Sadler’s Wells is already a presenting house, a producer of shows that tour internationally—including the recent U.S. engagements of Kate Prince’s Message in a Bottle, set to the songs of Sting—and a supporter of artists. The theater has 23 associate artists, including the likes of Akram Khan, Sharon Eyal, Oona Doherty, and Crystal Pite, and recently launched the £40,000 Rose International Dance Prize. 

The new mid-scale venue, which also houses six studios, will allow the theater to further expand its work and make a greater diversity of programming from regional and international artists possible. The smaller size of the theater means less financial risk for companies touring to London but leaves plenty of room for artistic risk, according to Sadler’s Wells artistic director and co-CEO Alistair Spalding. “We can be a little more courageous with some of the work,” he says. 

Sadler’s Wells East will also be home to the Rose Choreographic School, a new research initiative through which 13 choreographers will spend two years exploring their practice, with William Forsythe, Trajal Harrell, and Alesandra Seutin on the artistic faculty for the first cohort. “We really want it to be an engine for talent development,” says Spalding. “We want to be developing relationships and building the next generation.”

Fittingly in the year that breaking becomes an Olympic sport, Sadler’s Wells East will also house the U.K.’s first comprehensive hip-hop academy. Academy Breakin’ Convention will offer 16- to 19-year-olds a complete education in the elements of hip hop—breaking, popping, hip-hop social dance, emceeing, deejaying, music production, and graffiti—resulting in a BTEC diploma (equivalent to British A-Levels). It’s led by Jonzi D, artistic director of Sadler’s Wells’ hugely successful annual Breakin’ Convention festival.

Queen Elizabeth Park is in the borough of Newham, in East London, one of the city’s most economically deprived areas. Sadler’s Wells East is neighbor to a number of new outposts of cultural institutions, including V&A East, BBC music studios, and the London College of Fashion, part of the area’s burgeoning regeneration since the London Olympics. There will be a strong focus on community engagement, with a stage in the large foyer for local dance groups to perform on. Spalding hopes to nurture the rich pool of dance talent in East London, an area that has already produced some of the country’s leading hip-hop choreographers, such as Sadler’s Wells associate Botis Seva. The first show announced for the venue’s opening season, Our Mighty Groove, by choreographer Vicki Igbokwe-Ozoagu, will feature young East Londoners among the cast in an immersive production inspired by the transformative power of the club dance floor.

Originally slated to open in 2022, the construction of Sadler’s Wells East has been beset by delays caused by COVID-19 lockdowns and the rising prices of raw materials due to Brexit and the war in Ukraine. Spalding, for one, can’t wait for the doors to finally be open. “It’s been 10 years since the inception of the project,” he says. “So we’re really, really keen to get going now.” 

The post Sadler’s Wells East Will Be Home to a Choreographic Development Program, Hip-Hop Academy, and More appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Caprioli will present four pieces at different venues throughout Venice during the festival, including flat haze (2019), in which her explorative movements unfold under a canopy of threads. Her world premiere—The Bench, based on a textual narrative she wrote in 2020—will be performed in the middle of Venice’s famous Giardini park, where the festival’s visual art pavilions are located.

While Venice’s dance festival occurs annually, the Biennale’s historic visual art festival, which tends to draw a larger crowd, takes place on alternating years. So this summer offers a special opportunity for cross-pollination. “You’re getting this kind of accidental or occasional audience that come to see the art and then realize that there’s dance there,” says McGregor, “and they’re a critically curious audience who are willing to give feedback.”

Biennale attendees will have many dance options to choose from. Dance Magazine cover star Trajal Harrell, whom McGregor selected for the Silver Lion Award, will be presenting two works: his solo Sister or He Buried the Body and the group piece Tambourines. In Find Your Eyes, self-described “choreo-photolist” Benji Reid turns the stage into his photography studio, creating images of the three dance performers in real time. Dance meets technology in Swiss choreographer Nicole Seiler’s Human in a Loop, where the viewers watch AI setting movement for the dancers in real time, and in Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s genre-defying De Humani Corporis Fabrica, in which tools drawn from medical diagnostic technology and noninvasive microsurgery show the body from the inside out.

The through line in this diverse collection of dances? “Connection,” says McGregor. “My first sense was about touch. When you feel the weight of a body, you have a different responsibility and care for that body, when it’s not an abstracted thing.” His second layer of connection, of being “boundaryless,” opens the interpersonal to the global. “We’re in a situation politically and in the world where it’s so easy to dehumanize everyone,” he says. “I wanted the festival to concentrate on human stories and remind us what we all share.”

See the full schedule at labiennale.org.

The post “Innovative, Edgy, and Perhaps Difficult to Like”: The 2024 Venice Biennale’s Experimental Dances appeared first on Dance Magazine.

This summer, Odedra will be debuting two such creative exchanges, one on either side of the Atlantic. July 11–12, his 2020 work Samsara, a Journey to the West–inspired duet with Chinese dancer Hu Shenyuan, will make its U.S. debut at New York City’s Lincoln Center. Then, in August, Odedra will premiere Songs of the Bulbul, a new solo collaboratively created on him by Rani Khanam to a musical score by Rushil Ranjan, at Edinburgh International Festival.

Samsara is inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West and aims to trace the steps we take in search of our higher selves. What led you to explore this topic?

Journey to the West tells the story of a 7th-century monk who went from China to India to retrieve the original Buddhist scriptures. Many monks had already attempted the journey but never made it back. I had this image in my mind that it was the same monk life after life after life trying to get to his destination, and that he saw his footprints in the sand from the times he’d been there before. That’s how the idea for Samsara started.

I was also fascinated by the sense of cultural interdependence in the story. The fact that the monk wants to receive knowledge from a different culture is particularly interesting today as the invisible walls between nations are becoming so high.

Samsara is a duet with Chinese dancer Hu Shenyuan, who’s known for his fluid, mercury-like movement style. Tell us about your relationship.

Hu and I are like one soul split into two. He doesn’t speak any English, and I don’t speak any Chinese, so we communicate through eye contact and silence. We laugh at the same things and know exactly what each other’s thinking. When we’re moving together, we know within a fraction of a second what the other’s going to do. We have this incredible give-and-take.

I read that you have similar life stories, too.
I decided to leave Birmingham at 15 because I felt like the environment around me didn’t match the environment within. Hu also left his hometown at 15 to train at Beijing Dance Academy. At that age, you can only imagine what the world’s going to be like. There’s this sense of not knowing where you’re going, but knowing that you have to do a journey. That is the main similarity between us: Something pulled us on a path that was carved out before we were conscious enough to know what it was. That something was dance.

It’s a busy summer for you: You’re also premiering a new solo, Songs of the Bulbul at Edinburgh International Festival in August.

Bulbul is inspired by the ancient Sufi myth of a Persian bird that gets captured and sings a beautiful, melancholic song. There’s a process of training that the bird has to undergo for the melody to reach its highest level of potency: It’s first put in a large, golden cage near a window, where it sings in reverence of its former freedom. From there, it’s placed in an even smaller cage. Because of the confined environment, it sings more powerfully to be free. The process carries on like this until the final stage when the bird’s eyes are removed, and it sings its final song before leaving the world.

This story reminded me of the life of an artist. Every time I’m onstage, I die a little. I leave a small part of myself with the audience until there’s nothing left to give. For me, this isn’t a negative thing. When the bird in the story dies, it’s freed from its cage as well as the body that contained its powerful soul. Bulbul is about this sense of freedom.

Bulbul is being made on you by Indian kathak dancer, choreographer, and guru Rani Khanam. Why is it important for you to have work created on you as well as choreograph your own works?

I love going into other people’s worlds. I feel like I will be a student for life because I always want to learn. I also love that through Bulbul I’m able to give Rani a chance to work with lighting and dramaturgy, which isn’t so common in India, and to make her world more accessible to people who aren’t normally exposed to it.

Samsara has some very iconic scenic elements, including a stream of sand that pours from above. Can we expect something similar in Bulbul?

It’s become a running joke in the company: “What’s going to fall from above next?” In Bulbul there’ll be a lot of candles and petals, which are very important in Persian poetry. When the bird dies, I want to use light to suggest that it leaves behind an imprint of positivity and energy. I like to immerse myself in worlds that I can get lost in.

The post Aakash Odedra on Cross-Cultural Collaborations and Entering Other Choreographers’ Worlds appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Comings & Goings

Amy Cassello has been named artistic director of Brooklyn Academy of Music after serving in the role on an interim basis since last fall.

Theresa Buchheister will step down as artistic director of New York City’s The Brick at the end of August.

Maya Erhardt has been appointed executive director of Richmond Ballet, effective July 1.

Stéphane Labbé has been named executive director of Ballets Jazz Montréal, beginning July 29.

Aaron Myers has been appointed executive director of Boston Dance Alliance, after serving in the role in an interim capacity.

Jenny Novac has been named interim executive director of Dorrance Dance.

Lissa Twomey will step down as executive director of The Australian Ballet.

At English National Ballet, beginning with the new season, Gareth Haw has been promoted to principal; Precious Adams, Ivana Bueno, Lorenzo Trossello, and Erik Woolhouse to first soloist; Rentaro Nakaaki, Emily Suzuki, and Francesca Velicu to soloist; and Alice Bellini, Georgia Bould, Minju Kang, Eric Snyder, Angela Wood, and Rhys Antoni Yeomans to junior soloist. Lead principal Erina Takahashi adds the position of répétiteur.

At the National Ballet of Canada, Tirion Law has been promoted to principal, Hannah Galway to first soloist, Emerson Dayton, Keaton Leier, and Isaac Wright to second soloist. First soloist Jordana Daumec has retired.

Harrison James will perform as a principal at both National Ballet of Canada and San Francisco Ballet for the 2024–25 season.

San Francisco Ballet principal Isaac Hernández has departed the company.

Hope Boykin, mayfield brooks, Kayla Hamilton, Soomi Kim, Baba Oludaré, and Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre are among Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2024 resident artists.

Vidya Patel has been named artist in residence of the Philharmonia Orchestra for the 2024–25 season.

Awards & Honors

Chief Manny (Brandon Calhoun), Brendan Fernandes, Darrell Jones, Vershawn Sanders-Ward, and Robyn Mineko Williams are among the inaugural recipients of the Walder Foundation’s Platform Awards, each of which includes a $200,000 unrestricted grant and professional development opportunities.

Justin Peck won the 2024 Tony Award for Best Choreography for Illinoise. Other winners included The Outsiders for Best Musical and Merrily We Roll Along for Best Revival of a Musical.

Justin Peck received the 2024 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography for Illinoise at Park Avenue Armory.

Winners at the UK’s National Dance Awards included Iain Webb (Outstanding Achievement), William Bracewell (Best Male Dancer), Fumi Kaneko (Best Female Dancer), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (Outstanding Company), ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company (Best Midscale Company), Drew McOnie Company (Best Independent Company), William Forsythe (Best Classical Choreography, for The Barre Project by Tiler Peck and Friends), Kyle Abraham (Best Modern Choreography, for Are you in Your Feelings? at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater), Brandon Lawrence (Outstanding Male Classical Performance, for Liebestod at Birmingham Royal Ballet), Tiler Peck (Outstanding Female Classical Performance, for Turn It Out by Tiler Peck and Friends), Paris Fitzpatrick (Outstanding Male Modern Performance, for Romeo + Juliet with New Adventures), Jemima Brown (Outstanding Female Modern Performance, for Surge with Tom Dale Company), Sae Maeda (Emerging Artist), Carlos Acosta (Outstanding Creative Contribution, for the concept of Black Sabbath – The Ballet), York Dance Project (Best Dance Film, for Sea of Troubles), and Javier De Frutos (Best Short Dance Film, for Whoever You Are).

Wayne McGregor, CBE, was named a Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Choreographers Mandy Moore, Kenny Ortega, Prem Rakshith, and Woo-Ping Yuen have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ 2024–25 Dance Research Fellows are Marina Harss, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Alessandra Nicifero, Marcelline Mandeng Nken, Brian Seibert, and Maria Vinogradova.

Jenna Savella received National Ballet of Canada’s 2023/24 David Tory Award, which includes a $3,500 prize. Monika Haczkiewicz and David Preciado received the Patron Award of Merit, which includes a $1,500 prize.

Derek Brockington was named to Crain’s New York Business’ “20 in Their 20s 2024” list.

New Funding Opportunity

The initial application period for Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists, which will award $31,000 unrestricted grants to at least 25 individual artists as well as additional resources, is open until Thursday, August 15. More information here.

The post News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in June 2024 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

How did you discover that you loved pole dancing?

I don’t even remember how I found out about pole. I think I had some friends who did it. Having a background in Irish dance, there’s not a lot of opportunities to connect with your body. I’m someone who’s been through a lot with my body in terms of being a trans person, so I was like, This seems like something that will be really good for reconnecting with my body in a positive way. I also wanted to work on my upper body strength—Irish dancing is all in the legs.

Why is it that Irish dancing doesn’t allow you that connection to your body and pole dancing does?

Irish dancing does bring me so much joy. But you’re covered from head to toe, you don’t show any skin. The more you advance in pole, the less clothes you have to wear, because you need your body to grip the pole. I struggled with that at first. I would always wear a crop top, and that made me really dysphoric because it reminded me that I had breasts and that they shouldn’t be there. At my first showcase at the studio, I did it just with trans tape and pole undies. I was so nervous. I was like, All these people in the audience know that I’ve got boobs. Then I performed and it was just so joyful. I just felt like I was like every other guy.

I got gender-affirming surgery in September, and did my first performance topless without any tape early this year. It was truly one of the happiest moments of my life. I was like, I am dancing with my dream chest on display, in front of all these people. That’s not something I could do in Irish dancing, to have my scars on show and to be who I am and have everyone there cheering me on as a trans-masc person.

How has your pole dancing community welcomed and helped you?

I was a bit nervous when I first went because I’m quite often the only trans person in the room. I remember having a chat with one of the owners and saying that in the past I hadn’t always felt included in spaces. She was like, “If anyone says anything negative to you, tell me, because we will not allow that.” That made me feel so incredibly supported and safe.

In terms of accessing surgery, I needed it physically and mentally. Physically, the damage to my body from binding had hit a level where I needed surgery. I had been binding for six years and it was not good. And mentally, my chest dysphoria has always been really debilitating, and it was really affecting me. It was halting my progression in pole and my performance in Irish—I wouldn’t practice because I couldn’t deal with seeing my chest.

I saw a surgeon and got a date, and it was a lot sooner than I was expecting and I just didn’t have the money. I was panicking and I brought it up at the studio to some of my friends, and one of the owners overheard. She called me over and was like, “When do you need the money? Why don’t we have our next showcase be a fundraiser for your top surgery?” I had so many emotions. I had to take time to think about it because I was so shocked.

The showcases that we do are called “Category Is,” and the category gets decided a week or two out from the show. They named it “Category Is: Trans Pride,” and you had to dress in the colors of the trans flag. I felt so incredibly held by this community and this dance studio.

What has the response been to sharing your journey with pole dancing?

I struggled when I first started pole, thinking, Is it weird if I do pole as a trans guy? Are people gonna judge me? But representation is so important. Hopefully, there are some femme trans guys out there who can see me performing or see me at a competition, or see me online. And if they want to pole dance, or they want to wear eight-inch heels, or they want to wear makeup, or they want to grow their hair, they can do that, because they can see, Oh, he’s doing it, and he’s celebrated, and he’s accepted.

The post How Trans Irish Dancer Hayden Moon Found a New Home in Pole Dancing appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Dream a Little Bigger

PARIS  Hofesh Shechter plunges into the subconscious with Theatre of Dreams. The choreographer’s latest evening-length unearths the fantasies and emotions that permeate both dreams and the waking mind. Performed by Hofesh Shechter Company and a small band of live musicians, the new work premieres in Paris at Théâtre de la Ville June 27–July 17 ahead of a European tour this fall. hofesh.co.uk.

Ballet Is Black

WASHINGTON, DC  Following its weeklong celebration of Black ballet dancers in 2022, Kennedy Center hosts Pathways to Performance: Exercises in Reframing the Narrative for a two-show engagement showcasing works by Black choreographers, danced by Black artists. Guest curated by Theresa Ruth Howard (who will bring Pathways to Jacob’s Pillow the following weekend), the program includes the first full staging of a recent work by Portia Adams and a premiere from Meredith Rainey alongside new commissions by Jennifer Archibald and Kiyon Ross, the latter a pas de deux created for Ashton Edwards and Zsilas Michael Hughes. Donald Byrd’s From Other Suns, which was commissioned for the 2022 edition of the program, also returns. July 2–3. kennedy-center.org.

Dorrance Dances

NEW YORK CITY  Michelle Dorrance and her dream team of percussive dance collaborators return to The Joyce Theater with a brand-new work. July 16–21. joyce.org.

Who’s On Pointe?

SAN FRANCISCO  Ballet22 (one of our 2022 “25 to Watch”) brings works by Houston Thomas, William Forsythe, and Christian Denice, and an excerpt from Giselle—all danced by men, mxn, and nonbinary dancers on pointe—to ODC Theater for its summer season. Aug. 9–11. ballet22.com.

The post 4 Summer Performances Happening Outside the Festival Umbrella appeared first on Dance Magazine.

American Dance Festival

DURHAM, NC  Following performances by Ballet Hispánico, Hung Dance, Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Baye & Asa, Doug Varone and Dancers, Kayla Farrish, and Les Ballet Afrik in June, American Dance Festival bookends a busy July with Netta Yerushalmy’s festival debut (MOVEMENT, July 2) and Paul Taylor Dance Company in a trio of its founder’s classics (July 26–27). In between are ADF-commissioned premieres from Dom-Sebastian Alexis, Iyun Ashani Harrison, Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, Stacy Wolfson and Curtis Eller, Milka Djordjevich, and ShaLeigh Dance Works; the ADF debut of Shay Kuebler’s Radical System Art; Urban Bush Women in Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar; and more. Plus, the festival continues to expand beyond the summer, with Chris Yon & Taryn Griggs presenting YOGGS FAMILY NEWSLETTER, 2014-present (at the Nasher Museum of Art on Sept. 12); and the premiere of Carl Flink’s Battleground, for Black Label Movement (Oct. 11–13). americandancefestival.org.

Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival

BECKET, MA  Among the multitude of dance artists making the pilgrimage to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival this summer will be The Royal Ballet, which takes over both the indoor and outdoor stages for its weeklong Pillow debut—and with a new work by Wayne McGregor among its offer­ings. Camille A. Brown & Dancers also premieres I AM, inspired by an episode of “Lovecraft Country.” Multi-day engagements mark the Pillow debuts of Social Tango Project, M.A.D.D. Rhythms, MoBBallet’s Pathways to Performance, Dancers of Damelahamid, and Gibney Company, while other intriguing programs from the likes of Shawn L. Stevens and Friends, Miguel Gutierrez, Annie Hanauer, Kankouran West African Dance Company, DaEun Jung, and Princess Lockerooo appear for just one evening—plus many more performances and events across the nine-week extravaganza. June 26–Aug. 25. jacobspillow.org.

Bates Dance Festival

LEWISTON, ME  Aretha Aoki and Ryan MacDonald kick off the performance series at Bates Dance Festival with the premiere of IzumonookunI, inspired by the founder of kabuki and featuring the couple’s 7-year-old daughter. Sean Dorsey Dance returns to Bates to give the local premiere of The Lost Art of Dreaming, and Shamel Pitts’ TRIBE offers BLACK HOLE — Trilogy and Triathlon. New this summer is an invitational dance battle featuring breaking, hip-hop, and house dancers, moderated by Shakia “The Key” Barron and Duane Lee Holland Jr. July 12–Aug. 2. batesdancefestival.org.

Vail Dance Festival

VAIL, CO  The always-starry Vail Dance Festival boasts eye-catching debuts among its eclectic offerings this summer, including artist in residence Sara Mearns in Martha Graham’s Clytemnestra, American Ballet Theatre stars Catherine Hurlin and Aran Bell in Jerome Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun, and New York City Ballet’s Roman Mejia’s first Apollo outing. Michelle Dorrance puts on a full evening celebrating the history and progression of tap dance (July 31), while the Colorado Dances program (Aug. 4) showcases Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Colorado Ballet, and DanceAspen. It all culminates in the NOW: Premieres program Aug. 5, with new works by Kyle Abraham, Dorrance, Lauren Lovette, Justin Peck, Tiler Peck, artist in residence Jamar Roberts, and Pam Tanowitz. July 26–Aug. 5. vaildance.org.

Edinburgh International Festival

EDINBURGH  The Scottish capital bursts at the seams every August, but a trio of dance gems can be found at the Edinburgh International Festival this year. Brazilian troupe Grupo Corpo presents two UK premieres, Gil Refazendo and Gira, Aug. 5–7. Aakash Odedra debuts a new solo, Songs of the Bulbul, exploring a Sufi myth about a captured bulbul (a songbird that symbolizes the pursuit of religious enlightenment in Sufism), developed in collaboration with Rani Khanam, Aug. 9–11. And Kidd Pivot brings Assembly Hall, Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young’s latest dance theater work set at the annual general meeting of a group of medieval reenactors where the lines between Arthurian myth and reality blur, Aug. 22–24. eif.co.uk.

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It was great to see Justin Peck accepting his second Tony (the first was in 2018, for Carousel) back on the stage of Lincoln Center’s Koch Theater, home first to his dancing and then to his choreography for New York City Ballet. It was a reminder of how much nourishment today’s Broadway musicals get from other fields of dance. This year’s Tony-nominated choreographers—Brown, the Kupermans, Peck, Robb and Carroll, and Annie-B Parson, who rearranged her surging choreography for the downtown hit Here Lies Love when it briefly reopened on Broadway—came with experience not just in ballet but in contemporary concert dance, circus arts, and martial arts, all moving Broadway musicals in new directions.

For the old ways, there was the Tonys’ traditional In Memoriam section, accompanied by a mournful rendition of “What I Did for Love,” from A Chorus Line, sung by Nicole Scherzinger (her Olivier-winning performance in Sunset Boulevard arrives on Broadway this fall). Thankfully, the Tony producers ignored the dreadful precedent set by this year’s Oscars broadcast, which featured 20 dancers sweeping across the stage as photos and illegible names flashed on overhead screens—simultaneously insulting both the departed and the dance, neither of which was allowed to actually register. By contrast, the heartfelt tributes to the late, lamented Chita Rivera—from Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, and Audra McDonald—incorporated dance snippets that distilled the essence of her most memorable roles. And when DeBose arrived in a lilac dress to lead the company of dancers in “America,” from West Side Story, you had to wish that the snippets had been longer.

