and cultural aspects of the performing arts, discovering the impact their own work can make on the world around them. “On top of compositional tools, in Dance Comp II, I explored how I can make my dancers feel comfortable and seen as a choreographer, which I believe is so important in today’s industry,” says Bella Luttrell, a dance major with concentrations in choreography and jazz. “During my last DAW semester, a course called Ethics/Aesthetics/Gender in the Performing Arts gave me so much knowledge and material to use for my piece, which was about reclaiming femininity,” Guerra says.

New York City as Your Campus

Showing completed pieces at DAW’s biannual performances is an achievement in itself but, due to the school’s location in the dance capital of New York City, this is often just the beginning of what students can accomplish. “In my senior year, one of my professors invited me to restage my DAW piece on her trainees at the Joffrey Ballet School, where I’ve since taught and choreographed several different pieces,” Katz shares.

Similarly, Mittenthal was able to present a work from DAW at the American Heart Association’s 2022 Go Red for Women fundraiser and the New York State Dance Education Association thanks to connections from her faculty mentor.

Discovering Process Over Product

As students progress through their choreography concentration and experiences with Dancers at Work, they discover the value of process over product. “When I first started choreographing, I was concerned about perfection and people executing exactly what I needed them to do,” Katz says. “By my senior year, I was much more excited by the potential for real-time collaboration and choice-making, and allowing my dancers to shine as individuals.” Mittenthal reflects on a similar learning curve: “At first, my process was very careful and planned, but not necessarily in a way that benefited my creative practice. By the last piece I made, I had so much more confidence running the room and not second-guessing my ideas, so I could be more flexible in my approach.”

Through the intersection of engaging courses, rigorous training, and ample artistic freedom, the faculty at Marymount equip dancers with confidence and a broad vision of what they can achieve as professionals. Luttrell’s goal is to choreograph for Broadway or a movie musical. “To prepare for that, I’m focusing on the storytelling aspect of my choreography, which has definitely come through in my DAW pieces,” she says. Guerra, meanwhile, has been taking film courses to explore choreography on camera, but she’s open to possibilities. “I came into Marymount freshman year thinking I had a clear idea of what my aspirations were,” she says. “But my time here has expanded my perspective of what dance could be so greatly that I know I’ll always want to keep learning and growing long after I graduate.”

The post How Tomorrow’s Choreographers Are Cultivated at Marymount Manhattan College appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Finding Strength

In order to use your arms to their fullest potential, it’s essential­ to build strength and stamina in the upper body. “If you want your arms to be precise, you’re going to need to have strength,” says Soraya Lundy, a New York City–based hip-hop and commercial dancer and choreographer who has worked with artists including Janet Jackson, Missy Elliott, and Cardi B. Lundy encourages dancers to establish a training regimen outside the studio, which can be helpful not only for technique but for injury prevention as well.

Adams makes upper-body strengthening a key part of her daily warm-up, with a plank series incorporating both front and side plank holds. “It sets me up before barre so that my lats, and my arms, and my shoulders are already engaged,” she says, noting that strengthening the arms, back, and shoulders is especially important for partnering.

Delving Into the Details

In addition to building strength, it’s also important to develop finesse. Lundy emphasizes the importance of isolations to develop­ proprioception, the ability to sense your body in space. “Isolations through the arms help with body awareness,” she explains. “You’re aware of the distance from your hands to your shoulders.”

Another way to fine-tune arm movement is to experiment. Denys Drozdyuk, a ballroom dancer who performed with his partner Antonina Skobina on Season 1 and Season 2 of NBC’s “World of Dance,” recommends improvising while sitting in a chair, so you can focus more on the arms than on the legs. “Get away from the form that goes with the step and really perceive the arms as a conversational tool,” he says, adding that playing with the dynamics, tone, and amount of tension will unlock further creative possibilities.

Bringing It Together

It’s also important to recognize the arms’ connection with the rest of the body. Skobina says tuning in to the way her arms emanate from her center has been a vital tool for her own dancing and for the students she teaches. “When we open an arm to the side, we begin that movement in our center, then that transitions into the elbow and then continues into the wrist,” she explains.

Skobina also channels a full-body connection through visualization, imagining pathways of energy originating from her core and flowing through the rest of her body. “I see my arms as not ending at my fingertips, but as energy floating beyond my fingertips and leaving energy traces in space,” she says.

Adams also finds a fully embodied approach to arm motions useful, adding that this mindset can help eliminate a “superficial” or disconnected movement quality. “Make sure that your arms aren’t separate from the rest of you—they aren’t just stuck on,” she says. “It has to be in relationship with the rest of you, especially your back and your torso, to find a sense of unity and continuity with the rest of your body.”

A Partner in Arms

When choreography involves partnering, the arms aren’t just a tool for personal expressivity—they are a vital way to connect. Antonina Skobina, a ballroom dancer who performed on the first two seasons of NBC’s “World of Dance” with her partner Denys Drozdyuk, describes this process as more than just a touch: It’s “an energy exchange”­ between two dancers.

Establishing a connection from the body’s center will help physical touch appear less like a support and more like a connection with the other dancer. “Arms, for us as ballroom dancers, are essential,” explains Skobina. “The connecting arm is one of our biggest priorities in our dancing.”

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This fall, the celebrated collaboration that grew out of that conversation, the joint Ailey/Fordham BFA Program, marks its 25th anniversary. Two and a half decades ago, the two institutions opened their doors to the first cohort of students that would receive conservatory-level dance training paired with a robust liberal arts education.

“It was pretty radical to create a program that was both serious about dance and serious about academics,” says Ana Marie Forsythe, a longtime Ailey School teacher who helped launch the program and led it briefly after Jefferson’s death in 2010. If anything, its immense success has proven the notion Jefferson championed, says Forsythe, that “dancers are smart enough, they can do two things at the same time.”

Expanding Potential

When Fordham College at Lincoln Center started welcoming students in 1968, the campus “opened in the center of the arts world,” Bristow says—or, more accurately, the new center of the performing arts that was still taking shape. Fordham was adjacent to New York City Ballet’s new home and surrounded by other leading arts organizations. By the time Bristow became­ dean in 1991, Ailey had moved into its headquarters half a block away on 61st Street.

Despite its location, there was a sense among Fordham faculty that “the university really hadn’t taken advantage of its potential to expand in all of the arts,” Bristow says. “There was virtually no music program, and there was no dance program.” NYCB dancers had been showing up to take evening courses for years, and Fordham had extended a similar arrangement to Ailey company members. Professors understood that dancers were “terrific to teach in academic subjects,” says Bristow. “They knew how to learn.”

On the Ailey side, “we discovered that sometimes dancers would stop dancing because they or their parents wanted them to go to college,” Forsythe says. Or, after years of performing, dancers would have to find a place to start over as freshmen. A partnership between the two institutions would mean young artists wouldn’t have to choose between college and a dance career.

It didn’t hurt that the university’s president at the time, Joseph O’Hare, was a dance fan who admired Judith Jamison, the former Ailey superstar who’d taken the reins as the company’s artistic director. When Bristow and Jefferson brought the idea to their respective leadership, they found support on both sides. It took about two years of planning with a team—working out a financial structure, applying for accreditation, setting up a curriculum and admissions criteria—to make it happen.

“When the first class arrived, it was the realization of a dream for Denise and me,” says Bristow.

Developing Dancers and Global Citizens

Students in the BFA program have always trained across multiple genres and techniques, such as ballet, pointe, Horton, Graham-based modern, Limón, West African dance, jazz, and partnering. They take courses in dance composition, dance history, music, and anatomy and kinesiology, and keep up a full academic load that spans English, social science, philosophy, history, and foreign language. “We’re not only training dancers,” says Melanie Person, co-director of The Ailey School and head of the BFA program since 2011. “At the core of it, we’re developing who a dancer is,” she says. “Not only as an artist—as a person, a critical thinker, a global citizen of the world.”

The central challenges of the Ailey/Fordham BFA Program have long been balancing hectic schedules, managing the cost of tuition for a private university degree, continuing to strive for diversity in the student body, and keeping up with an ever-evolving dance landscape. To that end, Person says, they’re always thinking about how to introduce students to contemporary forms, movement languages, and choreographic voices. The program’s enormous breadth “gave me such a sense of versatility as a dancer,” says Danelle Morgan, who became a Radio City Rockette even before she graduated in 2007 and has since returned to teach workshops at Ailey in partnership with the Rockettes. It was important to Morgan to be part of a diverse community while getting a college degree. “Not only did I feel accepted,” she says, “but I also felt that I could lean into learning more about other people and about other cultures. It opened up my world.”

Students have plenty of performance opportunities and regular exposure to Ailey’s main and second companies. Ricardo Zayas, a 2005 graduate who apprenticed with Complexions Contemporary Ballet as a junior and joined Ailey II as a senior, says the program allowed him “to test the waters of what it was like to become a working professional.” Zayas has gone on to dance with companies like Alonzo King LINES Ballet as well as in TV and movies (Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story) and on Broadway (most recently Moulin Rouge!). “My resumé had begun building itself well before my graduation,” he says, “and I’m so thankful for that.”

Celebrating Alums

Jacquelin Harris recalls being starstruck as a student seeing Ailey company dancers in the elevator. “I remember them always taking a moment to say hi to us and be so kind and human,” says Harris, who graduated with her BFA in 2014 and pursued a second major in math. She joined Ailey II and then the main company, where she continues to shine today. “I love being able to be on the other side and hopefully give them a little bit of what I received when I was in school.”

The BFA program’s success can be measured by the success of its graduates, who are thriving as attorneys and professors—and, of course, as dancers. It’s hard to go anywhere without running into a former student or seeing their name in a program, Person says. Or as Harris puts it: “It feels like everywhere I go, I see my family.”

The festivities in the works to mark the 25th anniversary coalesce around the idea of bringing alums back home. Person is putting together a special performance for the spring and plans to arrange for alums to teach master classes, offer choreographic workshops, and participate in panels. “My hope is that they realize that the doors are always open, not just for this 25th anniversary,” she says. The celebration of this milestone, she says, is ultimately about “realizing the full potential of this program and the artists in it—those who’ve come before and those who will come after.”

The post The Ailey/Fordham Dance BFA Turns 25 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Located just a short trip from the cultural hub of Washington, DC, Mason frequently hosts artists—from Mark Morris to Robert Battle—who rehearse their work or teach master classes while their companies are in town, performing at the Kennedy Center or the Center for the Arts. Over time, the School of Dance faculty’s vast network, coupled with the program’s growing reputation, has secured artists for longer, more intimate learning experiences. “We’ve all had these wonderful careers and have utilized our own relationships to bring in colleagues from the field who will inspire both ourselves and the students,” says Karen Reedy, current director of the School of Dance. “It’s taken time to build up Mason’s reputation with these major companies and artists, but once they see the caliber of our dancers, they want to come back; nowadays, we’re one of the only student groups that choreographers trust to perform certain works.” 

Artists on Site

While the School of Dance offers all the hallmark performance opportunities of a BFA program, like choreography showcases and a spring gala at Mason’s 1,900-seat Center for the Arts, its residency program uniquely bridges the gap between students and professionals. Every semester, professional artists visit the school to audition and cast Mason students in their pieces, some of which are being staged on students for the very first time. Past artists have included Doug Varone and Bill T. Jones, and this school year, Rena Butler, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, and the Martha Graham Dance Company will be returning.

Residencies are more than just rehearsals; they’re a chance for students to get a taste of company life and get on a first-name basis with some of modern and contemporary dance’s biggest choreographers. Spanning around 8 to 10 days, residencies usually occur during natural lulls in the school calendar, like long weekends and fall or winter breaks, so students can experience the rigor of artistic immersion. 

Learning More Than Just Choreography

During a winter break residency, current Mason senior Morgan Olschewske had the opportunity to work with Rena Butler on the very first restaging of Black & White, a duet originally performed by Butler alongside choreographer Manuel Vignoulle.

“I never thought we would restage this piece, let alone on students, but they were so eager to learn,” recounts Butler, who is returning to work with students again this season, this time staging her own choreography. “Originally we had understudies, but we ended up divvying up the performances amongst all the dancers, because they were all able to adapt so readily to the material and borrow details intelligently from each other.”

