Category: dance

Lauren Wingenroth recommends a video series in which top Broadway gypsies “dance through their resumes.”

“There were stained futons that you wouldn’t even let your college freshman sit on,” said Amy Astley, the glossy mag’s editor-in-chief and a ballet fan. A donor took care of construction costs, and Astley convinced the designer and all the furnishings suppliers to donate the rest. Here’s the story, with before-and-after pics.

Here’s the story of Joel Kioko, 16, who was discovered in a Nairobi slum and now, after only three years of training, has won a full scholarship to the English National Ballet School. (includes video)

Throughout the last 50 years, the ballet world has frequently been seen as completely out of touch with the importance of diversity. The litany of men — geniuses, admittedly, in their own right — says nothing about the creative, choreographic power of women. This lack of equality not only reads as troubling but a bit safe. Why is it so difficult to see women taking the stage not just as fouetteing prima ballerinas, but as dance-makers as well?

“The minute I got myself out of leotards, my body opened up: I didn’t feel so strict and tight and bound. I never expected you could change so much from the outside-in.” The former New York City Ballet star talks to Jennifer Stahl about the post-classical career she’s been building for herself and about the hip replacement she got in late 2015.

“A new festival in Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo aims to encourage young people to express themselves through dance.” (video)

“Class can be a whirlwind of information. Your teacher throws out multiple corrections at once – often in the middle of a combination – and as much as you want to apply them, they don’t always stick. Though some are notes you’ve heard time and time again, you get too overwhelmed trying to fix all of them to correctly incorporate any of them.”

Its director: “We’ve made it to middle age. That we are still dancing, still producing ballets and still engaging new audiences is amazing.”

Irina Dvorovenko plays a Russian woman who finds herself depressed and lonely in the U.S. It’s a big difference from being a principal for American Ballet Theatre, but not so different from her youth: “Ms. Dvorovenko, born in 1973, grew up in Ukraine with dancer parents and studied gymnastics before entering ballet school at 10. For her, the show’s time period has brought back a flood of memories. Many have to do with hunting for food. (In the transcript of our interview, that word comes up 21 times.)”

In the mid-70s, Luft was “hired as the director of dance programming, arts and culture for the Montreal Olympics. During the Games, he organized 100 dance performances in the city, bringing in performers from all across Canada. After the Olympics, Mr. Luft worked as the director of Quebec’s nine conservatories of music and drama and in 1978, he also co-founded the artists agency Specdici. At the agency, he was instrumental in promoting emerging dance companies, including La La La Human Steps, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal and dancer-choreographer Margie Gillis, to an international audience.”