It’s possible that the segment was truncated when the broadcast added a number from Stereophonic to the show. David Adjmi’s play about a ’70s rock band recording an album earned a record 13 nominations—aided by the fact that most plays don’t compete in categories like Best Orchestrations and Best Score. When one of the show’s five Tonys went to Adjmi for Best Play, he closed his acceptance speech with a remark that surely resonated with an audience full of art makers. Calling for government funding of the arts, he said, “It’s the hallmark of a civilized society.” Wonder if any candidates were watching.

The post 2024 Tony Awards Recap: Sampling Broadway’s Dance Banquet appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch co-direct Jellicle’s premiere run, which begins June 13 at the new Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) in lower Manhattan. 

What were your first impressions of each other?

Arturo Lyons: Of Omari? I just remember he had so much energy on that runway, jumping around, going crazy. [Laughs]

Omari Wiles: When I was first introduced to Arturo, he was in the House of Manolo Blahnik and I instantly gravitated toward his style, his technique.

AL: It’s easy for us to create together because we have such respect for each other.

When did each of you first encounter Cats?

AL: I grew up on Cats and had friends who’d seen it. I’ve always had this vision embedded in my head of cats on garbage cans, their eyes glowing green, so magical and mystical. 

OW: My elementary school took us to see Cats on Broadway as a field trip. I’d grown up with African dance, but that was my first time seeing contemporary dance and ballet in a theater. I remember the storytelling about how the cats were trying to ascend to the Heaviside Layer or, to borrow the words we use in ballroom, to become legendary.

How are you drawing upon your experience as teachers?

OW: The cast is a mixture of people who are new to vogue but have a musical theater background, and people who participate in ballroom. Arturo and I both teach vogue for all levels, from beginner to intermediate to advanced, and, as choreographers, we want to make sure that everyone looks good—that the ideas in our head look good on these bodies.

AL: Our teacher hats are definitely on, to get everyone in the cast on the same level so, as choreographers, we don’t have to hold ourselves back.

OW: Also, basically everyone in the ensemble for the original Cats was a trained dancer, but, in this version, not every category is a dance category. So it’s about training these actors and dancers how to feel being a model, how to feel walking Best Dressed, how to feel walking Face, how to feel the fashion.

How has being involved in “Legendary” informed this process so far?

AL: “Legendary” gave us publicity and put us in front of more eyes than we usually have on us, but I’ve been creating these types of performances long before that show ever came around.

OW: Whether it’s “Legendary”or these other shows that Arturo and I have put on together, it’s definitely different from a real-life ball, where anything goes and anything can happen. For a show, things have to be tight. The energy from the audience changes every evening, but the show stays the same. We’re structuring this musical to be as authentic, but also as presentational, as possible, with help from the directors.

How does the music relate to the original score? Should we expect remixes, new arrangements, or new songs, or all of those things?

AL: I think you should wait and see and find out. [Laughs]

Capital Kaos is credited as “ballroom consultant.” What do they bring to this Ball?

OW: Capital Kaos is one of my house members and a ballroom DJ, who’s known for a lot of beats and mixes, who’s adding some of those nuances to the original score. So that’s a little hint in response to your previous question.

Vogue, like any other dance form, is always evolving and reflecting its time. Does either of you feel the movement in this show could become a record of where vogue was in 2024?

AL: I think it’ll be a snapshot like that, but also an homage to what it was.

OW: Right. Vogue’s evolved from the old way—you know, pops, dips, and spins—to now, vogue femme, which is more fluid, with more articulation in the way we use our hips in the catwalks, in the way that we arch our backs.

Sounds feline. Anything else you’d like to share about the Ball?

AL: It’ll be immersive because of the way the venue is designed, and things may happen unexpectedly.

OW: We’re bringing the magic, the glitz, the glamour, the fashion, and the creativity that comes from ballroom to the musical theater stage, and we’re adapting the original story to fit ballroom, to show people: These descriptions of cats? They’re real lives, coming from the queer community. That even in fiction, there’s truth. 

The post Arturo Lyons and Omari Wiles Walk Us Through Choreographing <i>The Jellicle Ball</i>, a <i>Cats</i> Set in the World of Ballroom Culture appeared first on Dance Magazine.

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Comings & Goings

Nikolaj Hübbe will step down as artistic director of Royal Danish Ballet at the conclusion of his current contract in summer 2026.

Amanda Ram will serve as National Ballet of Canada’s interim executive director after Barry Hughson departs for American Ballet Theatre on July 1.

Lucinda Lent has stepped down as executive director of L.A. Dance Project, with artistic director Benjamin Millepied assuming the additional role.

Dance Umbrella Festival artistic director Freddie Opoku-Addaie and executive director Tania Wilmer have been named joint chief executive officers.

Zack Winokur has been named producing artistic director of New York City’s Little Island.

National Ballet of Canada senior répétiteur Peter Ottmann will retire from the company at the end of the current season.

At New York City Ballet, Emma Von Enck has been promoted to principal, David Gabriel, Jules Mabie, and Alec Knight to soloist.

At Philadelphia Ballet, beginning with the 2024–25 season, Sydney Dolan has been promoted to principal, Pau Pujol and So Jung Shin to first soloist, Jacqueline Callahan, Lucia Erickson, Isaac Hollis, and Nicholas Patterson to soloist, and Yuval Cohen and Mine Kusano to demi soloist.

At Miami City Ballet, Cameron Catazaro has been promoted to principal soloist, Mayumi Enokibara to soloist.

San Francisco Ballet principal Angelo Greco will join Houston Ballet as a principal at the start of the 2024–25 season.

Pacific Northwest Ballet principal James Kirby Rogers will depart at the end of the current season to join Dresden Semperoper Ballet. Soloist Ezra Thomson will retire from performance and shift to the role of rehearsal director at PNB at the start of the 2024–25 season.

Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre principal Yoshiaki Nakano and soloist William Moore have retired. Principal Masahiro Haneji and soloists Jessica McCann and Gustavo Ribeiro will depart the company at the end of the current season.

Big Muddy Dance Company has rebranded as Saint Louis Dance Theatre.

Awards & Honors

Rosie Herrera was named the inaugural recipient of the National Center for Choreography-Akron’s Knight Choreography Prize, which includes a $30,000 unrestricted grant and $20,000 in programmatic support over two years.

Misty Copeland received the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music and Dance in America from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Justin Peck received the 2024 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Choreography (Broadway or off-Broadway) for Illinoise.

Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreographer for their work on Buena Vista Social Club.

Winners at the 2024 Chita Rivera Awards included Camille A. Brown (tie, Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show, Hell’s Kitchen), Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll (tie, Outstanding Choreography in a Broadway Show, Water for Elephants), Antoine Boissereau (Outstanding Dancer in a Broadway Show, Water for Elephants), Tilly Evans-Krueger (Outstanding Dancer in a Broadway Show, The Outsiders), the cast of Illinoise (Outstanding Ensemble in a Broadway Show), Jennifer White (Outstanding Choreography in a Theatrical Release, Barbie), and David Petersen (Outstanding Direction of a Dance Documentary, Lift). Mayte Natalio received the Douglas and Ethel Watt Critics’ Choice Award. Phil LaDuca received the Vanguard Award.

New Funding Opportunity

Dance/NYC is accepting expressions of interest for the fourth iteration of its Dance Advancement Fund, which will award two-year general operating support grants of $6,000 to $40,000, as well as ongoing professional development, beginning in September. It is open to New York City–based organizations with operating budgets between $25,000 and $250,000. Expression of interest forms are due June 18, at 5 pm ET; more information available here.

The post News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in May 2024 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

What drew you to Coppélia, and how does this work relate to your other reimaginings of classical ballets?

In 2017, I was working on a dance-based project inspired by the artist Greer Lankton. She was a trans woman, and she made these really incredible dolls that were versions of herself and her friends. It made me think about Coppélia, and the power dynamics that existed between Dr. Coppélius and Coppélia. Within the context of ballet, I’ve also felt like a doll my whole life—I’d put on performance makeup and experience this dysphoria or disembodiment when I looked in the mirror. I began to properly research Coppélia’s history as a travesty ballet in 2021, and I was like, “Of course I have to do this!”

The same themes always come up when I look back at my work: intense suffering and pain often caused by relationships to expectations, which is deeply intertwined with ballet. There are often these central characters going through something, whether it’s death, transformation, or reclamation. But there is also always joy—it’s very important that there is joy as a way out.

What has the choreographic process for the show looked like?

I started with a lot of improvisations with the dancers moving each other’s limbs around. I want to play these push-and-pull games where we get into positions, almost like dolls, to see what it feels and looks like, and we go from there.

The dancers also learned a men’s variation of their choice as an exercise, and the show’s version of the mazurka was born from that. Creating that section felt like a full fantasy to me—we were playing together, figuring out how we could make it weird and doll-like. I channeled John Jasperse and Cunningham a bit, thinking about the physics of movement in a mathematical way.

What were some of the inspirations for the costumes and makeup?

Karen Boyer, our costume designer, created this incredible look for the show based on concepts, eras, and photographers I’d researched, including Claude Cahun, a French surrealist photographer from the 1910s and ’20s whose work explored their gender identity; lesbian salon culture in turn-of-the-century Paris; the Weimar Republic era in Berlin—just queer extravagance and theatricality on display.

What were some of the takeaways from your research process?

Diving into the world of travesty ballets was so affirming. To know that these performers—who were considered to be women (I’m not sure how they might identify now in the context of our current time)—had fans and power and were honored and celebrated. I’ve always been really into “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and I drew these parallels to modern-day drag and how much people love it. My own experience with drag was especially formative. I had just stopped ballet and had this huge,180-degree moment as a freshman in college where I felt really powerful and able to tap into these qualities of strength and power through drag, and it let me step into these parts of myself that I’d never felt like I was allowed to be in before.

How do you make space for joy when there are so many other heavy feelings present in your work?

I think they really go hand in hand. To share traumatic things requires a certain amount of safety, connection, and support, but these feelings also yield a lot of joy. If something isn’t fun for me in the studio, I won’t want to go, so I try to find the things that provoke this feeling of life force.

At the end of the day, I want to allow the dancers to feel really checked into themselves. That’s ultimately what I want to project into the ballet world—dancing from a sense of connection and embodiment versus stress and disconnection.  

The post Ballez’ Katy Pyle Creates a <i>Coppélia</i> Rooted in Queer History appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Slated to appear are ballet dancers Jindallae Bernard (Houston Ballet) and Yuval Cohen (Philadelphia Ballet); Broadway choreographer Karla Puno Garcia; contemporary artists Miguel Alejandro Castillo, Lucy Fandel, Sydnie L. Mosley, Donovan Reed (A.I.M by Kyle Abraham), and Danielle Swatzie; Irish and hip-hop dancer Kaitlyn Sardin; jazz dancer Erina Ueda (Giordano Dance Chicago); tap dancer Naomi Funaki; and choreographer Kia Smith, who will premiere a new work for a member of her South Chicago Dance Theatre.

Get your tickets here!

This event is sponsored by Philadelphia Ballet and the George Mason University School of Dance.

Across L–R: (1) Alejandro Castillo; photo by Maria Baranova Photography, courtesy Castillo. Donovan Reed; photo by Christopher Duggan, courtesy A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham. Lucy Fandel; photo by Bailey Eng, courtesy Fandel. Karla Puno Garcia; photo by Laura Irion, courtesy Garcia. (2) Yuval Cohen; photo by Arian Molina Soca, courtesy Philadelphia Ballet. Kia Smith; photo by Michelle Reid, courtesy Smith. Jindallae Bernard; photo by Amitava Sarkar, courtesy Houston Ballet. Sydnie L. Mosley; photo by Travis Coe, courtesy Mosley. (3) Erina Ueda; photo by Todd Rosenberg, courtesy Giordano Dance Chicago. Danielle Swatzie; photo by Shoccara Marcus (Schocphoto), courtesy Swatzie. Kaitlyn Sardin; photo by Isabella Herrera, courtesy Sardin. Miguel Naomi Funaki; photo by Christopher Duggan, courtesy Ayodele Casel.

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Ubeda’s performance snagged one of those Chita nominations; another went to Rachel Lockhart, making her Broadway debut as Morgan after joining the show before its January run at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and its sold-out stop at New York City’s Park Avenue Armory in March.

Despite the differences in their backgrounds—he’s the first artist in his Miami family, she started training “fresh out of the womb” in her mother’s Birmingham dance studio—and their career tracks—his began in a Broadway ensemble, she’d always expected to join a company—they talk about Illinoise in similar terms. He sees his younger self in the role of Henry, “a young queer man who is coming of age,” and she finds echoes of her own questions about ancestry and identity in Morgan’s searching solo to “Jacksonville.”

Peck’s history is reflected in the show as well. “Most people know me from ballet,” he says. “But I really got my start from musicals.” Inspired by regular family trips to New York City to see shows (Bring in ’da Noise, Bring in ’da Funk was the standout), he was a tap dancer for years before “broadening out.” “Ballet came last,” he says, and when he began choreographing, he “was always a little bit restless about staying in one particular lane.”

With its wide-ranging styles and stories, both on and off the stage, Illinoise travels in multiple lanes that crisscross in surprising (and unsurprising) ways. Tyrone Reese, one of the understudies, was a year behind Lockhart at the Alabama School of Fine Arts and followed her to Juilliard; Lockhart didn’t know cast member Kara Chan, but soon discovered she was also a Juilliard alum. Ubeda and Gaby Diaz have known each other since they were 10, and Ubeda and Ahmad Simmons, who plays his lover in Illinoise, have done four Broadway shows together. Lockhart and Byron Tittle, whose tapping augments her “Jacksonville” number, have both danced with Doja Cat. And Ubeda, Diaz, and Lockhart were also memorable contestants on “So You Think You Can Dance”; Ubeda won Season 11.

Among Ubeda’s “SYTYCD” prizes was a contract for On the Town. He’d never seen a show, much less envisioned a Broadway career. “I had to learn it in three days,” he recalls. He credits that experience for the “sense of community” Lockhart says she felt when she first walked into an Illinoise rehearsal. “What we do onstage has to do with a group of friends who are warm with each other,” Ubeda says. “And we’ve all been in those shoes, where we are the youngest and newest person. At On the Town, they made me feel so at home. We all make it a point to make sure newcomers have what they need to succeed, and with these, it wasn’t hard—they bring something new to our campfire.” And to the ecosystem.

The post Inside the Creation of <i>Illinoise</i>’s Onstage—and Offstage—Community appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Pointe of Pride (May 21, Chicago Review Press) picks up a year after the events of Pas de Don’t, following Carly Montgomery—­career corps member at New York Ballet and best friend of Pas de Don’t protagonist Heather Hays—as she arrives in Sydney for Heather’s wedding during winter layoffs, only to learn that company promotions are happening much sooner than anticipated. Determined to get the soloist contract she wants under the company’s new director but unable to impress in-person from the other side of the world, Carly comes up with a plan: boost her social media presence by collaborating with dancer-turned-photographer Nick Jacobs, whom she’s already spending a lot of time with as they complete maid of honor and best man duties. The problem? They can’t stand each other.

A funny, compelling enemies-to-lovers romance, Pointe of Pride deftly handles topics like intimacy and pelvic floor dysfunction (a not uncommon issue for dancers), the precarity of dance careers, and the fears that can accompany transitioning away from performing.

The post A New Ballet-World Rom-Com From Chloe Angyal 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.

At first glance, the trend seems too good to be true. Thousands of new or renovated square feet, at a price a nonprofit dance organization can afford?

It is true that developers’ motives are rarely altruistic: Many have found tax and other benefits to pairing up with dance companies. And not all of these unusual developer–company marriages have been entirely happy. Still, participants in four recent partnerships say their deals have offered remarkably good solutions to longstanding problems—and deepened their understanding of the business side of dance.

Space That Supports the Art

Nimbus Dance began in 2005 as a pickup group rehearsing at a church in Jersey City, New Jersey. By 2017, it had evolved into a large organization supporting professional and second companies, a school, and community-engagement programs. Artistic director Samuel Pott knew that it needed more, and better, space.

“We had conversations with the local government about the need for arts spaces in Jersey City,” Pott says. “Although it’s right across the river from Manhattan, it’s been ignored by arts funding or long-term institutional arts planning.”

The developer Quarterra approached the company in 2017, just as construction was ticking upward in rapidly gentrifying Jersey City. By partnering with a nonprofit arts organization, an earlier developer had been able to secure permission from the city to build what would become Quarterra’s Lively apartment complex six stories higher than originally planned.

Nimbus’ side of the deal? A 14,900-square-foot arts center at The Lively, containing four studios, administrative offices, and a 150-seat black-box theater. The company’s tiered, 30-year lease is highly subsidized, with progressive increases over time, especially at the five-year mark. Nimbus draws additional income from renting the studios and theater to other companies.

Pott says negotiating the deal and becoming a property manager required a steep learning curve, but so far, there haven’t been many downsides. “It puts us into a different category as an arts organization,” he says. “We can keep our sets and props on hand. We can hold company class. Those kinds of basic elements really allow us to take the artmaking to another level.”

A Symbiotic Relationship

City Ballet San Francisco executive director Ken Patsel estimates the organization saved the developer of its new studios millions.

In 2018, investors were looking to buy and redevelop five buildings in the city’s Mid-Market area, including one that housed the studios CBSF had occupied for 15 years. Patsel—who runs CBSF with his wife, former Bolshoi Ballet and San Francisco Ballet dancer Galina Alexandrova—appealed to city planners, bringing their students into City Hall as part of a lobbying effort that effectively expedited construction by months, if not years.

“They melted,” Patsel says of the planning commission. “I had one of the members of the planning department in tears when one of the little girls had to stand on her tippy toes to talk about the virtues of having a new school.”

CBSF got an impressive facility inside the developer’s new 28-story building, the Chorus. The company now has a 10,000-square-foot school and quarterly access to the on-site theater that Patsel designed.

“The theater they built was to the nines,” Patsel says. “I presented them with the best, most expensive option on every front—and I’ll be darned if they didn’t say yes to every one of them.”

Patsel reminds the property owners of CBSF’s crucial support regularly—when the rent comes due. He negotiated their agreement before the pandemic, which hit CBSF especially hard. Enrollment dropped as they moved into a temporary space across town while the new high-rise was being built. The organization has had to get creative, recruiting international students for summer intensives, for example, and forging partnerships overseas. One promising new income stream: As word has spread about CBSF’s facilities, other companies and touring productions have begun approaching them about studio rentals.

High Ceilings, No Columns

Even with the financial perks, dance spaces have specific needs that complicate construction and drive up costs in mid- and high-rise buildings—most notably the need for wide-open, column-free spaces with high ceilings. Those are key priorities in the Paul Taylor Dance Company’s planned expansion, which will triple their studio space and establish a presence for the company and school in midtown Manhattan.

Executive director John Tomlinson had been looking for more space even before the pandemic. “Our school was busting at the seams,” Tomlinson says. “Our current landlord was desperately working with me to find solutions, but we were not finding any.”

Working with broker Jeffrey Rosenblatt, they finally located­ a column-free space and an amenable landlord in midtown. But the building presented another challenge: 10-foot ceilings. The commercial real estate management company George Comfort & Sons was willing to shoulder the additional­ cost of breaking through ceilings and floors in the jointly financed renovation, doubling the headspace in four of what will be six new studios. The 31,000-square-foot facility will also house Taylor’s administrative offices, with the company effectively owning two floors of the tower on West 38th Street for a period of 30 years.

The contractual arrangements will allow George Comfort & Sons to transfer the tax liability for those floors to the nonprofit Paul Taylor Dance Foundation. It’s a good deal for Taylor, too: “During those 30 years, because [we are] the exclusive owner, [our] tax-exempt status kicks in and no real estate taxes need to be paid,” Tomlinson says.

It’s still a big risk—the renovation is expected to cost $6 million to $8 million—but Tomlinson says the potential rewards of having a large footprint in the heart of New York City are more than financial.

“I look at this not as an indicator of power of the brand, but power of the art form,” Tomlinson says. “I don’t see the Taylor company existing in a silo within the dance world. I see the Taylor company being an integral part of the dance industry in New York City.”

Getting Creative at the Mall

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s new studio and office space —a 13,000-square-foot modular buildout financed by the Pritzker Foundation—is a former Adidas Store.

In 2019, faced with $5 million of necessary renovations for its longtime home on West Jackson Boulevard, Hubbard Street instead sold the building for twice that amount. During the pandemic, they moved into a temporary rehearsal space in a warehouse district while searching for a more permanent solution.

“We were open to any ideas,” says executive director David McDermott. “One of the most visible places where retail was struggling was North Michigan Avenue.”

The mayor’s office connected McDermott to the property managers at Water Tower Place, once a high-end retail mall on the Magnificent Mile. Hubbard Street’s landlords don’t get the same tax benefit as the Taylor company, but were all in for bringing life to the struggling mall.

“There are lots of opportunities for creative deal making with real estate developers,” McDermott says. “While we sometimes see the creative sector as one thing and the business sector as another, these are creative people, and they’re willing to work with arts organizations to make their spaces and their cities better places.”

The Parking Lot That Saved the Ruth Page School of Dance

The Ruth Page Center for the Arts, home of the Ruth Page School of Dance, has owned a building with five studios, office space, and a 200-seat theater in the heart of Chicago’s Gold Coast since 1971. But the 2008 recession hit the Center hard—and it had already been struggling following the death, in 1991, of Page, who had been personally subsidizing the organization as needed.

“We weren’t well invested,” says acting executive director Sara Schumann, who has served on the board of directors for decades. Searching for solutions, they looked next door at their parking lot, which could Tetris about 30 cars into its haphazard rows.

“It suddenly became very obvious that we have this land,” says Schumann. “There is no land in the Gold Coast except this parking lot and maybe two other lots.”