For Olschewske, who’s pursuing a BFA in dance and a minor in film and media studies, working so closely with Butler was a lesson in both vulnerability and professionalism. “Seeing an industry giant like Butler also be so transparent about the narratives and emotions in the piece was unexpected at first,” she says. “I learned to take accountability for my work like a professional, but also that everyone is human, and it’s okay to have fun in the room.”

Another senior, Nicholas Elizondo, was cast along with Olschewske in Doug Varone’s Double Octet. The large-scale piece gave 24 students—16 performers and 8 understudies—the chance to work up-close with Varone and his company members.

“The residency period taught me how to work smarter, because if I’m going to be using my body for eight hours a day, I also need to know how to recover properly,” Elizondo explains. “Being in rooms with experienced professionals, I’ve been inspired to show up at my best and to embrace the challenges that come with the demanding schedule.”

Beyond the Studio

Oftentimes, completing a residency lines dancers up for even bigger off-campus opportunities. Elizondo and seven other students were invited to perform Double Octet alongside Varone’s company members before presenting it at Mason’s spring gala. Varone later invited Elizondo to work and perform professionally with his company that upcoming summer. 

Similarly, Olschewske and other students had the chance to perform a piece by Mason faculty member Christopher d’Amboise at the iconic New York City Center in honor of the late Jacques d’Amboise. Mason students even performed at New York City’s Joyce Theater after Lar Lubovitch himself watched a restaging of his work A Brahms Symphony; he personally invited the students to take part in the final performance of Lar Lubovitch Dance Company’s 50th-anniversary celebration.

A Nurturing Yet Authentic Dance Experience

The School of Dance’s intimate size—the program roughly consists of 80 dancers—means students receive plentiful one-on-one attention from faculty while also being exposed to the realities of professional life. “When guest artists come in, all of our students put on a number and audition for them without any faculty input,” says Susan Shields, School of Dance professor and former director. “There’s disappointment at times, but we as faculty know each of our students well enough to guide them in handling the successes and losses that come with this career.”

As Olschewske nears graduation, she’s excited for whatever comes next. “Being able to ‘try on’ various styles of movement and work through those long days has given my career trajectory a much clearer focus,” she says. “I’ve gotten much more out of my Mason residency experiences than any workshop, because the artists I worked with truly got to know me. I felt what it’s like to have that bit of added pressure from a professional environment.”

Looking to start your own career while still in college? For aspiring George Mason University dancers, Shields shares this audition advice: “The entire faculty is present at our auditions, and aside from talent, we’re watching to see how dancers interact with us. We’re all so generous with our knowledge, and we want to make sure that dancers are eager to learn and open to expanding their ideas of what dance can be.”

The post How George Mason University Became a Draw for the Biggest Names in Contemporary Dance appeared first on Dance Magazine.

“There’s a real stigma of ‘If you’re going to do something else, you can’t dance’ or ‘If you’re going to dance, you can’t do anything else,’ ” says Alia Carponter-Walker, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and trained at The Ailey School. But Carponter-Walker chose to do both: She attended Skidmore College, graduating in 2016 with a double major in dance and international affairs, plus a minor in Spanish. “I love dancing, and I’m not giving up dancing. But there’s also so much more of who I am,” she says.

For many dancers, the right college path is a mixed one, where dance is one component in a combination of majors and minors. It’s a choice that allows them to explore diverse interests, discover unexpected intersections, and deepen their engagement and mastery on multiple fronts.

“They don’t want to just do one thing, and I love that atti­tude,” says Jennifer Salk, an associate professor and former chair of the dance department at the University of Washington, where about 80 percent of dance majors graduate with an additional major. Salk relishes seeing students synthesize what they’re learning in different arenas and become good citizens who will, each in their own way, contribute to society and the arts. “I love watching our students graduate with a bigger view of the world,” she says.

Double Life

Like Carponter-Walker, Sidney Ramsey knew from the outset that she wanted to double-major in college. She was drawn to the University of Southern California for its nascent BFA program and equally excellent academics. In 2021, she became the first graduate from the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance to double up, earning a BA in health and human sciences (and a minor in psychology).

“It’s very easy when you’re in this conservatory-style program to feel like you’re in a bit of a vacuum,” Ramsey says. “Sometimes your whole identity feels wrapped into just dance.” With the mix, “there was a busyness to it and a balance to it,” she says, which helped her maintain her sense of self, perspective, and well-being.

But the path isn’t always immediately obvious. Mikaela Mallin, an aspiring research scientist, missed dance too much after stopping her first semester, and ended up graduating from the University of Iowa with a dual degree in dance and biomedical sciences in 2019. Swetha Prabakaran, a classically trained bharatanatyam dancer, thought she might, at best, join a club or take class once a week at University of California, Berkeley, but ultimately majored in both computer science and dance and performance studies.

Every student who opts into multiple courses of study has their own experience, but common among them are long days and packed schedules—sometimes quite literally requiring them to run from one end of campus to another, as Prabakaran did. There are logistical conundrums to solve when classes conflict. There are extracurriculars, jobs, social lives, and sleep to consider. And there are priorities to juggle and tradeoffs to make, like when Ramsey realized she couldn’t take her foundational psych class and repertory one semester.

Although students do it all while adjusting to a new environment and independence, Carponter-Walker points out that the rest isn’t entirely new for students who were devoted to dance before college. If you’ve balanced a full high school course load with a busy studio schedule, you’ve already had a taste of the life of a double major.

Intersections and Influences

Students often bring concepts and ideas from other areas of study to their choreography, says Nancy Lushington, associate professor and chair of the dance department at Marymount Manhattan College, which encourages additional majors and minors. And dance and other fields can end up overlapping and informing students’ experiences in unexpected ways.

Maurice Ivy joked with friends that “I majored in extracurriculars, and I minored in everything else.” In reality, he graduated from Duke University in 2016 with a major in global cultural studies, a minor in dance, and a certificate in film, all while performing and choreographing with a multicultural dance group, interning at the American Dance Festival, and more.

Dance gave him an identity on campus. His goal was always to dance professionally after school, but he found he thrived in inter­disciplinary spaces, and began thinking about dance more expan­sively. “My classes started to inform my choreography,” he says, and the content and themes he wanted to explore. One solo he made drew on an Indian cinema course, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and other influences. “It all started bleeding together,” he says, and “felt like one major instead of three different little things.”

Though her two majors at first felt disparate and disconnected, Prabakaran found that the tactical approach she honed for computer science projects helped her bring her choreographic visions to life. On the flip side, the diverse perspectives and critical lens she got from dance and performance studies made her a more effective, ethical, and empathetic technologist.

When Mallin had science-related breakthroughs, it was often right after modern class. The movement, she says, “would allow for some memory processing or reorganization or restructuring of my biology principles that I was learning, or a question I was working on in the lab.” Her dual degree helped dispel false assumptions about the type of work that requires creativity versus the type of work that requires logic and order. And two interdisciplinary projects she was involved in—using dance to explore climate change and autonomous vehicles—helped her realize that dance is a powerful way to communicate about science.

Postgrad

Students who choose a mix of majors and minors become alums poised to navigate careers that combine multiple interests and skill sets. They “tend to have a different engagement with what they’re studying,” Lushington says, and it “makes them more hireable in whatever field they end up going into, makes their choices broader, just opens their eyes.”

They might dance professionally first, like Ramsey, who is currently with a ballet company in Saarbrücken, Germany, but eyeing grad school in the future. Or mix performance with administration and production, like Ivy, who earned a master’s in live-experience design after undergrad. He works as a programming associate at Harlem Stage, is a part-time video jockey, and has danced with Seán Curran Company and in Hypnotique at The McKittrick Hotel.

Maybe they’ll continue down an academic path while taking class recreationally, like Mallin, a PhD candidate doing cancer research at Johns Hopkins. She collaborated with a psychiatrist filmmaker on Facing Shadows, a dance film about depression, and hopes to continue developing dance as a means of scientific communication. (You can bet she’ll submit to the Dance Your Ph.D. contest.)

Or they might infuse dance into their day-to-day work, like Carponter-Walker, now the director of equity and community life at The Hewitt School. She hopes to use music, dance, and culture to educate students about diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and has coached student dance teams, all while dancing herself with choreographers including Fredrick Earl Mosley.

As all of these artists have realized, even postgrad, it still doesn’t have to be either/or. “The way my brain works, I really need both,” says Prabakaran, a technical product manager by day who’s danced and choreographed on the side since graduating in 2021, including assisting with a UC Berkeley project probing the intersections between choreography and technology. “I have to scratch the itch in both ways to be happy.”

The post Majors and Minors That Enrich a Dance Degree appeared first on Dance Magazine.

To contemporary audiences, Limón’s sense of identity might seem intrinsically linked to his artistry. But when Puleio took over the Limón Company in 2020, he realized that the group hadn’t worked with a single Mexican choreographer (though it had engaged other Latinx dancemakers) besides its founder, who passed away in 1972. While a few early Limón pieces exploring his culture remain in rotation, his 1939 Danzas Mexicanas, for instance, had been lost almost entirely after the choreographer did not teach it to any other dancers.

For decades, the development of American modern dance was largely seen as a reaction to classicism. But many other forces drove modern pioneers’ art. “At the heart of modernism, there is trauma,” says art historian Bruce Robertson. Robertson­ and dance historian Ninotchka Bennahum are the curators behind the New York Public Library for the Performing­ Arts’ exhibit “Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance, 1900–1955,” which recognizes the foundational—and often overlooked—contributions that marginalized dancers, including Limón, made to the development of American modern dance. The exhibit, which runs in New York City through March 16, 2024, and at University of California, Santa Barbara,­ from January 25 through May 15, 2024, considers the genre’s more radical roots. “Why don’t we see the traumatized body, the stateless body, the asylum-seeking body, as a way of analyzing and seeing dance?” asks Bennahum. “Form and content, codified technique. Why is that the only thing that produces an artist of greatness?”

It’s a question that extends beyond the exhibit’s 1905-to-1955 time period. While “Border Crossings” considers who’s been left out of the historical narrative, some artists currently working with modern traditions are also trying to reframe the legacy of modern dance, acknowledging how issues of identity and politics have shaped, and continue to shape, the form.

Following in the Founders’ Footsteps

For the leaders of legacy modern dance companies, new commissions can be a way to honor under-recognized aspects of their founders’ legacies. One of Puleio’s first commissions after becoming director of the Limón Company went to Mexican choreographer Raúl Tamez. The resulting work, Migrant Mother, partially inspired by Limón’s 1951 trip to Mexico City, won a 2022 Bessie Award. “I felt like I had to go back to the roots and rediscover who José was, why he made the work he made, and then work with choreographers that are living and breathing in that same ethos,” says Puleio.

The Martha Graham Dance Company is revisiting its founder’s radicalism, honoring the countercultural elements of Graham’s oeuvre through a combination of reconstructions and new commissions. MGDC artistic director Janet Eilber says that though Graham always claimed she was apolitical, her work tells a different story: In 1936, Graham famously turned down an invitation to perform at the Berlin Olympics because she did not support the persecution other artists were facing in Germany, coupled with the fact that her company was largely made up of Jewish women. In reaction, she created Chronicle. In 1937, she made Deep Song and Immediate Tragedy to honor the women in the Spanish Civil War. And her 1944 Appalachian Spring featured the then-new company member Yuriko and sets by Isamu Noguchi, both freshly released from Japanese incarceration camps.

“It was a statement,” says Eilber. “Among the many other messages in Appalachian Spring, there’s the element of America being made up of immigrants, and needing to assess its own morals and how we treat people in this country.” This month, the Graham company will restage some of those early solos at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a complement to an exhibit about American politics in the 1930s.

Choreographers making new works at legacy modern companies are discovering ways to bring their 21st-century voices into dialogue with older traditions. When the Paul Taylor Dance Company commissioned choreographer and Ballet Hispánico School of Dance director Michelle Manzanales in 2019, she found herself at a crossroads. Manzanales, who is Mexican American, often references her heritage in her choreography, but the Taylor company’s repertoire largely does not reflect that approach. “I love to use music in different languages, but I wondered how the Taylor audience would react to that,” says Manzanales.

Ultimately, she chose not to compartmentalize that part of her identity. Her piece, Hope is the Thing with Feathers, which premiered in 2022, is set to a playlist of songs in both English and Spanish, with the Taylor dancers even lip-syncing lines from the Mexican musician Carla Morrison’s “Pajarito del amor.” “It’s interesting how, as a society, we want to see this part of Limón or that part of Limón, or this part of Michelle or that part of Michelle,” Manzanales says, “but really we can’t escape who we are.”

