The tendency to supplement communication with motion is universal, though the nuances of delivery vary slightly. In Papua New Guinea, for instance, people point with their noses and heads, while in Laos they sometimes use their lips. In Ghana, left-handed pointing can be taboo, while in Greece or Turkey forming a ring with your index finger and thumb to indicate everything is A-OK could get you in trouble. – Quanta Magazine
Category: dance
Still Teaching Ballet At Age 100
Henry Danton danced in London and Paris (including for Roland Petit’s company); toured in Europe, Australia, and South America; and taught in Colombia, Venezuela, New York, and Miami before settling in Mississippi. He still teaches in five different cities in the state, and he drives himself to most of his classes. – Hattiesburg (MS) American
Would England’s Morris Dancing Clubs Rather Die Out Than Go Co-Ed?
Yes, it’s apparently a real question: as clubs gradually disappear and the membership of the remaining groups ages, admitting women would seem to be an obvious way to keep things going. But whether or not to do so is an argument raging on within the (shrinking) Morris community. – The Guardian
Rise Of The Women Choreographers?
By some estimates, about 90 percent of choreographers at major companies are male. Even though ballerinas have been the focal point of dance. Now though, there seems to be a new generation of women choreographers getting attention. – BBC
Copyrighting Dance Moves Is A Messy Business Nobody Was Ready For
It’s not just about the Fortnite lawsuits. “Choreographers and performers have danced around this issue for more than a century. In 1892, Loie Fuller was denied a trademark for her famous ‘serpentine routine’ because back then, the law only protected works that told a story. Then came the modern dance movement. In the 1970s, copyright expanded to cover abstract and non-narrative movement. But like a lot of today’s viral artists, many dancers never bothered to register their work.” (includes video) – CBS
It Wasn’t Mine: Why I Had To Stop Dancing Alvin Ailey’s ‘Revelations’
In an essay that won Brown University’s Barbara Banks Brodsky Prize for Excellence in Real World Writing, undergrad Jamila Wilkinson writes about how, as a young girl, she studied for years at Ailey’s school and danced in his masterpiece with the adult company several times — and how, later, she came to realize why she couldn’t connect with the work. – Guernica
Charges Of Mismanagement Of Control Of Balanchine’s Ballets
Unlike a painting or the written score of a symphony, a dance is uniquely fragile because there is no foolproof way to preserve it and steps are easily forgotten. Even a complete work can be changed in subtle ways so that its vivacity is flattened. The petition raises a thorny question: Who is truly in charge of this peerless treasury of artworks for the next decades? – Washington Post
How Accurate Is The Ballet Plot In The TV Show ‘This Is Us’?
Yes, this is a minute-by-minute fact check of the ballet scenes (and the overarching sudden ballet plot) in the show’s third season. – Dance Magazine
A Former Prima Ballerina Says Men Are Just ‘Better’ At Ballet Now
Darcy Bussell says that men used to be in ballet simply to be women’s “extraordinary crutch,” but that now, “women were struggling to keep up with the technical and physical abilities of male ballet dancers.” Fighting words? – The Times (UK)
Choreographer Ann Carlson Makes Her First ‘Dancey-Dance’ In Ages
“Ann Carlson is not the type of a choreographer who makes what are known as dancey-dances. Steps aren’t really her thing. She works with everyday movement, text and props. She has choreographed works for lawyers, fly fisherman, basketball players and even … a flock of sheep. … With Elizabeth, the Dance, created for the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company in Salt Lake City, she’s not only working with trained dancers, but she’s also examining the art form itself.” – The New York Times