In 2016, they sold the lot for a cool $16.6 million to Lexington Homes, a real estate developer that plans to build nearly 30 stories of luxury condominiums. The lot remains undeveloped and fenced off. But the check cleared—saving the Center’s dwindling endowment, and providing much-needed cash to improve its building.

The post Dance Companies and Real Estate Developers Partner on New Spaces 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.

It’s in dancing moments like this that the protagonists of Netflix’s wildly successful Regency­ romance adaptation fall in love and find their way to happiness. The man who crafted the steps and guided the actors through them is Jack Murphy, a London-based choreographer and movement director who has worked on all three seasons of “Bridgerton”—including the highly anticipated Season 3, which premieres in two parts on May 16 and June 13—as well as the “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” spinoff.

Murphy points to Anthony and Kate’s final dance as one of the most memorable he’s worked on thus far (along with Daphne Bridgerton and the Duke of Hastings’ dance among fireworks early in Season 1; and the moment in “Queen Charlotte” when Brimsley and Reynolds, two men, dance together atop a hill, away from society’s watchful gaze).

But don’t ask Murphy to pick his favorite. “Every dance has been special because they’re my babies,” he says. And that includes several he can’t wait to see and share in the upcoming season.

My parents met at a dance hall. I knew from a very young age about coming together through dance under extraordinary circumstances. I was born in London of Irish parents. They are a mixed marriage, Protestant and Catholic. My father joined the Royal Air Force and was stationed in Northern Ireland. He took all the men to a dance hall and met my mother. So my association with dance started with my parents. It’s always been in my blood.

The first time I ever went dancing was socially at 16. It was one of the most extraordinary moments­ of my life. I fell in love with being able to be free in my body in front of all these other people that wanted to be free in their bodies.

When I was interviewed for “Bridgerton,” I had already spent 30 years working—the first five years I worked as an actor, and then I retrained as a movement director and choreographer specifically to work with actors. My first job as an assistant was on the BBC’s Colin Firth “Pride and Prejudice.”

I had an extraordinary interview, chaired by [“Bridgerton” executive producer] Betsy Beers, that included me inviting [director] Julie Anne Robinson to the floor to dance to explain a quadrille. She said, “How would you teach it?” And I said, “Well, the easiest way is to get up and do it.”

When working with actors, I’m not talking about jetés. To be romantic and to be open about it, you have to be fantastically brave. I’d rather take people to a place where they have to be very brave through a terminology that they’re used to, rather than a terminology that scares the pants off them. I would ask them what would they like to nonverbally portray to the audience. I encourage them to stay rooted in the story.

The dancing there is to display the etiquette, the rituals, in order to belong. If you watch “Bridgerton” choreography, everyone’s doing the same thing at the same time, so you get a tremendous sense of belonging.

I will not let the actors move for movement’s sake. They have to move out of intent: “I want to woo you. I want to guide you. I want to seduce you. I want to impress you.”

There’s something you will see in Season 3, in Episode 4, that is extraordinary. The writers have given us this wonderful present. You’ll see a piece of storytelling in dance that is not social, but very much show dance.

We’re not just brains, we are bodies. We need to touch. And that is why I think “Bridgerton” is appealing to so many people, because there is very little social dance now. I believe fans are seeing these people being easy with each other through movement. They’re having an experience that we’re not having. You can’t get that on an app.

It’s the greatest gift in my career. There won’t be another “Bridgerton” for me. I know this is my legacy.

The post How Jack Murphy Helps Actors Move with Intention on “Bridgerton” appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Jennings, who had moved from Memphis, Tennessee, to Los Angeles at 19, had rarely traveled abroad. The culture shock began on Aegean Airlines, where the in-flight entertainment included clips from the Eurovision Song Contest. Since 1956, the annual song competition, a sequined spectacle of original songs from member countries of the Euro­pean Broadcasting Union, has launched Abba, Celine Dion, and Riverdance, among other memorable acts. While Eurovision has long been immensely popular in Europe, until recently it has been much less widely known in the U.S.

Jennings quickly grew to love both Athens, with its over-the-top, Vegas-style music revues, and Eurovision, which she attended for the first time in 2012 when it was held in Baku, Azerbaijan. “I used to think it was ridiculous,” Jennings says, laughing. “Now I think I’m the biggest Eurovision fan in the entire world.”

She’s made four trips to the competition so far, collaborating with teams from Cyprus, Greece, and Sweden, and taking on different roles for all three countries: dancer, choreographer, dance coach, and creative director. “Even the singers who perform without backup dancers have to learn how to use their bodies in a kinetic way,” Jennings says. “There is no Eurovision without dance.”

In 2021, Jennings spent four months preparing singer Elena Tsagrinou to represent Cyprus with her catchy electro-pop hit “El Diablo.” Although Tsagrinou had “minimal” experience as a dancer, Jennings turned her into one of the show’s best movers. “Our training pushed her to the next level,” Jennings says. While Tsagrinou finished a disappointing 16th, that score didn’t reflect the career-topping accomplishment that Jennings considers her 2021 performance to be. Jennings, now 42, served as one of Tsagrinou’s four backup dancers.

2021 also marked the first year that Eurovision was available to stream on Peacock. Jennings had never encountered an American at the contest before, but that year more Americans watched. For the 2022 edition, choreographer Kyle Hanagami booked a gig with Spanish singer Chanel.

For Eurovision Song Contest 2024, which runs May 7–11, at least two more Americans are involved: Los Angeles–based choreographers Guy Groove and Kelly Sweeney. “I honestly didn’t know much about Eurovision,” Sweeney admits. But for her friend and student Silia Kapsis, she was willing to learn.

Kapsis and her mother travel to Los Angeles each summer to network and train, including taking classes with Sweeney at Millennium Dance Complex. The daughter of a Cypriot singer and a Greek lawyer with a dance background, Kapsis grew up performing with the Australian Youth Performing Arts Company and on Nickelodeon Australia. Rather than hold a public contest to choose a Eurovision performer, Cyprus’ public broadcaster tapped Kapsis to represent the island nation for Eurovision 2024, and Kapsis, in turn, tapped Sweeney and Guy Groove to choreograph for her song “Liar.”

“I did my research,” Sweeney says, noting that she was particularly inspired by “Unicorn,” Israel’s clever, bouncy third-place entry from 2023. Sweeney described her choreography for Kapsis as “cool, feminine, and super-powerful.”

When she hit the studio with Kapsis in January, Sweeney was fresh off performing in Jennifer Lopez’s new “This Is Me…Now” Apple Music Live concert, and brought that “girl boss” energy to her Eurovision gig. Even so, creating a dance for a large thrust stage and thinking so much about camera angles “brought me out of my comfort zone,” Sweeney says. She’s excited­ to see the final result but can’t travel to this year’s host city, Malmö, Sweden, herself because she’s busy with other projects, including a music video.

Jennings is sitting out Eurovision 2024 while making a major life transition: taking over Christie McNeill Dance Studio in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where she grew up dancing. But the Dance Cartel, a creative agency she founded in Athens, is still going strong. She plans to continue spending a few months in Greece each year, choreographing for television shows and live performances. And, yes, she wants to return to Eurovision someday. “I still want to go back and get the crown,” Jennings says. “I want to win.”

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“I have my routine to get ready for the show: I do my own makeup, I listen to music, and I return some texts. I have to be very quiet before I go onstage. So what I did was exactly the same. I told myself, ‘It’s okay, just enjoy every single moment.’ ”

“I was getting lots of flowers and notes and texts, and just nonstop congratulations and happy birthday. I thought I would be very nervous. It was surprising, because I usually get little butterflies in my stomach before the stage, but I didn’t that night.”

“I dedicated my entire life to this company. I don’t miss class. I don’t miss any rehearsals. I don’t want to miss a show. The young girls go, ‘YY, do you ever get injured?’ I’m like, ‘Hell, yeah.’ And a lot. Both labrum tears, I have fractures, and my vertebra was injured right before The Little Mermaid filming. I did cortisone and I went on. I’m not suggesting to do so. But I have a very strong will to push to the limit.”

“I have danced so many dramatic roles. [John Neumeier’s] The Little Mermaid, [Yuri Possokhov’s] RAkU, and [Lar Lubovitch’s] Othello were all highlights.”

“I was thinking back on a lot of things. Here at SFB, I saw the glory days. I really love the dancers here. It’s like my family.”

“Sometimes you don’t realize how good you [are]. Because dancers grow up being criticized by the teacher, schoolmates, colleagues, and then, when you get onstage, by critics, and rehearsal directors, and the artistic director. Sometimes it can get in the way; you believe what you hear. But now, when I look back, I say, ‘Wow, I did pretty good.’ ”

“Marguerite and Armand is new for me. It’s a very unique piece, created for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev.”

“It was very unique and very touching that Helgi did a speech onstage after my final bow. In front of all the company, he said, ‘Can you please come back? You are needed to pass down your legacy and your knowledge to the young dancers.’ ”

“I’m still taking class with the company—and I feel good. My body still functions and I have the flexibility. I still do the big jumps. So I say goodbye to SFB, and then it’s my choice to still keep dancing. Saying bye to SFB on my birthday and Valentine’s Day, it was also my choice. I chose that day because I think I will be reborn.”

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Dance productions scheduled for April and May by James Sewell Ballet and Ragamala Dance Company were left searching for new venues. BRKFST Dance Company, which was to premiere a new work co-commissioned by the Cowles and Northrop at the end of April, will instead be presented at the Walker Art Center as a joint production with Northrop in June. Programs under the Cowles umbrella, including the Generating Room (an eight-month studio residency for Minnesota choreographers) and its Teaching Artists program, will continue through the end of May. 

Reasons for the closure, according to Cowles co-director Joseph Bingham, include the lingering financial effects of the pandemic shutdown, lower ticket sales since 2020, and changes­ in funding priorities from both individual philanthropy and the education world. But the biggest factor? The owner of the building, Artspace, a Minneapolis-based national nonprofit developer of artist live-work spaces, has ended its $500,000 annual contribution to support The Cowles Center. 

The Cowles’ 2022 990 tax return sheds further light, according to Gary Peterson, a 40-year veteran of the area’s dance community who has served as managing director of Ananya Dance Theatre and executive director of James Sewell Ballet, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, Zenon Dance Company, and the Southern Theater. The Center’s 2022 program-service revenue (which encompasses income from ticket sales, rentals, and educational services) was less than 20 percent of its total revenue—a decrease of more than one-third since 2019—while ticket sales only covered 11 percent of total expenses. “The Cowles Center, under the aegis of Artspace, raised the rest,” says Peterson. “It has not been enough, and Artspace has stated that it is no longer in a position to fund the difference.” In a Star Tribune article, Bingham said Artspace’s “main business and nonprofit housing development has changed so much. It’s not that they’re pulling the plug needlessly, it’s that their business model has changed.” Anonymous donors, Bingham added, kept the Cowles operational through March and provided financial payouts to companies whose shows were canceled.

The Cowles’ theater arrived at its current location when Artspace moved the historic Shubert Theater through downtown Minneapolis to a vacant lot next to the Hennepin Center for the Arts in February 1999. At 5.8 million pounds, the theater was the heaviest building ever moved on rubber tires. It was then renovated into the Goodale Theater and ancillary spaces.The total cost of the project was $42 million. The project received $1 million in planning funds from the Minnesota State Legislature in 2005 and $11 million in state bonding money in 2006. Donors contributed the rest. After the Cowles closes, the City of Minneapolis and its Community Planning & Economic Development Department will steward the building, and have contracted with Artspace for management and operation. “The legal entity of the Cowles will remain in place in the hopes that someone will step into an operational role in the future,” Tio Aiken, Artspace vice president of communications and community engagement, said in a press release. 

“We are genuinely devastated,” says Cowles co-director Jessi Fett, “for the dance community, the artists, and all of the careers created here. In the last three years, we re-created a strategic plan and put in place many things we were excited to push forward, including an emphasis on BIPOC programming. It’s hard to see that ending so abruptly.” 

Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre is one company that performed prior to the closing. “We got in under the wire,” says founder and artistic director Susana di Palma of The Conference of the Birds, which premiered at the Cowles in February. “It’s a tremendous loss to the dance and arts communities, but it’s family, it’s personal, and it’s professional, of course.” 

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Comings & Goings

Claire Kretzschmar has been named artistic director of Ballet Hartford, beginning in August. She succeeds co-founder Leyna Doran, who will become executive director.

Daniela Cardim will succeed Ib Andersen as artistic director of Ballet Arizona on July 1. Andersen will be artistic director emeritus.

Mary Jennings has been appointed executive director of Grand Rapids Ballet, succeeding Glenn Del Vecchio in June.

Melanie Paglia has joined Pittsburgh’s Kelly Strayhorn Theater as co-executive director, joining current executive director Joseph Hall as the theater moves to a co-leadership model.

At Ballet West, David Huffmire has been promoted to principal artist, Lillian Casscells and Rylee Rogers to demi-soloist, effective with the start of the 2024–25 season. First soloist Chelsea Keefer and demi-soloist Olivia Gusti will retire at the conclusion of the current season.

At San Francisco Ballet, effective in July, Kamryn Baldwin, Carmela Mayo, and Joshua Jack Price have been promoted to soloist. Dores André and Max Cauthorn will return to the company as principals. Fernando Carratalá Coloma and Victor Prigent join from English National Ballet as soloists.

At Alberta Ballet, Aaron Anker and Alexandra Hughes have been promoted to principal, Scotto Hamed-Ramos and Allison Perhach to soloist.

At Birmingham Royal Ballet, Beatrice Parma has been promoted to principal, effective at the start of the 2024–25 season.

At Staatsballett Berlin, beginning with the 2024–25 season, Weronika Frodyma, Martin ten Kortenaar, and Haruka Sassa have been promoted to principal; Danielle Muir and Kalle Wigle to soloist; and Marina Duarte, Gregor Glocke, Leroy Mokgatle, and Clotide Tran to demi-soloist.

At Miami City Ballet, Francisco Schilereff has been promoted to soloist.

New York City Ballet principal Andrew Veyette will retire from the company at the end of the 2024–25 season. His final performance is scheduled for May 25, 2025.

Pacific Northwest Ballet rehearsal director Otto Neubert will retire at the end of the current season.

Yanis Pikieris has stepped down as co-artistic director of the Miami International Ballet Competition.

Awards & Honors

Shamel Pitts and Acosia Red Elk are among the recipients of 2024 Doris Duke Artist Awards, which includes a $525,000 unrestricted grant and an additional $25,000 in retirement funds.

2024 Guggenheim Fellows include Rosie Herrera, Ryan K. Johnson, Hari Krishnan, Rebecca Lazier, Victor Quijada, amara tabor-smith, and Abby Zbikowski in the field of choreography, and Emily Wilcox in the field of dance studies.

Antoine Hunter PurpleFireCrow has been named a 2024 Rainin Arts Fellow, which includes a $100,000 unrestricted award.

Jake Roxander and Frances Lorraine Samson are among the winners of the 2024 Clive Barnes Award for Dance and Theatre, which includes a $5,000 award.

Winners at the 2024 Olivier Awards included Isabela Coracy (Outstanding Achievement in Dance, Mthuthuzeli November’s NINA: By Whatever Means at Ballet Black), Gabriela Carrizo (Best New Dance Production, La Ruta for Nederlands Dans Theater), and Arlene Phillips with James Cousins (Gillian Lynne Award for Best Theatre Choreographer, Guys & Dolls).

Bernadette Peters will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Chita Rivera Awards, which will be presented May 20.

The post News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in April 2024 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

New to NYCB

NEW YORK CITY  In-demand choreographer Amy Hall Garner continues to gain momentum, with her latest commission premiering at New York City Ballet’s Spring Gala on May 2 alongside a new work from resident choreographer Justin Peck and George Balanchine’s “Rubies.” All three pieces repeat alongside Balanchine’s Le Tombeau de Couperin May 3, 4, 7, and 16 for the Classic NYCB I program. nycballet.com. —Courtney Escoyne

Rituals and Relationships

NEW YORK CITY  Kyle Abraham curates this year’s iteration of Danspace Project’s signature Platform program. Subtitled “A Delicate Ritual,” this year’s platform centers questions about the participating artists’ relationships with nature, ritual, prayer, love, and change. Sharing performance evenings are Shamel Pitts and Nicholas Ryan Gant (May 2–4), David Roussève and taisha paggett (May 23–25), and Vinson Fraley and Bebe Miller (June 6–8), while additional activities will include a memorial for the late Kevin Wynn, classes, conversations, and more. danspaceproject.org. —CE

Editor’s note: This item has been updated to reflect programming changes made after this story went to print.

Atlanta Gets Jazzy

ATLANTA  Claudia Schreier teams up with legendary jazz musician Wynton Marsalis for her latest premiere for Atlanta Ballet, where she’s choreographer in residence. The work will be set to “The Jungle” (Symphony No. 4). And sought-after dancemaker Juliano Nuñes returns to the company for another new work to round out the Liquid Motion program. May 10–12. atlantaballet.com. —CE

Sounding Off

NEW YORK CITY  In the “performance-presentation” This Is The Part When You Go Woo, Caleb Teicher and their collaborators play with the various relationships that might exist between artists and their audiences. Guest performers take Michael Benjamin Washington’s script and fill in the blanks, accompanied by visuals from interdisciplinary artist Ameya Marie Okamoto, for the new work, premiering at Works & Process May 12–13. worksandprocess.org. —CE

Crossing the Pond

LONDON  The Sarasota Ballet’s first international engagement will be a particularly meaningful one as the company alights at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre for a weeklong residency. The occasion? Helping kick off Ashton Worldwide, a five-year celebration of Sir Frederick Ashton, whose works have become a specialty of the Florida-based company under Iain Webb’s leadership. They’ll perform Valses nobles et sentimentales, Dante Sonata, Sinfonietta, Varii Capricci, Façade, and a selection of divertissements across two programs and a gala, June 4–9, and will join The Royal Ballet on the main stage June 7–22 to perform The Walk to the Paradise Garden. The Royal’s own Ashton programming will include The Dream, Rhapsody, and Les Rendezvous. roh.org.uk. —CE

Many Happy Returns

NEW YORK CITY  Ashley R.T. Yergens continues his work exploring transgender identity in American popular culture with SURROGATE, drawing on Thomas Beatie’s 2008 interview with Oprah Winfrey about his experiences being pregnant as a trans man. Yergens’ self-described “premature birthday celebration for a frozen embryo” premieres at New York Live Arts June 13–15. newyorklivearts.org. —CE

Then and Now

SEATTLE  The site-responsive the sky is the same color everywhere or on the rapture of being alive sees Alice Gosti and her MALACARNE collaborators celebrating Seattle’s downtown while holding space for its colonized past. The free five-hour performance takes over the 2+U Urban Village on June 27. gostia.com. —CE

Asian Voices

Two ballet festivals center Asian creatives.

Choreographic Festival VI at Ballet West

SALT LAKE CITY  Ballet West’s Choreographic Festival, returning this year for its sixth iteration, presents a program focused on highlighting Asian choreographers. The event will include two new works for Ballet West, one by former BalletX dancer Caili Quan and another by American Ballet Theatre soloist Zhongjing Fang. Phil Chan’s Amber Waves, an improvisation-based work inspired by “America the Beautiful” and set to music by Chinese American composer Huang Ruo, will also be performed by Ballet West. Among the guest companies are BalletMet, which will bring outgoing artistic director Edwaard Liang’s Seasons to the program. After the festival’s run in Salt Lake City, Ballet West will present both new works as part of the Kennedy Center’s 10,000 Dreams: A Celebration of Asian Choreography. June 5–8. balletwest.org. —Sophie Bress

10,000 Dreams: A Celebration of Asian Choreography

WASHINGTON, DC  Co-curated by Phil Chan and the Kennedy Center, 10,000 Dreams: A Celebration of Asian Choreography gets underway at dusk on June 14 with a free outdoor screening of a selection of short dance films by Asian choreographers and creatives as part of the Millennium Stage film series. The festival reaches a crescendo on June 21 with a one-night-only event: Alongside Chan’s Amber Waves, danced by Ballet West, planned performers include Final Bow for Yellowface co-founder Georgina Pazcoguin; Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company, in its artistic director’s A Tribute to Marian Anderson; and Singapore Ballet, Goh Ballet (with dancers from the National Ballet of China), and The Washington Ballet, each performing a work by Choo San Goh. A pioneering Singapore-born­ dancemaker, Goh was TWB’s resident choreographer for nearly a decade before dying of AIDS-related illness in 1987. Two other­ programs during the weeklong festival will feature performances by Pacific Northwest Ballet and Houston Ballet alongside Ballet West and TWB in ballets by Brett Ishida, Edwaard Liang, and Disha Zhang, among others. June 14 and 18–23. kennedy-center.org. —CE

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Balletcore is also a subject of passionate debate among dancers. Many cringe at simplistic representations of the tools of their trade and, especially, at the use of models who appear to lack any ballet experience. Others think it’s a harmless or even potentially beneficial sign of admiration and respect for their art form.

However dancers feel about it, the renewed obsession with balletic fashion has the potential to affect both ballet’s place in today’s culture and the public perception of what ballet is.

A Trend With Deep Roots

Patricia Mears, deputy director at New York City’s The Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) and a lifelong ballet fan, curated the museum’s 2020 exhibit, “Ballerina: Fashion’s Modern Muse.” She says the invigoration of ballet culture in the West during the 1920s and ’30s sparked a fascination with ballet dancers themselves, leading to an early version of balletcore.

“The ballerina became much more respected in society, and, therefore, what she looked like was also more respected,” Mears says. “Women designers in particular began using class and rehearsal wear as a foundation for easy, knitted separates. It was a fascinating phenomenon.”

Something similar may be happening now, thanks in large part to social media. Dancers’ presence on various platforms gives the general public glimpses into the dancers’ offstage (albeit highly curated) lives—including what they wear when not in costume.

Joffrey Ballet dancer Jeraldine Mendoza thinks seeing dancers as individuals this way fuels a sense of intrigue, fascination, and also relatability. “Now that ballet dancers are becoming visible as ‘real people’ online, more people see what we do on a daily basis,” Mendoza says. “And even though it might seem unreachable, they still want to touch it somehow.” Fashion offers an attainable way to emulate an aspirational lifestyle.