Carrying the Message Forward

Modern dance’s recontextualization efforts are reaching beyond the stage and expanding into educational and outreach programming. Chicago-based artist and educator Vershawn Sanders-Ward, for example, is working to bring more aspects of the modern dance matriarch Katherine Dunham’s legacy into the studio. Dunham was also an anthropologist who traveled throughout the Caribbean, bringing dances from the African diaspora back to the U.S. Her art and activism are so deeply interwoven that the one can’t be siloed from the other—which is one of the reasons she has been pushed to the sidelines of modern dance history.

“Miss Dunham was clearly a multi-hyphenate. She was a performer, a choreographer, a scholar, and an educator,” says Sanders-Ward, who is in the process of becoming a certified Dunham instructor. Sanders-Ward makes it a point to incorporate the cultural background of Dunham technique when teaching, and hopes that Dunham’s activist legacy becomes a more prominent part of dance education.

Elsewhere, the New York Public Library has created an educational curriculum around “Border Crossings,” and Bennahum will be hosting a Limón symposium at University of California, Santa Barbara, in January 2024 to bring scholars and artists together in conversation. Next year, Graham, Limón, and other companies will join forces for a conversation at 92NY “to look at the iconic works of the 20th century and how they should be viewed in light of today’s conversations,” says Eilber.

Bennahum and Robertson hope that their exhibit will help dancers—and audiences—expand how they think about the modern dance canon: A more complete understanding of the diverse factors that shaped the form’s development will help better shape its future. And they stress that even their very intentional project was only able to feature a small percentage of modern dance’s overlooked artists.

“Dance history has a very long way to go,” says Bennahum. “We’re trying to rewrite the field.”

The post The New York Public Library’s “Border Crossings” Exhibit is Part of a Developing Conversation About Modern Dance’s Radical Roots appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Just Breathe

A focus on breath can help develop this coveted ability to float seemingly effortlessly, says Helen Crawford, former first soloist and current répétiteur with The Royal Ballet: “As soon as you’re starting your day, set your technique and your basis to actually breathe into the movements.” Crawford adds that taking Pilates, yoga, or Gyrotonic can also help establish an understanding of the way breath can guide the body through movement. 

Dante Puleio, artistic director of the Limón Dance Company, recommends exploring different ways to incorporate inhalation and exhalation into individual movements. By cultivating this awareness, dancers can unlock an understanding of how breath can help create opposition between suspension and a more weighted movement quality. “Go through some of what you do in your practice and how you incorporate breath through that—when you’re breathing in and when you’re breathing out—and how that responds to your movement,” he says.

While buoyancy requires strength, understanding the power of breath in performance can be transformative. “It’s not just finding stamina in the steps in a certain role,” says Crawford. “It’s knowing the places that you can rest, and the places that you can breathe.”  

Dynamic Musicality

Aligning steps dynamically with the music can also contribute to an appearance of increased elevation. Crawford illustrates this concept with the example of a leap: If you jump before the music, your landing will appear to be heavier. To create a visual that is both lighter and more explosive, she recommends timing the jump so your arms and head reach their peak in conjunction with the musical climax. “It’s about being clever and playing with music and breath in a way to make your jump look even bigger,” she says. 

This concept of timing and musicality extends beyond jumping, says Crawford, who notes that something as simple as taking an extra moment to inhale just as the music soars can also offer a sense of ethereal lightness. “When Giselle does a really slow rise and her arms drift up, if her breath was already there, she’d run out of music and time—she’d be there too soon,” she explains. 

Moving With Momentum

Connecting with gravity—and using it to your advantage—is another way to harness seemingly weightless movements. Puleio says Carla Maxwell, the former artistic director of the Limón Dance Company, first helped him discover how momen­tum can translate to lightness. Maxwell would encourage the dancers to bounce, while holding the sides of their pants for extra lift. “You’d get that feeling and remember the essence of the floating pelvis,” Puleio remembers. “And then she’d say, ‘Now go through that phrase thinking about the lightness and the heaviness of the pelvis.’ ”

For Puleio, who spent his first few years as a dancer focusing on the more anatomical and technical aspects of technique, the introduction to Limón’s signature use of momentum­ was a pivotal moment in his artistic development. “I realized it’s not just the steps, it’s how you move through the steps—that’s where you can express yourself as an artist,” he explains.   

Managing Nerves

The shallow breathing and racing heart that accompany onstage jitters can hinder your ability to create a mesmerizing, weightless look onstage. “If a dancer is nervous, they’ll tend to rush ahead of the music,” says Crawford, “because the breath is shorter and because you’ve got this nervous tension in the body.” She recommends taking extra time whenever possible to learn and rehearse the steps, so that the movement becomes second-nature. Pre-performance calming techniques, like meditation and deep breathing, can help backstage. Once onstage,­ take a deep breath, let go of those nerves, and get ready to soar with the power of breath and musicality.

The post 4 Secrets to Creating the Illusion of Weightlessness appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Trinity was finished and premiered there (to rapturous reception) in 1970; the music for Reflections (1971) was found amongst a stack of secondhand records from a shop on Shattuck Avenue; Kettentanz (1971) was inspired by Arpino’s feeling that “Vienna was a European Berkeley,” as he put it; and Sacred Grove on Mount Tamalpais (1973) was first seeded by a self-professedly out-of-character hike up that local peak.

“Berkeley is my spiritual home,” the choreographer and Joffrey Ballet co-founder told us. “The Berkeley scene is like no other; it is a whole entity to itself. Every time I come to California I am imbued with new impressions, new impulses…. In Trinity and Sacred Grove on Mount Tamalpais I have been able to look at the world through the eyes of the young—to touch the heart of the matter of what it is to be young in this place and time. I could not have done this unless I had gone to Berkeley.” He continued that he and Robert Joffrey had noted the positive impact the environment had on their dancers, as well: “As artists, they are very sensitive to an atmosphere and at Berkeley we all felt, very intensely, the free, open spirit that is the stamp of The Joffrey.” 

The post TBT: Gerald Arpino on Creating His “Berkeley Ballets” appeared first on Dance Magazine.

“It was a stealth operation that barely worked,” says professor and dance department chair Julianne O’Brien. They had to sneak Rhoden into the balcony to watch the performance and then dodge stragglers en route to the stage where they’d told the students to gather afterward. But it was worth it. “People were shocked,” O’Brien says. “There’s this great picture of all the students’ mouths, like—”she says, demonstrating the unchoreographed moment of jaws dropping in tandem.

“It was a wonderful way to be welcomed in,” says Rhoden,­ founding artistic director and resident choreographer of Complexions Contemporary Ballet. The choreographer’s first visit to the school in Orange, California, as part of a Dance Masters at Chapman concert and intensive in 2018, was so successful he came back with his company the next year in a pair of pre-pandemic prologues that set the stage for something more permanent. Rhoden and O’Brien—who met through their colleague Ido Tadmor—felt it couldn’t be a better fit for both sides.

“I just kind of fell in love with the program,” says Rhoden,­ who has a long history teaching and choreographing in higher ed settings, including at New York University, The Juilliard School, University of California Irvine, Skidmore College, and the University of Mississippi. At Chapman, he says, there was “a great vibe in the studio and in the program and the people.” He was inspired by the faculty’s openness and commitment to the progress of their charges, and eager to help support, mentor, and shape the next generation of dancers he’d so enjoyed working with.

The stars aligned at a time when Rhoden was looking for a new challenge and Chapman’s dance department was seeing a swell of interest and investment—including the new Sandi Simon Center for Dance, a large, light-filled building with spacious studios that opened in 2023. “I felt like I could make a difference there,” he says. “That there was something that I could offer the program that they did not have.”

What he could offer, for one, was contemporary ballet. Chapman hadn’t been providing the kind of variety in ballet that O’Brien was proud to have in modern and jazz. “​​In terms of pedagogy, he filled a gap that we’ve been needing for years,” she says. “It’s been wonderful for our students—the shifts of weight, the musicality, the coordination—not just for their bodies but for their brains.”

Anyone who’s ever seen Rhoden’s choreography would under­stand why O’Brien considers him a great example of what she calls the “and” approach Chapman believes in: You don’t pick one genre or another and train in isolation. Not only does Rhoden want to “disarm any kind of uncomfortability with classical technique,” but he also wants to equip students to work at the intersections. “Look at the world,” Rhoden says. “They’re going to be more prepared because we are not moving only in pure forms. Most people are making works that are fusion.”

When he first arrived, he sensed some nerves, unease, and even fear. “The first semester was a little challenging. I mean, we found our way for sure, but I had to get to know them,” Rhoden says. “I love young people and I love to see them understand or even help them through a hard moment, like where they don’t think they can do it,” he says. It’s a nurturing environment, and “you have to do it with love, but you really do sometimes have to push them.”

In addition to contemporary ballet classes in his first year on campus, Rhoden co-taught a pedagogy course with O’Brien and Wilson Mendieta, choreographed a new work on students, and led repertory classes—where he set phrases of material and coached students to find their unique voices. That’s one of his favorite things, he says, “taking the movement and helping the artists make it speak.”

Students and faculty feel the impact. “I can see a change in the students’ bodies and how they approach movement. It’s quite beautiful,” Mendieta says. Ande Godwin, a junior BFA dance major, says that “working with Dwight has been an eye-opening experience to the capabilities of the human body.” He also helped her find her voice. “He is teaching our generation to feel and be heard through dance. He cares about what we have to say as a dancer, which is what makes him so loved.”

As a current artistic leader of a well-known company, Rhoden is also giving the students a view into the professional dance world. Last February, those college and company spheres collided when Complexions came back to campus for a weeklong residency. The immersion gave both sides perspective, Rhoden says. For the students, it “really delivered a message that the work is never done—and I think that’s positive. I mean, the day I retired or left the stage, I was still working on something,” he says. “And for the professionals, I think they look back and see: ‘Wow, I’ve come a long way. I remember being not sure or having more missing pieces.’ ”

Balancing his many obligations between Chapman on one coast and Complexions on the other hasn’t always been easy. But the university has been flexible to accommodate occasional mid-semester travel. When he returned from one such trip last spring, Rhoden was astonished to see how much his repertory students had absorbed and grown. “They had stepped into the movement, fully put it on, and it was theirs,” he says. “They were killing it. I mean, we were dancing to everything from Kendrick Lamar and Lil Wayne to Bach and Chopin,” he added. And “they were achieving it. So much talent in that class. I want them all back again.”

But he also wants to keep getting to know every student in the program and to help the school continue diversifying its dance cohorts, from artistic and demographic perspectives. This year, he’s teaching ballet, contemporary pointe, and repertory classes and choreographing new works. He was already part of a retreat last spring where faculty discussed the curriculum, and O’Brien is looking forward to his continued involvement in the conversations that are shaping the future of the department.

“He brings so much to the table,” O’Brien says. And he’s only just getting started.

The post Dwight Rhoden Brings Contemporary Ballet and Professional Connections to Chapman University appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Nurture Curiosity and Patience

Saleh “Robozilla” Simpson, a Los Angeles–based dancer who specializes in animation—a style of hip-hop that he describes as “representing stop-motion film effects”—emphasizes the importance of patience in developing dexterity in small movements. “Controlling your body and understanding your body awareness will improve how well you make those little adjustments to your movement,” he says, adding that taking the time to “sit with himself ” and investigate the why and how behind the movement has allowed his technique to flourish.

Campbell highlights the significance of curiosity, particularly when working with minute steps. She recommends paying attention to the small movements and gestures you use throughout the day and exploring how they can be applied in a dance context. “If you shift your focus a little bit on the way that you reach for a cup, you can notice, ‘If I isolate that, what’s the potential in there for a movement exploration?’ ” she says.

Delve Into the Details

Focusing on the intricate elements of choreography can provide an excellent opportunity to showcase artistic expression. Simpson says that because animation has an emphasis on character, it requires dancers to use each micromovement and
part of the body to convey the desired personality or emotion. “That detail can help the people who are watching understand what you’re doing and see the full story you’re trying to convey,” he explains, adding that facial expression and a
thoughtful placement of stillness within the choreography are especially important in animation.

