Category: dance

“This fall, the University of Utah’s School of Dance welcomes the first class of candidates to its newly reinstated Master of Fine Arts in Ballet program, currently the only ballet-specific MFA in the country.”

“In 14 months of affiliation with the company – only two as its artistic director – [Hope Muir] has hired an astonishing array of new choreographers, rehired all but two members of the first company, endeared herself to donors from Charlotte to Chautauqua, N.Y., begun to investigate national and international tours, created a choreographic lab to inspire new dancemakers, put together a collaboration for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s Classical series in April, said goodbye to resident choreographer Dwight Rhoden and instituted family matinees for mainstage works beyond the inevitable Nutcracker.”

“‘Many older techniques have a strong inner logic,’ says [Countertechnique creator Anouk] van Dijk, who now directs Melbourne-based Chunky Move. ‘But I found they didn’t prepare the body for when the dancer has to be highly versatile.’ Countertechnique equips dancers with a range of skills and teaches them to apply them within familiar movements. This gives dancers more agency, which van Dijk believes can reduce anxiety in performance and even help dancers prevent and recover from injury.”

“Isabella Boylston doesn’t remember the time, years ago, when she and Gemma Bond tried to choreograph a ballet together. Ms. Bond does, though. ‘I got so bossy,’ Ms. Bond recalled. ‘I was like, ‘Isabella, this isn’t going to work.” But now they’ve found a way to be creative together – and circumstances in which they both can act a little bossy.”

“While there is nothing specifically dance-related in the plan, many dance companies and artists within marginalized and lower-income communities stand to benefit from increased funding. Here are the key takeaways.”

Gia Kourlas offers a step-by-step analysis (with plenty of GIFs) of Lil uck’s revamp of The Dying Swan: “This eloquent combination of jookin’ – a Memphis-born style that relies heavily on footwork and comes from the Gangsta Walk – and Camille Saint-Saëns’s wistful strings gives the sensation that Buck is levitating.”

The American National Ballet, its founders say, is a “start-up,” and they have plans for a company rooted in Charleston and a touring company. But then “there’a for-profit dance conservatory that enrolls talented young dancers from across the country, a for-profit marketing and media company called Jete Digital, a for-profit dancewear company and a performing arts foundation that can lend financial might to the enterprise.”

“The prize – which comes with $50,000, access to the [Baryshnikov Arts Center’s] John Cage and Merce Cunningham Studio for eight weeks and administrative support to create a new work – goes to an artist who reflects the innovative spirits of Cage and Cunningham, life partners and collaborators who were titans of 20th-century music and dance.”

Gia Kourlas writes about step – ” a percussive-movement tradition that uses the entire body as well as the voice and is popular in African-American fraternities and sororities” – and a new documentary about The Lethal Ladies, the girls’ step team at a Baltimore high school.

In an article with the hopeful headline “The Future of Ballet Is Inclusive and Queer,” Trina Mannino surveys the strides (ahem) that are being made, both at mainstream companies and in new troupes.