Mears agrees, adding that other current fashion trends are also making balletcore a natural fit for the times. “There’s a movement towards more relaxed clothing and individual styles with no rules,” she says. “I also see an undercurrent of interest, especially in young people, of searching for things that are true and beautiful. And ballet is one of those things.”

Ballet Fantasy Versus Ballet Reality

Balletcore is not, of course, supposed to be an exact reproduction of what dancers actually wear to work. Even so, the fashion world’s take on the ballet aesthetic frequently skews generic and somewhat outdated, favoring girlish balletic tropes like pastel colors, tulle, ribbons, and bows. As the ballet world makes strides towards inclusivity, could this disconnect between reality and what’s being sold to the public have negative repercussions for the ballet world, despite the benefits of the popularity boost?

Houston Ballet first soloist Harper Watters sees it both ways. “I have spent the majority of my career trying to shift people’s perception of what a ballet dancer looks like, who they are, and what interests them,” he says. “So when it comes to this cookie-cutter idea of ballet being pink, it’s frustrating since we all know there is so much more complexity and dimension to our world, and to our fashion.”

Watters also points out, though, that the influential fashion industry’s attention could be a very good thing. “I very much believe that visibility is currency, and there’s power in people talking about ballet and popularizing it,” he says. “Ballet has been a marginalized art form, so when fashion houses are tapping into it, I see it as an opportunity for the dance community to respond to it and shift people’s perspectives.”

Touching a Nerve

Dancers tend to have strong reactions to representations of ballet in any mainstream context, from movies to TV shows to books. But fashion’s take on ballet has provoked especially visceral responses.

The risk that balletcore is devaluing the concept of what it means to be a dancer is real, says Katie Malia, who with Suzanne Jolie founded the popular Instagram account @modelsdoingballet. Malia and Jolie post examples of fashion brands featuring nondancers modeling ballet-inspired outfits (often including pointe shoes), resulting in ads that can be both hilarious and horrifying.

“I’m not a purist—tutus don’t have to only belong in the theater,” Malia says. “But there’s a lack of education, understanding, and respect of the art form. We need more people to take the craft seriously. Or else ballet becomes satire.”

Others aren’t as worried. While acknowledging that most balletcore pieces are nothing like what she or her colleagues wear, Mendoza still feels positive about the widening interest in a balletic aesthetic. “I think it’s flattering,” she says. “Yes, the clothes are a little stereotypical, but people want to be part of our world, and if wearing the clothes makes you feel good, that’s amazing.”

Fashion trends tend to come and go, but balletcore has proved remarkably durable. “There is a certain energy that putting on the uniform of a dancer gives you,” says Watters. “I wouldn’t be surprised if people feel ready to take on something, ready for a performance, by dressing like a dancer and emulating ballet in their fashion.”

Balletcore Done Right

Not all ballet-inspired fashion trades in stereotypical pink satin and ruffles. Some designers are collaborating with dance artists and companies, helping the consuming public connect the styles they admire with the dancers who inspired them.

➛ In addition to documenting egregious balletcore missteps, Katie Malia and Suzanne Jolie’s Instagram account
@modelsdoingballet highlights good ballet-inspired fashion. Some of their favorite collaborations are Christian Dior’s work with choreographers Imre and Marne van Opstal, J. Crew’s with New York City Ballet, and Chanel’s with the Paris Opéra Ballet. “I’d love to see the obsession with balletcore turn into more students and audiences for ballet,” adds Malia.

➛ Watters, who’s known both inside and outside the dance world for his fashion sense, was tapped to create dance videos while wearing Betsey Johnson pieces for the designer’s Pride Month events. “I’m not going to put on something I don’t feel or look good in, and I felt really good about those pieces—you could definitely wear them for class or a performance opportunity,” he says. “I really appreciate anyone trying to dive into the mind of a dancer. I think it’s a powerful thing to tap into the dancers themselves and ask our opinion.”

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But after years of activism through their organization Whistle, which focuses on ending gender-based harm and other forms of abuse in dance by offering workshops and resources, Robyn Doty and Frances Chiaverini were finding that this wasn’t the reality of the field. At one Whistle workshop, for instance, the director of a major festival expressed that the impetus was on the dancers to speak up about abusive work environments, recalls Chiaverini.

“The institutions weren’t going to take the responsibility, we heard that,” she says. “We even tried to sell ourselves to different universities, and nobody was interested in what we were doing. It was obvious that the dancers were the ones who were interested in change.” 

So Doty and Chiaverini set out to try to help dancers navigate those abusive and dysfunctional work environments themselves. The result: Disrupting Harm in Dance, a free online curriculum launched earlier this year with resources on topics like racial justice, undoing ableism, and creating nonhierarchical leadership structures.

With the help of funding from the Migros-Kulturprozent in Switzerland and a fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, Whistle recruited other dance-world activists to contribute to the curriculum: Crip Movement Lab founders Kayla Hamilton and Elisabeth Motley created the resource on ableism; The Dance Union included excerpts from one of its town halls on dismantling white supremacy along with an accompanying worksheet; artist and astrologer J. Bouey shared a guide to somatic astrology to help dancers heal from abuse; OFEN Co-Arts Platform made videos on anti-capitalist practices in the studio and related topics; and Chiaverini and Doty contributed their own resources on consent, emotional abuse, talking to journalists, and more.

The tool kit, also available as a printable PDF, contains not just information but also tasks to complete, questions to ask, and worksheets to do. “It’s very easy in these situations to sit around and talk about problems and not have anything happen or feel like nothing’s changing,” says Chiaverini. “So it’s important to have these tools to figure out how we can move forward.” 

Doty and Chiaverini acknowledge that equipping individual dancers with tools to respond to harmful environments isn’t the same as addressing the root cause of those environments. While not an ideal solution, it’s one that’s responsive to the current reality of the field—and that Doty hopes can also be used in community settings, whether as guidance for a group of dancers looking to unionize or in a class of college students learning about working conditions in the industry. “I think that’s where a lot of change happens,” she says.

Chiaverini sees the content as a guide to help dancers “determine how they want to show up in the studio, and how they want to react to abusive situations they might be experiencing,” she says. “I hope that they will come into the studio with boundaries that they find for themselves, and that they have the courage and the confidence to talk about those boundaries. I’m interested to see how institutions and power structures react to that.”

Disrupting Harm in Dance is a swan song for Whistle, which Doty and Chiaverini will be sunsetting this year to focus on other projects. It feels like an appropriate culmination of all the work they’ve done over the years, says Doty, “a beautiful memory archive.”

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The choreography steps up to the challenge, of course. Shows like Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (2016), Here Lies Love (2023), and this month’s new revival of Cabaret made avant-garde stages their own.

Letting the Movement Evolve

Choreographer Sam Pinkleton joined the Great Comet creative team during its second off-Broadway iteration, in 2013. That version was performed in a small custom tent—a naturally intimate environment. Its 2015 American Repertory Theater run was in a more traditional space, where it began experimenting with some of the elements featured in the 2016 Broadway production at the Imperial Theatre. Pinkleton found himself with onstage audience members to involve, a series of cascading staircases to navigate, and a cast of 30 (up from 16 in 2013) at his choreographic disposal.

What saved Great Comet from getting lost in its new digs, he says, was the creative team’s focus on its original intention. Scenic designer Mimi Lien “was really fierce about maintaining a level of intimacy,” Pinkleton says. “She wanted every person in the room to have a personalized, specific experience to this show that is only theirs.” The entire creative team, led by director Rachel Chavkin, was aligned on this mission. Pinkleton used the staircases Lien designed to connect the main and upper levels of the theater as tiny stage spaces for individual performers to interact personally with theatergoers.

Julia Cheng, choreographer of the 2021 West End version and current Broadway revival of Cabaret—which eliminates some of the orchestra seating to create a small stage space in the round—met spatial challenges by focusing on choreographic authenticity. Cheng’s movement training is in street styles, like hip hop and waacking, and she wanted to capitalize on the way those genres naturally lend themselves to an up-close audience experience.

“Those styles are about holding space, and that requires a different skill set,” she says. She created what she refers to as the prologue to the show, when arriving audience members encounter a small group of dancers and musicians “already vibing,” as if the theatergoers have walked into a club. “The prologue ended up becoming a show in itself,” she says. She let her dancers’ particular strengths shine, too. “I wanted to draw out their fortes, their specialisms from the underground and subculture—forms not usually represented on the musical theater stage.”

Sometimes choreographers even help shape transformative theater designs. When working with choreographer Annie-B Parson on Here Lies Love, scenic designer David Korins knew there needed to be give-and-take between the show’s unusual, immersive playing space—one long catwalk, with the audience below on either side, plus smaller spaces throughout the theater with room for a performer or two—and its movement vocabulary. “I think Annie is an extraordinary visual storyteller,” he says. “There were tentpole moments we wanted to accomplish, and in those, she really held her ground—‘If we’re going to do this, then we need to do that.’ When she had a sense of that, you listened.”

Rising to the Challenge

In revamped theater spaces, changes that might at first seem like challenges can actually offer opportunities for innovative thinking. Pinkleton found that to be true on Great Comet, where he had to convey a sense of closeness in a large house without a central meeting place where the entire cast could fit. Eventually, he landed on placing dancers throughout the house—on the staircases, in the aisles, on platforms, in an audience member’s lap—and choreographing intentional eye contact. “It was, ‘I am looking at you in the sixth row and waving at you and saying I’m glad you’re here,’ ” he says. “That became more important than asking people to kick their leg on five.”

From Korins’ perspective, the disparate stage spaces of Here Lies Love allowed Parson to create a different kind of Broadway dynamic. “Annie could stage these beautiful, isolated islands of dance and movement,” he says. “You might be looking at two people dancing in unison, but they’re doing it 150 feet away from each other. That tension and connectivity between the bodies in space was really effective.”

For Cheng, the task of choreographing in the round was a welcome one, not a thorn in her side. “When I’m in the club cyphering, that’s my comfort zone: You’re in the circle, there’s a community around you,” she says. “It’s sometimes difficult to get that in a really big space.” She saw typical theater choreographic taboos—turning one’s back to the audience, for example—as a chance to offer unexpected perspectives. “I don’t mind having a back to the audience,” she says. “I think that’s interesting.”

Overhauled theaters, with their myriad challenges, require a special kind of mind-meld between the members of the creative team. When all of a show’s leaders are invested in the same idea, however out-there it might seem—what Pinkleton calls “everybody working on the same show”—that’s when the real magic happens. When it does come together, Pinkleton says, “it doesn’t feel insane. It feels inevitable.”

Broadway Theater Revamps of the Past

Most revolutionary staging choices in Broadway’s history have had the same aim: to get the audience closer to the action than a proscenium stage can.

✦ Before transferring to what’s now known as the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, Man of La Mancha (1965) opened at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in Greenwich Village, which boasted an experimental stage with the audience seated on three sides. Jazz dance pioneer Jack Cole was nominated for a Tony Award for his Latin-influenced choreography, described as “blistering” and “orgiastic” by one critic.
✦ The 1974 Broadway production of Leonard Bernstein’s often-revised Candide ripped out much of the Broadway Theatre’s orchestra seating. This meant that many audience members had an immersive experience with Patricia Birch’s choreography, which New York Times theater critic Clive Barnes likened to a rocket booster.
✦ For its 1998 revival, Cabaret transformed the former disco nightclub Studio 54 into a Broadway house—but with a small thrust stage surrounded by tables and chairs, to lend an authentic­ Kit Kat Klub vibe. Choreographer and co-director Rob Marshall used the audience’s nearness to highlight his raw, rough-edged choreography.

The post How Three Broadway Choreographers Create in Nontraditional Theater Spaces appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The Outsiders is one of the most widely assigned pieces of required reading in American schools, as well as a touchstone film of the 1980s. What was your relationship to it prior to your work on the musical? 

Jeff: I read it in middle school, and it was one of the first books that really moved me emotionally as a kid. So when the script hit our desk, I was super-excited to dive into it. Especially with the themes of brotherhood so entrenched in the book, I thought this would be a great piece for Rick and me to handle.

Rick: I missed the memo because I actually had never heard of this story. My first touchpoint with the project was Adam [Rapp]’s script. I was a big fan of Adam’s writing and had studied a lot of his plays in college. It was cool to be introduced to the world of The Outsiders through his eyes. It’s very visceral and hard-hitting, and that really resonated with me.

You mentioned brotherhood as a key theme in the story. How did being a choreography team help you develop the movement for the show? 

Rick: Choreography does a lot of the world-building in The Outsiders. There’s social dance in the world, and there’s a lot of fight choreography. Having a partner to be able to first create the material on is super-important and helps make that choreography three-dimensional.

Jeff: Rick and I studied martial arts as kids and through college. The martial aspect of the choreography is something that you have to do with a partner. We are really interested in the use of force—not faking force, but redirecting force and momentum. You can’t do that alone. It’s good to have a brother you’re not afraid to roughhouse with. It’s kind of an essential­ piece of this choreography.

I imagine that looks and feels a little bit different than the major fight sequence in the film.

Rick: We’re working in a different medium. In the theater, we need to use a different set of tools to make the fight evocative, and one of the ways that we’ve thought to do that is to really stylize or render the fight in a more expressionistic mode than pure realism.

Jeff: One of the lines that really stuck out to me, upon my first read of the script, was “the fists detonate into the boys’ flesh.” That idea of detonating into flesh sparked an idea about sound design and how so much of the way that we interpret violence when we see it is aurally, actually, and so that was the jumping-off point for us when we started to create the rumble.

Rick: Right. It’s the climax, so every department—scenery, lighting, choreography, sound design, all of it—is hopefully acting in unison to render this climactic moment for the story.

The Outsiders is set in 1967. How did that influence the choreography? 

Jeff: While we’re confronting some difficult truths about the past and the present, there is a very real sense of love throughout. But it was a fraught period politically and racially, and we’re not shying away from that, especially­ in the rumble. We’re trying to lean into choreographic metaphor for the cyclicality of violence that we’re trapped in, and we’re examining how we break that cycle lest it continue to consume us. 

So many of these characters, especially the Greasers, have such a real love for each other, but they don’t have the vocabulary with which to express it. So it’s expressed physically, it’s expressed through play, it’s expressed through violence. 

The Greasers move very differently from the Socs. The Socs are a little bit more put-together, and their lines are a little bit straighter, a little bit more refined, and the Greasers have a much more hard-hitting edge to them. A great joy of this project has been leaning into the individualism of each performer, allowing them to really carve their own track through this show. Their fingerprints are all over this thing, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Because one of the main themes of the show is: How does an individual retain that core essence­ of themself even when they’re amongst a group of like-minded­ individuals? 

The choreography’s interaction with the set—the physical space, the objects—how did that come together?

Jeff: The very first workshop where The Outsiders was put up on its feet, we didn’t have very much. I think we had a couple of rolling boxes, a couple of theater cubes, a few very specific props. But we ended up staging so much, using sound and music and boxes, just to see what it might feel like in a black-box theater, and a lot of that ethos carried over into the production.

What are your favorite numbers from the show?

Jeff: My favorite traditional number is probably “Grease Got a Hold on You.” It’s Ponyboy’s induction into the gang of Greasers and his anointment, so to speak, as they put grease in his hair for the first time and say “You’re truly part of us.” It’s an oppor­tunity for each of the Greasers to give the audience a taste of who they are, what makes them special—and we get to express that through how they move.

Rick: A lot of the tentpoles are really special to us: the rumble, the fire, and a piece called “Run, Run, Brother,” which is the closer of Act I. But there’s also a really short number called “Trouble” right before the rumble, and it’s really succinct. The way that Susie describes this moment in the book is that firstly, everyone’s dressed in their Sunday best to get ready for the battle, which is just such a striking detail: These characters put on their finery only to come and do battle and stain it with blood. There’s this huge sense of energy and group identity, and I guess a form of tribalism, really, that unleashes this huge amount of physicality. In the movie, you’ll see Tom Cruise bust a backflip for what seems like no reason, but it’s grounded in the idea of just so much energy. In the book she talks about a character having trained at the YMCA in gymnastics and [teaching the others]. So “Trouble” is a little taste of some virtuosity when the Greasers coalesce as they get ready to do battle, and it’s really fun physicality in action.

What do you hope audiences take away from The Outsiders?

Rick: Ponyboy is such a resilient character. There’s so much tragedy that befalls him, and yet he makes this incredible and powerful choice to keep going, and to find beauty and optimism despite incredible challenges. We can all learn something from Ponyboy in that respect.

The post Meet the Kuperman Brothers, the Sibling Duo Behind the Choreography for Broadway’s <i>The Outsiders</i> appeared first on Dance Magazine.

A Jazzy Centennial

NEW YORK CITY  As part of the nationwide celebration of iconic jazz drummer and composer Max Roach, Richard Colton curated The Joyce Theater’s Max Roach 100 program, which will feature a new work to Roach’s Percussion Bitter Sweet album by Ronald K. Brown for Malpaso Dance Company and EVIDENCE, A Dance Company; Rennie Harris Puremovement in The Dream/It’s Time; and a solo by tap star Ayodele Casel set to a series of duets by Roach and Cecil Taylor. April 2–7. joyce.org. —Courtney Escoyne

NDT in NYC

NEW YORK CITY   Nederlands Dans Theater returns to New York City Center for the first time since Emily Molnar took the helm. William Forsythe’s N.N.N.N. is joined by a pair of U.S. premieres: Imre and Marne van Opstal’s The Point Being and Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar’s Jakie. April 3–6. nycitycenter.org. —Courtney Escoyne

Centering Latina Voices

SAN FRANCISCO  The Carmen premiering at San Francisco Ballet this month won’t look or sound the same as usual. Choreographer Arielle Smith (a 2022 “25 to Watch” pick) sets the tale in contemporary Cuba—specifically at the family restaurant to which the titular heroine returns with her new husband after the death of her mother—while refocusing the story on Carmen and emphasizing the depth and complexity of the characters with cinematic flair. Escamillo, whom Carmen falls in love with, is recast as a woman, and the new score by Arturo O’Farrill only references the familiar Bizet opera as it layers in Cuban folk music. Joining the new ballet on the Dos Mujeres program is Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Frida Kahlo–inspired Broken Wings (which SFB artistic director Tamara Rojo commissioned and starred in during her English National Ballet tenure). The evening marks the first double bill choreographed by women and the first full program dedicated to Latinx stories at SFB. April 4–14. sfballet.org. —CE

Eclipsing All Else

NEW YORK CITY  Ahead of the Great North American Eclipse on April 8, the feath3r theory alights at NYU Skirball to premiere a devised dance theater work about a group of friends who team up to watch the celestial event and miss it. Raja Feather Kelly draws on Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death, the popularity of the science fiction concept of the multiverse, and the ways social media exacerbates loneliness and society’s inability to face it for The Absolute Future (or Death, Loneliness, and The Absolute Future of the Multiverse, or How to Cover the Sun with Mud). April 5–6. nyuskirball.org. —CE

Carnival of Politics

SEATTLE  Choreographed and directed by Francesca Harper and performed by dancer Wendy Whelan and poet Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Carnival of the Animals reframes the Camille Saint-Saëns classic to consider the animals of a political jungle as it responds to the January 6 insurrection and contemplates the future of democracy. The SOZO-produced work premieres at the Meany Center for the Performing Arts on April 6. sozoartists.com. —CE

Memories of Matriarchs

HOUSTON  With three “Bessie” Awards, the Rome Prize, and a sumptuous stage presence, Jasmine Hearn is one of the most acclaimed contemporary dance artists to come out of Houston. But Memory Fleet: A Return to Matr, a performance, installation, and online archive that preserves the memories of eight Black Houston matriarchs, is their first major commission in their hometown. Commissioned by DiverseWorks, the multidisciplinary project includes original sound scores, choreography, and garments, along with guest performances by former Houston Ballet soloist Sandra Organ Solis and additional vocals and performances by local dancers and “Houston Aunties,” as Hearn calls them. The premiere at Houston Met April 6–7 will be followed by tours to Pittsburgh and New York City. diverseworks.org. —Nancy Wozny

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

COSTA MESA, CA  American Ballet Theatre presents the North American premiere of Woolf Works, Wayne McGregor’s three-act meditation on the writings of Virginia Woolf, at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Inspired by her novels Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando, and The Waves as well as her letters and diaries, the critically acclaimed ballet eschews narrative adaptation to take a stream of consciousness approach to the modernist writer’s oeuvre. April 11–14. abt.org. —CE

Bill T. Jones at Harlem Stage

NEW YORK CITY  Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company premieres two pièces d’occasion—People, Places and Things, reflecting some of the themes of Jones’ ongoing Curriculum series, and Memory Piece, a solo performed by Jones—as part of Harlem Stage’s E-Moves program’s 40th anniversary. Also on offer is an excerpt of Roderick George’s The Missing Fruit. April 19–20. harlemstage.org. —CE

Editor’s note: This item was updated on April 8, 2024, to reflect programming changes made after this story went to print.

Packed With Premieres

CHICAGO  South Chicago Dance Theatre returns to the Auditorium Theatre for an evening filled to the brim with premieres by Donald Byrd, Joshua Blake Carter, Monique Haley, Tsai Hsi Hung, Terence Marling, and founding executive artistic director Kia Smith. April 27. southchicagodancetheatre.com. —CE

The Weight of a Lie

ZURICH  Cathy Marston brings her penchant for literary adaptation to Atonement, her first new work as Ballett Zürich’s director. In Ian McEwan’s novel and Joe Wright’s acclaimed film adaptation, teenage writer Briony Tallis tells a deliberate lie about her older sister’s lover and spends the rest of her life attempting to make up for its unintended consequences. Marston transfers the action to the world of ballet, making Tallis a choreographer while wrestling with the story’s questions about the fallibility of memory and the nature of self-deception and guilt. April 28–June 7. opernhaus.ch. —CE

The post 10 Must-See Shows Hitting Stages This April appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Comings & Goings

At San Francisco Ballet, Jasmine Jimison has been promoted to principal.

At Carolina Ballet, Joseph Gerhardt has been promoted to principal.

At Paris Opéra Ballet, Bleuenn Battistoni has been promoted to étoile.

At Miami City Ballet, Taylor Naturkas has been promoted to principal soloist, Brooks Landegger and Satoki Habuchi to soloist.