Slow Down and Zoom In

To better grasp the finer details, Campbell suggests exploring movements in slow motion. This approach allows you
to focus on the micromovements within the choreography, which can be helpful both in understanding the movement and in fully articulating it. “When you’re moving in slow motion, you can’t really skip past things,” she explains. “You’re experiencing every part of a transition of weight or an articulation through a limb.”

Campbell recommends incorporating slower, smaller movement to your warm-up to sharpen these skills. “Even in big, complex movements, there can be a really specific knowledge of the small action in the foot that’s happening, or the focus of the eyes,” she explains. “Any one of those elements is super-important in the whole.”

Avoid Over-Performing

When a movement is small, there can be a temptation to overemphasize or exaggerate it to make it more visible to the audience. Cecily Campbell, assistant rehearsal director and dancer with the Trisha Brown Dance Company, advises against over-performing, however. “When things are small, there’s perhaps an urge to make them bigger,” she says. “In doing that, you can rob them of their richness.” Instead, Campbell encourages dancers to allow these movements to speak for themselves. Invest the time and energy into learning to feel and appreciate the subtlety of these movements, she says, adding that watching videos of Trisha Brown in performance has helped her with this process.

The post Tips for Making the Subtle Movements Shine appeared first on Dance Magazine.

It was to be the first of the ballerina’s eight Dance Magazine cover appearances. Gregory was already dancing principal roles with San Francisco Ballet at age 19 when she decided to audition for American Ballet Theatre, which would be her home for the next 26 years. She quickly came to be recognized as the company’s prima ballerina—and, for many, “America’s prima ballerina, the reigning queen of classical dance,” as we noted when she was announced as the recipient of a 1975 Dance Magazine Award.

In a June 1991 cover story celebrating her retirement from ABT, she confessed to a preference for story ballets, saying, “I need a little drama to spur me on. With Grand Pas Classique, the pas de deux everybody loves watching me do, I got bored because it’s basically virtuoso technique. And there were a couple of years there when I was doing it an awful lot. So I would make up a character for myself. I’d be a different ballerina each night. Some of my friends would watch in the wings and try to guess who I was being. I’d be Suzanne [Farrell] or Carla Fracci or Violette [Verdy], and just do it in their style. It was fun.”

The post TBT: Cynthia Gregory Graces the Cover of <i>Dance Magazine</i> at Age 7 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

We caught up with students, faculty, and staff from Arizona State University and the University of Utah—just two of numerous higher ed dance programs whose facilities are outfitted with industry-leading Harlequin floors. Read on to learn how their Harlequin floors provide the strong and stable foundation students need to build a sustainable dance career. 

University of Utah School of Dance (Salt Lake City, UT)

“The University of Utah School of Dance chose to install Harlequin floors after a period of in-depth research many years ago, and doing so has only enhanced our overall student experience. The sprung flooring and marley have proven more than appropriate and safe for all styles of dance. From classical ballet technique and pointe work to sock and bare feet contemporary dance, Harlequin flooring continues to support the development of well-rounded artists.” —Maggie Wright Tesch, Professor (Lecturer)

“High quality dance flooring in our studios and on our stage is a priority for the safety of our dancers and a must for the level of dance training we offer. Harlequin professionals are the best in the business—partnering with us to offer consultation, assessment, and maintenance support.” —Melonie B. Murray, Director

“The Marriott Center for Dance’s Harlequin floors hold a special place in my heart. Spreading out in a big ‘X’ on marley floors is one of my favorite feelings in the world. The perfect blend of smooth and sticky provides just the right balance for a satisfying class with or without socks. The added cushion in the sprung floors truly makes a difference when I am dancing all day. The durability of these floors is incredible, and it is so special to know that so many generations of dance students have cherished these floors as much as I do. I am grateful that they have supported the longevity of my dancing throughout my undergraduate career.” —Allison Schuh, Modern Dance BFA, Class of 2023

“I care deeply about my students. Watching them work on Harlequin floors gives me peace of mind as an instructor. While dancing on tour as a professional, the quality of flooring can be dangerously unpredictable from theater to theater. These inconsistencies can be an ever-present source of stress for entire companies. However, when my students work on Harlequin floors, we can all work without fear, and what greater gift can we give our students than the confidence to practice freely every day in pursuit of their craft? That is the confidence that can make a true artist.” —Melissa Bobick, Assistant Professor

“I vividly remember how much fun I had jumping at my audition for the University of Utah School of Dance, with the sprung floor being a welcome contrast to years of a solid floor and a few stress fractures along the way. The sprung floors have been a reliable support over the years as both a student and teacher. I feel that I can safely challenge my students and also continue to demonstrate full-out in my ballet, pointe, and character dance classes.”—Justine Sheedy-Kramer, Adjunct Associate Professor

Arizona State University School of Music, Dance and Theatre (Tempe, AZ)

“It’s a smooth floor with a good feeling for turns. One of my favorite things about the floor is the ease you have lying down or falling into it. The transitions onto and out of the floor make freestyle and improvisation a breeze. Concepts can be more fully explored when the ground feels like a comfortable best friend. I’m always happy to have the opportunity to share space with other dancers on the Harlequin floor.”—Tom Bullard, third-year dance major

“The ASU dance program features coursework in hip hop, Afro-Latin, Caribbean dance, and authentic jazz dance, as well as in contemporary modern, contemporary ballet, and contact improvisation. We needed flooring that could handle this wide variety of styles, and we knew that Harlequin was the best choice.” —Keith Thompson, Dance Program Assistant Director and Associate Professor

“The subfloors and marley floors in our studios provide the students and faculty with the support and safety to ensure a long career and minimize the chance of injury. We have Harlequin Studio, Studio B, Standfast, and Fiesta floors installed, which are perfect for our industry leaders to teach their unique styles of movement.” —Carolyn Koch, Production Manager and Clinical Associate Professor

“Harlequin floors are a dream for all of our educational needs here at ASU. It was difficult to find flooring that would be secure and durable for all types of footwear. Harlequin floors are a welcome addition to our classes and performances at Arizona State University.” —Carley Conder, Clinical Assistant Professor

The post On Campus With Harlequin Floors: Inside 2 Universities’ Dance Facilities appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Maintaining Momentum

Summer can be a great time to infuse variety into your training and to carve out time to allow your body and mind to recharge. While rest is essential, it’s also important to keep moving during at least part of the three-month school break. According to Tamara Dyke-Compton, associate director of the University of Arizona School of Dance and director of graduate studies, not exercising over the summer can lead to a rocky start to the semester. “I see dancers take a long break, come into the first week, which is full of auditions, and get injured,” she says. “Even if you are not focused on conditioning all summer long, it is very important to continue training, especially those few weeks before school begins.”

Sarah Barry, the associate chair of dance at the University of Alabama’s Department of Theatre and Dance and director of the dance MFA program, adds that while summer dance intensives are a wonderful way to keep physically prepared for the school year ahead, she realizes they are not accessible to everyone. Instead, she encourages dancers to use the time to focus on cross-training. “Swimming, yoga, lifting weights, taking walks—these are all ways dancers can engage in bodily preparation,” she says.

Mindset Matters

Spending some time thinking about the upcoming year and making plans during the summer can help dancers sail more effectively through the school year. “Think about your personal goals—whether they are for the semester or simply a daily class goal—set those intentions and action steps,” says Dyke-Compton. “They might shift and change as the semester goes. I always tell students to approach the year with mindfulness and a plan to see the good and savor each moment so it can be reflected on throughout the semester.”

On a practical level, dancers should begin setting a daily routine well before the first day back. “Obviously, if you have been sleeping until 2 pm every day, you want to readjust to mimic the year ahead so it is not a major shock to your system,” says Barry. Maria Caprio, a rising senior in the University of Alabama’s dance program, adds that adjusting routines in August can help dancers prepare mentally for school-year challenges. “I usually have a little anxiety before a new semester starts, but getting in the swing of things early helps the new year feel more natural,” she says. “The first few days are always a little overwhelming, but some of the more overwhelming days are the ones that become great memories if you have already fixed your focus on the right things.”

Setting a Schedule

Taking time during the summer to parse through dance and academic schedules can help set you up for a balanced, successful semester. Once you know them, “note all the important dates in a calendar ahead of time—include all show dates, dress-rehearsal schedules, and auditions, then compare that to the syllabi of other classes,” says Barry. “Notice when big tests and projects take place, and especially look at places where it will become important to balance those with the unique demands of a dance major so you know when you might need to work ahead a little to avoid becoming overwhelmed.”

Caprio reviews the syllabus for each class before the semester starts and makes a color-coded spreadsheet that incorporates assignments, important dates, and study time. She emphasizes the importance of dancers building time into their schedules for rest, self-care, fun, and even meals. “Finding time to fuel and rest is so important,” Caprio says, “and so is continuing to prioritize taking care of your body and mind with cross-training and time with friends. It can be hard to justify taking time for self-care breaks once the year gets busy, so I highly recommend adding it into your schedule regularly.”

A Solid Start

Before starting as freshmen or transfer students, dancers should familiarize themselves with campus resources and how to access academic assistance programs, join extracurricular activities, and utilize mental health support. Barry cautions dancers not to feel pressured to do everything right away. “You have your entire college experience to try new things—pace yourself,” she advises.

During the first weeks of college, it can be highly bene­ficial for freshmen to dedicate time to getting to know their professors. “Take advantage of office hours and do not be shy about finding specific faculty members who will be good advisors for you,” says Barry. Establishing solid relationships with professors early on can lead to the potential of them becoming invaluable mentors. “It is never too early to seek out career advisement or get help handling your schedule,” she says.

Ultimately, Barry believes dance majors should start each new academic year with a holistic approach. “Do not just prepare for the intellectual side of being in college—especially as a dancer,” she says. “Make sure you have a plan to take care of your physical, social, and emotional needs.”

The post 4 Pre-Semester Steps to Starting This Year of College Strong appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Why Choose College?

College programs offer dancers the opportunity to invest in themselves as movers and thinkers through dance training and academic coursework, says Lanteri, who suggests that the college experience provides students with a more nuanced understanding of dance—and the world. “When dancers are coming right out of the convention circuit, their awareness of the scope of the dance world is often very limited,” he says. “College is an opportunity to broaden horizons and be exposed to a fuller picture of what the dance world has to offer.”

College can also offer opportunities for dancers to build a strong community of artists and a professional network, says Lanteri, who notes that the friendships dancers naturally make in conventions can ease the transition to college. “Dancers often already know people in college programs that they have met at events like ours, so they have a connection wherever they choose to go,” he says. “BA and BFA programs provide the means to continue building those connections—they make new friends, meet new teachers, and have new experiences that will bolster their professional networks.”

A Bridge to Higher Ed

Helping dancers fulfill their dreams of pursuing higher education while advancing their dance training was Lanteri’s goal when he founded the NYC Dance Alliance Foundation in 2010. “The intent was to help dancers take money raised by the program and apply it to the college dance program of their choice,” he says. “Funding is often an obstacle when dancers want to attend college, and I wanted to help them overcome that hurdle.”

Every summer at NYCDA Nationals, Lanteri holds a college audition that’s grown to be more than just a recruiting opportunity. “Colleges are only able to attend if they have funds allocated to offer scholarships on the spot,” he says. The event offers rising seniors the opportunity to audition for some of the top U.S. dance programs, months ahead of the schools’ individual audition dates. Additionally, students who have just graduated from high school can receive additional scholarship money from the NYC Dance Alliance Foundation, which can be used for any college dance program.

Christian Clark, co-owner and general manager of REVEL Dance Convention, has added college and university programs to thePANEL, an audition event held at that company’s national finals. “Our goal was to create an experience under one roof where we could provide access to university programs, casting agencies, dance teams, and professional companies,” he says. “We wanted something that offers the college component but also focuses on dancers who do not have that destination in mind.” Dancers participating in thePANEL are evaluated for tuition-based scholarships and conditional college acceptance opportunities, as well as agency representation, casting projects, and other training opportunities. “As a partner in the training process, we believe it is important to lend resources to those pathways,” says Clark.

Dancing Through College

Clark and Lanteri both anticipate that more and more dancers from conventions will consider college as a viable next step. “A lot of dancers are going to college—without majoring in dance—who still want to continue dancing,” says Clark. “Dance teams have become a huge part of that, and schools that offer other ways to be involved with dance programs have too.” Lanteri suggests that the benefits of college can extend far beyond the years spent on campus. “College helps dancers begin to shape a career, not just get a job,” he says. “Any dancer can book a job, but how you transition that into a career, taking your talents and all you have been exposed to and translating that into something with longevity—that is something college helps many dancers achieve.”

