Category: dance

Michal Staniszewski, director of the studio which created Bound: “The character we had, with her mindset, she has these kind of emotions in her. I realized we should use dancing. … There’s not a single game made with ballet dancers in the past so many years – why is that? How many other ideas haven’t been used?”

“On a hilltop overlooking the sprawling Complexo de Alemão favela, girls fill an old basketball court in Rio de Janeiro. Wearing pink leotards, pink tights and pink shoes, they stand with their hands on their hips as they learn proper passé technique. The girls practice ballet on a basketball court because in their favela, considered one of the most dangerous in the city, there is no other place for them to go.”

How do you ask dancers who are working for free to really push themselves and show up day after day? Broadway dancers are at the top of their field. Who at the top of their field works for free?

“Enrollment at the company’s school has surged since it moved into the custom-built space in 2005. That has created bottlenecks and scheduling conflicts at the building … The plan would add more than 10,000 square feet – including four new studios and classroom space – to [Ailey’s] home base at Ninth Avenue and West 55th Street” in Manhattan.

When a Twin Cities ballet company found itself in new space next door to a boxing gym, the dancers and fighters left their stereotypes and squeamishness behind, and each side learned the other’s disciplines could add to its own skills. (includes video)

“Rounding out the top five of the most physically active jobs in American are fitness trainers and aerobics instructors at No. 2, structural iron and steel workers at No. 3, reinforcing iron and rebar workers at No. 4, and forest firefighters at No. 5. Those four occupations look to be the toughest on earth, yet dancers beat them out.”

“The good news is that $60,000 worth of Minnesota Ballet costumes haven’t been damaged as much as expected. The bad news is that the ballet remains out of a practice studio for the time being and needs a place to more closely examine its hundreds of costumes that were trapped under rubble for three weeks after Duluth’s July 21 windstorm.”

“Ms Havelka made headlines in 2012 when she was invited to join the prestigious ballet, but behind the curtain, she had a difficult journey to the stage.”

“When he was in fifth grade, his mom signed him up for what she thought was a summer reading program. It actually turned out to be a hip-hop dance program. He decided to stay and he got hooked.”

Sergei Danilian is nothing if not determined. He has long supported the work of Mr. Eifman, an expressive Russian choreographer who inspires strong feelings in audiences, love or hate and little in between. While Mr. Danilian’s taste can be questionable — recent iterations of “Kings,” which felt cheaply commercial, as well as many appearances by Mr. Eifman — he is driven by a love of dance.