At American Ballet Theatre, Jarod Curley, Carlos Gonzales, and Jake Roxander have been promoted to soloist.

At Boston Ballet, Daniel Durrett, Lauren Herfindahl, and Sangmin Lee have been promoted to soloist, Kaitlyn Casey and Courtney Nitting to second soloist.

At Colorado Ballet, Leah Rose McFadden and Jessica Payne have been promoted to principal, beginning with the 2024–25 season.

English National Ballet répétiteur Antonio Castilla has been named associate artistic director at San Francisco Ballet, beginning in June. He succeeds Kerry Nicholls, who has been named director of artist development, beginning in May.

Taja Cheek has been named artistic director of Performance Space New York, sharing leadership with senior director Pati Hertling and associate director Ana Beatriz Sepúlveda-Echegaray.

Ilter Ibrahimof will step down as artistic director of Fall For Dance North in October, after the festival’s 2024 edition.

Deborah S. Brant has been appointed president and CEO of Cincinnati Ballet after serving in both roles in an interim capacity following Scott Altman’s departure at the end of 2023.

National Ballet of Canada executive director Barry Hughson will step down at the end of the 2023–24 season to join American Ballet Theatre in the same role, effective July 1.

Orlando Ballet executive director Cheryl Collins will part ways with the company at the end of the 2023–24 season. Artistic director Jorden Morris will serve as interim executive director while the search for her successor is underway.

The American Tap Dance Center will close its doors on June 30. This summer’s Tap City, American Tap Dance Foundation’s annual festival, has been canceled, and the non-profit will downsize.

Awards & Honors

Bril Barrett and the Zuni Olla Maidens were named 2024 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows, which includes a $25,000 prize.

Pam Tanowitz will receive the 2024 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award, which includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant, at the Pillow’s season opening gala on June 22.

Ishmael Houston-Jones will receive the American Dance Festival’s 2024 Balasaraswati/Joy Anne Dewey Beinecke Endowed Chair for Distinguished Teaching, which includes a $5,000 honorarium, on June 30.

Alice Sheppard and taisha paggett are among the recipients of Spring-Summer 2024 MacDowell Fellowships.

Iana Salenko was awarded the honorary title of Berlin Chamber Dancer.

Recipients of Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (“Izzies”) for the 2022–23 performance season included Rogelio Lopez and Danielle Rowe (Outstanding Achievement in Choreography or Direction, Entre Despierto y Dormido and MADCAP, respectively); Jin Lee Baobei, Lawrence Chen, and Nicole Townsend (Outstanding Achievement in Performance — Individual); Joseph A. Hernandez and Kelsey McFalls (Outstanding Achievement in Performance — Ensemble, Natasha Adorlee’s Blooming Flowers and the Full Moon); Los Lupeños de San José (Outstanding Achievement in Performance — Company, Yahir Padilla’s Ritos y Costumbres); and San Francisco Playhouse (Outstanding Achievement in Restaging/Revival/Reconstruction, A Chorus Line). Rena Butler, Dance Mission Theater, and José Ome Mazati and Debb Kajiyama of NAKA Dance Theater received Special Achievement Awards. Dimensions Dance Theater, Nancy Karp, and Robert Henry Johnson (posthumous) were honored for Sustained Achievement.

New Funding Opportunities

The Doris Duke Foundation is accepting applications for its new Performing Arts Technologies Lab. It will fund selected project proposals utilizing new digital tools and production methods from individuals, organizations, and partnerships working in jazz, contemporary dance, and theater. Application deadline is May 6; further information available here.

The post News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in March 2024 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Though musicals and plays can come to Broadway via many different routes, the majority of them transfer from regional theaters, off-Broadway, the West End, or national tours. In this 2023–24 season, there are 20 musicals premiering on Broadway, including brand-new shows and revivals. Every single one of those productions was previously staged somewhere else.

This tactic has become even more common in the wake of pandemic shutdowns, as the financial risks of mounting a show have increased. The producing and creative teams can get a feel for how their show works in an environment that has less pressure and requires less money. They can take time to gauge audience reactions to the work, read reviews, and analyze public interest and ticket sales. And the process can ultimately lead to big career opportunities for the dancers and actors involved.

Theater Matchmaking

Pre-Broadway runs of a show can help more experimental, outside-the-box productions find financial investors and Broadway theater owners who are interested in helping them have a future life. Mandy Hackett, the associate artistic director of The Public Theater in downtown Manhattan, has helped shepherd 15 shows from the famous off-Broadway venue onto Broadway, including Hamilton and this month’s Hell’s Kitchen.

“Broadway has expanded a lot over the past 20 years,” she says. “More diverse work is coming from the nonprofit world, and producers are getting more comfortable taking risks with putting up a wider range of adventurous work. But that means there are so many shows vying for theaters, and theater owners are getting pitched from all different places day in and day out.” Previous runs give everyone a better sense of which shows and theaters might be good matches—aligning what’s right artistically for the show with what’s smart for the business of the theater.

A Feat of Logistics—and Creativity

Once a theater gets officially locked in, the real heavy lifting of the transfer begins. It’s a massive undertaking that, among other things, includes the public relations team finalizing the show’s artwork for marketing and advertising, the box office setting ticket prices and rolling out a calendar for announcements and sales, and the production team planning when their load-in can start and what the company’s rehearsal schedule will look like.

While all of this is going on behind the scenes, the show’s creative team is also hard at work. Initially putting up a full-scale version of their show somewhere other than Broadway gives them a chance to see what doesn’t translate effectively from the page to the stage. This information is then used to make changes to the piece in another workshop or during their Broadway rehearsal process. These could be small tweaks, like script and choreography edits or a costume redesign, or there could be bigger restructuring involving cutting, adding, or rearranging entire scenes, songs, or characters. Sometimes creative-team members can also change—a new set designer is brought in to shift the aesthetic, or a different choreographer is brought in to adjust the movement style.

The new Broadway revival of The Wiz toured 13 cities over the past seven months before it sat down on Broadway this month. Matthew Sims Jr. is a swing in the company, and he’s glad their show had an opportunity for a test drive. “Since COVID, it feels like a lot of shows are hanging on by a thread. Closing notices come quickly, it’s more expensive to put up a show and harder to get audiences to come,” he said. “But with touring, we’ve gotten to see what speaks to people from different places and from different demographics before putting it all together on Broadway.”

Choreography, especially, often undergoes significant revisions during the transfer process. I’ve had the pleasure of working on the choreography team of two shows that transferred to Broadway from out of town: How to Dance in Ohio, which premiered in September 2022 at Syracuse Stage and transferred to Broadway this past fall, and The Who’s TOMMY, a revival that we staged at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago last summer and is opening on Broadway this spring. While preparing for these transfers, there were a few things we needed to consider: What are the dimensions of the new stage and how will that affect the spacing and movement we created in the regional versions? Were there any parts of our choreography that we weren’t fully satisfied with last time that we now want to update? If we have new set pieces, new dancers, or new costumes, what changes do we need to make to accommodate the updates being made by other departments? For both shows, our dance teams did a lot of work in the studio to revisit what we initially created and brainstorm new ideas we wanted to implement for the next iteration.

Casting Variations

Changes may also be made to a show’s cast between a preliminary run and Broadway. Sometimes cast members need to be replaced for various reasons—the director or choreographer may feel that a performer wasn’t properly suited to the show, or maybe the dancer has booked another job that’s happening at the same time. Frequently, auditions are also held to add additional swings and understudies to bulk up coverage for a longer run. In the case of a transfer from London, using international talent can get complicated and expensive with visas, unions, and housing relocation fees, so often almost an entirely new company of American workers is needed.

Claire Burke, a casting director with Tara Rubin Casting, helped usher in last summer’s hit show Back to the Future from the West End. “While casting a transfer, there is already existing choreography and a set of skills that have been determined,” she says. “So instead of building a brand-new piece in collaboration with whoever we choose, we have to cast people who are able to do exactly what has been previously established. There can still be creative freedom and different interpretations, but it’s a balance between finding someone unique and still honoring the original piece.”

The Broadway Boost

The cast of a Broadway transfer will often, however, include many of the artists who have been attached since its early stages. The original dancers, specifically, tend to be integral to the creation of the show’s movement, and a lot of times the choreographer prefers to keep their ensemble intact.

And while a transfer is certainly not the goal for every show, being in a Broadway house brings with it the perk of potential widespread success, which can ultimately trickle down to all the hands that touched the production. Sims, who is making his Broadway debut with The Wiz, says he’s proudly enjoying the feeling of reaching the pinnacle of the industry and is excited for where it will all lead him.

The sense of community that can come from a big Broadway audience is also a boon for many artists. “I remember being in the Broadway house of one of the earliest transfers I worked on, and feeling how many more people were there laughing and applauding,” said Hackett. “Of course it’s equally as magical downtown at The Public, but there is something so cool about the increased scale of people gathering in that theater, on that day, to share in that moment together. It sticks with you.”

The post The Whys and Hows of Broadway Transfers appeared first on Dance Magazine.

In making Chasing Canyons, I set out to choreograph a site-specific dance for a site so big it is impossible to see in its entirety. I began with my geologic knowledge of the Grand Canyon, built from my years of scientific training and the weeks I spent climbing up and down its walls. The resulting gesture phrase follows the canyon’s life cycle: the initial crush of its basement rocks, the tilting of overlying strata, the massive gap in time known as the Great Unconformity, subsequent deposition of layers upon layers of sediments, and, finally, the coming of the Colorado River to uncover it all. From there, I began to draw the parts of the canyon that I could see, tracing the terraces and side canyons, dragging feet and fingers from the tops of the cliffs to the shady hollows at the base. I worked in the positions of the stars above the canyon, which mark its location in space and time. Then I merged it all together to create a moving map, not just of the canyon, but of how humans relate to it.

Connecting the canyon to the stars raised more questions: How do we interact with beautiful spaces, here on Earth and elsewhere? When we land on Mars, will we be owners or caretakers? At the end of the piece, I answer these questions: I erase the map. Much like art and science, I think that “to boldly go” and “take only pictures, leave only footprints” are two complementary, not conflicting, philosophies.

My time as the Astronomer (and dancer) in Residence at the canyon has ended, but I will carry it in my body as well as my mind. It is my greatest hope that in making these kinds of dances, I can inspire audiences to expand their minds—to explore the different ways we can understand, learn, and appreciate the universe in which we live.

The post Dancing Across the Solar System as the Grand Canyon’s Astronomer in Residence appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Broadway choreography has long been an amalgam of different social dances and forms like jazz, tap, and ballet. But today’s shows are increasingly using movement makers from genres outside the musical theater world altogether, like experimental dance (David Neumann, Annie-B Parson, Raja Feather Kelly), commercial dance (Sonya Tayeh, JaQuel Knight, Keone and Mari Madrid), modern dance (Camille A. Brown), and physical theater (Steven Hoggett).

“There’s a whole cadre now of choreographers who never were in a Broadway show, who never danced in A Chorus Line,” says veteran Broadway journalist Sylviane Gold. “And they’re bringing something different.”

Traditionally, musical theater dance had “artistic aspirations but with popular appeal,” says Appalachian State University professor Ray Miller, author of Dance on the American Musical Theatre Stage. Broadway is, after all, a for-profit business. While today’s musical theater choreographers still face pressure to sell tickets, those coming to Broadway from other traditions are sometimes less oriented toward popularity. And that can lead to more risk-taking.

For instance, when Neumann choreographed Hadestown, he brought the narrative to life by leaning into abstraction and subtlety, creating simple movements—like loose, rhythmic walking—that had a magnetic pull. “I don’t want to dictate the audience’s entire experience,” Neumann says. “I want them to lean in and become curious.”

It’s not just the steps that have changed. The role dance plays in musicals has also shifted. “Theater choreography used to be more about literal storytelling,” says longtime Broadway choreographer and director Susan Stroman. “Today the choreography is more about atmosphere, capturing the essence of the emotion that’s happening onstage, whether it’s tension or romance.” She credits Andy Blankenbuehler’s work on Hamilton and Camille A. Brown’s Choir Boy in particular for spurring this development.

This more abstract approach has meant less choreography featuring characters dancing as individuals and more collective ensemble movement, says Stroman. When someone does break out for a solo, “the choreography today has unbelievably interesting and very intricate steps,” Stroman says—a trend that might reflect the distinctive showmanship of social media dance. “Younger choreographers are able to tap into video and TikTok and Instagram, where steps are mostly the stars,” Stroman says.

The 2020 sea change also had an impact. Since COVID-19, older audience members—who got used to safer and more convenient entertainment options—have become less-dependable ticket buyers, says Stroman. That means producers are sometimes willing to take a chance on something different, hoping to draw in younger audiences. And following big pushes from social justice movements, producers are also hiring directors from a variety of backgrounds, who are in turn seeking out choreographers from different genres—which is changing the type of movement that ends up onstage.

“We’re telling more diverse stories,” says Ellenore Scott, who choreographed Broadway’s Funny Girl and Mr. Saturday Night in 2022. “We’re using voices that were not heard back in the 1940s, 1950s.”

And a wider array of creative perspectives—both on Broadway and well beyond it—is part of the path to progress. As Neumann says, “An art form is only as strong as the number of voices able to tell stories and speak through their particular weird proclivities.”

What About Tap Dance?

Tap dance has been an essential component of Broadway dance since the 19th century, and as far back as the late 1700s dancer John Durang brought soft-shoe–style elements to the Great White Way, says historian Ray Miller. By the 1930s, musicals like Anything Goes and the original film version of 42nd Street were chock-full of crowd-pleasing tap numbers. But the iconic genre is no longer an expected staple of new musicals.

“Tap’s role kept changing as musicals changed,” says arts writer Sylviane Gold. “Today, tap can be a specialty number that is thrown into a show with a wink, as a little gift to the audience, even though it’s clearly out of place—as in Aladdin. It can be used as a dramatic element—as when the Irish and Black characters in Paradise Square stage a tap challenge.”

Choreographer Susan Stroman points out that there are fewer big ensemble tap numbers today: “It’s more about the strength of an individual tap dancer coming out and starring in a moment.”

The style of tap has also evolved. The traditional up-on-your-toes choreography is being replaced not only by grounded, hip-hop–inspired hoofing, but also by more complex steps and rhythms. “I think people are starving for more interesting rhythms, a new way to do something that’s old, trying to take something we’re familiar with and flip it on its head,” says Stroman.
Tap dance isn’t going away anytime soon. “As long as there are Broadway musicals, there will be some kind of tap,” predicts Gold. “But it won’t necessarily be performed by an ensemble doing time-steps in dazzling unison.”

Where Could (or Should) Broadway Choreography Go Next?

“I get excited by things like American Utopia that are really off the beaten path. I want choreography to be more inclusive and to say, ‘This can work, and this,’ looking for different ways to share what we think about our experience being alive on the planet.”
—David Neumann,
choreographer

“I would love Broadway to take a chance on the dance narrative, like it did at one time when I was able to do Contact or Twyla Tharp was able to do Movin’ Out.”
—Susan Stroman,
director and choreographer

“Just show me something I haven’t seen before. That’s what excites me. And that’s not to say that it isn’t absolutely wonderful to see something familiar brought to a new level of execution or excellence. But theater is about sitting in the audience and being surprised.”
—Sylviane Gold, arts writer

“I hope that Broadway creative teams take chances on different styles of movement as a way to tell a story. You can have one script and tell it 1,000 different ways depending on how that show is choreographed and staged and directed.”
—Ellenore Scott, choreographer

“Straight plays are beginning to pay attention to ecology, and I’m sure that it will happen on the musical stage, too. We now have the talents and the tools to create musicals that address climate and other environmental concerns. We need more stories to help us to conceive more sustainable ways of being.”
—Ray Miller, historian

The post What Does “Broadway Choreography” Mean Today? 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.

Stats like those raise a big question: After the shanks have collapsed and the boxes have turned to mush, where do all the dead pointe shoes go?

According to Ozgem Ornektekin, a mechanical engineer who specializes in sustainability, a pointe shoe as a whole can’t go into a recycling waste stream. It needs to be pulled apart to salvage individual materials: The box and sole can go into paper and cardboard recycling streams, while the nails in some shoes can be recycled with metals, but the fabric needs to be donated to local fabric recycling collection boxes. The entire process of deconstructing the shoe is difficult, expensive, and time-intensive—which is why, unfortunately, most pointe shoes end up in landfills.

But some people and organizations are working valiantly to keep shoes out of the trash. Here are three ways dead shoes are getting a more environmentally friendly second act.

Shoe Souvenirs

The most common way companies repurpose pointe shoes is through signed-shoe sales. Many sell dancer-signed pairs in their gift shops, or send them as thank-you gifts to those who contribute to company pointe shoe funds.

During Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker season, young students who participate in the production have the chance to write letters to company members they admire, and request a signed pair of pointe shoes from them. “That’s very popular,” says Sandy Barrack, PNB’s production stage manager.

The company also offers old shoes to the young children in its Eastside Summer Workshop for crafting purposes. And every so often, “someone will ask me for pointe shoes so they can make a wreath out of them, and things like that,” Barrack says. “I try to make use of the ones that can’t be sold when I can.”

Creating Art

Dead pointe shoes have also been used in professional artwork. The artist Karon Davis featured a small mountain of pointe shoes in her ballet-themed exhibition, Beauty Must Suffer, at New York City’s Salon 94 last fall. Davis’ mother, who like Davis was a dancer, sourced the shoes from thrift stores and estate sales; the installation gave them a poetic second life.

At Leigh Purtill Ballet Company, dancers turned their old pointe shoes into detailed floral centerpieces for the company’s spring gala. “The theme was ballet in bloom, and I wanted to incorporate pointe shoes,” says Vivian Garcia, a dancer and member of the company’s production team. She asked the other performers to save and donate their old shoes. “We were immediately bombarded,” says fellow dancer and production team member Elena Castellanos. Many dancers contributed—including one who had kept every pointe shoe she had ever worn—and in the end the production team had roughly 50 pairs to work with.

A team of four company members came together to bring Garcia’s vision to life in her mother’s backyard. “We painted flowers onto the shoes, put beautiful pieces of fabric both inside and outside of the soles of the shoes, and used shimmery paint to give it a glow,” Garcia says. Then the company raffled the shoes off as part of the gala’s fundraiser, helping to raise $5,000, which went toward their production of The Nutcracker and other expenses.

“I care a lot about the environment, and it’s been hard for me to go through so many shoes so quickly,” Castellanos says. Garcia agrees: “I think it’s wonderful for our pointe shoes to have this second phase of life.”

Recycling and Upcycling

Despite the difficulties, there have been various efforts over the years to recycle pointe shoes—or upcycle them.

Ornektekin founded Petit Pas New York, which transforms old pointe shoes into leather and satin accessories, after learning about how many pointe shoes professionals and advanced students were flying through. Partnering with the School of American Ballet (and with shoe maker Freed of London’s support), Ornektekin dissected students’ pointe shoes to determine what materials could and could not be reused. Then, with her team, she created four products: three bracelets and a small coin/hairpin bag. “We used the leather at the front of the shoe to make bracelets, and the satin from the back of the shoe to make bags,” she says.

All of the dead pointe shoes that Ornektekin revitalizes come from students at SAB. “At the end of each semester we get a big dump of them, and everything gets sanitized before we use it,” she says. Beyond what Petit Pas is doing for the environment, 50 percent of their proceeds goes back to the school’s pointe shoe fund to reduce the cost of shoes for the students.

Consider asking your school or company if they offer opportunities to donate or recycle. Though Ornektekin says her current priorities are local, she recommends that dancers around the world look into ways in which they, too, can reuse pointe shoes in their own community.

The post How Artists Are Keeping Mountains of Dead Pointe Shoes Out of Landfills appeared first on Dance Magazine.

“Within a week of the premiere, every single ballet company that one would ever dream of working for was in my inbox asking for a new ballet for the same season,” she says. Portner decided to give herself another year in ballet, which eventually dragged into several. Now, she’s on track to have created five ballets for major companies before she turns 30 in November.

Last month, she premiered her Bathtub Ballet at the Royal Swedish Ballet, and in April, she’ll have yet another premiere, her Forever, maybe at GöteborgsOperans Danskompani. For now, though, islands—the piece that started it all—is back, this time at the National Ballet of Canada. It’ll be Portner’s first time sharing a major work in her home country, where she still escapes to spend time at her house and studio in the woods on her rare week off. 

What’s new? It’s been a while.

My life has been crazy. I feel like the last time I connected with Dance Magazine I was a baby. It’s been forever since I’ve been interviewed because I’ve been in this prolonged period of discovery and change. 

Are you based in Europe now? 

I would consider Canada home, but I only get to spend really random bouts of time out here. I’m working in Scandinavia a lot. What was supposed to be a two-ballet contract with the Norwegian National Ballet ended up spanning four or five years because of the pandemic. I actually just finished dancing in a new ballet at the Oslo Opera House, a new piece by Alan Lucien Øyen. I was acting, which was a really fun departure for me. 

I didn’t realize that islands changed your life in such a major way. Tell me about that piece. 

Islands saved my life, in a way. When I went into it, I wasn’t in a great place. I was going through a lot in my personal life. I didn’t feel like a legitimate person to be making ballets. I felt like my personality was incompatible with the machine of the ballet institution. So when Ingrid called me, I declined at first. The only reason I ended up doing it was because I felt like I needed to escape the States. I needed to have a new start. 

I wanted the piece to be two women. I wasn’t setting out to do a gay piece, I just felt that in the ballet space in 2018, queer representation was either by chance—like the lead got sick, so someone else had to come in and now it’s a queer duet for one night—or it’s this big, sweeping, romantic duet. I felt there was nuance and reality lacking. And I felt like, What if queerness isn’t the thing we’re putting onstage, it just exists? And we’re allowed to have a complex relationship, and have the queerness be secondary to that? Because that’s the truth to me.  

In my earlier work, I would put way too many ideas into one thing. I couldn’t tolerate sitting with an idea long enough to see it develop. Now, I’m much more able to sit with things, and that’s what I really wanted to do with this one. The only idea I had going into it was that because­ of the classical tutu, women’s hips have been four feet apart for hundreds of years. I was like, What if we were able to reverse that? So for the first half of the piece, they are literally dancing inside the same pair of pants. That was the most fascinating and most frustrating and most awkward process. Some days in rehearsal, it was like, Okay, we need a break from the pants for five minutes. 