Convention Work-Study for College Students

When Christian Clark, co-owner and general manager of REVEL Dance Convention, noticed that college-age dancers were continuing to attend conventions, looking for the connectedness of the intensive experience, he set up a program for students. REVEL now has a work-study program that allows University of Alabama dance majors to attend regional events. “We pay for their travel and lodging, and they have the opportunity to learn about business programs, management, and software systems, while taking class for half the weekend,” he says. Students are exposed to the business and customer service side of the convention, while also reconnecting with dance friends and continuing to build their professional networks.

The post How Conventions Have Become a Stepping Stone to College Dance Programs appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Proper Preparation

As with any new skill, it can be helpful to start with a series of targeted exercises to warm up and prepare your body for the challenges of the day. Omari Wiles, who founded both Les Ballet­ Afrik, a dance company specializing in West African, Afro­beat, house, and vogue dance styles, and the House of NiNa Oricci, a ballroom house that appeared in the second season of HBO Max’s “Legendary,” changes his warm-up based on what style of dance—and the dynamic within that style—he’ll be working with that day.

“If I’m doing vogue fem, then I’m going to do warm-ups that are catered to the flow of feminine movement to the hips and to the back. I’m going to do a lot of wrist rotation and softer movement,” he says, adding that targeting both strength and flexibility in your warm-up will help you to access and support the full range of motion that diving into those dynamics might require.

Madaline “Mad Linez” Riley, a freelance dancer and choreographer who has worked with artists like Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, and Sam Smith, incorporates bold dynamic shifts into her movement style. Riley (who uses she/they pronouns) recommends branching out to study a new style of dance, or even another art form, if you’re hoping to harness a particular dynamic. For them, studying animation, a type of popping, helped in mastering small, isolated movements.

Keep Music in Mind

Musicality plays a big role in cultivating the ability to shift between different dynamics in movement, Riley says. Paying attention to the nuances of the music can help you channel similar feelings into your dancing.

Riley recommends studying the music, including the culture or time period it comes from, as intently as you might study the choreography. Attune yourself to each instrument’s role in the overall work and explore each element of the composition. “Familiarize yourself with the dynamic journey of a song, how different layers of music are able to create that, and how you can work together with the music to really bring in the story of the piece,” they say.

Wiles adds that aligning your movement with the music’s cadence can also help with dynamic shifts. “You might change the phrase out when you hear a note change in the music, when you hear a new sentence in the song, or you might hear a new beat or other instrument added,” he explains.

Focusing on the music will not only help you with movement dynamics, Riley says, but it can also be a useful skill when collaborating with musicians—or if you want to try your hand at making your own music for a piece.

Focus on the Breath

Tuning in to your breath is another way to feel connected to the dynamics of a dance style or piece of choreography. Wiles considers both breath and timing to be important building blocks for cultivating this skill. “That is the first thing that you have to be able to control in order to then control your movement, the textures of your movement, and the dynamics of your movement,” he says, adding that focusing on the breath can help a dancer move past overanalysis in order to develop a more natural, intuitive approach to dynamics. “You can really start to not overthink and process what the movement is,” he says, “and you can take in what the feeling is.”

Patience Makes Perfect

Often, learning a new skill can take a little time. Plus, the new ways of moving necessitated by specific movement dynamics can present a challenge if they’re less familiar. Omari Wiles, founder of Les Ballet Afrik and the House of NiNa Oricci, reminds dancers to have patience and grace with themselves, especially when it may be tempting to want to see instant results. “Learning how to contract and release your muscles, that’s something that you have to get used to,” he says. “You have to really get in tune with your muscles, how you use them, and how you activate them.”

The post 3 Tips for Moving Seamlessly Between Different Dynamics appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The superstar musician had attended a Joffrey performance in California and subsequently offered up his musi­c; ­he not only gifted the company existing songs from his discography (notably including “Purple Rain”) but also composed an expanded orchestral version of “Thunder” specifically for the ballet. Laura Dean, Charles Moulton, Margo Sappington, and Peter Pucci each choreographed a new ballet, all overseen by artistic director Gerald Arpino, who, Barzel wrote, titled the program “because the array of pop works reminded him, in his own words, ‘of that integral part of our contemporary landscape. As we travel the highways and byways of America from the Long Island Expressway to the Sunset Strip…billboards loom overhead…[they] have achieved the status of American folk art.’ ”

The January 27 premiere in Iowa City drew critics and presenters from across the country, as well as what was noted to be an unusually youthful audience (“they came in droves and screamed ecstatically all through the performance”). Ultimately, Barzel wrote, “All the choreographers were served well by the Joffrey dancers, who were in great form and seemed willing to dance to any length for the adventurous dancemakers.”

Billboards continued to be a wildly popular ticket as it toured, and reached an even wider audience after it was recorded and released on VHS the following February. 

The post TBT: The Joffrey Ballet’s Blockbuster <i>Billboards</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.

“The moment you walk on the dance floor, you are learning how to articulate your fingers,” says Sahasra Sambamoorthi, a bharatanatyam dancer and teacher based in New York City. She says other styles of classical Indian dance—like Odissi, kathak, and Kuchipudi—place a similar emphasis on the hands and fingers.

Even though hand and finger articulation is central to these styles, it’s an important element to consider no matter which dance forms you specialize in. Cultivating dexterity in your digits—and harnessing the choreographic meaning it can instill—can benefit dancers of all styles and genres.

Stretch and Condition

A targeted warm-up routine can help create the right foundation for hand and finger articulation. Xianix Barrera, a Bessie-nominated flamenco dancer and the founder of Xianix Barrera Flamenco Company, suggests adding a few movements to your existing pre-class or performance regimen to get the blood flowing in your smaller extremities. Start by rolling out your wrists, both towards and away from your body. Then, bend at the wrist so your flat hand is alternately positioned towards and away from your body, in an L shape. “If you’re doing the circular motion, you can feel it in your forearms,” Barrera explains. “You’re using those muscles you’ve probably never used before.”

Follow the wrist movements with a finger isolation exercise. Barrera recommends closing each finger into the palm individually, then opening each digit back up. Sambamoorthi also encourages dancers to improvise and explore the variety of shapes their fingers can make—and the ways these movements awaken different muscles in their arms and torsos.

Shift Your Focus

It can be easy to focus on only the big movements in a piece of choreography, letting the smaller elements—and smaller body parts—take less of a priority. And, while some styles place a great deal of emphasis on finger and hand motions, others might save these details until it’s performance time. For dancers who are less experienced with finger and hand movements, developing this skill might be a matter of honing focus and thought patterns. “I think it’s really just a matter of never not thinking about it,” Sambamoorthi says. “It can’t just be an afterthought.”

Think of your hands and fingers as important parts of a larger whole, Barrera adds. “As dancers, we use our bodies; we are nonverbal communicators,” she explains. “With your hand, that’s just an extension of it in smaller detail.”

Visualization can also be a helpful tool to integrate hand and finger movements with storytelling in a piece of choreography. Sambamoorthi says that dancers can use their gaze to help visualize the elements of the choreography they are trying to convey with their hands. Using visualization to place yourself within the story can help connect you with these gestures and encourage exploration of artistry. “So if I’m trying to show a tree, what do I want to show?” she asks. “Do I want to show you that the tree is very big and large? In that case, will I show you the trunk of the tree and the length using the fingers to point up and down?”

Showing Personality

Practicing precise hand and finger articulation can bolster your artistry and become part of the unique way a dancer interprets a role onstage. In flamenco, the movements of the hands and fingers help performers to develop a signature, Barrera says. “It’s a trademark. Your hands can be like a finger­print,” she explains.

As a way to explore different ways to use the hands and fingers to develop personality in a role, Sambamoorthi recommends talking about the dance. Tell the story or describe the choreography and watch the ways your hands and fingers naturally move. “From there, you get the inklings of what you would naturally do, and then you can start to articulate that more,” she says.

The post How Using Hand and Finger Articulation Can Enhance Expressivity appeared first on Dance Magazine.

When the production asked how many dancers she wanted for the film, Birch recalled, “I said, ‘Waddaya mean, how many dancers do I want? There should be nothing that resembles quotes dancers unquotes in this film or it’ll blow the whole thing. But, if you’ll let me find twenty dancers from both coasts that I think are interesting as characters as well as top dancers, you got to carry them through the film and make them part of that high school, and have me just as interested in them when they’re banging their lockers around as when they’re dancing. If you’ll allow this, then I want twenty dancers.’ ”

Birch got her wish, in addition to the 15 principal cast members (including, of course, leading man John Travolta, who, she said, would often tap dance with other dancers in the cast to relax during breaks) and 150 dancing extras. “They’re not only good dancers but marvelous actors,” she said of those 20, “and actually create an atmosphere that has never been seen in a film before, in the days when you just brought people on to dance a number. In Grease, you see them all through the film: in the malt shop, and all over. They may not speak a line, but we threw in bits of business for each one, and it’s not haphazard. There were names—identities—for all of them, though they may not appear in the credits….Every last one of them deeply knew what the film is all about, which is very unusual.” 

The post TBT: Creating the Non-Speaking, Dancing Characters of <i>Grease</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Planning Ahead

Open communication about the expectations (and costs) of Nationals gives students and their caregivers the opportunity to plan ahead, and lessens the possibility of surprises in the weeks leading up to the event. “We tell families at the very beginning of the dance year that we will be attending Nationals,” says Moore. “Fundraising needs to start early for families who need to offset expenses.”

Moore communicates her plans for Nationals rehearsals far in advance, so dancers and their families can balance family commitments, vacations and work schedules. “We release a summer schedule in the spring that includes the blocks of time for Nationals’ prep sessions,” she explains.

Setting Goals and Expectations

In addition to planning how to get to Nationals, it’s helpful to ask dancers to consider why they’re going. “We take the time to set and share goals individually and as a team,” says Karmen Smith, company director of Driven Dance Company, Slippers & Taps’ in-house competitive group. In Smith’s experience, after having shared personal intentions, dancers will help one another accomplish the goals they set.

Smith also communicates early her own expectations for dancers at Nationals. Many families like to use Nationals travel as a vacation opportunity and, while students should be given the time to enjoy their trip and relax, that cannot be the priority while at the event. “It can be tempting to see a six-hour window between a class and competition and think that is a perfect time to visit the pool or go to a park,” Smith says. “Make sure they know they can have fun, but they cannot exhaust themselves— they should make a plan so they can stay disciplined.”

Touching Up Technique

For many studios, Nationals fall right on the heels of spring recitals.­ “Refining technique is so important at this point in the year,” Smith says. “Classes are often taken over by recital choreography, so dancers have not been focused on technique.” At her school, the recital is followed by a two-week break, then Nationals rehearsals begin alongside an intensive with guest faculty members. “Having intensives in the middle of the rehearsal period prepares dancers for the intensity of Nationals week,” Smith says.

Beating Burnout

After months practicing the same moves, there’s a risk that the movement can become rote, so it’s important to try to cast routines in a new light before Nationals. Smith asks guest faculty from her school’s technique intensives to run rehearsals. “Not only does it bring new eyes and new perspective to each dance, but when a new person provides the critique, it feels different,” she says. If guest choreographers created numbers for the competition season, Smith invites them to come back and work with students again just before Nationals.

Another way to keep choreography fresh is to review judges’ critiques from Regionals. “Those critiques offer great, fresh perspective, so we return to that feedback and dive into aspects of the movement we have previously not considered,” Smith says. If something still isn’t working, make changes. Moore and Smith both acknowledge that it is important to use the weeks leading up to Nationals to address sections of dances that just do not work, integrate new skills and, if necessary, give numbers a facelift.

Making It Fun

Moore says that even with all the hard work leading up to Nationals, it’s also important that the rehearsal schedule allow students to have some fun. “Go to the beach, have slumber parties—make sure to enjoy summer,” she says. “The process should not become so stressful that you cannot enjoy yourself.” Smith agrees that with plans in place, expectations set and routines rehearsed, it’s important to have a good time at Nationals,­ as well. “Remind dancers to enjoy meeting new people and making friends from around the country,” she says. “And help them remember that this opportunity to be on a team and experience something like this is special.”

