Category: dance

The Philadelphia company’s response to the pandemic was to try to develop online dance compelling enough that people would pay for it. The result is BalletX Beyond, which streams three new concert dance videos every second month on a subscription basis. One of the latest to create work for BalletX Beyond is former NYCB principal and Broadway star Robbie Fairchild, whose The Cycle was inspired by, and filmed at, Longwood Gardens. – Harper’s Bazaar

The video sees Boston Dynamics’ entire lineup of robots — the humanoid Atlas, the dog-shaped Spot, and the box-juggling Handle — all come together in a bopping, coordinated dance routine set to The Contours’ “Do You Love Me.” – The Verge

The New Jersey-based troupe, which presented seasons around the state and in New York City and toured abroad as well, commissioned and performed 17 new works over its eight-year history. The pandemic forced the group to go on hiatus as of April 1; with no performance fees or ticket income, its board decided to dissolve the company as of Dec. 31. – NJArts.net

“Drawing from a lexicon of hip-hop-inspired moves, … the micro-dances of TikTok are typically front-facing and most animated from the hips up, tailored to the vertical frame of a smartphone screen. Governed by time limits of 15 or 60 seconds, they also tend to stay in one place; you can do them pretty much anywhere. While these TikTok dances might seem purely fun and frivolous, there’s an art to creating and performing them in such a way that gets attention.” – Dance Magazine

Enter “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” which had also capitalized on the popularity of “Masked Singer” to create its own “Masked Dancer” stunt. After those segments became viral hits and the “Masked Singer” team saw how well they played, Fox alternative entertainment and specials president Rob Wade said he was finally convinced. – Variety

No, we can’t all have random dance partners this year, so let’s go with a throwback to 1908. “The waltz may have a reputation as the ultimate social dance for partners — the way it is traditionally performed at the balls — but there is another interpretation, one that resonates in this pandemic year of physical distancing. More than a century ago, the Viennese dancer Grete Wiesenthal transformed the waltz into a powerful form of solo movement.” – The New York Times

Tiny Pretty Things is about as realistic as you might expect on every level … except dance. The show “may have outrageous levels of drama, mystery and murder, but the ballet is undoubtedly the best part of the show. That’s likely because nearly every actor playing a ballerina in the show is a trained dancer in real life. Those dancers’ influences are what make the portrayal of ballet so realistic in the show.” – CBR

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, who’s made more than a dozen short dance films since the COVID lockdowns began, and Corey Baker, creator of the (in)famous Swan Lake Bath Ballet, tell a reporter about how, as Baker put it, “we knew we had to make it all up” and how they handled the snafus they didn’t yet know to expect. – Dance Magazine

“What is the history of this strange protruding skirt which allegedly gets its name from the French children’s word cucu, meaning ‘bottom’? Pointe took a look back at some important moments in innovation,” from Marie Taglioni’s bell-shaped skirt in the 1832 premiere of La Sylphide to the ten-foot-wide social-distancing tutu that the Dutch National Ballet developed this year. – Pointe Magazine

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, as skillful as its members are, basically performs affectionate parodies of classical ballet, and the dancers all have drag names (including the ones taking male roles). The men in the new San Francisco troupe Ballet22 may sometimes wear tutus, but they dance as themselves and the choreography is serious. – San Francisco Chronicle