What does it feel like to be sharing this piece in your home country and on such an iconic company?

When I was growing up, I had posters of Heather Ogden and Karen Kain in my bedroom. And then, Heather Ogden is cast in the piece. I really have to pinch myself. I actually went to the National Ballet summer programs growing up, and I was desperate to go to the school, but my mom didn’t let me. It’s this unattainable place that I never thought I would get to because I didn’t go through the front door. I’m entering through this magical backdoor. 

You’ve said that you don’t consider yourself a ballet choreographer, but you’ve been working extensively in ballet. What does your relationship to ballet feel like right now?

This question is always swirling around in my head. I have to really leave myself in order to fit into the ballet institution because it’s so demanding of me on so many levels. I’m this question mark. People are taking a risk on me, and it’s a lot of pressure to walk into these spaces with so much history, and have it feel like it’s on my shoulders to change it. And people are looking at you and people are hoping with you and people are scared with you. But it feels like people are holding my pinky finger and not holding my hand through it. That’s where it gets really hard for me, because there’s still so much that needs to change. This is why I wanted to do five ballets before I’m 30: so I can say that I did it, and then I can step out of the ballet world for a second and reenter it in an entirely different way. I want to help ballet make itself more sustainable and to open the door for other people. Because I love ballet, and I want to see it thrive, but I want to see its people healthier. I want to see more people making ballets and trying new things and making a mess onstage and for that to be okay. I just feel like the whole system can use a little more breath and a little more optimism and a little more chance. But what is chance at the end of the world? You know, I’m someone who never wants to do interviews, but then I start doing an interview and I can’t stop talking. It’s fascinating. 

The post Emma Portner Brings the Work That Kept Her in the Dance World to National Ballet of Canada appeared first on Dance Magazine.

We’re still rooting for a “Best Choreography” category as dance continues to be an integral part to each year’s nominated films. But until then, we still enjoy seeing our beloved artform on the Dolby Theater stage.

“Wahzhazhe” from Killers of the Flower Moon

Eight Osage Nation dancers joined Scott George and the Osage Tribal Singers in a historic performance of “Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon. George made Oscars history as the first Native American to receive a nomination for best original song with “Wahzhazhe.” He is also the first member of the Osage Nation to be nominated by the Academy. 

As the dancers and singers followed the drum against a sunset backdrop, they invited the international audience to witness a simultaneously intimate and boundless celebration. A groundbreaking performance, it marked the first time members of the Osage Nation, or of any indigenous community, has danced on the Oscars stage.

“I’m Just Ken” from Barbie

It’s safe to say that the Oscars felt the “Kenergy” after Ryan Gosling and his ensemble of Kens took to the stage with Barbie’s tongue-in-cheek power ballad, “I’m Just Ken,” which was also nominated for best original song. The number, choreographed by Mandy Moore, featured several members from the film’s original cast, including Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir, and was complete with a kickline, unapologetic melodrama, cardboard cutout–ography, and on-the-nose references to Jack Cole’s choreography for “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” Oh, and Slash.

Best Actress winner Emma Stone later pointed to the performance as the culprit behind her tearing her dress. (Don’t worry, Emma, we were dancing too.)

The “In Memoriam” Segment

A welcome surprise for some and an irritating visual distraction for others, this year’s “In Memoriam” tribute featured an ensemble of dancers that accompanied Andrea and Matteo Bocelli as they sang the former’s hit “Time to Say Goodbye.” This was not the first time dance has appeared in the segment; in 1996, Savion Glover tapped to “Singin’ in the Rain” in a tribute to the late Gene Kelly, who passed away that year. This year’s performance included a subtle and touching moment for the late Chita Rivera, who died on January 30—a simple weight shift and slow-motion hip sway, facing Rivera’s photo on the projection screen. 

While the dancers brought stunning synchronicity and reverent artistry to Moore’s second choreographed work of the night, the performance has earned pushback from audience members who found them and the Bocellis distracting. 

The post The Most Memorable Dance Moments From the 2024 Academy Awards appeared first on Dance Magazine.

But there’s no doubting the rigor and penetration of his eye as he asks a dancer with a paintbrush to tackle his easel with “more velocity,” urges a couple to make a lift “sharp,” and encourages a leg into a clearer diagonal as the bustling number evokes kaleidoscopic images of the City of Light.

Later, in separate interviews, Kelly and Chavkin talk about Lempicka the show, Lempicka the artist—Chavkin knows many audiences likely won’t recognize Lempicka’s name, but suspects they will recognize her art—and their own collaboration on the musical. At times, they’re like he-said, she-said accounts of the same happy marriage. Below are a few excerpts from those conversations, edited for length and clarity.

On Lempicka’s Paintings

Kelly: There is so much movement—the way that curves move forward and backward, how diagonals are made in the body. And I think any dance person could see the épaulement in the paintings. I told them [Chavkin, Kreitzer, and Gould] that épaulement is the central movement language to begin any choreography for this work.

Chavkin: He explained to us what “épaulement” meant, and it was, “Oh, my god, that’s it—we were meant for you, and you were meant for us!”

On Storytelling With the Body

Kelly: I’m a postmodernist, and I am a contemporary dancer. I have to use everything I’ve learned to find a new language—I have to use postmodernism, I have to use lyrical, I have to use jazz. And I’m always going to tell a story, no matter what.

Chavkin: When I first encountered [the theatrical training technique] the Viewpoints in college, I was like, “Oh! I get how to do this!” I get that story is communicated through the body, through the physical state of the performer, through the physical state of the stage, and tension and line—all of the things that are absolutely principles of dance but that are also principles of staging.

On Working Together

Kelly: What’s exciting for me is that now, in 2024, she really does trust me. We’ve been doing it for almost eight years, and I think she trusts my understanding of the show. I tend to take care of the ensemble, and she leaves me to do that. Then we come together, and we note each other. Sometimes I’m offering her behavior for scenes, because I love for it to blend—so that the show doesn’t go from scene to dance. So that the whole show is alive with the same behavior. It can’t happen unless we’re working both in tandem and also separately, because we might have a different point of view on something. I’m certainly not a choreographer that just makes dances.

Chavkin: There’s a dance that every single director-choreographer team does once they get to know each other. Raja and I had the necessary luxury of many years and multiple incarnations of this project to figure out whose territory is whose. What’s been so exciting and so helpful is I tend to think in large movement of bodies and energy in the space—where do we need chaos, where does it need to be more stable, et cetera, et cetera. And Raja is so exquisite on human specificity and detail. It’s a big-picture/intimate-picture kind of dialogue between us. He gives it more shape, more line, further articulation. It’s so satisfying when you meet someone who can pick up what you’re putting down.

The post Raja Feather Kelly and Rachel Chavkin on <i>Lempicka</i> the Show and Lempicka the Artist appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The Oscars and dancemakers don’t have the easiest relationship. Although many of the films nominated inevitably include dancing, there’s no award for choreography. The past year has shown what may be the first signs of change: In March of 2023, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Academy Awards, created a new Production and Technology branch, which will house choreographers admitted to the Academy. (That number, however, remains very small—with last year’s addition of Fatima Robinson, it’s not even at double digits.) In 2025, the Academy will add an Oscar for casting, a development that could set a precedent for choreographers. And as of last month, IMDb started recognizing “choreographer” as a primary profession.

Hopefully, dancemakers will soon be able to chassé onto the Dolby Theatre stage to collect a golden statuette of their own. In the meantime, we’ll recognize their work here.

Barbie, Choreographed by Jennifer White

In an interview, director Greta Gerwig said that she fought hard to keep the “I’m Just Ken” dream ballet in Barbie. “I was like, ‘If people could follow that in Singin’ in the Rain, I think we’ll be fine,’ ” Gerwig reportedly said.

Gerwig has a good dance track record: For her 2019 film Little Women, she turned to choreographer Monica Bill Barnes. For Barbie, she broughton London–based choreographer and movement director Jennifer White, with associate choreographer Lisa Welham. White, who has a long list of film, music video, and stage credits, strikes the perfect balance of wittiness and whimsy in Barbie’s dream ballet and its earlier “Dance the Night” number.

Barbie is nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), and Best Supporting Actress (America Ferrera). It is available to stream on Max, and to rent or buy on Amazon’s Prime Video and Apple TV.

The Color Purple, Choreographed by Fatima Robinson

The Color Purple is a full-fledged movie musical: Its choreography, by Fatima Robinson, isn’t relegated to just one or two scenes. Based on the stage musical, which in turn is based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize–winning 1982 novel, the film follows Celie, a Black woman living in the rural American South in the early 1900s. Her long journey to empowerment is driven by strong female friendships and her bond with her sister. (The book was first adapted for film in 1985 by Steven Spielberg.)

Dance is everywhere in this movie: on the walk to church, in a crowded street, at a juke joint. Throughout, Robinson’s years of experience choreographing for major musical artists—Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Rihanna among them—shine through. The dancing is a blend of social dances from the film’s era, African forms, hip hop, and musical-theater–style movement. 

The Color Purple is nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Danielle Brooks). It is available to stream on Max and to stream or buy on Amazon’s Prime Video and Apple TV.

Maestro, Choreographed by Justin Peck

Leonard Bernstein’s collaboration with Jerome Robbins is the stuff of legend: It produced West Side Story, On the Town, and works for New York City Ballet, including Fancy Free and Dybbuk. So it’s only fitting that Maestro, the Bernstein biopic starring and directed by Bradley Cooper, includes dance.

In a dreamlike dance scene choreographed by Justin Peck (with Craig Salstein as associate choreographer), Cooper and Carey Mulligan, playing Bernstein’s wife-to-be, Felicia Montealegre, watch a version of Fancy Free onstage that melts into an original dance number, which they become a part of. The list of dancers includes NYCB’s Harrison Coll and Sebastián Villarini Vélez, and freelancers Gaby Diaz, Benjamin Freemantle, and Jeanette Delgado. Peck is often called a creative descendent of Robbins; after choreographing 2021’s West Side Story, this feels like a natural progression.

Maestro is nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper), and Best Actress (Mulligan). It is available to stream on Netflix.

Poor Things, Choreographed by Constanza Macras

Poor Things, director Yorgos Lanthimos’ feminist abstraction of Frankenstein,stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a grown woman reborn with the mind of a child. In a Victorian-era restaurant, Stone (who honed her dancing chops in La La Land and Broadway’s Cabaret) finds herself drawn to the music and takes to the dance floor. Rather than imitate the couples around her, she finds her own, intuitive movement style. For a while she’s joined by her lover, played by Mark Ruffalo, but, ultimately, she wants to dance on her own—a choice that helps further the film’s plot.

The scene is choreographed by Constanza Macras, a Berlin-based dancemaker who runs the dance and theater company DorkyPark and recently staged a production of Carmen for Switzerland’s Theater Basel. She first worked with Lanthimos on his 2018 The Favourite, whose dance scene also delightfully defies convention.

Poor Things is nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Stone), and Best Director (Lanthimos). It will be available to stream on Hulu starting on March 7.

The post The Best Dance in This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Films appeared first on Dance Magazine.

By day, Pehrson is an executive assistant. Evenings and weekends, she’s a dance class devotee: She typically takes six days a week, and has participated for decades in Wildish’s showcases.

She doesn’t take these opportunities for granted.

“A lot of people think that they’re too old to perform,” she says. “There’s that stigma about, ‘Well, past a certain age, why would you want to do it?’ Or ‘Who would want to see it?’ ”

But Wildish and a growing number of other teachers and organizations are offering adult recreational dancers a chance not only to take class but also to get onstage—whether­ they danced as kids and want to continue after high school or college without pursuing dance professionally, or came to dance as beginners in adulthood.

A Chance to Dance

Anyone who finds joy in dancing and performing should have the outlet to do it, says Wildish, who danced with New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. “I want to make it possible for others to experience those moments,” she says. “It’s important that that doesn’t die because you’re over 18.”

Allison DeBona—a former first soloist at Ballet West, who runs the artÉmotion adult summer ballet intensive with her husband, former Ballet West principal Rex Tilton—agrees. “There’s still this idea that if you are not on a professional company stage, you are not worthy,” she says. “We all need to move past this.”

And the landscape, it seems, has started to shift. In addition to Wildish’s showcases, there are now several adult intensives and workshops—including at artÉmotion in Salt Lake City and with companies like New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Louisville Ballet—that culminate in performances. There are adult recreational companies—such as Kathy Mata Ballet in San Francisco, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, and DanceWorks in New York City and Boston. There are adult-focused schools, like Rae Studios in San Francisco, that incorporate performances into their offerings. And there are other one-off opportunities.

DeBona was happy to see so many Ballet West Academy students and alums attend last summer’s artÉmotion adult-intensive performance and leave feeling inspired. “They’re all facing that time where it’s like, ‘I’m auditioning, but I might not get a job. What does that mean for me? Is this over?’ ” she says. Seeing the adults onstage in a high-quality production signaled that no matter what happens, there’s still a place for them to dance and perform.

Adult recreational performance opportunities are also transformative for those who never thought there was room for them in dance to begin with. “My idea of who could and couldn’t do ballet was very warped as a kid,” says Janay Lee, 25, an au pair who’s participated in the artÉmotion intensive the last two summers. For a long time, Misty Copeland was the only brown ballerina she knew of—none of the other stars she saw looked like her. Growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina, she did some dance at school and church, but didn’t start taking ballet until she was 18. “It’s like one of those dream careers that I never quite pursued.”

The chance to perform sends an important message. “It feels like your art is being taken seriously, I think, even if that art is recreational,” Lee says. “When you work so hard at something, it’s nice to get to show it off every once in a while.”

A Growth, and Bonding, Experience

Jessica Rae, who founded Rae Studios in San Francisco to make dance accessible to adults, added showcases in recent years because “the natural progression for a student is to have a final end goal,” she says. It seems obvious for an amateur runner signing up and training for a race, she says, and the same should go for dance. “It also creates the urge of, like, ‘Okay, I want to get back in the studio and train more.’ ”

That rings true for Corina Chan, 61, who started taking ballet with Kathy Mata at 37 and also does hip hop and heels classes at Rae Studios. She sees performances as an excellent way to apply what she’s learning in class. “I love being able to do things I didn’t think that I could do,” says Chan, a semi-retired small business owner and mom of three. She says being onstage has shaped her not only as a dancer, but also as a person. “Performing teaches me to be in the moment,” she says. “It builds fortitude and persistence.”

There’s something terrifying about putting yourself onstage, says Emma Melo, 50, a preschool program coordinator and arts teacher who danced in college. She started taking classes again at Louisville Ballet after watching her daughter there and deciding she’d rather be dancing than sitting in the lobby. “I hate that thundering-heart feeling. But I also feel like I need to feel that sometimes,” she says, in order to challenge herself. “You can’t grow that way just by going into a studio and taking class.”

Over the last several years, Melo has performed with fellow adults in the school’s spring shows, at the adult intensive, and even in the main company’s production of Coppélia. “It’s always been such a bonding experience to work with other people to create something, and then share in that experience of the risk of taking it live,” she says.

An Open Invitation

The sense of community that comes with making a shared commitment to a rehearsal process and performance is a major draw for many adult dancers. At DanceWorks, community is enshrined as part of the mission: The group’s number-one core value is to “know each other’s name,” says executive director Betsy Moran. “It creates a space that is really welcoming to all different types of dancers and all different types of people.”

And acknowledging the existence, needs, and desires of these dancers—who are neither kids nor professionals—might force the dance world to ask some questions that are deeply entwined with other conversations about diversity and inclusion.

“We are expanding who can be a dancer and what dance is,” Melo says. “Adults can be part of that picture.”

The post Why the Rise in Performance Opportunities for Adult Recreational Dancers Matters appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Comings & Goings

Béjart Ballet Lausanne has terminated the contract of artistic director Gil Roman, effective April 30.

Wen Wei Wang will step down as artistic director of Ballet Edmonton at the end of the current season. He will be succeeded by Kirsten Wicklund, effective in August.

Vicki Capote, Sara Roer, and Candace Thompson-Zachery have been named co-executive directors of Dance/NYC.

Cara Lonergan has been appointed executive director of BalletCollective.

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts president and CEO Henry Timms will depart the organization in August.

Royal Ballet principal Alexander Campbell will give his final performance with the company on March 8. He has been appointed artistic director of the Royal Academy of Dance, effective in April.

Guillaume Côté will retire from the National Ballet of Canada in June 2025.

Minnesota Dance Theatre, led by Elayna Waxse since January (after taking over from interim artistic director Kaitlyn Gilliland), will pause operations of its performing company at the end of May. The company’s affiliated school will continue.

The Cowles Center in Minneapolis will cease operations of the Goodale Theater, discontinuing dance presentations, on March 31.

Awards & Honors

Jawole Willa Jo Zollar will receive the 2024 Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award, which includes a $50,000 prize, in July.

Recipients of Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ 2024 Grants to Artists awards included Petra Bravo (Dorothea Tanning Award), Joanna Kotze, and Hsiao-Jou Tang (Viola Farber Award). Each will receive a $45,000 unrestricted grant.

Michael Manson (House of Jit) is part of the inaugural cohort of the Gilbert Family Foundation’s Seed and Bloom: Detroit program, through which he’ll receive a $150,000 grant over a three-year residency as well as additional institutional support.

At the Venice Biennale, Cristina Caprioli will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, Trajal Harrell the Silver Lion.

Faye Driscoll won an Obie Award for direction for Weathering at New York Live Arts.

The post News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in February 2024 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

The judging panel is not all that’s new. After the auditions round, 10 dancers will compete in challenges intended to reflect a freelance commercial-dance career, such as performing in music videos, football halftime shows, or Broadway numbers—a departure from dancing on a soundstage in short routines of rotating styles, the show’s signature. Rather than audiences voting live for their favorite dancers (filming reportedly began in Atlanta, rather than in Los Angeles as in previous years, in early December), eliminations will be entirely up to the judges.

Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising facet of the show’s new format: While in previous seasons, short, behind-the-scenes packages of rehearsal footage and interviews introduced each routine, this season “viewers will get a documentary-style inside look at the contestants’ dynamics, following them throughout the competition as they go through their personal and competitive journeys, including the daily struggles, new relationships, personality clashes and more,” according to a release. What will the seemingly more “reality TV” angle mean for the dancers on the show, and will the winning competitor’s title still be “America’s Favorite Dancer” with voting seemingly out of the audience’s hands? Fans will have to tune in on Fox (or the day after on Hulu) to find out. 

The post “So You Think You Can Dance” Season 18 Kicks Off With a Slew of Changes appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Paxton’s dancing—with his loose limbs, swerving spine, and charismatic aura—was magnificent to behold. In her book Terpsichore in Sneakers, Banes describes him as projecting “a continuing sense of the body’s potential to invent and discover, to recover equilibrium after losing control, to regain vigor despite pain and disorder.” His dancing body was an elucidation of his ideas.

Judson Dance Theater grew out of Dunn’s composition class. From 1962 to 1964, Paxton and a group that included several of Dunn’s other students—Rainer, David Gordon, Trisha Brown, Rudy Perez, Deborah Hay, and Elaine Summers among them—collectively produced a series of 16 numbered concerts, many of them at the Judson Memorial Church.

These concerts marked a historical moment when (portions of) modern dance transformed into postmodern. At the time, Paxton thought of Judson as a place where you could not worry about big entertainment in big theaters and instead just do stuff. Rather than thinking he was doing something revolutionary, Paxton located himself in the lineage of modern dance tradition. In a recent Pillow Voices podcast about Grand Union, he says that modern dance—Graham, Limón, Cunningham, Humphrey, Dunham—gave permission to create new forms “from the ground up.”

Yvonne Rainer wrote about his work at Judson in her memoir, Feelings Are Facts:

Steve’s was the most severe and rigorous of all the work that appeared in and around Judson during the 1960s. […] Eschewing music, spectacle, and his own innate kinetic gifts and acquired virtuosity, he embraced extended duration and so-called pedestrian movement while maintaining a seemingly obdurate disregard for audience expectation.

One of the landmark pieces that came out of that aesthetic, which celebrated the untrained human body, was Paxton’s Satisfyin Lover. In it, a large group of dancers simply walked, stood still, or sat on a chair. Jill Johnston wrote this now famous passage in The Village Voice:

And here they all were […] thirty-two any old wonderful people in Satisfyin’ Lover walking one after the other across the gymnasium in their any old clothes. The fat, the skinny, the medium, the slouched and slumped, the straight and tall, the bowlegged and knock-kneed, the awkward, the elegant, the coarse, the delicate, the pregnant, the virginal, the you name it, by implication every postural possibility in the postural spectrum, that’s you and me in all our ordinary everyday who cares postural splendor. […] Let us now praise famous ordinary people.

At the end of the ’60s, Paxton was working with Rainer on her piece Continuous Project—Altered Daily, which changed with every performance. Rainer had given the dancers—Paxton, Gordon, Douglas Dunn, Barbara Dilley, and Becky Arnold—so much freedom that the choreography eventually blew open, obliterating all planned segments. After a period of uncertainty, the group then morphed into the Grand Union, an improvisation collective with no leader. It was then augmented by Trisha Brown, Nancy Lewis, and Lincoln Scott.

“Grand Union was a luxurious improvisational laboratory,” Paxton said in Dance Magazine’s June 2004 issue. “All of us were very formally oriented, even though we were doing formless work.”

When Grand Union was engaged for a residency at Oberlin College in 1972, Paxton taught a daily class at dawn that included “the small dance.” Nancy Stark Smith, then a student, loved it. “It was basically standing still and releasing tension and turning your attention to notice the small reflexive activity that the body makes to keep itself balanced and not fall over,” she once said. “You’re not doing it, but you’re noticing what it’s doing.” This concept of noticing interior movement became foundational for contact improvisation.

Although Paxton is called the “inventor” of contact improvisation, he pointed to the mutuality of the form. It’s “governed by the participants rather than by a leader, similar to the structure of Grand Union,” he said.

Contact improvisation attracted thousands of people who wanted to move—and move with other people—but who did not want to train to be concert dancers. Paxton was involved in contact improvisation, often with Smith, for 10 years.