The post 5 Things Teachers Can Do to Set Their Students Up for Success at Nationals This Summer appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Her professional start, however, was far from assured: Though Agnes de Mille recruited her to dance The Four Marys with American Ballet Theatre when it premiered in 1965, the contract was short-lived, leading Jamison to work nondance jobs (including as a ride operator at the World’s Fair) while taking classes and auditioning. “Nothing in my life, until then, had prepared me for rejection,” she told Dance Magazine. “Every time I was turned down I took it personally.” It was at one such unsuccessful audition that summer, for Donald McKayle, that Alvin Ailey spotted her and decided to ask her to join his company. (“You mean, you decided to take me that day, the day of the audition?” Jamison asked Ailey when the two told the story of their first encounter to Maynard. “I went home and cried for three days until you called me!” Ailey replied, “Well, I didn’t know where to find you and I had to get your phone number from Carmen [de Lavallade] and Carmen was out of town.”)

Jamison would dance with Ailey for the next 15 years (save for a brief period between 1966 and 1967 when the company disbanded), and returned to lead the company in 1989 as Ailey’s handpicked successor. Now artistic director emerita, Jamison, who celebrates her 80th birthday this month, is the recipient of a Dance Magazine Award (1972), a Kennedy Center Honor (1999) and a National Medal of Arts (2001), and was inducted into the National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame in 2015.

The post TBT: How Judith Jamison Started Dancing for Alvin Ailey appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Solomons was also a student in Robert Dunn’s famed dance composition class (a precursor to the formation of Judson Dance Theater, which Solomons worked adjacent to); he founded his eponymous company in 1972 and continued to choreograph even as he began professionally reviewing dance (for this publication and The Village Voice, among others) in the 1980s. “I don’t consider myself a critic,” he said in the April 1992 issue of Dance Magazine. “I consider myself a reviewer: I review what I see, place it in context, then register my opinion…. Many critics have a particular taste and look for particular things, so they can’t evaluate a dance on its own terms. I am not a judge of any kind. I tend to think of the review as a sounding board for the artist. He or she can read the piece and see what got across and why—in one person’s opinion. Choreographers can take that information and do what they like.”

Solomons received a NY Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for Sustained Achievement in 2000, and a second Bessie in 2010 for PARADIGM, a troupe for performers over 50 that he cofounded in 1996 with Carmen de Lavallade and Dudley Williams. Also a beloved teacher, Solomons was awarded American Dance Festival’s 2004 Balasaraswati/Joy Ann Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, and taught in the department of dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts until 2013. He still, on occasion, writes for Dance Magazine—most recently in 2022. 

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“When I was graduating high school, I did not know where I wanted to go, and there was not a place where I could go train in a variety of styles without choosing either commercial or concert dance,” remembers Forance, who has performed with artists like Lady Gaga and Madonna, and choreographed for “So You Think You Can Dance” and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. As pandemic restrictions lifted and dancers resumed in-person classes, “We knew people were going to want to get serious about their training, so we started moving a lot of our CLI Studios team to Massachusetts to start the CLI Conservatory,” says Forance, who is the conservatory director. The goal was to create a program where dancers could continue to train in a variety of styles while homing in on their chosen career paths.

This fall, the Southampton, Massachusetts–based CLI Conservatory is heading into its third year of training the next generation of professional dancers with its 10-month professional training program for dancers 17 and up. With five days of classes every week taught by current leading teachers and choreographers in the industry, students at the CLI Conservatory have the opportunity to train with the best—in styles like contemporary, jazz, hip hop, ballet, heels, jazz funk, tap, dance on camera, and musical theater—and prepare for the next steps in their dance careers. “Careers are long, and we try to teach dancers that it might take five to 10 years to achieve their goals,” says Arpino, CEO of CLI Studios. “And so the most important thing we can do is provide them with the training, connections, and support that they need to launch and maintain a successful career.”

Creating a Cohort

When the CLI team is auditioning dancers, the number one thing they consider is whether auditionees really want to become professional dancers, but Arpino says the emphasis is on more than talent. “We do interviews with every student in an effort to really get to know them as part of the process,” he says. “Through these interviews we try to determine whether or not we can help them have the career they want.”

According to Forance, versatile, open-minded dancers who are ready to work hard catch their eyes, but they always look for dancers with a spark. “We want to see if we are moved by a dancer and see a unique quality the dance community appreciates,” he says. “We are looking for good people, too—humble dancers who want to help build a community and culture that makes everyone here feel supported.” 

Forance and Arpino hope that the culture and energy created at the CLI Conservatory will continue to build through their alumni and change the face of the dance world, something year-one graduate Dabria Aguilar has experienced since completing the program. While there, she says, she formed incredible new relationships, which helped her build a strong support system. In fact, she met her current roommate in New York City at the CLI Conservatory. In Aguilar’s words, “CLI Conservatory feels like a family.” Now signed with Clear Talent Group, Aguilar recently performed in Troy Schumacher’s The Night Falls.

Professional Connections

For Aguilar, one of the highlights of furthering her education with the CLI Conservatory was training with the top teachers and choreographers. “It was a dream come true to work with Lloyd Knight from Martha Graham, Tiler Peck, Brian Nicholson, Dana Wilson and The Seaweed Sisters, to name a few,” she says. One of her favorite moments from her time at CLI was working with Al Blackstone and Billy Griffin, who created and set an original musical on the students.

Forance says cultivating a collection of 75-plus choreographers and teachers at the top of their game—like Marty Kudelka, JBlaze, Talia Favia, Andrew Winghart, Robert Green, Kathryn McCormick, and Brian Friedman—is a huge part of what makes the conservatory successful. “Our goal when building the curriculum is to find people who are currently booking and hiring dancers in all aspects of the industry, so our dancers have the chance to meet them and network,” Forance says. Arpino adds that it is important that the CLI Conservatory dancers meet these choreographers before they encounter them at auditions. “Connections are a great way to get a leg up in any field, but especially in the arts,” Arpino says.

In addition to making connections with industry heavy hitters, the CLI Conservatory also connects dancers with agencies and show representatives. “We have all the main dance agencies come in, and our dancers get to audition for them: Go 2 Talent, Bloc, MSA, and Clear Talent, for instance,” Forance says. “We also bring in Cirque du Soleil, Royal Caribbean, Vegas shows, and in the coming season, we will have dance companies coming in to hold auditions too.” As a result of these auditions, Forance says CLI dancers have booked world tours with major recording artists, cruise ship contracts, a Bose commercial, and the Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody movie. They have also toured as assistants with dance conventions and worked at dance studios. In the first year of the program, 18 out of 37 dancers were signed to an agency, and over 90 percent of students were working in the industry within a few months of graduation.

Beyond the Barre

Outside of its rigorous dance training, the CLI Conservatory provides dancers with the tools they’ll need for career longevity. After a full day of technique classes from 9 am to 4 pm, dancers often have project rehearsals or training in other important skills. “The last part of our days were spent learning skills that can be overwhelming when you are thrown into the ‘adult’ world,” Aguilar says. “We had classes on finances, budgeting, and taxes, and we also had nutrition classes with Caroline Lewis-Jones and life-coaching—no day was exactly the same.”

According to Arpino, the CLI Conservatory has a start-up mentality. The staff strives to continuously listen to the students and the pulse of the dance industry, so they can adjust in real time. “We want dancers to leave here and feel like it has been an overwhelming value and that they are ready for the next path, because they could not have trained harder,” Arpino says. “But you cannot just train a dancer technically—it has to be holistic, because the jobs they are getting now are multifaceted, so we take that approach in preparing them for the future.”

In addition to providing classes in life skills that will help dancers move into the professional realm confidently, the CLI Conservatory utilizes a fully functioning production studio for the benefit of the students, too. “We do a lot of photo and video shoots throughout the year for each dancer, and we have personal branding sessions with each one,” says Arpino. “They leave with a full portfolio and assets to take to auditions.”

Why CLI?

Forance believes that there is no other place like the CLI Conservatory, where dancers can train as intensively and in as many different styles while focusing on their career paths. Dancers can expect to truly find themselves as artists and confident individuals while discovering their paths to professionalism, and they can expect to leave with the connections they need to make it happen.

Additionally, because the CLI Conservatory prioritizes forging strong, lasting connections to bolster dancers throughout their careers, graduates will always have conservatory resources and support available to them when they need it. “If you want to come to a place and set your dancing on fire,” says Forance, “the CLI Conservatory is the space for you.”  

Interested in auditioning for the CLI Conservatory? Get started by submitting your audition materials online today.

The post The CLI Conservatory Is the Perfect Launchpad for Dancers About to Start Their Careers appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But it need not be this way, says Joseph Gatti, founder of United Ballet Theatre and creator of the Gatti Method, which emphasizes consistent weekly cross-training and conditioning for dancers. He says that while he believes typical dance training doesn’t adequately prepare dancers for the cardiovascular demands of performing, it’s possible to build stamina to dance stronger longer.

Train Anaerobically

By and large, dancers face anaerobic challenges to their stamina—in practice, this means short bursts of intensity with rests or low-intensity moments in between. And yet, most of the cross-training dancers do (like using cardio machines) is aerobic—meaning a sustained low- to medium-intensity effort, if it’s challenging their cardiovascular system at all. (Pilates and yoga, for instance, rarely get the heart pumping.)

While both aerobic and anaerobic training are important for dancers, Leanne Wonesh, an athletic trainer at Houston Methodist who works with Houston Ballet dancers, says anaerobic work will better prepare dancers for the demands of being onstage. That could mean adding some intervals to your treadmill run, but Wonesh emphasizes that there is no one-size-fits-all cross-training option, and that it should be something you enjoy, whether that’s playing a sport or taking a HIIT class. Whatever you do, start slow, she says, and vary your workouts (including your work-to-rest ratios) to continue to challenge your body.

At United Ballet Theatre, Gatti uses a VertiMax V8 Platform—a machine that allows dancers to move with bands that connect to various parts of the body and extend more than 30 feet—to add a resistance challenge (and, ultimately, a cardiovascular one) to dance-specific athletic movement. He encourages dancers to think beyond lifting weights and doing box jumps to focus on cross-training that’s more similar to what they actually do onstage.

Breathe With Intention

When your breathing starts to get out of control, it can feel impossible to rein in. So start paying attention to your breath before it gets labored, suggests Wonesh, who says that while breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth is the most common recommendation, do whatever you find allows you to take the fullest, deepest breaths. You may even want to choreograph your breath, says Broadway veteran Chryssie Whitehead, who teaches at Steps on Broadway and Broadway Dance Center, coordinating it with your movement like you would during a yoga class.

Most important, Wonesh says, is matching the length of your inhale with the length of your exhale. “Often, your inhale gets shorter and your exhale gets longer, so you’re losing more air than you’re taking in,” she says. Making sure they are equal—which could mean breathing in time with the music—will ensure you aren’t skimping on the inhales.

Try to Relax

Wonesh says that performance anxiety, including worries about running out of breath, will only make your heart rate spike higher and exacerbate the problem. Prioritize any preshow rituals that help you feel relaxed and centered, and should you feel stress cropping up onstage, “put it in a box,” says Wonesh. “Literally picture yourself putting it into a cardboard box—then the box is still in your brain, and you can unpack it later.”

All Singing, All Dancing

Musical theater dancers face a next-level stamina challenge: Singing while dancing. Broadway veteran and teacher Chryssie Whitehead prepares students by getting them singing as early in class as possible, even encouraging them to sing along during warm-up. Sounding good isn’t what’s important, she says—it’s getting your body used to the demands­ of doing both. She also recommends singing while doing light cardio, like jogging.

Spice Up Studio Time

During large classes or long rehearsals, dancers can have extended periods of time waiting for their turn to dance, resulting in a lower work-to-rest ratio than what they experience onstage. Athletic trainer Leanne Wonesh suggests staying active during these downtime moments and keeping the heart rate up with light cardio, like jumping jacks. Not only will this help build stamina, she says, but it will reduce injury risk by keeping you warm for when you do have to jump back into dancing.

The post Expert Tips for Boosting Your Stamina appeared first on Dance Magazine.

How Rigorous Is the Dance Training?

At Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, students pursuing a BFA in musical theater take dance five mornings a week. At the Chicago College of Performing Arts, musical theater BFA candidates can do a concentration in dance, which program director Tammy Mader says is “nearly a dance major, up to 12 dance classes a week.” But even in these dance-heavy departments, dance won’t be the only focus. Studying musical theater also means taking voice lessons, acting workshops, music theory and more.

