Category: dance

“Five days a week, you can find [Finis] Jhung doing what he does best: teaching dance at Alvin Ailey in New York City. Jhung says of teaching, ‘I love it. I mean, that’s – that’s my job. I’ve loved ballet since I was 6 years old and I still do.'”

“The idea is to give people a taster of what it’s like on a day-to-day basis for the dancers and get an idea of what kind of exercise they’re doing.”

“Like the best comedy, his dances turned on situations and timing, driven home with unpredictable musical panache. And his character sketches! What caricaturist Al Hirschfeld did with his pen, [choreographer Eric] Hampton could do with a few gestures, a slouch, a cigar — and just the right dancer.”

“Inmates in a Philippine prison perform a mass dance routine to ‘Gangnam Style’, the song by South Korean rapper Psy that has become an internet sensation. The prisoners at Cebu provincial detention and rehabilitation centre have previously preformed a large scale dance routine of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, which has been viewed more than 50m times on YouTube.”

“The catharsis of music and movement gets at the heart of what makes these young people tick.”

No, it’s not the US Federal Communications Commission; it’s the Female Choreographers Collective in Great Britain. Founders Jane Coulston and Holly Noble explain the project.

Nichelle Strzepek: “Yes! I think it’s possible to be a great choreographer yet less-than-stellar dancer. In fact, throughout history it’s certainly happened. But … (you knew there would be a ‘but’).”

“Atlas began his pioneering work with dance and video in the 1970s, collaborating with choreographer Merce Cunningham in combining the two.” He made 40 films with Merce, right up to the latter’s death in 2009, and is also known for his work with Michael Clark.

Company member Sade Alleyne: “Working with Akram is like experiencing a car crash in your own body, where you’re working your way through loads and loads of information. But he does everything with you so it doesn’t cross your mind that anything is impossible. Being in the studio with him is a real collaboration.”

“Leigh Warren, whose dance company Leigh Warren & Dancers is based in Adelaide, says government grants for the arts has become a ‘terrible raffle’ that cannot be relied on for ongoing funding. He says that as a result, he plans to turn to freelance work interstate and overseas to keep his studio in business next year.”