Then he started developing his solo works, including his improvisations to Bach’s Goldberg Variations from 1986 to the early ’90s. He went on to develop “material for the spine,” which he described in Dance Magazine as “what the spine is doing in that tumbling sphere with another person—a kind of yogic form, a technique that focuses on the pelvis, the spine, the shoulder blades, the rotation of the head.”

Paxton collaborated with Lisa Nelson, his life partner and fellow improviser extraordinaire, on two entrancingly improvised duets: PA RT (1978) and Night Stand (2004). He gave workshops all over the U.S. and in Europe. While he wasn’t a warm and fuzzy teacher, he was thrillingly articulate. He never faked enthusiasm. And he was trusted completely by colleagues from the ’60s—Trisha Brown, Yvonne Rainer, Simone Forti, and Cunningham dancer Carolyn Brown—in a way that I would call pure love.

Paxton always opted for the organic, close-to-nature option. Toward the end of his life, he spent much time in his garden in Vermont. In a talk at the Judson Dance Theater exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 2018, when asked about his life at that time, he said: “Every atom in the landscape in front of me that I look at every day is changing…I feel like it’s a living soup and I’m…kind of dissolving into its space.” He has now completed his dissolution.

Read an expanded version of this post here.

The post Steve Paxton (1939–2024): A Lifetime of Burning Questions appeared first on Dance Magazine.

A Lake of Nightmares and an Android Coppélia

ON TOUR  Les Ballets de Monte Carlo brings two twists on ballet classics by artistic director Jean-Christophe Maillot stateside this month. Lac, which probes Swan Lake’s inherent dichotomies, lands at New Orleans’ Mahalia Jackson Theater March 1–2. Coppél-i.A., which updates the narrative so the lovers’ relationship is threatened not by a lifelike doll but, instead, an artificial intelligence, follows March 7–10 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA. balletsdemontecarlo.com.

Like Rabbits

NEW YORK CITY   A surreal contemplation of childhood attachments and the nature of desire, Pontus Lidberg’s On the Nature of Rabbits makes its North American debut at The Joyce Theater March 6–10. joyce.org.

Dismantling Classic Cinema

SAN FRANCISCO  How do the archetypal roles in classic genre films—the romantic lead, the hard-boiled detective, the femme fatale—shift when embodied by BIPOC performers? Kayla Farrish is joined by five other dancers and musician Alex MacKinnon to explore the question, pushing back against the erasure and marginalization of non-white actors in Hollywood’s golden age, in Put Away the Fire, dear, which premieres at ODC Theater March 8–10. odc.dance.

Eating Its Own Tail

CHICAGO  Ouroboros, a new evening-length dance-theater solo from Nejla Yatkin, draws inspiration from Middle Eastern snake dances and the choreographer’s nomadic ancestry. Set in the round, the work invites audience participation as it incorporates multiple languages and movement styles, all connecting to, in Yatkin’s words, “heal the sacred thread of the feminine.” March 8–10. ny2dance.com.

Statement Begins

VANCOUVER AND SURREY  Ballet BC’s NOW program features a pair of commissions—one from Micaela Taylor, the other by choreographic duo Out Innerspace (Tiffany Tregarthen and David Raymond)—alongside the return of Crystal Pite’s darkly political dance theater work The Statement. The program premieres in Vancouver March 7–9 and repeats in Surrey March 22–23. balletbc.com. 

Intimate and Explosive

NEW YORK CITY  Doug Varone’s two-part To My Arms/Restore plays with contrasts. The first half, set to a suite of Handel arias, evokes intimacy, love, and loss, while the second focuses on visceral, explosive physicality to the beats of Nico Bentley’s “Handel Remixed.” With live music by MasterVoices and New York Baroque Incorporated, the new evening-length premieres at NYU Skirball March 22–23. nyuskirball.com.

New at NW

PORTLAND, OR  Associate choreographer Joseph Hernandez, former Luna Negra Dance Theater artistic director Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, and independent dance theater choreographer Nicole von Arx each contribute a premiere to NW Dance Project’s spring program, Secret Stories. March 29–30. nwdanceproject.org.

Books on Broadway

Two page-to-stage adaptations sing and dance to the Great White Way.

The Notebook

Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks and the blockbuster movie it inspired, the musical adaptation follows Allie and Noah as their love repeatedly brings them back together in spite of the forces trying to keep them apart. Katie Spelman (associate choreographer on Moulin Rouge! The Musical) choreographs to music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson. Opens at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre March 14. notebookmusical.com.

Water for Elephants

A young man jumps on a train with no idea of its destination and finds himself swept away by a traveling circus. As in the novel by Sara Gruen, the adventure is recounted through the memories of the main character’s older self in the musical adaptation, which brings the circus to life through choreography by Jesse Robb and Shana Carroll (who also acts as circus designer). Opens March 21 at the Imperial Theatre. waterforelephantsthemusical.com.

The post 9 Performances on Our Radar This March appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Edited by Anna Schneider and featuring contributions by a slew of top scholars, as well as collaborators and artists who have been inspired by Monk’s work, the book includes photography, drawings, notations, conversations with the artist, and previously unpublished archival material.

Its release is in conjunction with a career-encompassing exhibition by the same name currently on view at Munich, Germany’s Haus der Kunst and at Oude Kerk Amsterdam, together making up the first all-inclusive deep dive into Monk’s multifaceted and multidisciplinary work. The exhibitions run until March 3 in Munich and April 14 in Amsterdam, and the book, which will feature photos from the exhibition, is currently slated for release in May.

The post An Upcoming Book Continues Celebrations of Meredith Monk’s 80th appeared first on Dance Magazine.

CADD encouraged expansive awareness of space, of one’s body, of who dances, of what dance is for and what it can do—all grounded in Black diasporan experience and values. Binahkaye Joy’s presentation intrigued me the most. The Washington, DC–based force of nature identifies as “spatial architect, dancing mother, visionary space activator, fertility priestess, midwife, sacred nourishment practitioner, afrofuturist bush mother, ringshout synergist, and radiant superconductor of divine creation intelligence.” That’s not all: “…a budding astronomer…fascinated by the correlation between the birthing of stars and the creation of our fertility codes, Mother Mother is also a writer, sacred storyteller, communiographer, soft-time practice portal developer, fertile soundscape artist” and many other head-spinning descriptors.

What caught my breath, and my heart, was Joy’s uncomplicated pride in her body—“at the center of my labor”—as a place of generous size and overall generosity. Raising five children— her “munchkins,” with names like Jubilee and Luminous Glory—she regularly welcomes them into her dances. The film of her installation performance Elemental, features her either breastfeeding while dancing or wearing a baby pouch as she moves. No “solo” ever goes unvisited by a kid or two tripping through it, and the privacy of a bedroom, with its “birthing altar,” opens to public view as space for “honoring abundance and finding agency in it.”

Joy told us that as a child, she felt self-conscious because of her dark skin: “Am I beautiful enough?” What’s beautiful today—aside from, yes, that skin—is the way she opens minds and possibilities for dance artists and those of us who witness.

Scholar, educator, and artist Halifu Osumare, who offered the concluding keynote, advised us to “go beyond a limited consciousness,” citing cultural icons such as Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols, musician Sun Ra, novelist Octavia Butler, painter Kerry James Marshall, and filmmaker Ryan Coogler. “Never forget our life blood is the ancestors,” she said. We must press ever forward with Black imagination and ingenuity in the spirit of hope.

“It’s important to creatively design our future,” Osumare said. “Black dance can be anything…that we are called to do.”

The post Place Matters: Exploring the Geography of the Body at the 2024 CADD Conference appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Four years of pandemic impact have wreaked havoc on the lives of professional dancers like Jaramillo, a member of Sydnie L. Mosley’s New York City–based collective SLMDances. Most dance organizations, whether commercial or nonprofit, have been on a financial roller-coaster ride, too, whose tracks parallel ups and downs in the U.S. economy as a whole. Multiple reports published since last summer have shed long-awaited light on the fiscal health of the country’s dance sector. What those numbers say isn’t simple to summarize.

“Part of each organization’s story is, How nimble was that organization and how able has it been to adapt?” says Kellee Edusei, executive director of national service and advocacy organization Dance/USA. Companies and schools willing and able to move activities outdoors, stream video performances, and offer virtual classes had likely restored at least a portion of their earned income by summer 2021. Meanwhile, those who waited until studios and theaters could reopen might’ve gone a full fiscal year—or more—without any ticket sales, tuition fees, or paid arts education contracts. Pandemic restrictions, which varied from state to state, tied the hands of some organizations’ leaders more tightly than others.

SMU DataArts, a primary source of research on trends in the nonprofit cultural sector, collected and synthesized information about more than 120 U.S. dance organizations from a four-year period, 2019 to 2022. One takeaway from its longitudinal observations is that, even when the changes in dollar amounts appear positive, adjustments for inflation erase most gains (and deepen losses).

“When organizations geared up for the return of regular levels of programming in 2022, their expenses were 2 percent higher than they were in 2019, but their real buying power was 11 percent lower,” says Dr. Zannie Voss, the Dallas-based research center’s director and a professor at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business and Meadows School of the Arts. “Inflation doesn’t just have a very real impact on the core cost of producing or presenting,” she adds. “It also creates the kind of economic uncertainty that makes people not want to, or unable to, spend as much money as they once did.”

Along similar lines, percentage-based calculations might paint a rosier picture than is warranted of the financial health of dance organizations centering and led by people of color. “The average budget size of a non-BIPOC dance organization was three times that of a BIPOC organization in 2019,” says Voss, “and two and a half times that of a BIPOC organization in 2022. Those two cohorts had neither the same starting place nor the same endpoint, so any notion of a ‘leveled playing field’ is not the reality.”

The economics of touring and presenting, in particular, have changed significantly in recent years. Indira Goodwine-Josias, senior program director for dance at the New England Foundation for the Arts and director of its National Dance Project, says inflation, continued COVID-19 testing protocols, questions of access and inclusivity, and other factors have made touring more complicated for ensembles large and small. Unpredictable, sometimes painfully long waits for the U.S. government to approve visa petitions further complicate international travel, whether planned and paid for by presenters or dance companies themselves. “We have seen, for a lot of the presenters who don’t only present dance, some contractions,” says Sara Nash, dance director at the National Endowment for the Arts. “If, before the pandemic, they were bringing in five or six dance presentations a year, some of them pulled away from dance. And some have come back, but to fewer dance presentations than before.”

The U.S. government provided more than $50 billion to arts and entertainment entities through emergency, relief, and recovery programs, like the American Rescue Plan, Paycheck Protection Program, and Shuttered Venue Operators Grant. Now that those initiatives have largely run their course, Lane Harwell, senior program officer at the Ford Foundation, anticipates “further contraction of the dance field. Groups will continue to close, cut productions and staff, relocate, or pause operations.”

At the same time, Harwell says, financial pressures can foster innovation and prompt collaboration, at times within philanthropy, and “may create the conditions for new groups and artistry to emerge.” With responsive plans and agile leadership, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater in Chicago, LEIMAY in Brooklyn, ODC/Dance in San Francisco, and Rosy Simas Danse in Minneapolis became bright spots, sources say, on the U.S. dance map—organizations that weathered well the economic and social turmoil of recent years. The Ford-led America’s Cultural Treasures program, implemented alongside eight regional funding collaboratives, raised more than $275 million for nonprofits in dance and other creative fields beginning in 2020. The International Association of Blacks in Dance has had a numerically smaller but similarly distributed impact on the capacity of groups centering people and practices of African ancestry or origin.

Melanie George, assistant professor at Rutgers University and associate curator at Jacob’s Pillow, says that the coming months and years will be revealing. “There were a lot of public conversations like, ‘When we come back from this lockdown, we’re gonna do things differently,’ ” she says. “Institutions were saying it. Presenters were saying it. Funders were saying it. Artists took that to heart and are now like, ‘You said you wanted to do it differently? Well, here’s what it actually takes and costs for me to do what I would’ve compromised on before.’ ”

High-volume programming is expected of international festivals like Jacob’s Pillow, George says. But greater productivity is not necessarily the answer to every question. “We have not returned to what we were,” George says, “and certain very thoughtful organizations are talking about doing less and going deeper.”

Case Study: J CHEN PROJECT

How artist Jessica Chen’s company is making it work.

J CHEN PROJECT, primarily a vehicle for the creative work of New York City–based artist Jessica Chen, crossed a significant financial threshold at the start of 2024: its first annual operating budget with income and expenses greater than $50,000.

Chen says the company survived the past three years in part by being flexible about how its work is experienced. “We can’t go into the red renting theaters for every performance, so maybe we’ll work with a museum to perform in the lobby instead,” she says. “That’s not always ideal for my work, but I’ve tried to step back and ask myself, ‘What is the company’s mission? What is our role in this moment?’­ Let’s lean in to the unknown, which I think is what the pandemic forced all of us to do.” Chen adds that, because the company’s shows are now more frequently presented than self-produced­, more expenses are covered through commissions.

Inspired by the response from the audience, Chen has remounted her sold-out premiere from last March, AAPI HEROES: MYTHS AND LEGENDS, as an ongoing, once-monthly show. That long-term commitment has opened new fundraising doors and allowed Chen to guarantee her company members more pay and workweeks in advance. “My number-one priority is paying the dancers,” she says.

Data Points

Key findings from recent economic research on dance in the U.S.

SMU DataArts compiled information provided annually from 2019 to 2022 by 127 dance nonprofits based across the U.S. and found that:

• Private philanthropic support for dance fell 17% over that four-year period by dollar amount, and fell 27% once adjusted for the concurrent rate of inflation
• Dollars paid to performers exceeded the rate of inflation by 5% while dollars paid to administrative personnel exceeded the rate of inflation by 12%
• Ticket-sales revenue, adjusted for inflation,
  decreased 32% over the four-year period for dance organizations, versus a 66% decrease for theater organizations
• Donations from individuals comprised 30% of private support in 2022 versus 40% in 2019

Visit culturaldata.org to learn more.

Dance/NYC surveyed more than 1,600 dance workers and nearly 400 organizations in the New York City area and found that:

• Individuals made an average of $22 per hour, and 54% also held nondance jobs in order to make ends meet
• 56% of respondents had no savings or cash reserves and entities’ average budget size decreased 4% by dollar amount from 2019 to 2022
• Individuals worked an average of four jobs per year and 31% earned less than $25,000 per year
• 37% of individuals were salaried employees and 41% had worked without pay in the last year
• 64% self-financed and/or spent their own money to fund their dance work

Visit dance.nyc to learn more.

Dance/USA compiled the results of financial surveys completed annually from 2019 to 2023 by 12 member organizations—mostly major ballet companies—and preliminary results found that:

• The organizations earned 23% fewer dollars in 2023 through dance education and training programs than they did in 2019
• Total government support peaked in 2022 at 26% of total revenue, yet in 2023, it fell back to 4%—versus 3% in 2019
• Dollars earned through performance programs in 2023 were approximately 90% of 2019 levels, even with
  15% fewer performances, and continue to increase

Visit danceusa.org to learn more.

The post The Economics of Dance—Dance’s Future According to the Numbers appeared first on Dance Magazine.

“It opened us up to a whole different realm of people,” says Robin Edwards, executive director of the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center and Hiplet Ballerinas. “People know about Hubbard Street. People know about The Joffrey Ballet,” but they don’t necessarily know CMDC, Muntu Dance Theatre, or Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, she adds, naming just a few companies that have participated in the Legacy Project’s first and second cohorts. “Ravinia was an oppor­tunity to lessen that equity gap.”

Aptly titled Metamorphosis, the show offered a glimpse at the transformation the Legacy Project hopes to foster in Chicago and beyond. The future it envisions is one where Black dance is recognized, celebrated, and preserved for posterity, and historical inequities in funding and operational support have been rectified. For now, the Legacy Project has stepped in to bridge the gap, drawing on the university’s plentiful resources and connections to help participating companies thrive.

Filling the Gap

The need for such an initiative was made stark in the 2019 report Mapping the Dance Landscape in Chicagoland, which found that only 9 percent of funding targeted communities of color even though people of color made up nearly half the population and more than half of dancers and choreographers (with 31 percent of dancers and choreographers identifying as Black or African American). The report called out the disparity, flagging, albeit gingerly, that the disproportionate allocation of resources “may perpetuate inequities.”

“To me, I know it exists. But I think it just shocked a lot of people,” says Legacy Project director Princess Mhoon, who grew up steeped in Chicago’s Black dance community and trained with several of the institutions she now works with.
The Legacy Project was born in the wake of that report when Tracie D. Hall, then director of the Joyce Foundation’s Culture Program, reached out to Logan Center leaders to discuss developing a program to bolster the organizations performing and celebrating Black dance—and see if they’d be willing to become its home.

It was an easy yes, according to the Logan Center’s executive director Bill Michel. The University of Chicago was simultaneously having discussions about how to support an increasing demand for dance offerings on campus. In addition to serving as a center for artistic practice for students, faculty, and staff, a core part of the Logan Center’s mission is “to create real opportunities for the incredible artists and arts organizations on the South Side of Chicago and across the city to be part of our community, and for us to be part of their community,” says Michel.

Cultivating Community

The Legacy Project’s cohort model brought together eight companies in its first round between 2019 and 2022 and 10 companies for its second beginning in 2023. A testament to its early success is the fact that six of the eight companies from the first cohort returned—including the aforementioned along with Joel Hall Dancers & Center, NAJWA Dance Corps, and Forward Momentum Chicago. They were joined by newcomers M.A.D.D. Rhythms, Move Me Soul, The Era Footwork Collective, and Praize Productions.

Leaders from each of the companies meet monthly for workshops—such as leadership development sessions run by experts and peer-led tutorials where each company shares hard-won knowledge—and discussions that foster a meaningful bond. “We got to work together. We got to talk with each other. We got to hear about other people’s struggles,” says Edwards, reflecting on the first cohort and the no-brainer decision to return for round two. The burgeoning community became a lifeline during the pandemic and beyond. “​​It was comforting to know that you’re sitting there amongst people that are going through the same thing,” she says. “We’re fighting for the solutions together. We’re not alone in this.”

Building Four Pillars

The companies and Legacy Project rely on UChicago resources and partners and other institutions and organizations across the city in addressing four pillars. First is capacity building, and second is advocacy, which undergirds everything else. The third pillar is archiving, and the fourth is presenting, which involves access to rehearsal and performance space on campus for each company, as well as joint programs like the one at Ravinia.

For capacity building, each dance company works closely with consultants and grad students through the UChicago Office of Civic Engagement’s Community Programs Accelerator. They identify high-priority areas of development and customize projects that will bolster growth, like crafting a fundraising plan or finding the right board members.

“We want them to not have to walk the journey alone,” says Sharon Grant, executive director of the Community Programs Accelerator. “We’re not a ‘One-and-done, go do a course, here’s some information, and then go back to figure it out on your own.’ ” Instead, they roll up their sleeves and help get things done.

The archiving component puts the “legacy” in the Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project. Through partnerships with the Newberry Library and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, and help from a student intern turned staff member, companies consider options for cataloging and housing their artifacts.

Edwards recalls poring over piles of old programs and photos CMDC sent to the Newberry Library. “What we’re saying is that we consider this to be so important that these things need to be archived,” Edwards says. Creating the collections that will tell the stories of Black artists and companies to the next generations is about preserving their legacies, to be sure. But it’s also about leaving behind something to build on into the future.

The post How Chicago Black Dance Legacy Project at the University of Chicago is Working to Bridge the Local Dance Scene’s Equity Gap appeared first on Dance Magazine.

“Through the early decades of modern dance in this country, The 92nd Street Y became a safe haven for many artists who were not being presented anywhere else in New York City,” says Alison Manning, co-executive director of the Harkness Dance Center and director of the Harkness School of Dance at 92NY. Dance legends like Erick Hawkins, José Limón, Sophie Maslow, Pearl Primus, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn all performed on 92NY’s stage. Although the organization also had classes and concerts in other dance styles, it was a hotspot for modern dance in particular just as the genre was beginning to take off in the U.S.

This year, as 92NY celebrates its 150th anniversary, honoring those dance roots is at the top of the list of priorities. The organization is installing a major exhibit called “Dance to Belong: A History of Dance at 92NY,” from March 12 to October 31, in 92NY’s Weill Art Gallery. It kicks off with a one-night-only performance on March 12 meant to connect the venue’s illustrious past to the promise of what’s ahead. The Limón Dance Company will perform José Limón’s beloved There is a Time, paired with Omar Román De Jesús’ Like Those Playground Kids at Midnight. The Martha Graham Dance Company will perform Appalachian Spring Suite, paired with an excerpt from Jamar Roberts’ We The People. And Ailey II will perform a series of excerpts from Ailey classics, including The Lark Ascending, Streams, and Blues Suite, plus a premiere by Hope Boykin.

“We are highlighting that, in the moment when modern dance was wrestling into relevance in this country, The 92nd Street Y played a pretty critical role in opening doors for artists who needed space and support,” says Manning.

The programming for the upcoming performance began with Limón’s There Is a Time, she says. “The piece represents such an important message about our own 92NY history. There have been ups, there have been downs,” she explains. “And we as an institution have weathered both times of great challenge and of joy, but that we were at the forefront for many overlooked artists, during this important period in modern dance history, in providing support, time for joy, time for grief, whatever they needed to make their work.” 

The one brand-new work on the bill is a premiere by Boykin, who says it’s an expression of her gratitude to the legends who paved the path before her. Creating it for this concert was a “no-brainer” she says, since 92NY not only gave some of those legends a platform, but offered her one too: Her first full-evening show of her own took place there in 2021. “This work is a thank-you,” says Boykin. “A thank-you for the lessons, and paths made clear. This work will be a celebration of who I have become as a result of the work so many did before me.”

Putting together the March 12 program has brought home for Manning just how pivotal a role 92NY has played in the story of modern dance, and her role in stewarding that forward for the next generation. “My vision centers around trying to make sure that artists who need a platform and haven’t had an opportunity have it,” she says, “and artists who already have substantial support and known work can lift up these younger, less established artists simply by sharing the space and being presented on these same stages.”