When researching programs, look into not only how much dance is involved, but also whether dancers, actors and singers are placed in classes based on skill. Consider the prospect of studying in dance classes alongside peers who have far less dance experience. It’s not always a drawback: Briggs says she benefited from being in dance classes with singers and actors. “It taught me about being a team player,” she says. “In an ensemble, you’ll have members with different levels and skills.” Also, remember that theater dance is about more than technique. You must learn to move in a way that tells a story.

For more of a challenge, think about a double major, or a major in musical theater and a minor in dance (or vice versa). Ask about enrolling in an advanced class with the dance majors or taking open classes off-campus. At some schools, you may even be able to perform in dance concerts as well as musical theater productions.

The opportunity to shape his own course of study attracted­ Tommy Gedrich to Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. At Muhlenberg, Gedrich double-majored in theater (with an acting concentration) and dance (with concentrations in performance and choreography); Gedrich later added courses in women’s and gender studies. “I did look at going the conservatory route,” they say, “but in the end, I wanted to focus on each discipline without having to sacrifice one or the other.”

How Much Singing and Acting Experience Is Required?

“If you want to get into a top musical theater program, you have to be able to sing,” says Lyn Cramer, a professor of dance at the University of Oklahoma’s Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre. This doesn’t mean you must already be highly trained, however. “Can you carry a tune? Do you have a nice quality?” Cramer asks. “There has to be potential.”

OU’s BFA in Musical Theatre Performance program is small by design, with only 50 majors at a time. Other programs are much larger—but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re less selective. Mader recommends booking a few sessions with a vocal coach before the audition. “They can help you pick songs, set the tempo, cut and mark your material—all things that will make your audition go more smoothly,” she says. Plus, “dancers are notoriously terrible at breathing. Getting some exercises and experience with that is vital.”

As for acting, again, the audition requires applicants to demonstrate potential. “When someone comes to us, they might not be the strongest storyteller…yet,” says Emily Clark, an assistant professor at MMC. “But if we ask why they made a choice, can they explain it? If we ask them to make an adjustment, can they take the note? It matters that a student is willing to learn and grow.”

Are Graduates Working in the Field?

“I believe that musical theater majors work more quickly and climb the ladder faster” than dance majors, Cramer says. “At graduation, our students are ready to get out there and hustle. It’s not all Broadway, or even regional theater, but they work.”
One reason for the jumpstart? “A musical theater degree makes you versatile,” says Mader. “You can dance in the chorus or get supporting or even leading roles. You can do print work, modeling, film and TV, voiceover, choreography and, of course, teaching. You can speak with poise in interviews. Theater makes you a better performer and a better communicator.”

Briggs is an example of someone who hit the ground running. While finishing the academic portion of her BFA at The New School (the AMDA NYC musical theater program where she started is a two-year certificate), Briggs did regional theater and danced in Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular, before making her Broadway debut in CATS. Gedrich, currently on the national tour of Moulin Rouge!, has also been working since graduating from Muhlenberg in 2021. Other recent credits include performing in The REV Theatre Company’s production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s State Fair, in The Kennedy Center’s production of Guys and Dolls, and for NBC at Radio City Music Hall. They also walked in New York Fashion Week in a show that cast dancers.

In some cases, students land their first gigs as undergrads. Although MMC students must receive permission to audition and then discuss their educational paths with faculty, Clark notes one student who went on tour with Mean Girls after their sophomore year, and another who is completing his degree while on tour with The Book of Mormon. “We encourage students to audition while they’re with us,” Clark says. “We want to support them in school and as they become professionals.”

What Else Do You Want From College?

Do you want to be in a bustling city or in a more traditional college environment? Do you want to pursue an academic major in addition to musical theater? Do you play sports or participate in other extracurriculars? As you look at degree programs and their dance offerings, don’t forget to factor in other aspects of college life that will affect your time on campus.

And don’t fret if you don’t get into the most prestigious program—or if you visit your dream school and it feels like a poor fit. “In high school, I thought the only way to pursue musical theater was to actually get a degree that says ‘musical theater’ on it, and that’s really not the case,” Gedrich says. “In auditions, they’re not looking at your diploma. They’re looking at your skills.” Choose a program that will enhance your talents and broaden your horizons, and you’ll be on your way.

The post Training Triple Threats: What Dancers Need to Know About Studying Musical Theater in College appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Deciding to Switch

After completing her freshman year at Point Park University, Ashleigh McGown attended a summer intensive at the American Dance Festival. One thing in particular stood out for her: how differently other students felt about their college programs. “I was around so many people who were in love with their school and their college experience,” says McGown, “and I had a realization that I wasn’t feeling that.” Some of those students were from University of the Arts in Philadelphia. McGown’s mentor Catie Leasca, a UArts alum, suggested she look into that school’s dance program. McGown conferred with faculty and quickly completed the audition process. She submitted application materials by the beginning of August, was accepted into UArts the week before the semester started and decided to transfer.

McGown was drawn to UArts because she says the dance program better aligned with her learning style. “For studio practice classes, you go through cycles of teachers instead of having one teacher for the entire semester,” she says. Her first semester, McGown danced with 12 different faculty in ballet, jazz, modern and hip-hop courses, an experience that she credits with greatly improving her skills as a dancer.

For Alli Tomsik, transferring made it possible to attend what had originally been her first-choice school, the University of Hartford, where she is now a junior. After completing one semester at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Tomsik knew the modern-focused dance program wasn’t right for her and that she wanted more ballet-based training. “It was hard to leave my friends and the school,” she says, “but I knew in the long run I wasn’t going to be happy at UMass and that it wasn’t going to satisfy my career needs.” Tomsik decided to take a semester off and reaudition for Hartford.

Taking Credit(s)

Because each school has different rules and procedures, transferring credits from one university to another can be a complex process, sometimes propelling students forward and other times setting them back. For Tomsik, it was the latter. While her academic and general education courses transferred, the dance technique classes she took at UMass did not, as Hartford requires students to take four years of ballet and modern specifically at their institution. Because of this rule, Tomsik will graduate a year later than she had originally planned, a change that was only possible because she received extra scholarships.

In contrast, McGown will graduate early because of her transfer credits. All of McGown’s credits transferred from Point Park to UArts, including her technique classes. The 18-credit semesters she took her freshman year at Point Park translated to one and a half years of credits at UArts, meaning she can graduate a semester early. Although finances were a concern for McGown during the transfer process, scholarships, plus cutting a semester, helped her feel confident in her decision.

Looking back, both McGown and Tomsik­ wished they had worried less about the decision and been more patient with themselves while adjusting to a new program. “If you do transfer, it might not be perfect right away, and you have to give it time to settle in your body and into a new routine,” says McGown. Even though the process was challenging at times, both dancers are glad they transferred and feel they are now at the right place. “It’s a hard choice, and there’s an uncertainty to it,” says Matteson. “The challenge is to recognize how brave your choice is to transfer.”

Transfer Tips

From University of the Arts associate professor Paul Matteson

• Visit the school and take classes to feel out the program. While you’re there, talk with other transfer students about their experiences.
• Look into important details, such as how financial aid and housing (and finding a roommate) work, and how they’re similar to or different from your current school.
• Talk with a faculty member or administrator about which credits will transfer and which will not.

The post What to Consider Before Transferring Colleges as a Dance Major appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Indeed, when yielded with intention and clarity, the eyes can be a powerful tool for communicating with the audience, conveying emotion and character, and connecting with fellow performers. But the eyes can reveal hesitancy just as easily­ as they can project confidence, and, too often, they are an afterthought. Ramaswamy, Youth America Grand Prix artistic director Larissa Saveliev and choreographer Marc Kimelman offer tips to ensure your eyes are conveying exactly what you want them to say.

Start Early

Often, dancers don’t begin thinking about their focus and how they’re using their eyes until they are onstage in dress rehearsals, says Saveliev. But such an essential performance element should really be incorporated from the very beginning, she says, in rehearsals and even in class. Ramaswamy agrees, and encourages her students to be “on” at all times in class to begin developing their focus early.

This means getting out of the habit of looking in the mirror, says Kimelman, a musical theater choreographer who teaches at Broadway Dance Center. If you aren’t able to cover the mirror, try looking slightly above your head instead of directly­ at yourself, he suggests, and focus on connecting with fellow dancers rather than on catching your reflection.

Be Clear

As simple as using the eyes may seem, they have myriad purposes, from directing the audience’s attention, to telling a story, to keeping track of your lines. Avoid having distracting darting eyes, which can convey nervousness, by choreographing them just as you do the rest of your body, suggests Kimelman. To make this choreography of the eyes feel natural, allow yourself time to play with where your focus should go before getting particular about it. Then, he says, be as intentional with where you’re looking as you are when you’re spotting.

When the eyes are communicating something specific to the audience in bharatanatyam (showing them that you’ve noticed something in the distance, for instance, or that your emotion is shifting from realization to disappointment), Ramaswamy thinks of the movement of the eyes as dialogue: It has to flow, be clear and linger enough to be legible.

Cheat When You Need To

Depending on the genre of dance and how naturalistic the tone is, you may want to adjust exactly where you’re looking in order for it to make sense to the audience. In bharatanatyam, for example, while following the hand is often a strong choice for the gaze, if the dancer’s hand is directly to their side, they might turn their head and look a few inches higher than the hand itself, showing the eyes and glance to the audience, says Ramaswamy. Similarly, if you’re looking at something high up or low to the ground, consider cheating down or up so that the audience sees more than the whites of ­your eyes. ­

You can also use your eyes to expand your presence onstage:­ “Your hand only reaches so far, but your eyes can reach further,” Ramaswamy­ says.

Tell a Story

In daily conversation, your eyes are key to communicating to others what you’re thinking and feeling, and the same can be said for when you’re performing. Expressing yourself with your eyes onstage is a combination of naturalism and stylization, says Ramaswamy—tapping into what your character is feeling and then enhancing it.

Kimelman learned to do this as a young dancer, when in a musical comedy class he would often start by mouthing the words to a song while he danced, and then eventually would take away the lip-syncing but keep the feelings and facial expressions that came with it.

Of course, pay attention to the context of the performance so that your eyes’ expressions can be seen, but don’t become cartoonish: A 400-seat theater will demand a different approach than an intimate black box or an immersive show.
The eyes “connect the house of the body with the house of the mind,” says Kimelman, giving audiences access to your inner world. “I don’t need to know what your thought is. But I need to know that there is one. It can be anything, but I need to know that something important is happening in your head.”

The post Expert Tips for Cultivating a Powerful, Captivating Gaze appeared first on Dance Magazine.

By 17, she was the prima ballerina of the Zagreb Opera Ballet; in 1936, she was among the winners of the Berlin Dance Olympics, the exposure from which propelled her to a successful solo career, a starring role in the French dance film La Mort du Cygne and a three-year contract with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Though she recalled joining the troupe as “a disastrous move…. I wanted to dance, but rarely got the chance,” it was through the Ballet Russe that she met Frederic Franklin, with whom she would form the short-lived Slavenska-Franklin Ballet and star in Valerie Bettis’ landmark A Streetcar Named Desire, and that she was able to relocate to the U.S., where she would perform, teach and direct for the rest of her life. 

After visiting Slavenska and her husband at their California home for the 1973 profile, writer Viola Hegyi Swisher reported, “The family includes dazzling tropical and gold-fish; cocker spaniels Nefertiti, Don Pedro and Doña Maria; a smart, shiny black crow admirably named Zarathustra; a pair of romantic white pigeons, Sir Lancelot and Gwenivere…. Nestling neatly in the refrigerator beside the dinner steaks and the luncheon ham is a little covered container. It holds pampered Zarathustra’s live worms.” 

The post TBT: Ballerina Mia Slavenska and Her Pet Crow, Zarathustra appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Since that first gathering, the organization­ has grown to encompass 13 geographical regions, each able to offer a spring conference that can host 300 to 500 dancers. Every other year, there’s also a national festival (first held in 1981) that highlights the “best of the best”: exceptional dances selected via adjudication from the regional events. More than 300 colleges and universities participate in ACDA conferences annually. Over the past five decades, ACDA’s conferences have welcomed more than 150,000 students, many of whom have gone on to enter the professional dance world as performers, choreographers and educators,­ as well as in other vital roles.

“One of ACDA’s strengths is as a platform for bringing established and rising artists together,” says executive director Diane DeFries. “There’s a richness in convening. Interacting with people, building relationships, seeing where they go—it’s an incredible source of energy.”

This month, 11 of the 13 regions will hold in-person conferences. Each event will include 50th-anniversary festivities, such as the showing of a film about ACDA; roundtable discussions about the organization’s past and future; and a
TikTok dance that students can learn and share. The anniversary celebration will culminate at the National College Dance Festival in May. (For more on what to expect, see “Making New Strides,” below.) Meanwhile, ACDA’s third annual Screendance Festival, an initiative launched during ACDA’s “Virtual Year” (2020–21), is planned for the fall.

ACDA’s aim has always been to support and affirm dance in higher education. This is particularly important at a moment when dance programs across the country are facing budget cuts—or are being cut entirely. “Having faculty from different schools be able to be resources for each other and share knowledge and experiences is invaluable,” DeFries says.

The idea of building networks has been a throughline from ACDA’s inception to its present, and it is integral to its leaders’ vision of what’s next. Beyond fostering community, “how can we be active in advocating for and instigating change in our field?” asks current board president Elizabeth Ahearn, a professor of dance at Goucher College in Baltimore. To that end, in 2022, ACDA adopted a set of core values, touching on themes of service, education, inclusion, respect and equity. “The core values will be a guide for all of our work going forward, from the programming we offer to our interactions with our members,” Ahearn says. “They will help us facilitate creative and physical experiences that can be life-changing. We can be visionary in imagining the future of college and university dance.”

Making New Strides

This year’s National College Dance Festival will go above and beyond.

ACDA’s biennial National College Dance Festival has long been a showcase for what board president Elizabeth Ahearn describes as “truly stunning choreographic and performative work from the upcoming generation of leaders in dance.” This year’s edition, to be held May 26–28, will have even more to offer.

For the first time, the festival will take place on the West Coast. (Most prior festivals have been held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.) A new host means new possibilities: California State University, Long Beach, boasts a venue spacious enough to allow for classes, workshops, auditions and roundtables during the day, with evening performances at the Richard and Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center.

Classes will cover an array of disciplines, including ballet, contemporary, hip hop, jazz, composition, improvisation and—in a nod to ACDA’s 50th anniversary—dance in the 1970s. The festival will also spotlight commercial dance. “Being in Southern California, we wanted to take advantage of the wealth of artists working in that field,” says Diane DeFries, ACDA’s executive director. “So many students are interested in commercial dance as a career path.”

Festival registration is capped at 500 participants. The Carpenter Center’s house seats 1,100. That creates room to broaden the audience beyond the performers’ teachers and peers. “We want to bring in alumni and people who’ve been important in devel­oping ACDA over the decades,” DeFries says. “We’ll also be making tickets available to the public.” In addition to the three gala concerts, the national festival will feature a screendance presentation and an informal performance, along with the presentation of the ACDA/Dance Magazine awards for Outstanding Student Choreography and Outstanding Student Performance.

ACDA hasn’t been able to host a national festival since 2018, due to COVID-19 disruptions, and the organization’s leaders are excited to be back. “Having this extraordinary work and these talented dancers together in one place is really inspirational,” Ahearn says. “We’ve never had the opportunity to do this much, at this scope, and it’s going to be a wonderful celebration.”

The post The American College Dance Association Celebrates 50 Years by Reflecting on Its Past and Looking to the Future appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Train Your Brain

Attempting a fast sequence without being 100 percent certain where your feet should be is a recipe for getting your legs tangled. That’s why former Houston Ballet principal Lauren Anderson has her students start by just saying the rhythm of a footwork sequence out loud—usually with “ya-da-da-da”s—before trying it with their feet. “If you understand the rhythm, it’s much easier to get your feet to do what you want them to do,” says Anderson, who now serves as associate director of education and community engagement for Houston Ballet Academy. “It’s amazing how much quicker you get results.”

Visualization can also be key to nailing fast footwork, says Lauren McIntyre, an athletic trainer who works with dancers at NYU Langone’s Harkness Center for Dance Injuries. Repetition is essential to gaining confidence in such movement, but it’s important­ not to overdo it. “There’s so much power in reviewing it with your mind or doing it with your hands,” she says. “You can use your mind to integrate into your body without hurting yourself.”

Remember Your Upper Body

It’s easy to be so focused on what your lower body is doing that you neglect your top half. But incorporating your upper body is essential—both to giving your legs and feet a much-needed assist and to making the movement look effortless.

One cue that helped flamenco dancer and teacher Laura Peralta’s posture when she started learning footwork: thinking of lifting herself out of a pool. “It’s a totally different cue from ‘chest high, shoulders down,’ ” she says. “Lifting that little bit in your core frees up your legs so much.” Another simple way to ensure you’re dancing with your whole body, says Peralta, is to avoid marking your arms, even when you’re first learning tricky footwork.

If you’re struggling with fast foot movement, you may want to look to an unexpected but frequent culprit in the upper­ body, says Anderson: the head. “It’s the heaviest part of the body,” she says. “So if it is in the wrong place—a lot of times it’s going the opposite way—it’s going to jack you up.” Make sure you know where your head should be placed, says Anderson, and where you should be looking, since “your eyes can get you there quicker—your eyes can get to the finish line before your body does.” Mind that you aren’t holding tension in your neck as you power through footwork, too, she says.

Agility Tips From an Athletic Trainer

Fast footwork relies on agility, says athletic trainer Lauren McIntyre, who works with dancers at NYU Langone’s Harkness Center for Dance Injuries. Use her recommendations to build the speed and coordination needed for quick movement.

Rest up. Both mental and physical fatigue impair coordination, says McIntyre, so be sure you’re getting enough rest. Also take note of when in your training you’re tackling rapid footwork: “You may find that fast footwork at the end of a class or training session doesn’t yield the same results as if you’d gotten warmed up and then dived right into it,” she says. Ensure you aren’t skimping on carbohydrates, too—you need them to power quick bursts of energy.

Lean into athleticism. Athletes and dancers share a need for agility, and McIntyre says training with exercises more commonly seen on the field—like ladder drills and dot drills—can help dancers with dynamic movement. Plus, she says: “It takes some of the pressure off—they don’t feel they need to be as perfect because it’s so different.” For younger dancers, McIntyre recommends not specializing too soon; playing sports alongside dance can develop athletic agility.

Boost your balance. Often, footwork requires being on one leg and quick shifts of weight between the feet. McIntyre recommends cultivating the needed stability through balance work: Try a star excursion exercise, where you stand in the middle of a circle of dots and tap each one with the same foot. Working on an unstable surface like a wobble board can improve your reactivity, as can any exercise with perturbations (like when you’re balancing and a partner gently taps you). “That’s what it’s all about when we’re doing fast-paced movement,” she says. “How fast can our body react?”

Don’t get caught up in perfectionism. Fast sequences usually require lots of practice to make perfect. But running footwork over and over again when you’re tired isn’t always productive, and can lead to injury. Instead, says McIntyre, use visualization for extra practice, or allow yourself to leave a movement behind for the day and give your body time to process it.

The post How to Conquer Quick, Complex Footwork appeared first on Dance Magazine.

In New York City, this ideology can be felt in the rooms where students learn. The school is still housed in the same Greenwich Village building where Joffrey enrolled his first students, and where he and Arpino even lived during the school’s earliest days. “You walk into that building, and into the studios, and you just get this sense of history,” Merwin says. “The building is very much a part of what the school is.”

Today, as Joffrey Ballet School celebrates 70 years, the school’s leadership holds this history close to heart in everything they do—particularly in the pre-professional offerings, which include a trainee program, the Joffrey Concert Group, JoffreyRED and the school’s summer intensives in New York City and beyond.

Trainee Program: Creating Employable Dancers

Joffrey Ballet School’s trainee program includes study in two distinct tracks: ballet and jazz and contemporary. The programs are full-time and year-round, open to students ages 13 to 25, and each led by its own artistic director.

Angelica Stiskin, artistic director of the JBS NYC Jazz & Contemporary Trainee Program, says, “There’s a focus on versatility and adaptability, being able to swallow these different vocabularies and aesthetics in a way that starts to create an agency around you as a dancer and as a performer.” The result: Dancers who can go anywhere, are adaptable to any professional requirement and who also know their worth as artists.

All trainee students begin their days with ballet technique. Depending on which track they select, the rest of the day is filled with pointe, partnering, men’s classes, jazz, modern, repertory, and contemporary ballet on pointe (for ballet trainees) and modern, hip hop, contemporary partnering, jazz, street jazz and theater dance (for the jazz and contemporary trainees), to name just a few.

The faculty, Stiskin shares, are all “amazing experts in their fields of study. They have working professional careers, they’re still working in the industry, and they might even have the ability to use my dancers for opportunities.” Throughout the year, trainees perform in fully produced shows and smaller studio showcases.

Joffrey Concert Group: Student Life, Professional Lifestyle

More performance opportunities are extended to dancers in the newly relaunched Joffrey Concert Group. The pre-professional ensemble is made up of 20 current trainees who are selected to work with additional choreographers outside their regular classes. Students then tour the works domestically with plans to eventually expand internationally.

Originally created by Joffrey in 1981, current artistic director Bradley Shelver brought the program back to life in September 2022. “It’s so steeped in history,” Shelver says. “My goal, consequently, is to think of how Robert Joffrey would have thought. He was forward-thinking. There is something exciting about seeing how this new generation is simulating the history and passing it forward and creating new vocabularies,” he says.

This year, the Concert Group will travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Emerson SPRING TO DANCE Festival in St. Louis, Missouri. It will also perform in New York City’s Bryant Park this summer. But first, the group will hold its premiere performances February 16–18 at the Ailey Citigroup Theater. Find ticket information here.

JoffreyRED: Renegades of Dance

In Los Angeles, BalletRED artistic director Josie Walsh leads JoffreyRED, a contemporary ballet apprenticeship program. Launched in 2022, it is an expansion of Walsh’s Joffrey summer programs that she has directed for over a decade. This upcoming fall, 2023, the apprenticeship program will grow to include a complimentary pre-professional contemporary ballet training program.

In partnership with BalletRED, Walsh’s contemporary ballet company, JoffreyRED is open to dancers ages 14 to 19. Students train full-time and year-round with daily ballet classes followed by pointe, men’s classes, partnering, contemporary and modern.

In addition to receiving technical training, students work with six choreographers, chosen by Walsh, during two-week residences throughout the year. “They’ll teach the contemporary class followed by a two-hour rehearsal process,” Walsh says of the resident artists. “They get to teach and mentor and really get the students understanding their style, not just their choreography.”

Students who become part of the year-round program also have the chance to be offered a professional contract with BalletRED. Founded over a decade ago, the company directs focus away from proscenium theater spaces, instead curating “lifestyle event” performances that involve the audience and promote collaboration with creators in music, fashion, science and more. BalletRED’s most recent performance, Frequency Volume One, is back by popular demand March 31 through April 2. Find more information here.

Joffrey Ballet School: Fostering Citizens of the Dance World

Robert Joffrey’s emphasis on moving dance beyond its traditional spaces guides Joffrey Ballet School in an increasing number of programs outside of New York City. In Dallas, the pre-professional trainee program provides dancers with the same caliber of training in a location that allows for a significant tuition reduction. This year, the Joffrey West Summer Intensive will move locations to California State University, Long Beach, where students will enjoy larger studios and more interconnected performance venues. Also this year, the Joffrey Colorado Summer Intensive will enter into a partnership with Boulder Ballet, merging faculties and curating performance opportunities in Boulder Ballet’s home theater. 

Beyond New York City, Joffrey Ballet School also hosts summer programs in a variety of genres in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Dallas, Athens, Georgia, Guadalajara, Mexico, and Comacchio, Italy. “We’re trying to cultivate as many relationships with regional and smaller to medium-sized dance companies that don’t necessarily have robust educational schools through which they can raise dancers,” Merwin says.As the organization continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic even stronger, Merwin adds that these programs and partnerships not only aim to excel educationally but to create “better citizens in the dance world.” Joffrey Ballet School’s depth of programming speaks to its success as it carries Joffrey’s legacy into the next 70 years.

The post As Joffrey Ballet School Turns 70, Robert Joffrey’s Legacy Is Stronger Than Ever appeared first on Dance Magazine.