Román De Jesús points out that this is precisely what this particular program is doing for him. The emerging choreographer has recently been racking up fellowships and awards, like the Dance Magazine Harkness Promise Award, yet he still struggles to find resources and venues to showcase his work. “To me, standing on the same stage as legendary companies and alongside fellow emerging artists symbolizes representation, inclusivity, and hope,” he says.

92NY’s long tradition of inclusivity is ongoing, and it will continue to be a place where dance history is made for many more decades to come.

The post 92NY Celebrates Its Rich Dance History as a Birthplace of Modern Dance appeared first on Dance Magazine.

How are you working to stabilize and re-instill confidence in the company?
I’m bringing feelings of positivity to it. There was a lot of uncertainty before. Looking at the company’s dancers in the studio now, you can see the relief and joy they have. Also, I am getting rid of the restrictive policies that were in place before regarding dancer schedules, and promoting open communication between the dancers and staff.

The investigation revealed significant financial concerns. What changes do you expect you will have to make?
With the tight budget we have, it’s going to be a roller coaster ride, and some sacrifices will have to be made. Of the company’s 33 dancers, a handful will not be returning when their contracts are up. However, we may need to tighten up the company even further and reduce the dancers’ contracts by a few weeks.

What is your longer-term vision for the company?
One of my goals is to have everyone on the same page in terms of the look of the company. We don’t have that now stylistically, but we will get there. I also want to challenge the dancers more with the ballets we perform. I want to build a repertory of ballet classics such as Giselle, The Nutcracker, and Romeo and Juliet. I would love to bring in more Balanchine ballets, and those of Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp, as well as newer choreographers, especially female choreographers.

You are also a choreographer. Will we see the company performing some of your ballets?
Yes. It will be a necessity now to save the company money.

At some point, you will need to hire dancers. What do you look for in a dancer?
Someone with strong classical technique who is also able to move freely in contemporary dance styles. Someone who is open to taking risks. If a choreographer tells you to fall on the ground and roll, you need to be able to do so.

What are some of your other goals for the company?
To find a new facility with larger studio space for the company and our new Academy. I would also like to expand the number of productions we do in a season from three to four or five in the next few years, and have the company tour more.

The post Cleveland Ballet Reset: A Conversation With New Artistic Director Timour Bourtasenkov appeared first on Dance Magazine.

At its most profound, ethics asks how we should live. Where is the line between right and wrong? What does it mean to be a good human being and create a good society? The question is one of ought versus is. Just because something has been a certain way for hundreds of years is not a justification for its continuance.

In the case of the dance field this is especially relevant. While dance is an exciting and vast domain with many different facets, the field writ large has not always grown from a deep consideration of the ethical dimensions of its prevailing practices and values. As dance educator Susan Stinson noted in 1984, “When it appears so obvious that dance can either enhance or diminish our humanness, [why] do we seem to use it so frequently for the latter and so infrequently for the former?”

Studying ethics provides perspectives and possibilities for making the dance world more humane. The specific realm of normative ethics is the study of what is good and bad, right and wrong. However, normative ethics is not monolithic, and the different perspectives are helpful to understand the problems that exist. Virtue ethics focuses more on the character of persons in determining what is good/bad. Deontological ethics concentrates on rules, rights, and responsibilities. And consequentialist ethics centers on results or consequences of behavior. Research shows that the Western dance world functions according to a pseudo-consequentialist perspective that can seriously undermine people’s rights.

The strong tendency in Western dance—as practiced initially in Europe and Russia and then the United States, especially since the dawn of the twentieth century—is to present honorable-sounding statements as rationalizations (often poorly conceived) for how the field functions. Whether intentionally or not, moral-sounding (vs. morally sound) perspectives have come to mask a broad spectrum of questionable behaviors across a variety of styles, from ballet, modern, and theatrical jazz dance to the commercial dance field. These include­ everything from a choreographer appropriating another culture’s sacred practices to an agent working with one of their presenter friends to ensure a company they represent is in a coveted festival showcase, and even to an atmosphere of fear dominating an entire dance institution.

The main underlying narrative driving this set of practices is that results are what are most valued. For many in dance, everything comes down to the work itself, because great dance can provide a deep spiritual benefit. This belief can lead to the following conclusion: One should do all one can to get the work made and seen. Everything taken together—choreographers, dancers, contracts, funding, etc.—contributes to the manifestation of something outstandingly good: the uplift experienced by viewing great dance.

While seemingly harmless and even inspirational, revering the experience a masterpiece evokes has been used to instill a dangerous, unquestioning reverence for choreographic geniuses­ and the pedagogical practices they employ. It can mean that it is ethically permissible (and often actually condoned) to be an oppressive choreographer, for example, because the good of providing a superior aesthetic experience outweighs the bad that might arise from being a choreographic­ bully. It can mean placing inappropriate and ultimately damaging value on mutually supportive, sacrosanct products (rather than processes)—namely, genius choreographers, choreographic masterpieces, major presenting venues, and elite institutions. It sets up a situation where the valued “ends” can easily involve some form of abusive behaviors causing suffering, severely limiting individuals’ rights and compromising decent, humane conduct.

What the field of ethics offers us are ways to challenge such problematic assumptions and actions. We can draw inspiration from the deontological realm, such as the idea that all human beings regardless of context should be treated with dignity and respect—as ends in themselves and never solely as a means to an end. We can also look to virtue ethics, especially an ethics of care and the degree to which it encourages individuals to consciously cultivate traits such as compassion, patience, generosity, fairness, and sensitivity to others.

From a dance perspective, considering rights and virtues means looking at the dance field in a very different light from what has too often been the norm. Dancers, administrators, choreographers, teachers, students, and parents would be encouraged to work collaboratively to determine common values, principles, rights, and responsibilities for any studio, school, program, class, or company. Doing so would help to provide greater clarity and a sense of shared responsibility, moving us toward a more humane dance world.

Naomi M. Jackson, PhD, is a professor in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre at Arizona State University.

The post Examining the Dance World’s Ethics appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Anita and Chita’s other early dazzlers—Rose in Bye Bye Birdie and Anyanka in the mostly forgotten 1964 musical Bajour—were known to me from guest spots on TV variety shows, and it seemed I’d been watching Chita be indelible my whole life. Whether she was flipping her skirt for Robbins or cocking her head for Fosse or just extending an arm for any of the other choreographers she worked with, her technique was impeccable, her energy ferocious. Her dancing had both elegance and directness, qualities not often found in combination. And it wasn’t just when she had larger-than-life roles like Claire to bite into. In Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, she was just Chita, a hard-working member of the ensemble who’d lucked into some fabulous shows and worked with some fabulous people. Yet you couldn’t take your eyes off her.

When Chita was among the recipients of the 2002 Kennedy Center Honors, Hal Prince, in his introduction, described her as one of those people who “carry around their own spotlight.” And that spotlight illuminated everyone Chita played, whether the far-from-glamorous owner of the title arena in The Rink or the embodiment of showbiz razzle-dazzle in Kiss of the Spider Woman—both of which won her Tony Awards.

Speaking of awards, you may have noticed that I’m calling her Chita instead of the more journalistically formal Rivera. It’s not because we were pals. (According to her memoir, her pals called her Cheet.) But in 2017, the Fred and Adele Astaire Awards, which every year honored New York City theater dancers and choreographers chosen by a committee I chaired, morphed into the Chita Rivera Awards; for the first time, I got to see her offstage and off-script. The powerhouse charisma didn’t need a script. The remarkable amalgam of elegance and directness that had struck me when she performed was not a performance. It was her.

The post A Lifetime of Watching Chita Rivera appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Comings & Goings

Kim Chan has joined Jacob’s Pillow as associate artistic director.

César Morales has been appointed artistic director of Santiago Ballet, beginning in March.

Timour Bourtasenkov has been named artistic director of Cleveland Ballet after the company severed ties with co-founder Gladisa Guadalupe. Larry Goodman has been named CEO, succeeding Howard Bender, who had served in the role on an interim basis following the suspension and subsequent resignation of Guadalupe’s husband, Michael Krasnyansky. The cofounders’ departures come in the wake of a misconduct investigation.

Andrea Just has been named associate director and Rebecah Goldstone dramaturge of Ate9, leading the company’s new Europe team.

Charlotte St. Martin will retire from The Broadway League effective February 16. Jason Laks will serve as acting president.

David Nixon has been appointed artistic producer at Cape Town City Ballet.

Anna Hainsworth has been named Birmingham Royal Ballet’s in-house producer.

Edward Watson has been named guest répétiteur at The Royal Ballet.

Yuan Yuan Tan will retire from San Francisco Ballet after a farewell performance on February 14.

Pacific Northwest Ballet principal James Yoichi Moore will retire at the end of the season. His final performance is scheduled for June 9.

Awards & Honors

Recipients of 2024 United States Artists Fellowships, which come with a $50,000 unrestricted grant, include Mythili Prakash, Sean Dorsey, Jerron Herman, Petra Bravo, Marjani Forté-Saunders/7NMS, and Erin Kilmurray.

At the Primetime Creative Arts Emmys, Jon Boogz won Outstanding Choreography for Scripted Programming (“Blindspotting”), and Derek Hough won Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming (“Dancing with the Stars”).

The International Association of Blacks in Dance honored the Bluff City Cluster of the LINKS Incorporated with its Distinguished Leadership Award; the Jenkins Family Foundation with the Reginald Van Lee Philanthropy Award; and Tommie-Waheed Evans with the Charles Augins Inspirational Artist Award.

Orlando Pabotoy will receive the 2023–24 Joe A. Callaway Award for excellence in choreography from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society for his work on The Half-God of Rainfall at New York Theatre Workshop.

Karen Kain has been named the 2024 Dance in Focus Awardee by Dance On Camera.

The Martha Hill Dance Fund will present Lifetime Achievement Awards to Joan Myers Brown and Jim May and Mid-Career Awards to Jacqulyn Buglisi and Ronald K. Brown at a ceremony on February 26.

Brenda Way will be inducted into the California Hall of Fame in February.

New Funding Opportunities

CUNY Dance Initiative is accepting applications from New York City–based choreographers and companies for its 2024–25 residency cycle until February 15. More information here.

Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator Program will award up to 50 qualifying non-profit cultural organizations with funding and support to strengthen their digital infrastructure. Application deadline is March 13, more information available here.

Applications for the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowships, which award Minnesota and New York City–based artists $60,000 over three years to support the creation of new work and/or artistic development, are open until April 15. More information here.

The post News of Note: What You Might Have Missed in January 2024 appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Whim W’Him had been looking for studios—roomy, open spaces in a good location—to lease since before the pandemic. But with the costs of state-of-the-art flooring, lighting, and sound systems easily totaling over $140,000, Wevers says, “investing in a space you don’t own seems very perilous.” When the company began looking to buy, a church was an obvious choice. In addition to the architectural benefits, “many churches were on the market after the pandemic,” Wevers says, “and they’re also in family neighborhoods that would attract students” to Whim W’Him’s school. 

While the remodel, overseen by architect Owen Richards,­ kept the space’s lofty ceilings, it required removing some walls and adding others to create a 2,000-square-foot studio and another half that size, as well as office space, a kitchen that doubles as a meeting room, a lobby, and storage areas for costumes and sets. The company participated in planning the half-million-dollar renovation, with the dancers designing their own lounge and changing room. There is also a space on site for them to work with a physical therapist, who is available to them after rehearsals.

The new building also boasts a school for all ages and abilities with contemporary, improvisation, hip hop, repertory, and body therapies among the initial class offerings. “It’s about dance for all ages, all levels,” Wevers says. “Dance for all without a professional hook.” Wevers also plans to offer highly subsidized or free space for local artists, as well as full scholarships for BIPOC dancers to classes and programs.

The center is an impressive accomplishment for a relatively­ small and relatively new independent contemporary dance company—but maybe not all that surprising given the consistency with which Whim W’Him has made new work and carved out an artistic niche in Seattle. Wevers, who celebrates 25 years as a choreographer this year, enjoyed a huge following as a Pacific Northwest Ballet principal before starting his own company. Since its 2009 founding, Whim W’Him has premiered 88 pieces and commissioned 45 guest choreographers in just 14 seasons, including an entirely virtual 2020–21 season that was successful enough to ensure increases in dancer salaries and benefits at a time when pandemic mitigations left most companies facing significant financial challenges.

Reaching this point “took years of consistent work,” says Wevers, “proving we could maintain our core mission of creativity as well as our ideal of elevating standards of company care for better ethical contemporary dance employment.”

Whim W’Him’s track record has helped its fundraising efforts for the center. To fund the purchase and remodel, the company received a hefty loan from an anonymous donor and a gift of $250,000 from the Jolene McCaw Family Foundation, as well as good financing. A Fall Fete early this season saw 200 people contribute over $250,000. The company has also encouraged smaller gifts through its “Butterfly Effect” capital campaign, through which donors can fund specific line items, like mirror installation, one square foot of flooring, or a single lightbulb (the cheapest option, at $6), “making it fun and affordable for everyone to participate,” says Wevers.

The first event in the completed building happens this month—an open house that will feature free community classes, workshops, performances, lectures, and building tours. Before then, “the company was just camping—the building still looked very much like a church, complete with a choir balcony and dais,” says Wevers. “Now, it’s a world-class center for dance.” 

The post Whim W’Him Opens Its Own Dance Center in Seattle appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Upon graduating from high school in 1951, Rivera booked her first performing job in a national tour of Irving Berlin’s Call Me Madam. Less than a year later, she made her Broadway debut as a principal dancer in Guys and Dolls. But the role that made her a star came in 1957 when, at age 24, she drew upon her Puerto Rican heritage as Anita in West Side Story. Dance Magazine put her on the cover for the first time that November. Inside the issue, writer Leo Lerman declared, “Here is a performer of enormous individuality with a dance approach quite uniquely her own.”

Her career took off, and held steady. In 1961, she received her first Tony Award nomination for her portrayal of Rosie in Bye Bye Birdie; in 1976, she got another for originating the role of Velma Kelly in Chicago. Rivera was quick to acknowledge that she greatly benefited from working with iconic choreographers like Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Michael Kidd, and Gower Champion. They created the steps; she made them sizzle.

When a car crash in 1986 crushed her left leg, doctors told her she would never dance again. They clearly didn’t know Rivera. Within a year, she was performing in cabarets, wowing audiences with her signature irrepressible energy (even if the kicks were a little lower). She even returned to Broadway in 1993, in the title role of Kiss of the Spider Woman—for which she won a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical. In total, she appeared in more than 20 Broadway productions over the course of seven decades, receiving 10 Tony Award nominations and winning three.

In 2017, when the Astaire Awards—which honor dance in theater and film—needed to be rebranded, they were swiftly renamed the Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography. Today, a Chita Rivera Award is one of the highest honors for a musical theater dancer or choreographer. On the red carpet before the first ceremony under Rivera’s name, former Dance Magazine editor in chief Wendy Perron asked Rivera for her advice for young dancers. Rivera responded: “Keep caring. Keep dancing. Keep working hard. But most of all, keep loving, loving to dance.”

Rivera’s own love stayed strong until the end. When her memoir was released last year, Rivera told “CBS Sunday Morning”: “If I come back, I want to come back a dancer. That will be my second life.”

The post Remembering Chita Rivera, 1933–2024: “I Wouldn’t Trade Being a Dancer for Anything” appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Romeo and Juliet and Couples Therapy

STANFORD, CA  What if Romeo and Juliet, instead of dying as star-crossed teens, lived to grow up and had to learn how to deal with each other? Ben Duke’s Juliet & Romeo shows the couple, now roughly 40 years old, putting on a dance theater performance for a live audience to confront their relationship troubles and the pressures of being the overgrown poster children for romantic love. Lost Dog’s critically acclaimed duet makes a rare appearance stateside at Stanford Live Feb. 1–3. live.stanford.edu. —Courtney Escoyne

Raise It Up

MEMPHIS  Hope Boykin contributes a premiere to Collage Dance Collective’s RISE program. Also on tap are the ballet that lends the program its name—artistic director Kevin Thomas’ Rise—and Amy Hall Garner’s Saint Glory, which was inspired by her grandparents’ Catholic and Baptist roots. Feb. 3–4. collagedance.org. —CE

Desert Rose

ON TOUR  ZooNation hits the road, beginning a North American tour of the Kate Prince–choreographed Message In A Bottle this month. Set to songs by Sting newly arranged by Alex Lacamoire, the dance theater work follows a displaced family as three separated siblings venture out on their own. The tour kicks off in Los Angeles Feb. 6–11 and wraps up in Philadelphia May 14–19, with stops in Denver, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, Boston, Charlotte, Washington, DC, and New York City. sadlerswells.com. —CE

The Jilted Bride

MIAMI  To commemorate happy vows, save a piece of wedding cake. But after a jilting, what could a wronged woman do? Freeze the betrayal scene and keep wearing the bridal gown—the wounding of others to follow. Redemption, though, awaits. That’s the premise of Havisham!, Dance NOW! Miami’s site-specific reimagining of the most Gothic character from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Miss Havisham. Here she gains an expiatory backstory—two dancers portraying her at different periods, enamored then broken—seen from company co-director Hannah Baumgarten’s feminist perspective. To South Beach Chamber Ensemble’s pop and classical selections, Pip, Estella, and the brutish Drummle weave in and out as audiences traipse through North Miami Beach’s Ancient Spanish Monastery. Feb. 7– 8. dancenowmiami.org. —Guillermo Perez

Curated by Camille

NEW YORK CITY  Gibney’s DoublePlus continues this month with a pair of premieres by film and theater choreographer Mayte Natalio and multidisciplinary experimental artist Maleek Washington, who were selected for the program and mentored by Camille A. Brown. Feb. 8–10. gibneydance.org. —CE

Movin’ It On

DALLAS  For this year’s iteration of Dallas Black Dance Theatre’s Cultural Awareness program, company member and co-rehearsal director Hana Delong premieres Post Mortem. Joining it are His Grace, a tribute to Nelson Mandela by Christopher L. Huggins, and Matthew Rushing’s ODETTA, set to songs by songwriter and civil rights activist Odetta Holmes. Feb. 9–10. dbdt.com. —CE

New Works in Nashville

NASHVILLE  For its annual Attitude program, Nashville Ballet will debut commissions from resident choreographer Mollie Sansone, Kidd Pivot dancer Jermaine Spivey, and Camille A. Brown & Dancers member Yusha-Marie Sorzano, all with music performed live by local musicians. Feb. 9–11. nashvilleballet.com. —CE

Bach as Blueprint

NEW YORK CITY  In The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker uses one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most well-known compositions as the blueprint for an evening-length solo. De Keersmaeker performs through the aria and 30 variations alongside pianist Pavel Kolesnikov for the North American premiere of the work at NYU Skirball. Feb. 22–24. nyuskirball.org. —CE

Liberating Lilith

SAN FRANCISCO  In Lilith, flamenco artist Fanny Ara uses the mythological figure—Biblical Adam’s first wife who abandoned Eden, variously interpreted as a force for evil or a symbol of female independence—to consider the weight of expectations imposed by herself and others, and her journey toward liberation. The evening-length solo work, premiering at ODC Theater Feb. 23–25, sees Ara joined by musicians Gonzalo Grau and Vardan Ovsepian. odc.dance. —CE

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What does it mean to you to make a ballet for New York City Ballet, where you’ve danced for almost 20 years?

I feel a huge responsibility because not many dancers in the company get asked to choreograph, especially female dancers. I’m excited that the dancers have someone at the front of the room who really knows what it means to be on pointe. Mira Nadon and I were working on her solo, and she said, “I have never been in a studio with someone who was choreographing in pointe shoes.” We were figuring it out together. I also really want to make the dancers dance. 

Can you separate your dancing self from your choreographing self?

Not really. I choreograph things that I would like to dance. I want people to enjoy the steps, and if they don’t, I can’t like the choreography, even if they’re good steps. I told them, “I want this to be something you are excited to dance.”

What music will you be using?

I’m using the Poulenc concerto for two pianos. When I told [NYCB music director] Andrew Litton I was thinking of using that music, he said, “Yes, please!” because that’s something the orchestra will be really excited to play. It’s big music, so I’ll be using a large cast, 19 dancers. It’s all about the music, and the story in the music.

Did you plan your new ballet in advance?

I didn’t really have time to plan. I sat at home with the music and the score and wrote out all the counts. I don’t need to prepare much more than that. I like to create on the people who are in the room. 

How long have you been making dances?

I’ve always kind of made dances, but my first official one was for the Vail Dance Festival in 2018. I had just gone through a divorce and I thought, Well, nothing can be as bad as that, so I might as well try! I thought it would just be one and done. But Damian Woetzel [director of the festival] kept pushing me to do more, which helped my confidence. And I think each one got a little better.

In the last few years, you’ve really taken control of your own career, like the Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends performances. What drives you?

The longer I’ve been in the company, and the more I feel like I see where my career is going and have a sense of how many years I have left, I’ve realized that I don’t want to wait until I stop dancing to figure out what to do next. It’s been happening very organically because these shows are about wanting to work with certain people I never would have gotten to work with otherwise. I don’t sit around waiting for something to challenge me or help me grow artistically. I make it happen myself. I’m not scared—I’ll try anything. Playing it safe gets you nowhere.

This past fall season, you were dancing challenging repertory throughout a very difficult period, with your father in the hospital. You were traveling back and forth from California almost every week. What was that like?

Dancing was the one thing I had control over. It felt like home. One night when things were really bad, I spent the whole night on the phone with the doctors, and then I had to go onstage for the matinee. But I enjoyed every minute onstage, and I knew my father would have been so proud of me. We were taught to never quit, and to do everything 150 percent. And I think what I was feeling brought out something really beautiful in my dancing. The things that happen to us make us richer artists.

Is your love of dancing as strong as ever?

Yes. My dad, when he was at the hospital and I was doubting whether I should go back or stay with him, would say, “You were born to dance. You have to go back.” I didn’t want him to worry about me not being able to dance, or to put that extra stress on him. He was so proud. He would tell all the doctors, “You should see her dance.” 

The post Tiler Peck Choreographs Her First Work for New York City Ballet appeared first on Dance Magazine.

Built on years of research, the new biography paints a well-informed portrait of the iconic artist, infused with anecdotes from Graham’s life and bolstered by Jowitt’s own expertise from years as a dancer, choreographer, and writer.

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